An Elephant for Aristotle

Book One INDIA

My story begins at the end of the tenth year of the reign of Alexander, son of Philip, when Hegemon was archon of Athens. In the great battle in which Alexander vanquished Poros, the giant Indian warrior king, I, in my twenty-seventh year, fought as troop closer in the Thessalian Troop of Demetrios' cavalry regiment. We were the last Thessalians in the army. Tire rest of the levy, which at one time numbered two thousand, had been sent home from Media and Baktria.

In this dreadful struggle, I took an Indian spear through the calf of my leg. I bound up the wound and fought on as acting troop leader, after our troop leader fell before a javelin cast by Poros himself from the back of his towering elephant.

We fought till our javelins all were spent and we could hardly hold our swords for sweat and blood. Unhurt men were falling from thirst and exhaustion when at last I heard cheers from other parts of the field. The rest of our army had forced a crossing of the Hydaspes and were coming to help us.

The Indians, who had fought with the greatest fury though half surrounded, saw them also and began to fall back. Many elephant drivers had been slain, and the animals wheeled about and started for home. Soon the whole Indian army crumbled into a mass of fugitives. King Poros was one of the last to leave the field.

I sought out our squadron leader, a Macedonian named Eriguios, and asked for orders.

"Let Krateros' fresh horse handle the pursuit," said he, wiping blood from his face. "We shall wind-break our beasts if we push them further. Rally your troop and fetch back those who have gone off after the Indians."

I grieved not to miss the pursuit. Not only was I too weary to kill anything stronger than a rabbit, but also I do not like thrusting fleeing foes in the back. It seems a mean and unworthy thing to do, even to foreigners.

I rode back to where our troop had collected and sent our aide around the battlefield to rally stragglers. When he came back, several men were still not accounted for. I left one of the flank guards in command and rode off with the aide to look for the missing men. We picked our way among the bodies of hundreds of Indian foot soldiers slaughtered in flight. Happy the horseman, who has a good chance to escape if his side be defeated!

A few furlongs away I came on a curious sight. Poros' huge elephant stood with arrows projecting out from him like spines from a hedgehog. The drapes that hung from his sides were tattered and splashed with mud and blood. On the elephant's neck sat the driver, protected by white, quilted robes of Indian tree wool, which grows on a bush instead of a beast.

In the booth on the elephant's back sat the Poros, poising a javelin. He was the largest man I have ever seen. He wore a gold-inlaid helmet encircled with gleaming gems, and a coat of silvered scale mail. His beard was dyed green. His right arm hung limp and was covered with blood from a shoulder wound.

Some of our horsemen stood by, though at a prudent distance, for they had seen what this colossal king could do with his darts. Amongst these onlookers I saw most of my missing men.

King Poros was carrying on a lively dispute with one of our allied Indian kings, who sat on his steed near the elephant and shouted up at his fellow monarch. Though I could not understand them, I gathered that our Indian was trying to persuade the Poros to give himself up.

Then the elephant settled matters by kneeling down, so abruptly that Poros was almost shaken out of his booth. I suppose the Poros took this as a sign that his deities wished him to yield, for he climbed stiffly down from his mount. The other king dismounted to help him. They turned back towards the battlefield. The Poros walked slowly with his left arm around the other king's neck and wept at the sight of all the dead Indians.

"Ē!" Hither, all Thessalians!" I called in a husky croak, for my tongue was so swollen with thirst I could hardly speak. "Come on, lads, back to the troop!"

We had started off beside the Poros when we met Alexander and his staff. Alexander drew rein a few paces from the two Indian kings. His famous charger, Ox-head, had fallen dead in the battle, so he rode another horse.

"Silence!" cried the heralds. The Poros drew himself up and stared haughtily at Alexander.

There were two interpreters, one translating from Greek to Persian and one from Persian to Indian. Alexander said to the Graeco-Persian interpreter: "Ask him how he expects to be used."

The interpreters passed the message along. I could follow the Persian part, having learnt a smattering of that tongue from Hyovis, my Persian concubine. She, alas! perished of snakebite a little before the battle.

Poros rumbled something in Indian. After a pause for translation, the first interpreter said: "He says: 'Why, as a king, to be sure!' "

Alexander cocked his head and smiled. He said: "That is a right royal answer. Tell him I shall do that anyway, for my own honor. Now ask him if there be aught he would especially like for his own sake."

When the interpreters and Poros had spoken again, the Greek-speaking one said: "He says that to use him as a king includes all."

Alexander laughed, dismounted, and stepped forward. The seven-foot Poros, who towered over the little Alexander, closed his eyes and swayed. He would have fallen had not Alexander and the other Indian king caught him. Alexander's staff closed in around them so I could not see, but I heard Alexander's high voice calling for water, bandages, and medicines. Alexander fancied himself as a physician and liked a chance to practice his medical skill. Belike I owe my life to the fact that he never had occasion to employ it on me.

Soon Alexander commanded his folk to stand back. He had helped the Poros out of his mail coat and put his wounded arm in a sling. His staff made a litter of spears and a cloak, on which they carried the giant.

I led my men back to where I had left Eriguios. The Thessalian Troop, which numbered seventy-four at the start of the battle, had come through it with seven slain, and ten or twelve others gravely but not fatally hurt. I had but one wound, in my leg, though I had traded handstrokes with several Indians. Golden, my Baktrian mare, had several cuts but nothing crippling.

As we were all half dead from thirst, Eriguios led the squadron to the margin of the Hydaspes for water. I dismounted, fell in a heap, and swooned from loss of blood.

I came to my senses in the new sick quarters. The slaves and camp followers had arrived with tents and provisions from our old camp on the west side of the Hydaspes. The camp surveyors were pacing off distances and ordering people to their proper places. Grooms set up horse lines and took our beasts away to care for them, while the mercy killers cut the throats of the fatally wounded, and the scavengers stripped and dragged off the slain. It was dark before a physician got around to cleansing my wound and tying it up again.

I spent several unhappy days in sick quarters. My wound swelled and ached. The slaves who cared for the sick were slow and slack, and too few. The rain pattered on the tent for days at a time, for in India the rains fall in summer instead of in winter as in Hellas. The tent leaked, dripping on me and soaking my pallet.

At this time I was much alone, having no slave of my own. My concubine was dead and, not being a southern Hellene, I had no bent towards love affairs with men. Hence, I had no one to trouble over me, though this did not fret me so much as it would some folk.

