[883] The use of κελεύειν with the dative, is in imitation of Homer. Cf. i. 26, 3 supra.
[884] We learn from Diodorus (xviii. 4) that when Alexander died, Craterus had got no farther than Cilicia on his return journey. He had with him a paper of written instructions, among which were projects for building an immense fleet in Phoenicia and the adjacent countries for conveying an expedition against the Carthaginians and the other western nations as far as the pillars of Hercules; for the erection of magnificent temples, and for the transportation of people from Europe into Asia and from Asia into Europe. Alexander’s generals put these projects aside, as too vast for any one but Alexander himself.
[885] Cf. Curtius, x. 31.
[886] The Greeks reckoned according to the lunar months, and therefore they talked of ten months instead of nine as the period of gestation. Cf. Herodotus, vi. 63; Aristophanes (Thesmoph. 742); Menander (Plocion, fragment 3); Plautus (Cistell. i. 3, 15); Terence (Adelphi, iii. 4, 29).
[887] For this expression, cf. Dion Cassius, xlii. 57; Homer (Iliad, 23, 538); Pausanias, vii. 10, 2; Herodotus, viii. 104.
[888] Here there is a gap in the manuscripts of Arrian, which probably contained an account of the flight of Harpalus, the viceroy of Babylon, with the treasures committed to his care, and also a description of the dispute between Hephaestion and Eumenes. See Photius (codex 92).
[889] Cf. Plutarch (Eumenes, 2).
[890] The march was from Opis to Media, as we see from the next chapter.
[891] Cf. Herodotus (iii. 106; vii. 40); Strabo, xi. 7 and 14; Diodor. xvii. 110; Ammianus, xxiii. 6. Sir Henry Rawlinson says: “With Herodotus, who was most imperfectly acquainted with the geography of Media, originated the error of transferring to that province the Nisea (Nesá) of Khorassan, and all later writers either copied or confounded his statement. Strabo alone has escaped from the general confusion. In his description we recognise the great grazing plains of Khawah, Alishtar, Huru, Silakhur, Burburud, Japalak, and Feridun, which thus stretch in a continuous line from one point to another along the southern frontiers of Media.” Alexander probably visited the westernmost of these pastures which stretch from Behistûn to Ispahan along the mountain range. The form διαρπαγῆναι is used only by the later writers for διαρπασθῆναι.
[892] Cf. Strabo, xi. 5; Diodorus, xvii. 77; Curtius, vi. 19; Justin, xii. 3; Arrian, iv. 15; Homer (Iliad, iii. 189); Aeschўlus (Eumenides, 655); Hippocrates (De Aere, Aquis, et Locis, p. 553).