[330] Arrian (vi. 27) says, however, that Phrataphernes brought the provisions spontaneously. Diodôros is at one with Curtius on the point.
[331] This description is much overdrawn. Thirlwall thus remarks upon it: “We cannot wonder that, in the enjoyment of pleasures, from which they had been so long debarred, they abandoned themselves to some excesses, perhaps only following the example of their chiefs and of Alexander himself;” and this was probably the main ground of fact for the exaggeration of later writers.
[332] Arrian alludes to his execution in his Indika, c. 36.
[333] This happened at Mazaga, the capital of Assakênos. Plutarch, it will be seen, justly condemns Alexander for this gross violation of the compact into which he had entered with the Indian mercenaries.
[334] For its identification see [Note F], Aornos.
[335] Aphrikês is called Eryx by Curtius.
[336] More correctly Omphis as given by Curtius. See [Biog. Appendix], s.v. Omphis.
[337] The father of Omphis had quite recently died, and Omphis did not assume the sovereignty at once on his decease, but waited till Alexander sanctioned his doing so. He then, as a matter of course, along with the sovereignty assumed also the dynastic title Taxilês.
[338] Alexander’s campaign, in which he conquered the country extending from the Hindu Kush to the Indus, took place in the year 327 B.C. In the year following he marched eastward through the Panjâb as far as the Hyphasis, conquering on his way Pôros and the Kathaians, and from the Hyphasis he retraced his way to the Hydaspês. He then sailed down that river, and then down the Akesinês into which it falls, until about the end of the year he reached the Indus. It will be seen from Arrian, v. 19, that the battle with Pôros was fought in the archonship of Hêgemôn at Athens, whose year of office, it is otherwise known, extended from the 28th of June 327 to the 17th of July 326 B.C. Hêgemôn was succeeded by Chremês, so that Diodôros antedates his archonship. He was archon after the defeat of Pôros and not before. With regard to the two consuls named, it does not appear that they ever held the consulship simultaneously. Publius Cornelius (Scipio Barbatus) was consul in 328 B.C. along with C. Plautius Decianus. In the following year Spurius Postumius Albinus was master of the horse to the Dictator Claudius Marcellus, but I can find nowhere in the lists the name of Aulus Postumius as holding any office about that time. In Smith’s Classical Dictionary the year 327 B.C. appears as the annus mirabilis of Alexander’s life, for early in the spring he completes the conquest of Sogdiana and marries Roxana. Thereafter he returns to Baktra, then marches to invade India, and crossing the Hydaspês defeats Pôros. He then marches to the Hyphasis, and thence returns to the Hydaspês. In the autumn he sails down the Hydaspês to the Indus! See vol. iii. p. 1346 and vol. i. s.v. Alexander III. The events of two years are thus compressed into the space of a single year. Clinton’s chronology, which is very confused for the period from 327 to 323, seems to have been followed.
[339] His name appears in Arrian more correctly as Abisares. He may be described as the King of Kashmir.