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

636 MARCH TO OPIS.continued in the king's favor as of yore. That these newappointees were all men of standing, ability and worth, manyof whom had earned their reward, was no palliation. Itseemed to his old Macedonians that Alexander was losing hisnational character and growing to desj3ise the men who hadhelped him conquer the world. All these were real grievances,to be sure ; but beyond this, the Macedonians hadlapsed into a chronic feeling that injustice was done them, andanything would serve its purpose.When spring had fairly oj)ened, Alexander sent Hephaestionwith the army along the road up the Tigris to Opis, andhimself ordering the fleet up to Susa, sailed with the hypaspistsand agema and a few cavalry Companions down thePassitigrisor Eulaeus to the coast, and there founding another Alexandriaon the seashore near by, sailed up the Tigris to Opis.He wished to become familiar with his new dominions. ThePersians had erected dams or weirs in the Tigris to prevent aforeign fleet from invading the country. These Alexanderremoved, having no such fear of invasion, in order to facilitatefree navigation up to Opis. This was part of his generalscheme.It was at Opis in July that dissatisfactionthe great mutiny of the Macedonian soldiers.broke out intoAlexander hadannounced a new march into Media, and, in the honest beliefthat he was doing an act of gratification to his veterans, hehad called them together and told them that he would nowdischarge and send home all those who were incapacitatedfrom further military serviceby age or wounds, and that 'hewould give each man so much as to make him the object ofenvy to all at home. Instead of being received, as he expected,with approbation, Alexander's announcement wastaken as another sijjn that he wished to discard his oldbrothers-in-arms and have Asiatics about him rather thanMacedonians.