city might remain. But of what crimes were thefe illfated citizens guilty? Were they responsible for thofe their fathers had committed upwards of one hundred and fifty years before? I do not know whether hiftory furnishes another example of fo brutal and frantic cruelty.

A little after Beffus 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 fay, whether that object was more agreeable to the Barbarians or the Macedonians. In prefenting him to the king, he faid these words: "I have, at last, re"venged both you and Darius, my kings and masters. "I bring you a wretch who affaffinated his fovereign, "and who is now treated in the fame manner as him"felf gave the first example of. Alas! why cannot "Darius himself fee this fpectacle!" Alexander, after having greatly applauded Spitamenes, turned about to Beffus, and fpoke thus: "Thou furely must have been infpired with the rage and fury of a tyger, otherwise "thou wouldeft not have dared to load a king, from "whom thou hadft received fo many inftances of fas vour, with chains, and afterwards murder him! Begone from my fight, thou monfter of cruelty and "perfidioufnefs.' The king faid no more, but fending for Oxatres, Darius's brother, he gave Beffus to him, in order that he might fuffer all the ignominy he deferved; fufpending however his execution, that he might be judged in the general affembly of the Perfians.

66

SECT. XIII. Alexander, after taking a great many cities in Badriana, builds one near the river laxarthes, which he calls by his own name. The Scythians, alarmed at the building of this city, as it would be a check upon them, fend ambaffadors to the king, who addrefs themfelves to him with uncommon freedom. After having difmiffed them, he paffes the laxarthes, gains a fignal victory over the Scythians, and behaves with humanity towards the vanquished. He checks and punishes the infurrection of the Sogdians, fends Beffus to Ecbatana to be put to death, and takes the city of Petra, which was thought impregnable.

ALEXANDER, infatiable of victory and conquefts,

forward in fearch of new nations whom he might fubdue, After recruiting his cavalry, which had fuffered 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 twenty thousand, who fought with bows and flings. The king went and befieged them in perfon, and being one of the foremost in the attack, he was fhot with an arrow in the bone of his leg, and the iron point ftuck in the wound. The Macedonians, who were greatly alarmed and afflicted, carried him off immediately, yet not fo fecretly, but the Barbarians knew of it; for they faw, from the top of the mountain, every thing that was doing below. The next day they fent amballadors to the king, who ordered them to be immediately brought in, when taking off the bandage which covered his wound,

i Arrian. 1. iii. p. 148, 149. & l. iv. p. 150-260. Q. Curt. 1. vii. c. 6-11.

* Quintus Curtius and Arrian calls it the Tanais, but they are miftaken. The Tanais lies much more weftward, and empties itself not in the Caspian sea, but in the Pontus Euxines, and is now called the Don.

wound, he fhowed them his leg, but did not tell them how much he had been hurt. Thefe affured him, that as foon as they heard of his being wounded, they were as much afflicted as the Macedonians could poffibly be; and that had it been poffible for them to find the perfon 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 vanquifhed by his unparalleled bravery, they furrendered themselves to him, with the nations who followed them. The king, having engaged his faith to them, and taken back his prifoners, accepted of their homage.

After this he fet out upon his march, and getting into a litter, a great difpute arose between the horfe and foot who fhould carry it, each of thofe bodies pretending that this honour belonged to them only and there was no way of reconciling them, but by giving orders that they -fhould carry it in their turns.

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

k

There came an embally to him from the Abian Scythians, who from the death of Cyrus had lived free and independent: thefe fubmitted to Alexander. They were confidered 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 abufed, removed all distinction, and equalled the meanest among them with the greateft. A love of poverty and juftice was their peculiar characteristic, and enabled them to live happy together without wanting either kings or laws. Alexander received them kindly, and fent one of his chief courtiers to take a view of their country, and even of the Scythians who inhabit beyond the Cimmerian Bofphorus.

He had marked out a fpot of ground proper for building a city on the river laxarthes, in order to curb the nations

Abii Scythæ.

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he had already conquered, and thofe he intended to fubdue. But this defign was retarded by the rebellion of the Sogdians, which was foon after followed by that of the Bactrians. Alexander difpatchéd 'Spitamenes,. who had delivered up Beffus into his hands, believing him a very fit perfon to bring them back to their alle giance; but he himself had been chiefly inftrumental in this infurrection. The king greatly furprifed at this treachery, was determined to take vengeance of him in the moft fignal manner. He then marched to Cyropolis, and befieged it. This was the laft city of the Perfian empire, and had been built by Cyrus, after whofe name it was called. At the fame time he fent Craterus, with two more of his general officers, to befiege the city of the Memaceni, to whom fifty troopers were fent, to defire them to fue for Alexander's clemency. These met with a very kind reception at firft, but in the night-time they were all cut to pieces. Alexander had refolved to spare Cyropolis, purely for the fake of Cyrus; for, of all the monarchs who had reigned over these nations, there were none he admired more than this king and Semiramis, because they had furpaffed all the reft in courage and glorious actions. He therefore offered very advantageous conditions to the befieged, but they were fo blindly obftinate as to reject them, and that even with pride and infolence; upon which he ftormed their city, abandoning the plunder of it to his foldiers, and raised it to the very foundations. From hence he went to the other city which Craterus was befieging. No place ever made a more vigorous defence; for Alexander loft his beft foldiers before it, and was himself expofed to very great danger; a stone ftriking him with fo much violence on the head, that it deprived him of his fenfes. The whole army indeed thought him dead, which threw them into tears: but this prince, whom no danger or difappointment could deprefs, pufhed on the fiege with greater vigour than before, the inftant he recovered, without ftaying till his wound was healed, anger adding fresh fuel to his natural

natural ardour. Having therefore caufed the wall to be fapped, he made a large breach in it, and entered the city, which he burnt to the ground, and put all the inhabitants to the fword. Several other cities met with the fame fate. This was a third rebellion of the Sogdians, who would not be quiet, though Alexander had pardoned them twice before. They loft above an hundred and twenty thousand men in these different fieges. The king afterwards fent Menedemus with three thoufand foot and eight hundred horfe to Maracanda, whence Spitamenes had drove the Macedonian garrifon, and fhut himself up there.

With regard to himself, he returned back and encamped on the Iaxarthes, where he furrounded with walls the whole fpot of ground which his army had, covered, and built a city on it, containing fixty furlongs in circumference, which he alfo called Alexandria; having before built feveral of that name. He caused the workmen to make fuch dispatch, that in lefs than twenty days the ramparts were raifed, and the houfes built; and indeed there was a great emulation among the foldiers, who fhould get his work done fooneft, every one of them having had his portion allotted him: And to people his new city, he ranfomed all the prifoners he could meet with, fettled feveral Macedonians there who were worn out in the fervice, and permitted many natives of the country, at their own requeft, to inhabit it.

But the king of thofe Scythians, who live on the other fide of the laxarthes, feeing that this city, built on the river, was a kind of yoke to them, they fent a great body of foldiers to demolish it, and to drive the Macedonians to a greater diftance. Alexander, who had no defign of attacking the Scythians, finding them make feveral incurfions, even in his fight, in a very infolent manner, was very much perplexed; especially when advice was brought him at the fame time, that the body of troops he had ordered to Maracanda, had been all, a very few excepted, cut to pieces. Such a number of obstacles would

*Three leagues.