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

COMPARATIVE LOSSES. 317which is much higher than the average of modern battles.The killed and wounded alone rarely overrun ten per cent.The number of men who died of their wounds in Alexander'sarmy we have no clew to enable us to guess. It wasno doubt large, for though wounds were not so severe in thedays of javelins, stones and arrows as they are to-day, yetmedical attendance was inefficient. That there were verymany permanently disabled, we know, and the total numberwho disappeared from the rolls of the army was so great, thatwe must conclude that the battle mortality was by no meansmeasured in the figures given of those killed.Prisoners were never lost by the victorious army. Hencethe item of " missing " in the tabulated losses of modernbattles, — and it is a very big one, — must be eliminatedbefore we can 'institute a comparison between these and ancientbattles as regards casualties.The Persian treasure on the field was barely three thousandtalents ($3,600,000), but vast stores of gold were gotin Damascus, whence they werebeing conveyed away, when,through the treachery of the Syrian satrap, they were stoppedby Parmenio, whom Alexander ordered up the Orontes valleyafter the battle to collect the booty Darius had sent to thatplace.It was then stored in Damascus.Next day Alexander, though himself disabled by a swordcutin his thigh, went among theMacedonian wounded, commendedand rewarded with money all who had distinguishedthemselves, and saw to the bujial of the dead with militaryhonors, the army marching to the funeral as to battle.The family of Darius had been left behind in the Persiancamp. They were treated with great respect and dignity.If, as is sometimes alleged, Alexander was not really generous,he assuredly curbed his passions to policy in a mannerunusual in men so young. It is pleasanter to believe what