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SECTION II. THE LAST OF THE ACHEMENIDS AND ALEXANDER.
The Persian Empire rapidly declined after the death of Xerxes. After a period of weak rule and confusion, the crown went to Darius III Codomannus (335-330 B.C.). This was the king against whom Alexander, the great king of Macedon led forth his famous phalanx. After several engagements in which the Persian forces suffered repeated defeats, the Macedonian conqueror rode on the tracks of his vanquished enemy and reached the plain watered by the river Bumodus.
Three distinct groups of Indians figured in the army which mustered under the banner of the Persian monarch in that region. "The Indians who were conterminous with the Bactrians as also the Bactrians themselves and the Sogdianians had come to the aid of Darius, all being under the command of Bessus, the Viceroy of the land of Bactria. They were followed by the Sacians, a Scythian tribe belonging to the Scythians who dwell in Asia. These were not subject to Bessus but were in alliance with Darius... Barsaentes, the Viceroy of Arachotia, led the Arachotians and the men who were called Mountaineer Indians. There were a few elephants, about fifteen in number, belonging to the Indians who live this side of the Indus. With these forces Darius had encamped at Gaugamela, near the river Bumodus, about 600 stades distant from the city of Arbela." The hold of the Achaemenians on the Indians in the various provinces on the frontier had, however, grown very feeble about this time, and the whole of north-western India was parcelled out into innumerable kingdoms, principalities and
1 Chinnock, Arrian's Anabasis, pp. 142-143.
