Alexander

So, then, all were alike ready and willing; but only sixty, they say, were with Alexander when he burst into the camp of the enemy. There, indeed, they rode over much gold and silver that was thrown away, passed by many waggons full of women and children which were coursing hither and thither without their drivers, and pursued those who were foremost in flight, thinking that Dareius was among them. But at last they found him lying in a waggon, his body all full of javelins, at the point of death.

Nevertheless, he asked for something to drink, and when he had drunk some cold water which Polystratus gave him, he said to him: My man, this is the extremity of all my ill-fortune, that I receive good at thy hands and am not able to return it; but Alexander will requite thee for thy good offices, and the gods will reward Alexander for his kindness to my mother, wife, and children; to him, through thee, I give this right hand. With these words he took the hand of Polystratus and then expired.[*](These details of the death of Dareius are not to be found in Arrian (Anab. iii. 21 fin.), but in Curtius (v. 13, 28) and Diodorus (xvii. 73).)

When Alexander came up, he was manifestly distressed by what had happened, and unfastening his own cloak threw it upon the body and covered it. And when, at a later time,[*](In the spring of 329 B.C. Cf. Arrian, Anab. iii. 30, 5; iv. 7, 3 ff.) he found Bessus, he had him rent asunder. Two straight trees were bent together and a part of his body fastened to each; then when each was released and sprang vigorously back, the part of the body that was attached to it followed after. Now, however, he sent the body of Dareius, laid out in royal state, to his mother,[*](To Persepolis, with orders that it should be buried in the royal sepulchre (Arrian, Anab. iii. 22, 1).) and admitted his brother, Exathres, into the number of his companions.

He himself however, with the flower of his army, marched on into Hyrcania. Here he saw a gulf of the open sea which appeared to be as large as the Euxine, but was sweeter than the Mediterranean. He could get no clear information about it, but conjectured that in all probability it was a stagnant overflow from the Palus Maeotis.

And yet naturalists were well aware of the truth, and many years before Alexander’s expedition they had set forth that this was the most northerly of four gulfs which stretch inland from the outer sea, and was called indifferently the Hyrcanian or Caspian Sea. Here some Barbarians unexpectedly fell in with those who were leading Alexander’s horse, Bucephalas, and captured him.

Alexander was angry beyond measure, and sent a herald threatening to put them all to the sword, together with their wives and children, if they did not send him back his horse. But when they came with the horse and also put their cities into his hands, he treated them all kindly, and gave a ransom for his horse to those who had captured him.