Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/71

Rh districts; and the garrison was strengthened by a reinforcement of veterans discharged from the ranks of the expeditionary force as being unequal to the arduous labours of the coming campaign.

The important position of Alexandria, which commanded the roads over three passes, having been thus secured, in accordance with Alexander's customary caution, the civil administration of the country between the passes and the Kophen, or Kabul, River was provided for by the appointment of Tyriaspes as satrap. Alexander, when assured that his communications were safe, advanced with his army to a city named Nikaia, situated to the west of the modern Jalalabad, on the road from Kabul to India.

Here the king divided his forces. Generals Hephaistion and Perdikkas were ordered to proceed in advance with three brigades of infantry, half of the horse-guards, and the whole of the mercenary cavalry by the direct road to India through the valley of the Kabul River, and to occupy Peukelaotis, now the Yusufzi country, up to the Indus. Their instructions were couched in the spirit of the Roman maxim,—"Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos."

Most of the tribal chiefs preferred the alternative of submission, but one named Hasti (Astes) ventured to resist. His stronghold, which held out for thirty days, was taken and destroyed. During this march eastward, Hephaistion and Perdikkas were accompanied by the King of Taxila, a great city beyond the Indus, who had lost no time in obeying Alexander's summons and in