CHAPTER XVII.

MUSICANUS EXECUTED.—CAPTURE OF PATALA.

Meantime he was informed that Musicanus had revolted. He despatched the

viceroy, Peithon, son of Agenor, with a sufficient army against him,

while he himself marched against the cities which had been put under

the rule of Musicanus. Some of these he razed to the ground, reducing

the inhabitants to slavery; and into others he introduced garrisons and

fortified the citadels. After accomplishing this, he returned to the

camp and fleet. By this time Musicanus had been captured by Peithon,

who was bringing him to Alexander. The king ordered him to be hanged

in his own country, and with him as many of the Brachmans as had

instigated him to the revolt. Then came to him the ruler of the land of

the Patalians,[770] who said that the Delta formed by the river Indus

was still larger than the Egyptian Delta.[771] This man surrendered

to him the whole of his own land and entrusted both himself and his

property to him. Alexander sent him away again in possession of his own

dominions, with instructions to provide whatever was needful for the

reception of the army. He then sent Craterus into Carmania with the

brigades of Attalus, Meleager, and Antigenes, some of the archers, and

as many of the Companions and other Macedonians as, being now unfit

for military service, he was despatching to Macedonia by the route

through the lands of the Arachotians and Zarangians. To Craterus he

also gave the duty of leading the elephants; but the rest of the army,

except the part of it which was sailing with himself down to the sea,

he put under the command of Hephaestion. He transported Peithon with

the cavalry-lancers and Agrianians to the opposite bank of the Indus,

not the one along which Hephaestion was about to lead the army. Peithon

was ordered to collect men to colonize the cities which had just been

fortified, and to form a junction with the king at Patala, after having

settled the affairs of the Indians of that region, if they attempted

any revolutionary proceedings. On the third day of his voyage,

Alexander was informed that the governor of the Patalians[772] had

collected most of his subjects and was going away by stealth, having

left his land deserted. For this reason Alexander sailed down the river

with greater speed than before[773]; and when he arrived at Patala, he

found both the country and the city deserted by the inhabitants and

tillers of the soil. He however despatched the lightest troops in his

army in pursuit of the fugitives; and when some of them were captured,

he sent them away to the rest, bidding them be of good courage and

return, for they might inhabit the city and till the country as before.

Most of them accordingly returned.