The Anabasis of Alexander/Book V/Chapter XXIV

by Arrian

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CHAPTER XXIV.

Capture of Sangala.

Such were the orders he gave; and Ptolemy collected there as many waggons as he could from those which had been left behind in the first flight, and placed them athwart, so that there might seem to the fugitives in the night to be many difficulties in their way; and as the stockade had been knocked down, or had not been firmly fixed in the ground, he ordered his men to heap up a mound of earth in various places between the lake and the wall. This his soldiers effected in the night. When it was about the fourth watch,^[1] the barbarians, just as Alexander had been informed, opened the gates towards the lake, and made a run in that direction. However they did not escape the notice of the guards there, nor that of Ptolemy, who had been placed behind them to render aid. But at this moment the buglers gave him the signal, and he advanced against the barbarians with his army fully equipped and drawn up in battle array. Moreover the waggons and the stockade which had been placed in the intervening space, were an obstruction to them. When the bugle sounded and Ptolemy attacked them, killing the men as they kept on stealing out through the waggons, then indeed they were driven back again into the city; and in their retreat 500 of them were killed. In the meanwhile Porus arrived, bringing with him the elephants that were left to -him, and 5,000 Indians. Alexander had constructed his military engines and they were being led up to the wall; but before any of it was battered down, the Macedonians took the city by storm, digging under the wall, which was made of brick, and placing scaling ladders against it all round. In the capture 17,000 of the Indians were killed, and above 70,000 were captured, besides 300 chariots and 500 cavalry. In the whole siege a little less than 100 of Alexander's army were killed; but the number of the wounded was greater than the proportion of the slain, being more than 1,200, among whom were Lysimachus, the confidential bodyguard, and other officers. After burying the dead according to his custom, Alexander sent Eumenes, the secretary,^[2] with 300 cavalry to the two cities which had joined Sangala in revolt, to tell those who held them about the capture of Sangala, and to inform them that they wοuld receive no harsh treatment from Alexander if they stayed there and received him as a friend; for no harm had happened to any of the other independent Indians who had surrendered to him of their own accord. But they had become frightened, and had abandoned the cities and were fleeing; for the news had already reached them that Alexander had taken Sangala by storm. When Alexander was informed of their flight he pursued them with speed; but most of them were too quick for him, and effected their escape, because the pursuit began from a distant starting-place. But all those who were left behind in the retreat from weakness, were seized by the army and killed, to the number of about 500. Then, giving up the design of pursuing the fugitives any further, he returned to Sangala, and razed the city to the ground. He added the land to that of the Indians who had formerly been independent, but who had then voluntarily submitted to him. He then sent Porus with his forces to the cities which had submitted to him, to introduce garrisons into them; whilst he himself, with his army, advanced to the river Hyphasis,^[3] to subjugate the Indians beyond it. Nor did there seem to him any end of the war, so long as anything hostile to him remained.

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1. The Greeks had only three watches; but Arrian is speaking as a Roman.
2. Eumenes, of Cardia in Thrace, was private secretary to Philip and Alexander. After the death of the latter, he obtained the rule of Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus. He displayed great ability both as a general and statesman; but was put to death by Antigonus in B.C. 316, when he was 45 years of age. Being a Greek, he was disliked by the Macedonian generals, from whom he experienced very unjust treatment. It is evident from the biographies of him written by Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos, that he was one of the most eminent men of his era.
3. Now called the Beas, or Bibasa. Strabo calls it Hypanis, and Pliny calls it Hypasis.