ade preparations for the invasion of the eastern part of the Persian
empire, beyond the Parthian desert, even to the Oxus and the Indus,
inhabited by warlike barbarians, from which were chiefly recruited the
Persian armies.

(M753) It would be tedious to describe the successive conquests of
Sogdiana, Margiana, Bactriana, and even some territory beyond the Indus.
Alexander never met from these nations the resistance which Caesar found in
Gaul, nor were his battles in these eastern countries remarkable. He only
had to appear, and he was master. At last his troops were wearied of these
continual marchings and easy victories, when their real enemies were heat,
hunger, thirst, fatigue, and toil. They refused to follow their general
and king any further to the east, and he was obliged to return. Yet some
seven years were consumed in marches and conquests in these remote
countries, for he penetrated to Scythia at the north, and the mouth of the
Indus to the south.

(M754) It was in the expeditions among these barbarians that some of the
most disgraceful events of his life took place. He seldom rested, but when
he had leisure he indulged in great excesses at the festive board. His
revelries with his officers were prolonged often during the night, and
when intoxicated, he did things which gave him afterward the deepest
remorse and shame. Thus he killed, with his own hand, Clitus, at a feast,
because Clitus ventured to utter some truths which were in opposition to
his notions of omnipotence. But the agony of remorse was so great, that he
remained in bed three whole days and nights immediately after, refusing
all food and drink. He also killed Philotas, one of his most trusted
generals, and commander of his body-guard, on suspicion of treachery, and
then, without other cause than fear of the anger of his father, Parmenio,
he caused that old general to be assassinated at Ecbatana, in command of
the post--the most important in his dominions--where his treasures were
deposited. He savagely mutilated Bessus, the satrap, who stood out against
him in Bactria. Callisthenes, one of the greatest philosophers of the age,
was tortured and assassinated for alleged complexity in a conspiracy, but
he really incurred the hatred of the monarch for denying his claim to
divinity.

(M755) In the spring of B.C. 326, Alexander crossed the Indus, but met
with no resistance until he reached the river Hydaspes (Jhylum) on the
other side of which, Porus