CHAPTER IV.

ALEXANDER DESTROYS THE CITY OF THE GETAE.—THE AMBASSADORS OF THE CELTS.

They crossed over by night to a spot where the corn stood high; and in

this way they reached the bank more secretly. At the approach of dawn

Alexander led his men through the field of standing corn, ordering the

infantry to lean upon the corn with their pikes[42] held transversely,

and thus to advance into the untilled ground. As long as the phalanx

was advancing through the standing corn, the cavalry followed; but

when they marched out of the tilled land, Alexander himself led the

horse round to the right wing, and commanded Nicanor[43] to lead the

phalanx in a square. The Getae did not even sustain the first charge

of the cavalry; for Alexander’s audacity seemed incredible to them,

in having thus easily crossed the Ister, the largest of rivers, in a

single night, without throwing a bridge over the stream. Terrible to

them also was the closely-locked order of the phalanx, and violent

the charge of the cavalry. At first they fled for refuge into their

city, which was distant about a parasang[44] from the Ister; but when

they saw that Alexander was leading his phalanx carefully along the

river, to prevent his infantry being anywhere surrounded by the Getae

lying in ambush; whereas he was leading his cavalry straight on, they

again abandoned the city, because it was badly fortified. They carried

off as many of their women and children as their horses could carry,

and betook themselves into the steppes, in a direction which led as

far as possible from the river. Alexander took the city and all the

booty which the Getae left behind. This he gave to Meleager[45] and

Philip[46] to carry off. After razing the city to the ground, he

offered sacrifice upon the bank of the river, to Zeus the preserver,

to Heracles,[47] and to Ister himself, because he had allowed him to

cross; and while it was still day he brought all his men back safe to

the camp.

There ambassadors came to him from Syrmus, king of the Triballians,

and from the other independent nations dwelling near the Ister. Some

even arrived from the Celts who dwelt near the Ionian gulf.[48] These

people are of great stature, and of a haughty disposition. All the

envoys said that they had come to seek Alexander’s friendship. To all

of them he gave pledges of amity, and received pledges from them in

return. He then asked the Celts what thing in the world caused them

special alarm, expecting that his own great fame had reached the Celts

and had penetrated still further, and that they would say that they

feared him most of all things. But the answer of the Celts turned out

quite contrary to his expectation; for, as they dwelt so far away from

Alexander, inhabiting districts difficult of access, and as they saw he

was about to set out in another direction, they said they were afraid

that the sky would some time or other fall down upon them. These men

also he sent back, calling them friends, and ranking them as allies,

making the remark that the Celts were braggarts.[49]