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

530 MARCH ON AORNUS.dred feet In heiglit, and some five miles ronnd at the base.The exact spot is perhaps not material, though it would behighly interesting to know the locality. At the lowest placeit was said to be a mile and a quarter in the ascent, whichwas artificially constructed, and very difficult.At the top ofthe rock was table-land well watered by an abundant springand there was timber and arable land enough to sustain onethousand men by tillage ; or, as Arrian puts it, " for onethousand men to till," which means even more. There seemsto be ilo reason to doubt the accuracy of this description. Alarge army could hold this rock year in year out, and thebarbarians felt that they were entirely secure from the Macedonians.Alexander saw that he coidd not avoid besieging thisstronghold. He accordingly transformed Ora, Massaga andBazira into Macedonian fortresses for the purpose of helpingto keep the land in subjection, and Hephaestion and Perdiccasdid the same with Orobatis, which controlled the land nearthe Indus. A number of such fortresses were essential to thefull security of the army. Nicanor, one of the Companions,was made viceroy of the cis-Indus territory. Continuing hisinarch towards the Cophen, Alexander, having taken Peucela,near by, garrisoned it under Philip. He also took possessionof someother small towns, with the help of friendly chiefs,prominent among whom were Cophaius and Assagetes.Thence he marched to Embolina, near the rock of Aornus,where he left Craterus to establish an immediate base ofoperations and to gather victuals for a long siege of the rock,should it prove to be necessary. Then taking the bowmen,the Agrianians and the brigade of Ccenus, the lightest andbest armed of thephalanx, two hundred Companion cavalryand one hundred horse-bowmen, he marched to the rock andcamped. On the next day he reconnoitred the ground andshifted his camp nearer the rock.