At least once a day somebody came to visit. Betimes it was King Alexander himself, speaking a few words to each man in sick quarters. He looked at their wounds and spoke with the physicians about treatments and chances of healing. The first time he came to my tent he said:

"Rejoice, O Leon! How goes it?"

I murmured respectfully. He knew me well by sight, though we had never been intimate. Alexander was a short man, broad of shoulder and mighty of thew, with many scars lining his fine-featured face and muscular limbs. At close view one could see that he was no longer the young demigod who had left Macedonia eight years before. The ruddy gold of his hair was turning dull, with streaks of gray. The winter winds of Baktria had roughened his skin and filled it with little red veins.

The man who now looked godlike was Alexander's secretary, Eumenes of Kardia. He stood, smooth and ruddy, at the king's elbow with a tablet on which to note any divine thoughts that Alexander might utter. But then, Eumenes had been writing letters to kings and adding up the army's payroll during all those years when the rest of us were out in all weathers, chasing the wild Sakai across their boundless plains.

"You shall soon heal," said Alexander, smiling, "if I must issue a decree to that effect. You did well in the battle. It has been told me how you rallied your troop when the Poros attacked them on his elephant. What can I do for you?"

I decided to hammer while the iron was red. "O King, seems it not strange to you that after seven years' service, including three great battles and many skirmishes, my rank should be only that of troop closer?"

Alexander laughed and said to Eumenes: "Hermes attend us! Does it not beat all how men at death's door still think of promotion?" He clapped me lightly on the shoulder. "Present your plea to Eriguios, who will pass it on through proper channels. Alexander will do you justice, whether it be what you expect or not. Farewell for now!"

As he went out, I was tempted to call after him, pursuing the matter of promotion. But I knew the king's uncertain temper too well. When he chose to unbend he could be the most charming of men, but a soldier who presumed too far on his affability might find the ting turned suddenly haughty, and receive a tongue-lashing or worse. So I kept my peace. Learn to profit from the follies of others, as we say in Thessalia.

Other regular visitors were Eriguios the squadron leader and the flank guards of my troop, Gration of Trikka and Sthenelos of Athens. Eriguios, more bookish than most soldiers, brought over the books he carried and read them to me. I enjoyed especially Aineias' On Tactics, Simon's On Horsemanship, and Xenophon's The Cavalry Commander. Xenophon was my favorite author, being the only philosopher I knew of who applied his mind to matters of practical use in everyday life.

Then my wound began to heal. One day Eriguios found me hobbling about on a stick. I said:

"As you see, I shall soon be back in my command. I have some promotions to propose."

"Say on," he said.

"First, I think I should be confirmed as troop leader."

"It pleases. I will recommend the promotion to Demetrios."

"Then I would fain have Gration made troop closer in my place; Sthenelos moved from left flank guard to right flank guard; and Thyestes of Pharsala made left flank guard."

"I like not Sthenelos' affected ways," said Eriguios, waving his fingers languidly in mimicry of the Athenian.

"Belike, but he's a fell fighter and quick of wit."

"So be it, then. Thyestes is that little red-faced fellow, is he not?"

"Aye. He's a double-pay trooper the now."

"But is he a man of any family?"

"Nay, no birth at all. He's the bastard son of a soldier and a miller's daughter. But he's a daredevil horseman, and I think he has the makings of an able officer. Which carries the greater weight?"

The next day the rain stopped long enough for the king to order the long-deferred celebration of victory. During the games there was a stir in the camp as Phratapharnas, viceroy of Parthia, rode in. He led a squadron of Thracian horse which the king had left with him in Persia to put down rebels. Phratapharnas could have sent the Thracians under someone else, but I suppose he wished to ingratiate himself with Alexander and see some new country. Persians think nought of taking horse for ten thousand furlongs, for no more compelling reasons.

On the following day Alexander founded a new city, Nikaia, near our camp. He traced out the walls by riding slowly round the circuit in a chariot and sprinkling barley meal out of a sack. When birds flew down to eat the meal, Aristandros, the chief soothsayer, prophesied that, as these birds gathered, so should a mighty multitude gather to make this city a metropolis. Aristandros was rightly called a great soothsayer because he ever contrived that the omens came out as Alexander wished.

I was watching the Alexander walk back to his tent, talking in lively fashion to the crowd of Indian kings, Macedonian generals, Greek poets and philosophers, and other notables, when Eriguios joined me, saying:

"I have been looking for you, Leon. The king assents to all your proposals for the troop but one."

"Which?" I said.

Eriguios grinned. "The one about yourself."

My jaw dropped. I clenched my fists. "By the Dog of Egypt! Of all the unjust—"

I caught a warning glance from Eriguios and mastered myself. Time had been in the Macedonian army when men spoke their feelings boldly, as one would expect free Hellenes to do. But, since the king had acquired foreign ideas of imperial power, courtly etiquette, and divine attributes, wise men did not complain too loudly where he or his sycophants might hear.

"What's the matter?" I said.

"Do not look as though you would murder me; I but jested. He has picked a Macedonian to lead the troop, to be sure; but that is nought in your disfavor. He has another task for you, at which you will have a troop leader's rank and pay."

"Another task? What sort?"

"I know not. He sent word by Demetrios that you should visit the royal tent this afternoon."

After the noonday meal, I put on my uniform, limped over to the royal tent, and gave my name to Ptolemaios the Companion, now king of Egypt. He greeted me pleasantly and bade me wait. I sat on a log between a stinking, sheepskin-clad Massagete, wearing a Scythian necklace of bear claws and amber, and an Indian bedecked with jingling ornaments of silver and turquoise. There was the usual coming and going: bejeweled envoys from Indian states, messengers from Persia, Hellas, and other western lands, as well as officers of our own army.

Finally, at Ptolemaios' signal, I hobbled into the tent between a pair of shaggy Sakan guards. The king, wearing a long yellow Persian robe, sat amongst his people at a table littered with scrolls and maps.

Besides the ever-present Eumenes, I recognized some of the learned Hellenes—the philosophers Anaxarchos and Pyrron and the geographer Polykleitos. This was a great thrill for me. I had long wished to meet these scholars but as a soldier had neither the occasion to do so nor the temerity to invent one.

I took off my helmet, cried: "Rejoice, O King!" and started to prostrate myself, albeit awkwardly because of my wounded leg.

