1 INVASION OF ALEXANDER. . 61
2 encounter and reduce them before entering the luxuriant plains of the
3 Panjdb. Having advanced to the Cophenes (or the Kabul river), he sent
4 his generals Hephaestion and Perdiccas, at the head of considerable detach-
5 ments, to make a survey of the surrounding country and prepare a bridge
6 of boats on the Indus for the transport of his army. Having then taken
7 a north-easterly direction, with a band of archers and half his army, he
8 crossed the Choes and marched against the Aspii, or Apasii, a considerable
9 tribe inhabiting the southern foot of Paropamiside, the modern Hindu Kush
10 mountains. The mountaineers offered a vigorous resistance, and Ptolemy
11 - was sent to encounter them at the head of a large force. The brave
12 people, despairing of defending their capital, abandoned it, after first setting
13 it on fire, and retired to the high mountains. The Grecian general
14 attempted to expe] them from this position, but the mountaineers advanced
15 to meet the invaders, and the fight which ensued between the two armies
16 was most sanguinary. Ftolemy struck the chief of the tribe-with his spear,
17 but it failed to penetrate the solid breastplate and armour worn by him.
18 The brave Grecian general then hurled another spear at his enemy
19 with such force that he was killed on the spot. The fight now became
20 thickest around the body of the slain chief, to which the hardy mountaineers
21 flocked with great fervour, and it was not until Alexander had himself
22 . opportunely arrived, with a large reinforcement, that the enemy was repulsed.
23 According to Arrian, forty thousand men were killed in this battle on
24 the side of the vanquished.
25 Alexander then marched through the territory of the Guraaei, the
26 modern Ghazni, and the people, terrified at the fate of the Aspii, tendered
27 their submission to the invader.
28 The next people subdued on the west of the Indus were the Assaceni,
29 whose capital was Magassa, a strongly fortified town washed, towards the
30 east, by a rapid river, and strengthened, on the west and south, by rocks
31 of stupendous height. The king of this tribe having recently died, the
32 queen-mother governed the country on behalf of her infant son. Alexander
33 blockaded the town in force, and while reconnoitring the fortifications, he
34 was wounded in the leg by an arrow fired from the rampart, which tortured
35 the brave king to such a degree that he could not avoid exclaiming:
36 “While I am hailed as a deity and the son of Juptier, the agony of this
37 wound too plainly demonstrates to me that I am still but a mortal.”
38 Alexander advanced his battering engines, from the tops of which his
39 Macedonians discharged showers of arrows on the besieged. The fight
40 continued with great severity for three days. On the fourth day the
41 besieged surrendered on honourable conditions. The queen came out from
42 the gates, at the head of her female attendants, carrying golden goblets full
43 of wine, which were offered as an oblation to Alexander, as to a deity.
44 Curtius admires the beauty of the queen and declares that she presented
45 Alexander with her infant son.
46 After reducing the Assaceni, Alexander marched to Ora and Bazira,
47 identified as the modern Bajour. The former was ruled by Abissarus, a
48 powerful Indian prince, who having opposed the progress of the invader, with
49 his warlike countrymen, the Macedonians scaled the walls of this hitherto
50 impregnable fortress with great skill, and took it by storm. Bajour was
51 then conquered, but not.without severe loss on the side of the Indians.
52 The next place of importance reduced was the castle of Aornus,.on the
53 right bank of the Indus, identified by Major Abbot as the Mdhabdd (or
54 mighty rock) of the Hindus. It is supposed tobe near the town of Amb,
55 in the Eusufzai country. The place was captured after an obstinate fight,
56 Fight with the
57 Aspii,
58 Conquest of Ghaznt,
59 Subjugation of the
60 Assaceni.
61 Conquest of Baj our.
62 Cupture of the castle
63 of Aornus, _
64 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh J i eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com