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

584 WAS ADVANCE REALLY INTENDED?It was time Alexander did turn back ;for the term of hisabsence, and the distance he had come (from his base at Tyreto thispoint he had marched over nine thousand miles), notonly had demoralized hissoldiers, but had utterly unstrungthe fidelity of many of the satraps he had left behind.Whenhe returned to the heart of his new kingdom, he found thathe must visit heavy punishments on a great number of hisviceroys, and had he been gone much longer, the whole systemhe had so carefully established would probably havefallen to the ground for mere lack of the controlling hand.Had Alexander actually marched to the Ganges, he wouldhave found no kingdom when he returned, if indeed thatreturn had ever taken place.This indeed was improbable,for, when one considers the enormous stretch of desert hewould have to cross to reach the Ganges, the present conditionof his army and all the factors in the case, it is doubtfulindeed if even his almost superhuman energy would have sufficedto put such a campaign through. Moreover, it may besuggested, in view of the entirely different manner in whichhe had been organizing the government of this Five Riverterritory, whether his intention was more than a passingfancy.Porus and Taxiles, Sopeithes and Phegeus were left all butindependent ; the former two in charge of enormous territories,the latter as a sort of balance of power between them.The Caucasus and the mountains on the western bank ofIndus were a far better boundary to his possessions than anywhich India could afford, and it is probable that Alexanderhad the same object in view in his political dispositions in theFive River country that he had in those made with the Bactriansand Sogdianians who were to keep in control the Scythiansbeyond the Jaxartes. He may perhaps have proposeda sort of raid towards the Ganges with a select small forcethe