Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 58
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JUNE, 1929
Diodorus' account of what followed the capture of Aornos is very brief.67 We are told by him that Aphrikes, an Indian chief, was hovering in that neighbourhood with 20,000 sol. diers and 15 elephants. The chief was killed by his own men, who brought his head to Alexander and thereby purchased their own safety. The elephants wandering about the coun. try were secured by the king, who then arrived at the Indus, and, finding it bridged, gave his army a rest of thirty days before crossing to the left bank. Curtius' account, evidently taken from the same source, supplements the above by some details, which however do not furnish any clear topographical guidance.68 Alexander is said to have marched from the "rock" to Eebolima. Having learned that a defile on the route was occupied by 20,000 armed men under Erix, he hurried forward, dislodged the enemy with his archers and slingers, and thus cleared a passage for his heavy-armed troops behind. Erix was killed in flight by his own men, and his head brought to Alexander. Thence he arrived after the sixteenth encampment at the Indus, where he found everything prepared by Hephaistion for the crossing.
That by Ecbolima the same place is meant as Arrian's and Ptolemy's Embolima is scarcely subject to doubt ; also that the chief Erix is the same whom Diodorus calls Aphrikes. But both authors fail to give any clear indication as to where the defile held by this chief lay. If the sixteen marches to the Indus crossing have to be reckoned, as Curtius' wording implies, from that defile, this certainly could not be looked for on the Barandu river; for thence the march to Ond (Uhand), the ancient Udabhanda, where the passage of the Indus in all probability took place,89 could not have taken more than four or five marches. The defile held by Erix may have lain far away from the Indus, and hence been distinct from the difficult route by which Arrian makes Alexander reach the Indus. In this case Curtius has erred in indicating Ecbolima as the immediate goal of Alexander's move after Aornos was taken. However this may be, Curtius' reference to those sixteen marches, if considered together with Arrian's account, shows that Alexander's operations after the taking of Aornos must have been fairly extensive. In this we may well recognize a fresh proof of the importance which was attached by him to the complete subjugation of the Assakênoi.70 The reason obviously was the need to secure the flank of the main line of communication towards India against interference from the hills northward.
We have now accompanied the great conqueror right up to the starting point for his invasion of India proper, and here we must leave him. Alexander's triumphal progress through the wide plains of the Panjab has, owing to the fascination exercised at all times by strange distant India, attracted most interest on the part of his historians, ancient as well as modern. But only those who are familiar with the natural difficulties of the territories beyond the present North-West Frontier and with their military history in recent times can fully appreciate the greatness of the obstacles which Alexander's genius as a leader and the extraordinary pluck and toughness of his hardy Macedonians faced and victoriously overcamo during their preceding long campaign in those mountains.
67 Bibliotheca,' XVII, lxxxvi. 2-3. 88 Historiæ,' VIII. xii. 69 Cf. Vincent Smith, Early History of India, 2, p. 55.
70 Arrian, V. xx, 7, montions a report which Alexander, while on his way to the Akesines or Chenab, received from Sisikottos, the Satrap of the Assakênoi, about their subsequent revolt, and records the measures taken by Alexander to quell this.
