also came Pharasmanes, king of the Chorasmians,[1] to Alexander with 1,500 horsemen, who affirmed that he dwelt on the confines of the nations of the Colchians and the women called Amazons,[2] and promised, if Alexander was willing to march against these nations in order to subjugate the races in this district whose territories extended to the Euxine Sea, to act as his guide through the mountains and to supply his army with provisions. Alexander then gave a courteous reply to the men who had come from the Scythians, and one that was adapted to the exigencies of that particular time; but said that he had no need of a Scythian wedding. He also commended Pharasmanes and concluded a friendship and alliance with him, saying that at present it was not convenient for him to march towards the Euxine Sea. After introducing Pharasmanes as a friend to Artabazus the Persian, to whom he had intrusted the government of the Bactrians,[3] and to all the other viceroys who were his neighbours, he sent him back to his own abode. He said that his mind at that time was engrossed by the desire of conquering the Indians; for when he had subdued them, he should possess the whole of Asia. He added that when Asia was in his power he would return to Greece, and thence make an expedition with all his naval and military forces to the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea through the Hellespont and Propontis.[4] He desired Pharasmanes to reserve the fulfilment of his present promises until then.
- ↑ The Chorasmians were a people who inhabited the country near the lower part of the river Oxus, between the Caspian and Aral Seas.
- ↑ This mythical race of warlike females is said to have come from the Caucasus and to have settled near the modern Trebizond, their original abode being in Colchis. Cf. Arrian (vii. 13); Strabo(xi. 5); Diod. (xvii. 77); Curt. (vi. 19); Justin (xii· 3); Homer; (Iliad, iii. 189); Aeschylus (Eumenides, 655); Herod (iv. 110-116; ix. 27).
- ↑ See iii. 29 supra.
- ↑ Propontis means the sea before the Pontus. Compare Ovid (Tristia, i. 10, 31):— "Quaque tenent Ponti Byzantia littora fauces."