The king, with his usual quickness, saw what troubled me. "Never mind the foreign antics, dear Leon," quoth he. "We are old friends and comrades-in-arms. Sit down. How is your wound? Mending fast, I trust? I have told my historians to make special note of the valor of the Thessalian Troop in the battle of the Hydaspes. Now, speaking of the troop, I hear my few remaining Thessalians wish to go home. That is true, is it not?"

This was, meseemed, a day when one need not take Alexander's godhood too much to heart. I said: "O King, none denies that to serve you is the greatest boon that can fall to the lot of mortal man. Nevertheless, we have been seven or eight years from home—"

He stopped me with a wave. "Forget the rhetoric, old fellow. You are weary of adventures, are you not? Now that the Thracians have come, I can spare you, especially if you make yourself useful to me on your way home. I trust you will not mind going by way of Athens?"

"On the contrary, King, I should rejoice. Ere I was called to your service, I planned to go to Athens to study under the philosophers."

"Know you Aristoteles son of Nikomachos?"

"The philosopher who once tutored you and now teaches in Athens? Aye, I've heard of him."

The king said: "Aristoteles stands less high in my esteem than he did before his great-nephew turned traitor. Still, I promised to send him specimens from far lands I visited, and if Alexander keep not his promises, how shall common mortals do so? I have here a chest of notable things of India. Show them, Pyrron."

Pyrron of Elis, a tall, slender, handsome man somewhat older than I, opened the chest and took out several objects. There were skins of the tiger, the leopard, the crocodile, a lizard as long as a man, and a serpent twelve cubits in length. There were skulls of animals, the horn of the unicorn (a great piglike beast with a single horn on its nose), the shell of a large tortoise, a piece of Indian tree grass, a specimen of tree wool, and other things.

"Besides," said the king, "Aristoteles was always curious about the elephant. Once he told me he would die happy could he but scrutinize one of these creatures himself. Now, I happen to have the finest elephant in the world. When King Poros submitted to me, he gave me his personal war elephant."

"The one he rode in the battle?" I said with a hollow feeling.

"Yes. The beast sustained some wounds but will soon recover. You, my dear Leon, shall take this elephant to Aristoteles."

"But—but Great King!" I cried. "How shall I get this monster to Athens? Hellas is myriads of furlongs from here, beyond towering mountains, parching deserts, and stormy seas. Zeus! How shall I feed it? How—"

The king's look turned to ice and he struck the table with his fist so hard that the scrolls on it bounced. "By the Dog, when Alexander commands an officer, he expects him to leap to the task and not bother him with details. If you know not how to do any of these things, find out! Do you understand, Thessalian?"

"Aye, King."

"You shall be hipparch, with the rank of troop leader. Learn what you will need in men and money and supplies, and take the matter up with Eumenes. He will go as far as he can towards meeting reasonable needs.

"Now, another matter. Aristoteles is not the only philosopher. Many deem his rival Xenokrates the deeper thinker. Therefore, to prove my divine impartiality" (he winked at the philosophers sitting with him), "I shall give you, besides advance pay for yourself and your men, the equal of fifty talents of silver. This money you shall deliver intact to Xenokrates in Athens. You shall send me a receipt from him for the full amount."

The king looked hard at me, as if to say he knew what sometimes befell large sums sent far away, and would take revenge on anybody who stole his gifts.

"However," he went on, "they tell me you are an earnest and trusty young man." Alexander turned a boyish grin on Eumenes. "That will teach old Spindleshanks!"

I grasped his plan. It was a kind of kingly joke. Pie would send the elephant to Aristoteles, as promised, but no money for the upkeep of the brute. Aristoteles would be beggared buying food for it. At the same time, Alexander would send a princely sum to Aristoteles' greatest rival. This money, though ample to support the elephant, would never be used for that purpose because of the hostility between the two philosophers.

Eumenes said: "Have Xenokrates write out that receipt in triplicate, Leon. Send one copy to me and one to Harpalos in Tarsos, and keep one yourself."

"Furthermore," said the king, "Pyrron will go with you. And, moreover, I shall give you letters to Aristoteles and Xenokrates." He handed me two unsealed sheets of papyrus. "Read them, so if they be lost you can still deliver the gist of my message. You read and write, do you not?"

The first letter had the following directions on the outside: "To Aristoteles Nikomachou of Stageira, at the Lykeion at Athens." Unfolding the sheet, I read:

ALEXANDROS PHILIPPOU, KING OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA, WISHES ARISTOTELES WELL

You were wrong to send me forth with the belief that I should treat Hellenes alone as comrades and all foreigners as slaves. In Egypt the priest Psammon taught me a wiser rule, that all men are brethren under the gods, that the basic division amongst them is between the good and the bad, and that no tribe or race is either all good or all evil. The Persians have taught me that one can be a gentleman whether one wear kilt or trousers. And for myself I have learned that, to rule the world, one must use all subjects with equity, whatever their speech and customs. The gods made many nations, each with something to contribute to the world's welfare. I shall devote my life to choosing the best from each and promoting its adoption by all.

Perhaps you have not heard of the fate of your great-nephew Kallisthenes. Pie became so envious of my glory that he stirred up my own pages against me. When I learned of this plot, I put Kallisthenes in prison to await a trial by the full council upon my return to Persia. But recently I was informed he had died of natural causes.

However, as I do not suppose that you wantonly inspired Kallisthenes to these treasons, I send you this letter by Leon of Atrax, together with an elephant and some natural specimens from India. Thus Alexander shows he has not forgotten our early friendship and the many useful things you have taught me. Still, before you dogmatize about any nation of foreigners again, it were wise to live amongst them, as I have done, and come to know them on a man-to-man basis.

The other letter, much shorter, merely stated that Alexander was sending Xenokrates the money in view of his contributions to philosophy.

Eumenes said: "Read them until you can recite them from memory and then bring them to me to be sealed."

"I will," I said. "Shall I withdraw now, King Alexander?"

"One thing more," said the king. "Someday, when I have conquered all of India, I shall return to the West. When I do, I mean to bring some elephants. It will amuse me to see the proud Carthaginians run from them. Hence it is my wish to know which routes are practical for elephants.

"I would also keep in touch with the provinces of my empire, not only through official reports, but also through private correspondence. Therefore, my dear Leon, I expect regular letters telling of the state of things along your road. Note the condition of the route and listen for remarks about the government, either good or bad. Follow the post roads and write at least once every ten-day. Eumenes will give you a seal that will command the Persian couriers to take your letters.

"Eumenes will see to further details. Draw your plans with care, and do not leave until your wound is better. Remember that the people you meet on the way, though their customs be strange, are as much my subjects as you. Therefore, use them with justice and moderation. There shall be no robbing or raping or bullying; and you shall pay for everything you take."

