[568] Arrian, vi. 28, 12-29, 1.
[569] Plutarch, Alex. 69; Arrian, vi. 29, 17; Strabo, xv. p. 730.
[570] Arrian, vi. 30, 2; Curtius, x. 1, 23-38. “Hic fuit exitus nobilissimi Persarum, nec insontis modo, sed eximiæ quoque benignitatis in regem.” The great favor which the beautiful eunuch Bagoas (though Arrian does not mention him) enjoyed with Alexander, and the exalted position which he occupied, are attested by good contemporary evidence, especially the philosopher Dikæarchus—see Athenæ. xiii. p. 603; Dikæarch. Fragm. 19. ap. Hist. Græc. Fragm. Didot, vol. ii. p. 241. Compare the Fragments of Eumenes and Diodotus (Ælian, V. H. iii. 23) in Didot, Fragm. Scriptor. Hist. Alex. Magni, p. 121; Plutarch De Adul. et Amic. Discrim. p. 65.
[571] Arrian, vi. 30; Curtius, x. 1, 22-30.
[572] Mr. Fynes Clinton (Fast. Hellen. B. C. 325, also Append. p. 232) places the arrival of Alexander in Susiana, on his return march, in the month of February B. C. 325; a year too early, in my opinion. I have before remarked on the views of Mr. Clinton respecting the date of Alexander’s victory over Porus on the Hydaspes, where he alters the name of the month as it stands in the text of Arrian (following Schmieder’s conjecture), and supposes that battle to have occurred in August B. C. 327 instead of April B. C. 326. Mr. Clinton antedates by one year all the proceedings of Alexander subsequent to his quitting Baktria for the last time in the summer of B. C. 327. Dr. Vincent’s remark—“that the supposition of two winters occurring after Alexander’s return to Susa is not borne out by the historians” (see Clinton. p. 232), is a perfectly just one; and Mitford has not replied to it in a satisfactory manner. In my judgment, there was only an interval of sixteen months (not an interval of twenty-eight months, as Mr. Clinton supposes) between the return of Alexander to Susa and his death at Babylon (Feb. 324 B. C. to June 323 B. C.).
[573] Arrian, vii. 5. 9; Arrian, Indica, c. 42. The voluntary death of Kalanus the Indian Gymnosophist must have taken place at Susa (where Diodorus places it—xvii. 107), and not in Persis; for Nearchus was seemingly present at the memorable scene of the funeral pile (Arrian, vii. 3, 9)—and he was not with Alexander in Persis.
[574] Plutarch, Alexand. 68.
[575] Arrian, vii. 4, 2-5; Diodor. xvii. 108; Curtius, x. 1, 7. “Cœperat esse præceps ad repræsentanda supplicia, item ad deteriora credenda” (Curtius, x. 1, 39).
[576] Plutarch, Alex. 68.
[577] Diodor. xvii. 106-111.