seized his person, they put him in chains, forced his diadem from his head, tore to pieces the royal robe of Darius he had put on, and set him on horseback, in order to give him up to Alexander.

That prince arrived at a little city inhabited by the Branchida. These were the descendants of a family who had dwelt in Miletus, whom Xerxes, at his return from Greece, had formerly sent into Upper Asia, where he had settled them in a very flourishing condition, in return for their having delivered up to him the treasure of the temple called Didymaon, with which they had been entrusted. These received the king with the highest demonstrations of joy, and surrendered both themselves and their city to him. Alexander sent for such Milesians as were in his army, who preserved an hereditary hatred against the Branchida, because of the treachery of their ancestors. He then left them the choice, either of revenging the injury they had formerly done them, or of pardoning them in consideration of their common extraction. The Milesians being so much divided in opinion that they could not agree among themselves, Alexander undertook the decision himself. Accordingly the next day he commanded his phalanx to surround the city; and, a signal being given, they were ordered to plunder that abode of traitors, and put every one of them to the sword; which inhuman order was executed with the same barbarity as it had been given. All the citizens, at the very time that they were going to pay homage to Alexander, were murdered in the streets and in their houses; no manner of regard being had to their cries and tears, nor the least distinction made of age or sex. They even pulled up the very foundations of the walls, in order that not the least traces of that city might remain. But of what crimes were these illfated citizens guilty? Were they responsible for those their fathers had committed upwards of 150 years before? I do not know whether history furnishes another example of so brutal and frantic a cruelty.

A little after Bessus was brought to Alexander, not only bound, but stark naked. Spitamenes held him by a chain, which went round his neck; and it was difficult to say, whether that object was more agreeable to the Barbarians or Macedonians. In presenting him to the king, he said these words: "I have, at last, revenged both you and Darius, my kings "and masters. I bring you a wretch who assassinated his "sovereign, and who is now treated in the same manner as "himself gave the first example of. Alas! why cannot "Darius himself see this spectacle!" Alexander, after having greatly applauded Spitamanes, turned about to Bessus, and spoke thus: "Thou surely must have been inspired

"with the rage and fury of a tiger, otherwise thou wouldest 26 not have dared to load a king, from whom thou hadst re"ceived so many instances of favour, with chains, and after"wards murder him! Begone from my sight, thou monster "of cruelty and perfidiousness." The king said no more, but sending for Oxatres, Darius's brother, he gave Bessus to him, in order that he might suffer all the ignominy he deserved; suspending, however, his execution, that he might be judged in the general assembly of the Persians.

SECT. XIII.

Alexander builds a city near the Iaxarthes. Defeats the Scythians. Takes the city of Petra.

a Alexander, insatiable of victory and conquests, still marched forward in search of new nations whom he might subdue. After recruiting his cavalry, which had suffered very much by their long and dangerous marches, he advanced to the Iaxarthes.

Not far from this river the Barbarians, rushing suddenly from their mountains, came and attacked Alexander's forces, and, having carried off a great number of prisoners, they retired to their lurking holes, in which were 20,000 men, who fought with bows and slings. The king went and besieged them in person; and, being one of the foremost in the attack, he was shot with an arrow in the bone of his leg, and the iron head stuck in the wound. The Macedonians, who were greatly alarmed and afflicted, carried him off immediately, yet not so secretly but that the Barbarians knew of it; for they saw from the top of the mountain every thing that was doing below. The next day they sent ambassadors to the king, who ordered them to be immediately brought in, when taking off the bandage which covered his wound, he showed them his leg, but did not tell them how much he had been hurt. These assured him, that as soon as they heard of his being wounded, they were as much afflicted as the Macedonians could possibly be; and that, had it been possible for them to find the person who had shot that arrow, they would have delivered him up to Alexander; that none but impious wretches would wage war against the gods: in a word, that being vanquished by his unparalleled bravery, they surrendered themselves to him with the nations who followed them. The king, having engaged his faith to them and taken back his prisoners, accepted of their homage.

After this he set out upon his march, and, getting into a a Arrian. l. iii. p. 148, 149. et l. iv. p. 150-160. Q. Curt. I. viie 6-11. 6 Quintus Curtius and Arrian call it the Tanais, but they are mistaken. The Tanais lies much more westward, and empties itself not in the Caspian sea, but in the Pontus Euxinus, and is now called the Don,

litter, a great dispute arose between the horse and foot who should carry it, each of those bodies pretending that this honour belonged to them only: and there was no other way of reconciling them but by giving orders that they should carry it in their turns.

From hence he got, the fourth day, to Maracanda, a very considerable city, the capital of Sogdiana, which he took; and, after leaving a considerable garrison there, he burnt and laid waste all the plains.

There came an embassy to him from the Abian Scythians, who, since the death of Cyrus, had lived free and independent: these submitted to Alexander. They were considered as the most equitable of all the Barbarians, never making war but to defend themselves; and the liberty established among them, and which they no ways abused, removed all distinction, and equalled the meanest among them with the greatest. A love of poverty and justice was their peculiar characteristic, and enabled them to live happy to gether without wanting either kings or laws. Alexander received them kindly, and sent one of his chief courtiers to take a view of their country, and even of the Scythians who inhabit beyond the Cimmerian Bosphorus.

He had marked out a spot of ground proper for building a city on the river laxarthes, in order to curb the nations he had already conquered and those he intended to subdue. But this design was retarded by the rebellion of the Sogdians, which was, soon after, followed by that of the Bactrians. Alexander despatched Spitamenes, who had delivered Bessus up into his hands, believing him a very fit person to bring them back to their allegiance; but he himself had been chiefly instrumental in this insurrection. The king, greatly surprised at this treachery, was determined to take vengeance of him in the most signal manner. He marched in person to Cyropolis and besieged it. This was the last city of the Persian empire, and had been built by Cyrus, after whose name it was called. At the same time he sent Craterus, with two more of his general officers, to besiege the city of the Memaceni, to whom 50 troopers were sent to desire them to sue for Alexander's clemency. These met with a very kind reception at first, but in the night-time they were all cut to pieces. Alexander had resolved to spare Cyropolis purely for the sake of Cyrus; for, of all the monarchs who had reigned over these nations, there was none he admired more than this king and Semiramis, because they had surpassed all the rest in courage and glorious actions. He therefore offered very advantageous conditions to the besieged; but they were so blindly obstinate as to reject them, and

a Abii Scythæ.

that even with pride and insolence; upon which he stormed their city, abandoning the plunder of it to his soldiers, and razed it to the very foundations. From hence he went to the other city, which Craterus was besieging. No place ever made a more vigorous defence, for Alexander lost his best soldiers before it, and was himself exposed to very great danger, a stone striking him with so much violence on the head that it deprived him of his senses. The whole army, indeed, thought him dead, which threw them into tears; but this prince, whom no danger nor disappointment could depress, pushed on the siege with greater vigour than before, the instant he recovered, without staying till his wound was healed, anger adding fresh fuel to his natural ardour. Having, therefore, caused the wall to be sapped, he made a large breach in it and entered the city, which he burnt to the ground and put all the inhabitants to the sword. Several other cities met with the same fate. This was a third rebellion of the Sogdians, who would not be quiet though Alexander had pardoned them twice before. They lost above 120,000 men in these different sieges. The king afterwards sent Menedemus, with 3,000 foot and 800 horse, to Maracanda, whence Spitamenes had driven the Macedonian garrison and had shut himself up there.

With regard to himself, he returned back and encamped on the laxarthes, where he surrounded with walls the whole spot of ground which his army had covered, and built a city on it, containing 60 a furlongs in circumference, which he also called Alexandria, having before built several of that name. He caused the workmen to make such despatch, that in less than 20 days the ramparts were raised and the houses built: and, indeed, there was a great emulation among the soldiers who should get his work done soonest, every one of them having had his portion allotted him: and, to people his new city, he ransomed all the prisoners he could meet with, settled several Macedonians there who were worn out in the service, and permitted many natives of the country, at their own request, to inhabit it.

But the king of those Scythians who live on the other side of the laxarthes, seeing that this city, built on the river, was a kind of yoke to them, sent a great body of soldiers to demolish it and to drive the Macedonians to a greater distance. Alexander, who had no design of attacking the Scythians, finding them make several incursions, even in his sight, in a very insolent manner, was very much perplexed; especially when advice was brought him, at the same time, that the body of troops he had ordered to Maracanda had been all, a very few excepted, cut to pieces. Such a number

a Three leagues,

of obstacles would have discouraged any one but an Alexander; for the Sogdians had taken up arms, and the Bactrians also; his army was harassed by the Scythians; he himself was brought so low, that he was not able to stand upright, to mount on horseback, to speak to his forces, or give a single order. To increase his affliction, he found his army no ways inclined to attempt the passage of the river in sight of the enemy, who were drawn up in battle-array. The king continued in the utmost perplexity all night long; however, his courage surmounted all things. Being told that the auspices were not propitious, he forced the soothsayers to substitute favourable ones in their stead. The day beginning to break, he put on his coat of mail and showed himself to the soldiers, who had not seen him since the last wound he had received. These held the king in such high veneration, that his presence alone immediately removed all their fears, so that they shed tears of joy and went unanimously and paid him their respects, intreating him to lead them against the enemy against whom they before had refused to march. They worked so hard at the rafts, or floats, that in three days time they had made 12,000, and also prepared a great number of skins for that purpose.

As every thing was ready for the march several Scythian ambassadors arrived, to the number of 20, according to the custom of their country, who all rode through the camp, desiring to speak with the king. Alexander, having sent for them into his tent, desired them to sit down. They gazed attentively upon him a long time without speaking a single word, being, very probably, surprised, (as they formed a judgment of men from their air and stature,) to find that his did not answer the high idea they entertained of him from his fame. The oldest of the ambassadors addressed him in a speech which, as Quintus Curtius relates it, is pretty long ; however, as it is very curious, I shall present my readers with the greatest part of it.

"Had the gods given thee a body proportionable to thy "ambition, the whole universe would have been too little for "thee. With one hand thou wouldst touch the east, and "with the other the west; and, not satisfied with this, thou "wouldest follow the sun and know where he hides himself. "Such as thou art, thou yet aspirest after what it will be "impossible for thee to attain. Thou crossest over from "Europe into Asia; and, when thou shalt have subdued all "the race of men, then thou wilt make war against rivers, "forests, and wild beasts. Dost thou not know, that tall "trees are many years growing, but may be torn up in an hour's time; that the lion serves sometimes for food to the smallest birds; that iron, though so very hard, is consum