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

466 THE SCYTHIANS.every one to his enemies. Or perhaps, as the act was in thenature of a religious retribution, the massacres of the era ofthe Reformation make a parallel which better elucidates, ifitdoes not palliate, the cruelty.The territory (modern Ferghana) in which Alexander nowstood, between the rugged range of the Scythian Caucasusand the wide and deep Jaxartes, had always been a markedboundary between the then so-called civilized world and theScythians, as were named the wild and roaming tribes beyond,— now the Tartars ; and in fact it plays to-day a somewhatsimilar role. On the south and east were difficidt mountainranges ; on the north the rapid river ; on the west alone wasit open to assault.There was no present inducement to Alexanderto move beyond this boundary, while the riches of Indiaawaited his conquering progress. He desired but to establisha point from which he coidd in future proceed against theroving barbarians, if he so wished ; which point would alsohave its commercial value in whatever intercourse could behad with them.There had been from time immemorial a series of fortifiedtowns or posts not very far apart along this border. Thereappear at this time to have been seven prominent ones, ofwhich Cyropolis was the most important. Alexander garrisonedthese towns, occupied the defiles in his rear so as tosecure his line of retreat, and camped at the last narrows ofthe Jaxartes, where it turns northward into the flat, sandyplains ofmodern Tartary.Alexander's desire to remain at peace with the Scythiansseemed at first about to be realized.While near the Jaxartesan embassy came to the king from the so-called Scythians inEurope, and another from those in Asia, known as the AbianScythians, which latter Homer lauds as the most just nationon earth, probably from their being poor and unambitious,