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

other chiefs, had retiretl for refuge.MOUNTAIN MARCH. 603There is a great deal ofdisagreement as to where the Rock of Chorienes was situated.It has not been any more positively located than hosts ofother places where Alexander performed hisremarkable exploits.Though its conformation is carefully described bythe ancient authors, its whereabouts are not given. Thisregion, indeed, is not well known to geographers. ColonelChesney locates this rock, or the " Rock of Oxyartes," nearthe southeast shore of the Caspian Sea.Droysen puts it onthe upper waters of the Oxus, seven hundred miles farthereast. There is no means of reconciling this extraordinarydisagreement, nor object in trying so to do, but probably therock was to the east rather than to the west of the Sogdo-Bactrian country.The march to this fortress was, in any event, over snowcladmountains, and was a most severe one. The men sufferedterribly from cold storms and lack of food. Manyw'ere frozen, many died of exposure. The king, as usual,shared the labors of liis men in every sense, but could notlessen their sufferings. It seems that a march to the westward,where the land was less in altitude, would not havebeen so severe at this time of year.For it was early spring.These mountain marches of Alexander are all in the highestdegree remarkable. He appeared able to surmount anyand all difficulties. The pity is that we know so little abouttheir details.Anecdotes survive w^hen important details havefailed of record. It is related that one day on this march,when the king was warming himseK at the camp-fire, a Macedonian,almost frozen stiff, was brought in. The king himselfhelped to take off his armor and gave him his own placeat the fire, where the man revived.Coming to consciousness,the soldier was wonder-struck and frightened to findhimselfin the king's place. " Look you, comrade," quoth Alexan-