Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/103

Rh the customary rites, and celebrated gymnastic and equestrian games."

The structures thus solemnly dedicated were well designed to serve their double purpose, and constituted a dignified and worthy monument of the piety and labours of the world's greatest general. Their significance was fully appreciated by the Indian powers which had been compelled to bend before the Macedonian storm. We are told that Chandragupta Maurya, the first Emperor of India who succeeded to the lordship of Alexander's conquests, and his successors for centuries afterward, continued to venerate the altars, and were in the habit of crossing the river to offer sacrifice upon them.

But, if Curtïus and Diodorus are to be believed, the noble simplicity of the monumental altars was marred by a ridiculous addition designed to gratify the king's childish vanity. The tale is given in its fullest form by Diodorus, who gravely informs us that, after the completion of the altars, Alexander caused an encampment to be made thrice the size of that actually occupied by his army, encircled by a trench fifty feet wide and forty feet deep, as well as by a rampart of extraordinary dimensions. "He further," the story continues, "ordered quarters to be constructed as for foot-soldiers, each containing two beds four cubits in length for each man, and besides this, two stalls of twice the ordinary size for each horseman. Whatever else was to be left behind was directed to be likewise proportionately increased in size." We are asked to believe that