"Everything, O King?" said I, a little aghast. "D'you mean food and lodging and all, as if we were but private travelers?"

"That is right. It has long been the wont of the folk of this empire to run whenever they saw a party of the king's men approaching, for fear of being plundered. Now shall begin a new age of justice and righteousness. The official and the countryman shall look upon one another as father to son, instead of as wolf to sheep. Again, Alexander thanks you for your noble work in the battle. Now you may go. Rejoice!"

I left the king's tent with my head in a whirl. On one hand, the prospect of meeting and knowing famous philosophers stirred me. On the other, the size of the task appalled me. I was proud of the king's trust, but also more frightened of the onus laid upon me than I had been by Poros' elephants in the battle.

As far as I knew, no one had ever taken an elephant west of the Taurus Mountains. How would the creature abide the cold? How would it be fed? How could it be carried by water from Asia to Europe? Must I, like Xerxes, build a bridge of boats across the Hellespont? How did I know that all the lands the king had left behind him remained loyal? Any province might have revolted and so be impassable. Nor could I slip through by wearing the dress of a countryman and making myself inconspicuous. Anything less inconspicuous than a beast the size of a small mountain would be hard to conceive.

Well, I thought, it is a rough road that leads to glory. Deciding I ought to know my new charge, I walked to the side of the camp where the elephant lines were. It was a long walk, and I arrived sweating and limping.

Here were scores of elephants which either belonged to the allied Indian kings or had been given by them to Alexander. They stood in long lines, swaying, flapping their ears, tossing their trunks, and giving those shrill squeals that sound so silly from so large a beast. Each elephant was tethered to a massive stake by a chain about its foreleg, but keepers unchained their elephants to take them down to the river to bathe, so there was a constant coming and going. Keepers fed their beasts, renewed the designs painted on them, shoveled dung, or lay about talking and sleeping. The place smelled pungently of elephant. The beasts ate hay, greens of all kinds, and, as a special treat, a kind of cane or reed with a marvelously sweet honeylike flavor.

Being unable to pick out Poros' elephant by sight, I spoke to some of the keepers in Persian; but they only smiled, waved their hands, and answered in Indian. All the Indian I knew were the few phrases any soldier needs in a land he is invading, such as: "Where is the army?" "I want food," "Give me your valuables," and "Obey or you will be killed."

When it was plain that neither party could understand the other, one keeper dashed off towards the Indians' tents. Soon he came back, accompanied by a tall Indian with a blue-dyed beard. I introduced myself in Persian. The man placed his palms together and bowed his head over them, replying in broken Persian:

"I Kanadas of Paurava, master of Poros' elephants."

Like most Indians, Kanadas wore only a piece of gauzy cloth of Indian tree wool wrapped around his loins and a long strip of the same stuff wound about his head and tied with a knot as complicated as that which the king smote with his sword at Gordion. Kanadas' upper body was bare but for necklaces with dangling amulets.

I said: "May I see the elephant that Poros gave King Alexander?"

"Yes," he said, and led me hither and yon until we stopped in front of the monster. The animal's paint had been washed off and not replaced. Several wounds could still be seen, but they seemed to be healing. The elephant's keeper lay curled up asleep between his pet's forefeet.

As soon as the elephant got a good look at me, however, he threw up his trunk, screamed, lunged forward to the limits of his chain, and reached out for me.

I started, backed into the rear of another elephant in the next line, jumped in surprise, slipped in the mud, and fell into a pile of clung. All the keepers, who had formed a small crowd around us, burst into laughter.

A man need not be oversensitive about his dignity to be annoyed by such a thing. I got up and wiped myself off, scowling at the Indians. Their smiles disappeared, for my thick black eyebrows give me a fearsome frown. Some of them frowned back and muttered words I do not think were meant as compliments.

The elephant was still making hostile sounds, despite the efforts of his keeper to soothe him. Kanadas said: "He no like Greek helmet."

After so many men wearing tall horsehair crests had hurt the beast, he would hardly feel friendly towards men so clad. I laid my helmet down several paces away and came back. The elephant quieted but still grumbled suspiciously. I kept out of reach of his trunk.

"What is he called?" I asked.

Kanadas said: "Mahankal—Great Death. Is named for one of our gods, Siva the Destroyer."

I said: "Have you heard that Mahankal is going to Hellas? The king has so commanded."

"What is Hellas?" asked Kanadas.

"My country, far to the west."

"Oh. How far this land? One day travel? Two?"

"Farther."

"Ten day? Month?"

"Much farther than that! It may take us a year."

"What?" Kanadas seemed puzzled. As I explained, his face took on a look of horror. He spoke in Indian to the keeper. The two shouted excitedly, and Kanadas ran off towards the main camp.

Soon Kanadas returned with tears cascading down his raisin-brown face. He spoke to the keeper. Both wept, hugging and kissing the forelegs and trunk of the elephant, who shifted his weight and gurgled as if he sensed that something was wrong. The other keepers gathered round. When they heard the news they, too, wept, casting hostile looks upon me.

"Blame me not," I said to Kanadas. "I only brought the news. I am not the king, merely one of his servants."

But they only wept and lamented the more. At last I gave up and went back to the officers' tents of my troop. Here I found Gration honing his sword and Sthenelos writing a letter. I told them about my speech with the king.

Sthenelos looked grave. "Pheu, poor dear Leon!" he said. "I warned you against gorging. The king has at last taken pity on your nag and shifted you to a beast big enough to bear all that beef."

"But seriously, lads, what in Hera's name shall I do?" I said. "How does a body get such a monster halfway across the world?"

Sthenelos said: "Your best chance, blessed one, is to go north through the lands of the Sakai till you come to the country of the one-eyed Arimaspians who war against the gold-guarding gryphons. Catch a team of eagle-winged gryphons and break them to harness and build a wagon big enough to hold the elephant—"

"Na, na, that's too fancy," said Gration. "An elephant that big can ford the Aegean Sea."

"It's too deep," said Sthenelos. "It were easier to train the elephant to fly by flapping its cars."

"It is no too deep," said Gration. "Gif the sea be over the elephant's head, it can stretch its trunk up to the surface to breathe. Have you no seen them here walking on the river's bottom?"

"Oh, bugger you two knaves!" I said, and went back to sick quarters. It seemed I must needs rely on my own wits to solve my problems.

My dear father Aristos, who taught me many canny stratagems for getting through the battle of life, used to say: "Little by little does the task." He explained that when a problem looks so big as to be overwhelming, one should break it down into smaller problems and solve them one by one. In my tent I sat and thought about my elephant problem. I broke it down into several parts, thus:

First, there were the questions of what route I should follow and how long the journey would take. For this, I needed to know how long the routes were and how fast a party with an elephant could travel. The people to help me in this matter were the Greek surveyors of Alexander's technical staff, who measured each day's march and entered the distances on their maps.

Second, I could not get the monster over this route by myself. I knew not how to drive an elephant, let alone control one if it became fractious. Therefore, I should have to take some Indian elephant men.

Third, in the deserts of Persia the elephant could not live off the land. There must needs be enough well-mounted men to scour the countryside for fodder. In turn, these men would need cooks, grooms, and other servants if they were to do their special tasks ably. Such a crowd of civilians would need more soldiers to guard them. By the time I finished, I was commanding a full troop of cavalry, sixty or seventy men, with an equal number of servants, interpreters, a physician, and a veterinarian. I even included a soothsayer. In my younger days I believed strongly in omens and portents. At the time of which I write, I had become aware that many, like those which Aristandros staged, were bits of simple trickery, but I had not yet come to the point of ignoring auguries and presages altogether. There might be something to them, and it were well to be on the safe side.

Fourth, this little army would need food and supplies. The Macedonian army got its food partly from local governors and allied rulers and partly from sutlers, who bought food in the neighborhood and sold it again to the soldiers. In hostile country we foraged, meaning that we stole everything edible within leagues of our line of march. But, as the elephant party's route would lie through Alexander's domains, we could not forage amongst supposedly friendly people. I would, therefore, hire a sutler on contract to procure food on a fixed wage instead of on the profit he could wring from the soldiers.

Fifth, as we should have to buy our food as we went, it behooved me to make sure we went off with plenty of money besides our advance pay. This in turn meant a careful reckoning of times and distances.

The first people to see, then, were those who could advise me on routes and rates of travel. I rose and limped over to the tents where the Greek technicians lived.

Polykleitos greeted me cordially and fetched Baiton, the surveyor. They spread out their maps.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Here." Polykleitos showed a dot beside the wriggly line that stood for the Hydaspes, with the name "Nikaia" lettered near it. "This direction is north, this west, and so on. Here is Peukala. From Peukala you will ascend the Kophen by the same route you followed hither, through Paktuika to Kaboura—"

Baiton interrupted: "You'll need guides and interpreters through Gandaria. You can obtain them at Peukala."

Polykleitos continued: "At Kaboura, turn southwards to Gazaka and Kandacha; thence west to Phrada. You went over that route with the army on its way to Baktria. Do you think you can find your way back?"

"That was three and a half years ago," I said. "I misdoubt I shall recognize some places, but it were well to hire guides. What route shall we follow from Phrada?"

Polykleitos said: "You could retrace the king's route back, through Parthia and Hyrkania. But it might be shorter to proceed southwest from Phrada through Karmania into Persia. There's a post road through the Waterless Plain."

"A blithe-sounding place, that," I said.

"Yes indeed; you'll traverse some difficult desert. But, on the other hand, you wouldn't wish winter to overtake you in the northern mountains."

"How shall we manage for water in the desert?" I said. "I suppose you'll hire camels to transport water. Baiton, could you estimate the quantity of water an elephant consumes each day?"

"I have no idea," said Baiton. "How should I?"

"Even approximately?"

"No. I suppose, though, we could ascertain by watering the elephant out of a bucket of known capacity for a fixed period. I'll see what I can do."

Polykleitos continued: "Once you reach Persepolis, the remainder should be smooth sailing."

"Speaking of sailing," I said, "whence shall I sail? Phoenicia, Ionia, Egypt, or what?"

Polykleitos shifted to another map that showed the eastern Mediterranean Sea and Hellas. He frowned over it and said: "Phoenicia is your next objective. From Sousa you must detour around to the north to avoid the Arabian desert." He swept his finger in an arc over the map.

"What shall I do for a ship?"

Polykleitos pondered. "Menes, governor of Syria, administers all maritime transportation from Phoenicia to the West. He might be in Damascus or in Tarsos or in some Phoenician port. Perhaps it were expedient to cut west from Sousa and inquire for him at the governmental offices in Babylon. It wouldn't do to plod all the way to Phoenicia to find that Menes was elsewhere. Procure a letter from Eumenes directing Menes to send you to Hellas by sea."

"How far can I march each day?" I asked.

Baiton said: "That depends. In Gandaria, inferior roads and steep grades will retard you, but elsewhere you can maintain a good speed."

"What's a good speed? Alone, I can ride two hundred and fifty furlongs a day without pressing, but with the elephant and its escort?"

Baiton said: "Persian postmen ride over three hundred furlongs a day, but they change horses at each stage. A party of horsemen and mule carts and an elephant would do well to attain half that distance. Also, we must allow stops at the larger towns to repair your equipment and rest your people and animals. Let me draw you up an itinerary as far as Babylon. How soon will you depart?"

"As soon as my cursed leg is better and I can gather the people and things. Let's say in another ten days."

"I'll have it for you tomorrow," he said.

Although he seemed willing, Baiton did not have my itinerary ready next day, nor yet the day after that. For three days I killed time. I moved from sick quarters back to my own tent and passed my time in gaming and reading. The Indians and Thracians danced and sang to celebrate events in their religious calendars.

The rain poured down. When it stopped, I watched my troop exercising under Gration's command. They maneuvered at a gallop and threw javelins at a shield hung from a tree. Alexander tried an experiment by making them carry the little leather bucklers of the heavy infantry. In those days Hellenic cavalry seldom bore shields, because the regular footman's shield is too heavy and leaves the rider but one hand for both reins and weapon. When King Philip adopted, for Macedonian infantry, the eight-cubit pike, which needs both hands, he devised this small shield that can be pushed up on the left arm to free the hand. His son had continued these experiments.

I skimmed through Eriguios' books to see if they had aught to teach me. Alas! None said a word about elephants, because no elephant had yet been seen in Hellas.

Xenophon, however, had a thought about horses that could be applied, meseemed, to other beasts. That is, if one would have a horse like something, one must see to it that this thing is always associated with the animal's eating and drinking. If I were to be with the elephant for months, the risks of the journey were deadly enough without having the beast watching ever and aye for a chance to kill me.

