It is truly observed by Curtius, that the people are led by nothing so much as by superstition; ́ yea, we find it in all stories, and often in our own, that by such inventions, devised tales, dreams, and prophecies, the people of this land have been carried headlong into many dangerous tumults and insurrections, and still to their own loss and ruin.

As Alexander drew near the Persian army, certain letters were surprised written by Darius to the Grecians, persuading them for great sums of money either to kill or betray Alexander. But these by the advice of Parmenio he suppressed.

At this time also Darius's fair wife, oppressed with sorrow, and wearied with travail, died. Which accident Alexander seemed no less to bewail than Darius, who upon the first bruit suspected that some dishonourable violence had been offered her; but being satisfied by an eunuch of his own, that attended her, of Alexander's kingly respect towards her, from the day of her being taken, he desired the immortal gods, that if they had decreed to make a new master of the Persian empire, then it would please them to confer it on so just and continent an enemy as Alexander, to whom he once again before the last trial by battle offered these conditions of peace:

That with his daughter in marriage he would deliver up and resign all Asia the Less, and with Egypt all those kingdoms between the Phoenician sea and the river of Euphrates; that he would pay him for the ransom of his mother and his other daughters thirty thousand talents, and that for the performance thereof he would leave his son Ochus in hostage. To this they sought to persuade Alexander by such arguments as they had. Alexander causing the ambassadors to be removed, advised with his counsel, but heard no man speak but Parmenio, the very right hand of his good fortune; who persuaded him to accept of these fair conditions. He told him, that the empire between Euphrates and Hellespont was a fair addition to Macedon; that the retaining of the Persian prisoners was a great cumber, and the treasure offered for them of far better use than

their persons; with divers other arguments: all which Alexander rejected. And yet it is probable, that if he had followed his advice, and bounded his ambition within those limits, he might have lived as famous for virtue as for fortune, and left himself a successor of able age to have enjoyed his estate, which afterward, indeed, he much enlarged, rather to the greatening of others than himself; who, to assure themselves of what they had usurped upon his issues, left not one of them to draw breath in the world within a few years after. The truth is, that Alexander in going so far into the east left behind him the reputation which he brought out of Macedon; the reputation of a just and prudent prince, a prince temperate, advised, and grate- V ful; and being taught new lessons by abundance of prosperity, became a lover of wine, of his own flattery, and of ex-v treme cruelty. Yea, as Seneca hath observed, the taint of one unjust slaughter, amongst many, defaced and withered the flourishing beauty of all his great acts and glorious victories obtained. But the Persian ambassadors stay his answer, which was to this effect; That whatsoever he had bestowed on the wife and children of Darius proceeded from his own natural clemency and magnanimity, without all respect to their master; that thanks to an enemy was improper; that he made no wars against adversity, but against those that resisted him, not against women and children, but against armed enemies: and although by the reiterated practice of Darius to corrupt his soldiers, and by great sums of money to persuade his friends to attempt upon his person, he had reason to doubt that the peace offered was rather pretended than meant, yet he could not (were it otherwise, and faithful) resolve in haste to accept the same, seeing Darius had made the war against him, not as a king with royal and overt force, but as a traitor by secret and base practice; that for the territory offered him, it was already his own, and if Darius could beat him back again over Euphrates, which he had already passed, he would then believe that he offered him somewhat in his own power; otherwise he propounded to himself, for the reward of the

war which he had made, all those kingdoms as yet in Darius's possession, wherein, whether he were abused by his own hopes or no, the battle which he meant to fight in the day following should determine. For conclusion, he told them, that he came into Asia to give, and not to receive; that the heavens could not hold two suns; and therefore if Darius could be content to acknowledge Alexander for his superior, he might perchance be persuaded to give him conditions fit for a second person, and his inferior.

SECT. X.

The battle of Arbela; and that it could not be so strongly fought as report hath made it.

