description of darius’s army at arbela.

alexander therefore took the royal squadron of cavalry, and one squadron of the companions, together with the paeonian scouts, and marched with all speed; having ordered the rest of his army to follow at leisure. the persian cavalry, seeing alexander advancing quickly, began to flee with all their might. though he pressed close upon them in pursuit, most of them escaped; but a few, whose horses were fatigued by the flight, were slain, others were taken prisoners, horses and all. from these they ascertained that darius with a large force was 155not far off. for 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 accompanied by the sacians, a scythian tribe belonging to the scythians who dwell in asia.387 these were not subject to bessus, but were in alliance with darius. they were commanded by mavaces, and were horse-bowmen. barsa?ntes, the viceroy of arachotia, led the arachotians388 and the men who were called mountaineer indians. satibarzanes, the viceroy of areia, led the areians,389 as did phrataphernes the parthians, hyrcanians, and tapurians,390 all of whom were horsemen. atropates commanded the medes, with whom were arrayed the cadusians, albanians, and sacesinians.391 the men who dwelt near the red sea392 were marshalled by ocondobates, ariobarzanes, and otanes. the uxians and susianians393 acknowledged oxathres son of aboulites as their leader, and the babylonians were commanded by boupares. the carians who had 156been deported into central asia, and the sitacenians394 had been placed in the same ranks as the babylonians. the armenians were commanded by orontes and mithraustes, and the cappadocians by ariaces. the syrians from the vale between lebanon and anti-lebanon (i.e. coele-syria) and the men of syria which lies between the rivers395 were led by mazaeus. the whole army of darius was said to contain 40,000 cavalry, 1,000,000 infantry, and 200 scythe-bearing chariots.396 there were only a few elephants, about fifteen in number, belonging to the indians who live this side of the indus.397 with these forces darius had encamped at gaugamela, near the river bumodus, about 600 stades distant from the city of arbela, in a district everywhere level;398 for whatever ground thereabouts was unlevel and unfit for the evolutions of cavalry, had long before been levelled by the persians, and made fit for the easy rolling of chariots and for the galloping of horses. for there were some who persuaded darius that he had forsooth got the 157worst of it in the battle fought at issus, from the narrowness of the battle-field; and this he was easily induced to believe.