Now, India abounds in tasty melons. I sought out a sutler, a Syrian named Elisas, and bought a melon from him. I carried this melon over to the elephant lines, found Mahankal, and gave it to him. While the keeper looked on suspiciously, Mahankal took the melon in his trunk, stuffed it into his mouth, and crunched it up.

After three days of this, Mahankal squealed with delight when he saw me coming, even in my helmet. He rubbed his snout lovingly against me, which is like being rubbed by a live tree trunk. Even the keeper became friendly, though neither of us could understand the other. The keeper's philosophy was simple. Whomever his elephant loved, he loved.

News of the elephant project spread through the camp. Many asked me to arrange for them to go in the elephant's escort. Others came with letters to deliver in Hellas. I read Alexander's letters to Aristoteles and Xenokrates until I knew them by heart.

The third day after my interview with the king, I insisted on seeing Baiton. I found him in his tent, measuring off distances on his maps and writing them down.

"Come in, Troop Leader Leon," he said. "I'm working on your itinerary."

"Wherefore the delay, laddie?" I asked.

"A dispute among the king's advisers. We've been interviewing Indians about the territories to the east and south. As you perceive" (he made a small circle with his finger tip around the place where Nikaia appeared on the map), "we were under the impression that this was all there was to India. Here's the coast, with nothing beyond but ocean. However, it now transpires that India extends on in this direction hundreds of leagues." (He swept his fingers far out to sea.) "They tell us there are many cities, and myriads of people, and great kings with thousands of elephants. For instance, the capital of the Prasians is said to be more populous than Babylon. It stands on a river called the Ganges, mightier than the Indus."

"What says the king to that?"

Baiton chuckled. "The king has decided that India terminates a few days' march to the east, and nothing lies beyond but ocean. People who allege otherwise are craven rascals who seek to intimidate him into turning back when he has all but conquered the whole inhabited world. It were better not to dispute the matter with him."

"I won't," I said. "We shall go west, so it matters not how far India extends. Hurry that up, man."

The next day I had an audience with Eumenes. When he saw the lists of people and money that I had prepared, he threw up his hands.

"Why not demand the whole Macedonian army, Troop Leader?" he said. "That's far too ambitious."

"Then what should I ask for?" said I, abashed.

Pie frowned over my lists, making marks. He cut out this man and that man until he had my detachment down to a third of the size I had planned.

"Two can manage the elephant," he said. "One warrior to fight from the creature if you be attacked, and one keeper to feed and water it. Know you any of the Indians?"

I said: "Kanadas, Poros' elephantarch, would do for the warrior if the Poros can spare him. He speaks a little Persian, so I could give him commands directly. As for the keeper, I'd take his present one, Siladites. Indian elephant keepers feel about their elephants the way most folk feel about their kin."

"It pleases. How about this sutler?"

"A Syrian named Elisas is willing. I think he'll cheat us no worse than the rest."

"That is good. Now, you don't need this vast corps of guides and interpreters. Through Gandaria you will hire local guides. For Persia, all you need is one able-bodied Persian who knows the main tongues of the empire. I have the very man for you. His mother's sick in Sousa, and he wishes to go home to see her."

"Aye, good sir. And, I pray, fail not to give me a letter to Menes, commanding him to provide us with a ship."

Then we had a lengthy wrangle over money. Eumenes was much more willing than I to assume that all would go well. Since he was far above me in rank, I could not argue so forcefully as I should have liked. I said:

"Suppose we meet with disaster, like an ambush or a landslide, and run out of money. Could you at least give me a draft on the treasury to get me the rest of the way?"

Eumenes laughed. "Perhaps the king should have chosen a leader with a less gloomy imagination, man of Thessalia. However, I'll give you a letter to Alexander's treasurer, Harpalos, authorizing an additional payment in case of disaster. But you'll have to account to him for all the money you start out with, and he is a shrewd reckoner. You'll find him in Babylon or, more likely, in Tarsos."

I went to see Elisas, who was delighted at the tidings. He said: "Is the king serious about paying for everything at the market price?"

"Of course he is, fellow."

Elisas gave me a sly look. "The villagers along the way will not have yet heard of this strange notion. If we did not tell them, there would be a goodly sum left over to divide between you and me."

"None of that! I have my orders, and I'll carry them out in spite of gods or men." I spoke in a blustering tone to hide the fact that I was sorely tempted to fall in with Elisas' proposal, as most of my comrades would have clone without a second thought.

Then I sought out Kanadas, whom I found fussing over the elephant. When I explained that he was going with Mahankal to Hellas, Kanadas burst into tears again. So did Siladites when Kanadas broke the news to him.

"Come, come," I said. "It will not be so bad. There will be a strong escort, plenty to eat, and the sight of strange lands and peoples." It seemed ridiculous to be comforting a man who was not only older than I but also a full head taller.

"That is what is amiss," moaned Kanadas, tearing at his long blue beard. "I no want strange land. Strange folk cat me. Strange food defile me. I fall off edge of earth. Never see dear wives and children again."

"I thought you brave," I scoffed. "You drove an elephant through the great battle without fear, but now the thought of a little travel terrifies you."

"Of course I brave! No fear men. Kill many enemies. But what can man do against demon and monster that live in foreign land?"

"But think! You would not leave poor Mahankal in the hands of strangers, would you? They might not know how to care for him."

"Oh," he said. "That true. Could I bring family?"

"How much family have you?"

"Two wives, six children."

"Too many. You may bring at most one wife and two children."

"We see," said the Indian.

I went back to my tent, leaving Kanadas and Siladites at least half reconciled to their fate.

A few days later, Eumenes called a council of the officers of the expedition. He told us to sit and offered wine. Kanadas came in looking cheerful for a change. Last of all there appeared in the doorway a Persian, Vardanas of Sousa, whom I knew slightly. When he saw me he cried:

"Is this the man who will command the expedition?"

"Why, yes," said Eumenes. "What's the matter?"

"I will not serve under him! He hates Persians. He has insulted my honor!"

"What's this, Thessalian?" said Eumenes, turning to me.

"Oh, some of us were talking before the battle," I said. "We had too much wine, and unseemly words were passed."

What had happened was this. As I have said, my concubine, Hyovis, died of snakebite a few days before the battle. Although she was only a foreign woman, I grieved sincerely. She had taken good care of me; in fact, her cooking had put more weight on me than is good for a cavalryman to have. Forbye, she was a mettlesome steed in bed.

