CHAPTER XXIV.

MARCH THROUGH GADROSIA.

He then advanced towards the capital of the Gadrosians, which was

named Pura[796]; and he arrived there in sixty days after starting

from Ora. Most of the historians of Alexander’s reign assert that

all the hardships which his army suffered in Asia were not worthy of

comparison with the labours undergone here. Nearchus alone asserts that

Alexander pursued this route, not from ignorance of the difficulty

of the journey, but because he heard that no one had ever hitherto

passed that way with an army and emerged in safety from the desert,

except Semiramis, when she fled from India. The natives said that even

she emerged with only twenty men of her army; and that Cyrus, son of

Cambyses, escaped with only seven of his men.[797] For they say that

Cyrus also marched into this region for the purpose of invading India;

but that he did not effect his retreat before losing the greater part

of his army, from the desert and the other difficulties of this route.

When Alexander received this information he was seized with a desire of

excelling Cyrus and Semiramis. Nearchus says that he turned his march

this way, both for this reason and at the same time for the purpose of

conveying provisions near the fleet. The scorching heat and lack of

water destroyed a great part of the army, and especially the beasts of

burden; most of which perished from thirst and some of them even from

the depth and heat of the sand, because it had been thoroughly scorched

by the sun. For they met with lofty ridges of deep sand, not closely

pressed and hardened, but such as received those who stepped upon it

just as if they were stepping into mud, or rather into untrodden snow.

At the same time too the horses and mules suffered still more, both in

going up and coming down the hills, from the unevenness of the road as

well as from its instability. The length of the marches between the

stages also exceedingly distressed the army; for the lack of water

often compelled them to make the marches of unusual length.[798]

When they travelled by night on a journey which it was necessary to

complete, and at daybreak came to water, they suffered no hardship at

all; but if, while still on the march, on account of the length of

the way, they were caught by the heat, then they did indeed suffer

hardships from the blazing sun, being at the same time oppressed by

unassuageable thirst.[799]