Alexander

Both wings having been routed, the vanquished troops retired in every case upon the elephants in the centre, and were there crowded together with them, and from this point on the battle was waged at close quarters, and it was not until the eighth hour that the enemy gave up. Such then, is the account of the battle which the victor himself has given in his letters. Most historians agree that Porus was four cubits and a span[*](Six feet and three inches.) high, and that the size and majesty of his body made his elephant seem as fitting a mount for him as a horse for a horseman.

And yet his elephant was of the largest size; and it showed remarkable intelligence and solicitude for the king, bravely defending him and beating back his assailants while he was still in full vigour, and when it perceived that its master was worn out with a multitude of missiles and wounds, fearing lest he should fall off it knelt softly on the ground, and with its proboscis gently took each spear and drew it out of his body.

Porus was taken prisoner, and when Alexander asked him how he would be treated, said: Like a king; and to another question from Alexander whether he had anything else to say, replied: All things are included in my like a king. Accordingly, Alexander not only permitted him to govern his former kingdom, giving him the title of satrap, but also added to it the territory of the independent peoples whom he subdued, in which there are said to have been fifteen nations, five thousand cities of considerable size, and a great multitude of villages. He subdued other territory also thrice as large as this and appointed Philip, one of his companions, satrap over it.

After the battle with Porus, too, Bucephalas died,—not at once, but some time afterwards,—as most writers say, from wounds for which he was under treatment, but according to Onesicritus, from old age, having become quite worn out;[*](Cf. Arrian, Anab. v. 19, 4 f.) for he was thirty years old when he died. His death grieved Alexander mightily, who felt that he had lost nothing less than a comrade and friend; he also built a city in his memory on the banks of the Hydaspes and called it Bucephalia. It is said, too, that when he lost a dog also, named Peritas, which had been reared by him and was loved by him, he founded a city and gave it the dog’s name. Sotion says he heard this from Potamon the Lesbian.