When I got over the first shock of grief, I found a Magos with a staff, wandering among the tents and looking for snakes to kill as part of his religious duties. I like not the Magian practice of exposing dead bodies for wild beasts to devour; but, as the lass had been a devout adherent of the Persian religion, I thought it only right to do what she would have liked.

When we had committed Hyovis' spirit to Auramasdas, I paid the Magos, who went off to find more snakes, and returned to my tent. Here I found the other officers of the troop: Diokles, the troop leader who fell in the battle; Gration, the right flank guard; and Sthenelos, the left flank guard. Sthenelos was no Thessalian, but neither were a third of the other men in the troop. They were leftovers from disbanded bodies of Greek horse, who had stayed on as mercenaries just as we Thessalians had. Sthenelos had brought a skin of the local wine.

"This slop isn't Chian," he said, "but if you shut your eyes and gulp you can get it down." He spoke in Attic, full of city slang, while the rest of us used our Thessalian dialect among ourselves.

I had liefer been let alone, even though my comrades deemed me a misanthrope. However, they thought they had to console me; and I did not wish to offend them. As for Sthenelos, no Athenian can bear to be alone for an instant, or to stop talking for an instant either. But then, he was an amusing lad, and the gift of wine was kindly meant.

"I grieve with you, old boy," he said. "Don't you even have a lover amongst the men?"

I had heard questions like this from southern Hellenes so often that I was used to them. "Nobody would love a great ugly lump like me," I said.

This was not false modesty, for I know my limitations. Though no more stupid or timid than the next man, I am no beauty, being a whin over medium height, with blunt features, and inclined to stoutness.

Sthenelos, who, like the king, shaved his face in the Egyptian manner to keep his boyish beauty, fluttered his eyelashes. "Dear Leon, you're not so unattractive as you make out. Why, even I might make the supreme sacrifice if properly courted!" When I only gave an embarrassed grunt, he added: "Unless you have one of these droll barbarian prejudices against manly love."

Diokles said: "Oh, fie upon you, fair Sthenelos! In our rustic wilds we dinna hold a man to be queer for preferring women."

"How beastly!" said Sthenelos. "But enlightenment will spread even into your land of Cimmerian darkness."

"O Herakles!" I said. "I'm finding the whole subject a bore. Make love to ilk other or to the baggage mules for aught I care. I'm for home the first chance I get."

"Have you had enough adventuring, then?" said Sthenelos.

"Aye, enough and to spare, laddie. Now Hyovis is dead there's nought to keep me, and I've seen my fill of strange lands. I ken the now that Indians neither build their houses of gold bricks nor pave their streets with pearls, whatever the stories say."

"I feels the same," said Gration. "There's no future here. A body canna rise to high rank, even, outen being a Macedonian."

"You maun put thoughts of going home out of your minds," said Diokles. "With a big battle coming, the king will need every man."

Sthenelos yawned. "No doubt, my good man, but the king can't go on forever. We keep hearing it's only a frog's hop to the end of the world, but the end of the world seems to flee before us like the end of a rainbow."

Gration said: "We can pray that either the end of the world or the end of the king's ambition will come soon. I sudna be sorry to go. This army grows more Persian and less Greek ilka day."

"True," said Sthenelos. "One would think they'd conquered us instead of the other way round."

This was always a good subject for complaints, as the army now had far more Asiatic than Hellenic horse. The other three squadrons of our own regiment, for instance, were made up of Persians, Baktrians, and Sakas.

For that matter, we Hellenes looked more Asiatic than Greek, because our original clothing had long since worn out and had been replaced by whatever we could get. Many of the younger Hellenes had taken to trousers during those horrible Baktrian winters. The older and more conservative ones clove to their tunics and kilts, preferring to freeze their thighs rather than give in to foreign fashions.

I said: "We drubbed these polluted Persians with spear and sword, and now they thrash us with fancy manners and spangled robes. Such is fate."

"Let's be just," said Diokles, always loyal to the king. "Some of these Asiatic horse are bonny soldiers when well led."

"They're dirty," said Sthenelos. "They never wash; they just sprinkle perfumes on themselves when they stink."

I said: "Aye, and they're so fearful of scratches they cover themselves all over with iron scales, and—"

"I heard that," said a voice in Greek with a mushy Persian accent.

The speaker was a Persian in the maroon and yellow uniform of King Dareios' horse guards, much faded and patched. He was about my age, but taller than I and less stout. He had a big hooked beak of a nose in a long swarthy face and a pale scar across his forehead. I felt I had seen him before, but all those Persians looked alike with their long hair and black beards and bucket-shaped felt bonnets. The man went on:

"Persia was not conquered by a horde of lying, faithless, boy-loving Greek robbers. It was overcome by one man—Alexander. He is half Persian. He will be all Persian when we teach him the right manly way of doing things."

For some reason, the man chose me to glower at. Either it was that I happened to face him, or that my gibes had bitten deepest, or that my somewhat forbidding appearance drew his glance. Albeit not given to brawls, I was full of pot-valor and sought a way to purge my grief in action. I picked up my scabbard and rose, saying:

"So one of the curs has bared his teeth at last, eh? Keep on, Persian, and you'll be a man before your mother."

The Persian put a hand to his hilt. "Remember, Hellene, it is not we Persians who are always wailing to go home. We were beaten when we had a weak and timid king. That might happen to any folk. Now that we have a great and doughty king, we shall conquer the world. If you treat us respectfully, we may throw you a few scraps from our table."

"Why, you saucy braggart— I began, starting to draw. But Diokles leapt up and pushed me over.

"Stop or I'll arrest you all!" he said. "The king says the next time there's a fight atween a Hellene and a Persian, he'll crucify both. Persian, I apologize for my comrades' rude words, but perhaps you had better get back to your own squadron."

"I go," said the Persian. "But know that I am Vardanas of Sousa by name. I am flank guard in Chousraus' troop. So, if you would carry the discussion further, you know where to find me." He stalked off.

Sthenelos giggled. "What cheek! Why does he think any of us would wish to speak to him again? He's certainly no gentleman!"

"He was offering to fight," said Gration. " 'Tis their code of honor that when insults have been passed, the rivals go out behind the barn and settle it with swords."

"How utterly quaint!" said Sthenelos, pouring himself another cup. "What's this lunacy about the king's being half Persian?"

Diokles explained: "The Persians think Alexander is really the son of a Persian princess and so a more-or-less legitimate heir to the Persian throne."

