Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

RUGGED CILICIA. 293and Sitalces' Thracians, to capture the Syrian Gates andhold the pass. With this defile, which cut through MountAmauus near the sea, he must have been intimately acquaintedfrom the march of Cyrus, the details of which heof course well knew ; and by its possession he secured hisentrance into Syria and Phoenicia. With the rest of thearmy Alexander advanced to Anchialus. Here was the giganticstatue of the Assyrian king, in the position of clappingits hands, with the remarkable inscription :" Sardanapalusbuilt Anchialus and Tarsus in one day ; do thou, Ostranger, eat, drink and love, naught else in life is worththis ! " meaning a clap of the hands. Upon Soli, which healso captured, he levied a tribute of two hundred talents onaccount of its tenacious fidelity to Darius, but later remittedthe fine.Hence, with three brigades of Macedonians, the archersand Agrianians, Alexander marched against those mountaintribes of the western province, known as " Rugged Cilicia,"who still held out. These tribes were a species of mountainrobbers who, though they could do no serious harm, mighteasily interfere with his communications and cause considerableannoyance unless subdued. They possibly might maketheir way through the passes to Laranda and Iconium, andthus turn the Cilician Gates, though this indeed was not adanger to be anticipated. They lived in fastnesses whichwere allbut unapproachable by reason of the rough natureof the country. Despite the difficulties of the task, however,in a short week's campaign Alexander reduced theserobberhordesto reason and returned to Soli. Though we knowlittle of the details of the short campaigns of Alexander,there is something in the mystery which svirrounds them,which, added to the certainty of the accomplished fact andthe known difficulties of the situation, clothes him not only