World History
Ch.4:Eurasian Empires
Arrian (c. 150 C.E.), The Campaigns of Alexander the Great
In this speech to his soldiers who threatened to mutiny and return home (from India),Alexander reminds them of what they owe to his father, Philip of Macedon.
He found you vagabonds and destitute, most of you clad in hides, feeding a few sheep up the mountain sides for the protection of which you had to fight with small success against Illyrians, Tribalians, and the border Thracians. Instead of the hides he gave you cloaks to wear, and from the mountains he led you down into the plains, and made you capable of fighting the neighboring barbarians so that you were no longer forced to save yourselves by trusting more to your inaccessible strongholds than to your valor. Colonists of cities, too, he made you, and he adorned them with useful laws and customs; and from being slaves and subjects he made you rulers over the very barbarians by whom you yourselves, as well as your property, had previously been liable to be carried off or ravaged.
Then again he added the bulk of Thrace to Macedonia, and by seizing the best situated places on the coast, he made the land prosper by commerce, and made the workings of the mines safe business. He made you rulers over the Thessalians – of whom you had once been mortally afraid; and by humbling the folks of the Phocians, he made the road into Hellas [Greece] broad for you and easy – not narrow and difficult as before. The Athenians and Thebans, always waiting to assail Macedonia, he humbled to such a degree … that instead of paying tribute to Athens and being vassals to Thebes, those states must perforce get security for themselves by our aid. He penetrated into Peloponnesus, and after regulating its affairs, was publicly declared commander in chief for all the rest of Hellas in the expedition against the Persian, adding this glory not more to himself than to the commonwealth of the Macedonians.
These then were the advantages which you gained from my father Philip!
In his campaigns in India, Alexander fought a number of difficult battles. At the Battly of Hydaspes River, he faced a strong opponent in the Indian king Porus. After defeating Porus, Alexander treated him with respect.
Throughout the action Porus had proved himself a man indeed, not only as a commander but as a soldier of the truest courage. When he saw his cavalry cut to pieces, most of his infantry dead, and his elephants killed or roaming riderless and bewildered about the field, his behavior was very different from that of Persian King Darius: unlike Darius, he did not lead the scramble to save his own skin, but so long as a single unit of his men held together, he fought bravely on. It was only when he was himself wounded that he turned the elephant on which he rode and began to withdraw…. Alexander, anxious to save the life of this great and gallant soldier, sent … [to him] an Indian named Meroes, a man he had been told had long been Porus’ friend. Porus listened to Meroes’ message, stopped his elephant, and dismounted; he was much distressed by thirst, so when he revived himself by drinking, he told Meroes to conduct him with all speed to Alexander.
Alexander, informed of his approach, rode out to meet him…. When they met, he reined in his horse and looked at his adversary with admiration: he was a magnificent figure of a man, over seven feet high and of great personal beauty; his bearing had lost none of its pride; his air was of one brave man meeting another, of a king in the presence of a king, with whom he had fought honorably for his kingdom.
Alexander was the first to speak. “What,” he said, “do you wish that I should do with you?” “Treat me as a king ought,” Porus is said to have replied. “For my part,” said Alexander, pleased by his answer, “your request shall be granted. But is there not something you would wish for yourself? Ask it.” “Everything,” said Porus, “is contained in this one request.”
The dignity of these words gave Alexander even more pleasure, and he restored to Porus his sovereignty over his subjects, adding to his realm other territory of even greater extent. Thus he did indeed use a brave man as a king ought, and from that time forward found him in every way a loyal friend.
From Readings in Ancient History, edited by William Stearns Davis, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912 and
Jackson J. Spielvogel,Western Civilization: Volume 1: To 1715, 3rd Edition,Stamford, CT: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning, 2005.