WITH this answer the ambassadors return; Darius prepares to fight, and sends Mazæus to defend a passage, which he never yet dared so much as to hazard. Alexander consults with his captains; Parmenio persuades him to force Darius's camp by night, so that the multitude of enemies might not move terror in the Macedonians, being but few. Alexander disdains to steal the victory, and resolves to bring with him the daylight to witness his valour; but it was the success that made good Alexander's resolution, though the counsel given by Parmenio was more sound; for it is a ground in war, Si pauci necessario cum multitudine pugnare cogantur, consilium est noctis tempore belli fortunam tentare. Notwithstanding, upon the view of the multitude at hand, he staggers and intrenches himself upon a ground of advantage, which the Persian had abandoned; and whereas Darius for fear of surprise had stood with his army in armour all the day, and forborne sleep all the night, Alexander gave his men rest and store of food; for reason had taught him this rule in the war: In pugna milites validius resistunt, si cibo potuque refecti fuerint, nam fames intrinsecus magis pugnat, quam ferrum exterius; "Soldiers do the better stand to it in fight, if they have "their bellies full of meat and drink; for hunger within "fights more eagerly than steel without."

The numbers which Alexander had, saith Arrianus, were

forty thousand foot, and seven thousand horse; these belike were of the European army; for he had besides both Syrians, Indians, Egyptians, and Arabians, that followed him out of those regions. He used but a short speech to his soldiers to encourage them, and I think that he needed little rhetoric; for by the two former battles upon the river of Granick and in Cilicia, the Macedonians were best taught with what men they were to encounter. And it is a true saying, Victoria victoriam parat, animumque victoribus auget, et adversariis aufert; "One victory begets an"other, and puts courage into those that have already "had the better, taking spirit away from such as have been "beaten."

Arrianus and Curtius make large descriptions of this battle fought at Gaugamela: they tell us of many charges and recharges; that the victory inclined sometime to the Persians, sometime to the Macedonians; that Parmenio was in danger of being overthrown, who led the left wing; that Alexander's rear-guard was broken, and his carriages lost; that for the fierce and valorous encounters on both sides, fortune herself was long unresolved on whom to bestow the garland; and lastly, that Alexander in person wrought wonders, being charged in his retreat. But in conclusion, Curtius delivers us in account but three hundred dead Macedonians in all this terrible day's work; saying, that Hephæstion, Perdiccas, and others of name, were wounded. Arrianus finds not a third part of this number slain; of the Persians there fell forty thousand, saith Curtius, thirty thousand according to Arrianus; ninety thousand, if we believe Diodore. But what can we judge of this great encounter, other than that, as in the two former battles, the Persians upon the first charge ran away, and that the Macedonians pursued? For if of these four or five hundred thousand Asians brought into the field by Darius, every man had cast but a dart or a stone, the Macedonians could not have bought the empire of the east at so easy a rate as six or seven hundred men in three notorious battles. Certainly, if Darius had fought with Alexander upon the

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banks of Euphrates, and had armed but fifty or threescore thousand of this great multitude only with spades, (for the most of all he had were fit for no other weapon,) it had been impossible for Alexander to have passed that river so easily, much less the river of Tigris. But as a man whose empire God in his providence had determined, he abandoned all places of advantage, and suffered Alexander to enter so far into the bowels of his kingdom, as all hope and possibility of escape by retreat being taken from the Macedonians, they had presented unto them the choice either of death or victory; to which election Darius could no way constrain his own, seeing they had many large regions to run into from those that invaded them.

SECT. XI.

Of things following the battle of Arbela. The yielding of Babylon and Susa.

DARIUS after the route of his army recovered Arbela the same night, better followed in his flight than in the fight. He propounded unto them that ran after him his purpose of making a retreat into Media, persuading them that the Macedonians, greedy of spoil and riches, would rather attempt Babylon, Susa, and other cities, filled with treasure, than pursue the vanquished. This miserable resolution his nobility rather obeyed than approved.

Alexander, soon after Darius's departure, arrives at Arbela, which with a great mass of treasure and princely ornaments was rendered unto him; for the fear which conducted Darius took nothing with it but shame and dishonour. He that had been twice beaten should rather have sent his treasure into Media, than brought it to Arbela, so near the place where he abid the coming of his enemies; if he had been victorious, he might have brought it after him at leisure, but being overcome, he knew it unpossible to drive mules and camels laden with gold from the pursuing enemy, seeing himself, at the overthrow he had in Cilicia, cast the crown from his head to run away with the more speed. But errors are then best discerned when most incurable: