Page:The early history of India from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan conquest, including the invasion of Alexander the Great (3rd Edition).djvu/72

 50 ALEXANDER'S INDIAN CAMPAIGN Nikaia, June or July, 327 B.C. Hephai- stion and Perdik- kas. August, 327 B.C. Attitude of the native chiefs. 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 appoint- ment of Tyriaspes as satrap. Alexander, when assured that his communications M'ere 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 cavalrj^ direct to India. They were required to reach the Indus, and occupy Peukelaotis, situated in the territory now held by the Yusufzl. In all probability they marched along the valley of the Kabul river, and not through the Khyber Pass. Their instructions were couched in the spirit of the Roman maxim — '^ Pare ere subiectis et debellare superbos'.^ Most of the tribal chiefs preferred the alternative of sub- mission, but one named Hasti (Astes) ventured to resist. His strongliold, 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 placing his services at the disposal of the invader. Other chiefs on the western side of the Indus adopted the same course, and, with the 2 The ancient road did not pass through the Khaibar (Khyber) Pass (Holdich, The Indian Borderland, 1901, p. 38) ; Foucher, Notes sur la giogrnphie ancienne du Qandhdra (Hanoi, 1902, in Bull, de Viicole Fr. d'Extr(me-Orient). The Khaibar route probably was used once by Mahinud of GhaznT, and certainly several times by Babar and Huraa- yun. In the eighteenth century. Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah AbdalT, and his grandson, Shah-i-Zaman, all passed through the Khaibar (Raverty, Notes, pp. 38, 73). Alexandria in the Paropanisadai with Kabul (Alexander des Grussen Feldzuge in Turkestan, pp. 94, 101, 102). ^ The rival opinions concerning the site of Nikaia are collected by McCrindle (op. cit. note B). I follow General Abbott, who was clearly right, as Jalalabad marks the spot where the division of the army would naturally take place. Cer- tain local chiefs, the Sultans of Pich, claim descent from Alexan- der (Raverty, Notes on A fghanistan, pp. 48-51).