Chapter LXXXVI.—Alexander crosses the Indus, and is hospitably received by Taxilês
Alexander having thus outwitted the Indians by these feints, obtained possession of the rock without risk being incurred. He then gave his guide the stipulated reward, and moved off with his army at the very time when Aphrikês, an Indian who had 20,000 soldiers and 15 elephants, was hovering about in that locality.[335] This man certain of his followers put to death, and, having brought his head to Alexander, procured for this service their own safety. The king took them into his own ranks, and got possession of the elephants, which were wandering at large about the country.
He then came to the river Indus, and, finding that the thirty-oared galleys which he ordered had been prepared, and the passage bridged, he gave his army a rest of thirty days to recruit their strength. Having then offered to the gods sacrifices on a magnificent scale, he led his army over to the other side, where he met with an incident which took a strange and unexpected turn. For Taxilês being by this time dead, his son Môphis[336] had succeeded to the government. Now Môphis had before this not only sent word to Alexander, then in Sogdiana, that he would fight on his side against any Indians who might appear in arms against him, but at this juncture had also sent ambassadors to say that he surrendered his kingdom into his hands. So when Alexander was at a distance of forty stadia he set forth to meet him, attended by his friends, and his army drawn up in battle order and his elephants ranged in line. Alexander, seeing a great host advancing towards him drawn up as if for action, thought that the Indian had treacherously offered to surrender that he might thus fall upon the Macedonians before they could prepare for battle. He therefore ordered the trumpeters to sound to arms, and, having marshalled his troops, advanced to give the Indians battle. But Môphis, on seeing the commotion in the Macedonian ranks, and comprehending its cause, left his army, and riding forward with a few of his friends, corrected the mistake into which the Macedonians had fallen, and surrendered himself and his army to the king. Alexander, to mark his approbation of this conduct, gave back his kingdom to Môphis, and ever afterwards treated him as a friend and ally. He also changed his name to Taxilês.[337]
Chapter LXXXVII.—Alexander marches against Pôros—The appearance presented by the Indian army with its elephants
Such were the transactions of this year—that in which Chremês was archon at Athens, and in which the Romans appointed Publius Cornelius and Aulus Postumius consuls.[338] Thereafter Alexander, who had recruited his army by an interval of rest in the country of Taxilês, took the field against Pôros, the king of the neighbouring Indians, who had an army of more than 50,000 foot, about 3000 horse, above 1000 chariots, and 130 elephants. This king had made an alliance with another prince called Embisaros,[339] the ruler of an adjacent tribe, and who possessed an army which was but little inferior to his own. Alexander, on learning that this king was 400 stadia distant, resolved to attack Pôros before his ally could reach him. Pôros, being warned of the near approach of the enemy, at once drew up his troops in order of battle. His cavalry he distributed on the wings, and his elephants he placed in his front line at equi-distances, and so arranged as to strike the enemy with terror. In the intervals between the animals he stationed the rest of his soldiers, instructing them to succour the elephants and protect them from being assailed in flank by the enemy’s missiles. The whole disposition of his army gave it very much the appearance of a city—the elephants as they stood resembling its towers, and the men-at-arms placed between them resembling the lines of wall intervening between tower and tower. But Alexander, having observed how the forces of the enemy had been disposed, regulated thereby the formation of his own line.
Chapter LXXXVIII.—The defeat of Pôros
The Macedonian cavalry began the action, and destroyed nearly all the chariots of the Indians. Upon this the elephants, applying to good use their prodigious size and strength, killed some of the enemy by trampling them under their feet, and crushing their armour and their bones, while upon others they inflicted a terrible death, for they first lifted them aloft with their trunks, which they had twined round their bodies, and then dashed them down with great violence to the ground. Many others they deprived in a moment of life by goring them through and through with their tusks. But the Macedonians heroically bore the brunt of this dreadful onslaught, and having killed with their long pikes the men stationed between the elephants, made the poise of the battle equal. They next assailed the animals themselves with a storm of javelins, thus piercing them with numerous wounds, which so tortured them that the Indians mounted on their backs lacked sufficient strength to control their movements, for the animals on heading to their own ranks bore against them with an impetuosity not to be repressed, and trampled their own friends under their feet. Then ensued a great confusion, but Pôros, who was mounted on the most powerful of all his elephants, on seeing what had happened, gathered around him forty of the animals that were still under control, and falling upon the enemy with all the weight of the elephants, made a great slaughter with his own hand, for he far surpassed in bodily strength any soldier of his army. In stature he measured five cubits, while his girth was such that his breastplate was twice the size required for a man of ordinary bulk. For this reason the javelins he flung from his hand flew with all but the impetus of shots from a catapult. The Macedonians who stood opposed to him being terror-struck at his astonishing prowess, Alexander sent to their assistance the archers and the divisional light troops, with orders that every man should make Pôros the object of his aim. The soldiers lost no time in carrying out these orders. Their bolts flew thick and fast, and as the Indian king at whom they were all aimed presented a broad mark, none of them failed to carry home. Pôros fought on with heroic courage, but being drained of blood by the number of his wounds, he fainted away, and leaning on his elephant for support, was borne to the ground. A report having spread that their king was dead, the remnant of the Indian host fled from the field, but many of them were slain in the flight.
Chapter LXXXIX.—Losses sustained by each side in the battle of the Hydaspês—Alexander orders a fleet to be built on the Hydaspês.
Alexander having gained this splendid victory, recalled his soldiers from the field by sound of trumpet. In this engagement more than 12,000 of the Indians fell, among whom were two of the sons of Pôros, and his generals, and the most distinguished of his other officers. More than 9000 men were taken prisoners, and eighty elephants were captured. Pôros himself, who was still alive, was given into the hands of the Indians to be cured of his wounds. Of the Macedonians, there fell 280 horsemen and more than 700 foot-soldiers. The king buried the dead, and in proportion to their merits rewarded those who had signalised themselves by their bravery in the action. He then sacrificed to the Sun, as the deity who had given him the conquest of the eastern parts of the world. As the mountainous country adjacent produced much well-grown fir, and not a little cedar and pine, besides an unlimited quantity of other kinds of timber fit for building ships, he prepared what ships he required. For he intended, after he had reached the limits of India and subdued all its inhabitants, to sail down stream to the ocean. He founded two cities, one beyond the river at the place where he crossed, and the other on the field where he had defeated Pôros.[340] The work of building the ships was quickly finished, owing to the great number of hands employed on it; and he then appointed Pôros, who had recovered from his wounds, in consideration of the valour he had displayed, to be king of the country over which he had formerly ruled. He then gave his army thirty days to recruit in this region, which yielded an unstinted supply of all the necessaries of life.