the nisaean plain.—the amazons.

it is said that hephaestion much against his will yielded to this argument and was reconciled to eumenes, who on his part wished to settle the dispute.889 in this journey890 alexander is said to have seen the plain which was devoted to the royal mares. herodotus says that the plain itself was named nisaean, and that the mares were called nisaean891; adding that in olden times there were 150,000 of these horses. but at this time alexander found not many above 50,000; for most of them had been carried off by robbers. they say that atropates, the viceroy of media, gave him a hundred women, saying that they were of the race of amazons.892 these had been equipped with the arms of male horsemen, except that they carried axes instead of spears and targets instead of shields. they also say that they had the right breast smaller than the left, and that they exposed it in battle. alexander dismissed them from the army, that no attempt to violate them might be made by the macedonians or 394barbarians; and he ordered them to carry word to their queen that he was coming to her in order to procreate children by her.893 but this story has been recorded neither by aristobulus nor ptolemy, nor any other writer who is a trustworthy authority on such matters. i do not even think that the race of amazons was surviving at that time; for before alexander’s time they were not mentioned even by xenophon,894 who mentions the phasians, colchians, and all the other barbaric races which the greeks came upon, when they started from trapezus or before they marched down to trapezus. they would certainly have fallen in with the amazons if they were still in existence. however it does not seem to me credible that this race of women was altogether fictitious, because it has been celebrated by so many famous poets. for the general account is, that heracles marched against them and brought the girdle of their queen hippolyte into greece.895 the athenians also under theseus were the first to conquer and repulse these women as they were advancing into europe896; and the battle of the athenians and amazons has been painted by micon,897 no less than that of the athenians and persians. herodotus also has frequently written about these women898; and so have the athenian writers who have honoured the men who perished in war with funeral orations. they have men395tioned the exploit of the athenians against the amazons as one of their special glories.899 if therefore atropates showed any equestrian women to alexander, i think he must have shown him some other foreign women trained in horsemanship, and equipped with the arms which were said to be those of the amazons.