Page:The Anabasis of Alexander.djvu/126

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104
The Anabasis of Alexander.

he was going on a military expedition. The consequence was, that in the camp no more than 3,000 talents[1] were captured; and soon after, the money in Damascus was, also seized by Parmenio, who was despatched thither for that very purpose. Such was the result of this famous battle (which was fought) in the month Maimaoterion, when Nicostratus was archon of the Athenians.[2]


CHAPTER XII.

Kind Treatment of Darius's Family.

The next day, Alexander, though suffering from a wound which he had received in the thigh from a sword, visited the wounded, and having collected the bodies of the slain, he gave them a splendid burial with all his forces most brilliantly marshalled in order of battle. He also spoke with eulogy to those whom he himself had recognised performing any gallant deed in the battle, and also to those whose exploits he had learnt by report fully corroborated. He likewise honoured each of them individually with a gift of money in proportion to his desert.[3] He then appointed Balacrus, son of Nicanor, one of the royal body-guards, viceroy of Cilicia; and in his place among the body-guards he chose Menes, son of Dionysius. In the room of Ptolemy, son of Seleucus, who had been killed in the battle, he appointed Polysperchon, son of Simmias, to the command of a brigade. He remitted to the Solians the fifty talents[4] which were still due of the money imposed on them as a fine, and he gave them back their hostages.


  1. About £730,000.
  2. B.C. 333; end of October or beginning of November.
  3. Alexander erected three altars on the bank of the Pinarus, to Zeus, Heracles, and Athena (Curtius, iii. 33). Cicero, who was proconsul of Cilicia, speaks of "the altars of Alexander at the foot of Amanus," and says that he encamped there four days (Epistolae ad Diversos, xv. 4).
  4. About £12,000.