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

THE PERSIANS' NEW ARMS. 361toils of the way, perhaps from humiliation and homesickness.Alexander is reported to have done everything which waspossible to show his respect for the deceased queen, and tohave exhibited genuine good feeling. All this is presumablytrue. He had enough enemies to record the facts ifthey were not as stated.Darius had now assembled a much larger army than hadbeen on foot in Cilicia, and had armed it with swords andlonger spears, thinking thus to meet the Macedonian sarissa.But he had not probal)ly been able to alter its drill and disciplineto correspond. This required time and experiencenot at his command, though he is said to have been assiduousin practicing the men in their new manoeuvres. That heshould have committed the imprudence of not defending thepassage of the Euphrates and the Tigris can be partly accountedfor on the supposition that he still hoped for a peacefulaccommodation,by which he mightrecover his family.It may have been forthe purpose of furthernegotiationtothis end, that, insteadof risking hisbattle in Mesopotamia,where theground was quiteas favorable to hisnumbers, andwhither he hadAdvance to Gaugamela.marched from Babylon,he turned eastward from this province and himselfcrossed the Tigris. Having done this, he stayed his march