"They must be mad," said Sthenelos. "Everybody knows—"

Diokles stopped him. "I know what everybody knows, but this myth salves their self-love. If it make them fight better, why spoil their dreams? The Egyptians think he's half Egyptian, and no doubt the Indians will be finding he was begotten by one of their ten-armed gods."

Then Diokles scolded me sharply for showing bad temper before a foreigner and risking getting us all into trouble. He had me blubbering with drunken self-pity ere he finished. But the matter passed over, and I thought no more about Vardanas of Sousa until he appeared in the official tent at Eumenes' conference.

Eumenes, looking hard at me, said: "You know what the king said."

"Nought serious was meant," I said, "and after the battle nobody doubts the Persians' courage. If the lad come, I'll not strive with my yokefellow."

Vardanas stood silently for a while, chewing the ends of his mustache. Then he said: "I would not come except that I may not have another chance to see my mother. If Leon will swear to deal justly with me, I will forget our quarrel."

"I swear it by Zeus and all the gods," I said. "Now can we finish our plans?"

Vardanas sat down. I was vexed with him for putting me in the wrong with Eumenes. I hid my annoyance with an effort, as I am a plain blunt man who calls a fig a fig and a spade a spade. But the wise man does not defy necessity.

I had thought so much about the project that I had counted my chickens before they were hatched. I saw my name in the history books as the hero who first brought an elephant to Europe. Athens would make my day of arrival a yearly holiday, and Alexander would appoint me satrap of Bithynia or the like. Naturally, all this made me ardent to push the expedition through to success.

My final muster roll showed sixty-six persons. The officers were myself, Vardanas, Kanadas, and Thyestes of Pharsala from the troop. Thyestes was a typical soldier in that he thought of little outside his duties except wine, women, and loot.

Neither Gration nor Sthenelos came. Gration had taken up with Diokles' concubine Amytis and did not wish to cause a family scandal by bringing a foreign woman home to Thessalia. Sthenelos was wanted in his native Athens for murder, resulting from a quarrel with another man over the love of a boy.

In charge of the elephant were Kanadas the elephantarch and Siladites the keeper. Kanadas left his family behind because his jealous wives would not agree that either might go without the other. As Siladites was a childless widower, the problem did not arise with him.

Baiton had tried to measure the elephant's intake of food and water but had failed. The reason was that the Indians persisted in feeding and watering the beast when he was not around to weigh its aliment, and they could not understand why he got so excited over the matter.

The soldiers were eighteen Thessalians and four Sakan horse archers, of the Parnian tribe of the Dalian nation. Sakas are nomads from the plains north of the Persian Empire, in speech much like the Persians and in habits like the Scythians who live beyond the Istros in Europe. These four Dahas had begged to be suffered to leave India because, they said, the dampness was ruining their health as well as rotting their garments.

Then there were Pyrron the philosopher, Elisas the sutler, a cook, eight grooms, six camp men, five personal slaves, nine women (concubines of the Thessalians), and eight children.

Besides our advance pay, the king commanded Eumenes to give us a silver talent each as a discharge bonus. Eumenes gave me the money, with no very good grace, and warned me not to pay it out ere we reached our goal.

"If you do," he said, "they'll try to borrow against their bonuses in order to squander the money in lewd living in the cities. Then, when it is all gone, they'll desert."

Because so much silver would have been too heavy to carry so vast a distance, Eumenes gave me the equivalent in new golden staters. I made sure he gave us the current rate of exchange of twelve to one. But the abandoned Kardian cheated us anyway, by using Attic weight instead of Babylonian. You can understand why I wept not when I heard he had been strangled by orders of Antigonos in the wars of the Successors.

After much talk, debates over maps and routes, inspection of equipment, and changes of plan, my detachment drew up before sunrise on the twelfth of the month Hekatombaion. The king came out to see us off, together with several hundred soldiers and camp followers drawn by curiosity. The camp was astir anyway because the king had issued the order to prepare to march eastward against the farther Indian kingdoms.

The Alexander led us in prayer. While the Hellenes prayed to Zeus, Apollon, and Herakles, Vardanas raised his hands to the rising sun and prayed to Auramasdas. The four Dahas stuck their swords and axes in the ground and prayed to the Sakan war god; the Indians bowed their heads to Ganesas, an elephant-headed Indian god. Aristandros and a Persian soothsayer took the omens and found them good, naturally.

The king stepped fearlessly up to Mahankal and cried: "O elephant, I, Alexander, rename you Aias, after the Achaian hero, and dedicate you to the sun! In honor of my kinsman Apollon, god of learning, I send you to the philosophers of Hellas for study. Be a faithful servant to those whom Alexander has placed over you!"

The king then made a short speech urging us to push ahead to our goal and let nought stop us. We cheered him, and Mahankal (or rather Aias), at a prod from Siladites, raised his trunk and trumpeted. Alexander and the other Hellenes blew a kiss to the rising sun, which flashed redly on helmets and weapons and on the golden bands on the elephant's tusks.

The giant King Poros hugged the elephant's trunk and bid the beast a tearful farewell. Gration and Sthenelos ran up to kiss me, followed by a score of men from the troop. I was so surprised to find that they loved me (since I considered myself a strict officer) that I shed a few tears with the rest.

At last I cried: "Prepare to mount! Mount! Left wheel by twos! Advance!"

With cries of "Get up!" off went my little hipparchia, hooves drumming and cart axles creaking while the onlookers cheered. I turned back to wave a final farewell. To my surprise, Pyrron of Elis, who had been standing by his horse and wearing a broad-brimmed black hat, still stood, bemusedly waving farewell with the other bystanders. I beckoned frantically. Pyrron came to himself, scrambled into his seat, and spurred his horse. The animal leapt forward so suddenly that the Eleian turned a back somersault over the horse's rump. It took a quarter hour to catch the beast and reunite it with its awkward rider. Despite the soothsayers' hopeful auguries, I could not help thinking that a bad beginning makes a bad ending, as we say in Thessalia.

On the other hand, it was a relief to get away from the scrutiny of the king. Despite his many godlike qualities—his military genius, his inspiring leadership, and his invincible charm—one could not help noting his growing haughtiness, hastiness, and immoderation in dealing with those in his power. During interviews the thought kept creeping into my mind: what if he fly into a passion and run me through as he did his old friend Kleitos the White? As the Persians say, a cut string can be joined again, but the knot remains for aye.

The camp smell of ordure, sweat, and garbage had hardly died out of our nostrils when the clouds closed in and the rain began again. It rained all the way to Taxasila.