Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/302

 278 ALEXANDER THE GREAT ordered the body to be buried 7 with regal pomp in the royal sepulchres of Persis. Pursuing the satraps, he entered Aria, in the region adjoin- ing the modern Herat. Thence he marched into Drangiana, the modern Sejestan. While at the chief town of this province, on the plea of a conspiracy against his life discovered among those nearest his person, he condemned to death Philotas, one of his first generals, and son of Parmenio, his best captain, and the companion in arms of his father Philip; and after this he ordered the murder of Parmenio himself. He had now become very intemperate, and, full of suspicion, opened the letters of his officers and soldiers to their relations in Europe. He reduced Arachosia and the Paropamisus re- gion (modern Afghanistan), founding various cities of Greeks and Macedonians. Then he overran Bactria (329), crossed the Oxus, marched through Sogdiana, entering the prin- cipal city Maracanda, now Samarcand, and reached the river Jaxartes (Sir Daria), which he thought was the Tanais (Don), then con- sidered to be the boundary between Europe and Asia. On ita banks he founded a city named Alexandria, as a fortress against the no- madic Scythians, in whose pursuit he reached the present khanate of Khokand. This was the utmost limit of Alexander's northern pro- gress. During his stay at Samarcand, on his return, in a drunken orgy, he killed with his own hand his general and friend Clitus, who had saved his life at the battle of the Granicus, and now ventured to rebuke him for his over- bearing pride and infatuated belief in his di- vine origin. After this bloody deed, the mur- derer, seized with remorse, passed three days without food and drink. In Bactra (Balkh), the capital of Bactria, he celebrated in 827 an oriental marriage between himself and his captive Roxana, and in the festivities of this ceremony demanded prostration and worship from the Greeks as well as the Asiatics. Some Greek philosophers, Anaxarchus among them, led the way in this degradation; but Callis- thenes, the friend and correspondent of Aris- totle, opposing it, was falsely accused of a con- spiracy, tortured, and put to death. From Bactra Alexander marched southward, recross- ing the Paropamisus, or eastern Caucasus, now known as the Hindoo Koosh, and went into Cabool, descending along the right bank of the Indus, and reducing various mountain tribes on the way. He crossed the Indus at or near Attock, a passage now much used, and entered Taxila, whose prince, Taxiles, at once submit- ted, becoming a tributary ally, and furnishing a contingent to the Macedonian army. On the further side of the Hydaspes (Jhylum, in the Punjaub), he met the Indian prince Porus, with a formidable force, which he defeated, taking Porus prisoner. The latter, however, had his possessions restored and became* an ally and friend of Alexander. After conquering various Indian princes and nations, Alexander passed the river Acesines (Chenaub), and advancing across the Punjaub to the river Hydraotes (Ravee), demolished the city of Sangala, put- ting to death 17,000 persons, and making 70,000 captives from various free Indian tribes. Thence he marched to the river Hyphasis (Sut- lej). Here the Macedonians of the army, averse to plunging further into unknown des- erts, refused to cross the river, and Alexander gave the order to return. To mark the limit of his eastward progress, he erected 12 altars of extraordinary height on the W. bank of the Hyphasis. Late in the autumn of 327 he em- barked with a part of his army on the Hydas- pes, and sailed down to the Indus, which he descended to its mouth, disembarking per- petually to attack, subdue, and slaughter the tribes near the shore. He reached the Indian ocean in the summer of 326. Nearchus, his admiral, took the fleet from the mouth of the Indus round the Persian gulf to the Tigris, while Alexander himself marched westward along the shores of the gulf, then through the desert of Gedrosia (Beloochistan) to the city of Pura (Bahnpoora). In this march the soldiers suffered much from thirst and hunger. To compensate for this, and in imitation of the festivals of Hacchus, Alexander and his army marched seven days in drunken bacchanalian procession through Carmania (Kerman), en- tering Persis, and finally, in the beginning of 325, reaching Susa. Here he adopted the Persian costume and ceremonial, made a eunuch, Bagoas, his favorite, and contracted two addi- tional Asiatic marriages. He sailed down the river Pasitigris (Karun) to the Persian gulf, and, anxious for naval glory, projected the cir- cumnavigation and conquest of Arabia. An immense fleet was built in the Phoenician ports, taken to pieces, and conveyed to Babylon, which was transformed into a harbor for the purpose. At this time he received embassies from all the nations around the Mediterranean, including the Romans, Iberians, and Gauls. Having entered Babylon in 324, he spent sev- eral days in surveying the surrounding marshes, where he contracted the germs of a violent fever. This malady was developed and heightened by his daily revelries, and final- ly put an end to his life after a reign of 12 years and 8 months. He appointed no succes- sor, but before his death gave his ring to Per- diccas. Shortly afterward Roxana gave birth to a son, Alexander ^Egus, who was put to death with his mother by Cassander in 311, while the conqueror's great empire was divided by his generals. Alexander's reign forms one of the pivots of the world's history. By it Asia and the East were interwoven with Europe and Greece, while the free Greek communities were crushed and democratic progress and liberty entombed. His generalship, his knowledge of command, his strategic combinations, his far- reaching plans, his foresight and fertility in dif- ficulties, his rapidity of movement, are almost without a parallel in history, when we consider the tune, the regions where he acted, and the