was in the fields would have been conveyed into strong towns. So should his army, if it were driven from the place of advantage, have found good entertainment within walled cities, and himself with his horsemen have had the less work in destroying that little which was left abroad. Handling the matter as he did, he gave the Cilicians cause to wish for Alexander's coming, and as great cause to the keepers of the passage not to hinder it: for cowards are wise in apprehending all forms of danger. These guardians of the straits, hearing that Arsenes made all haste to join himself with Darius, burning down all as he went, like one despairing of the defence, began to grow circumspect, and to think that surely their general, who gave as lost the country behind their backs, had exposed themselves unto certain death, as men that were good for nothing else but to dull the Macedonian swords. Wherefore, not affecting to die for their prince and country, (which honour they saw that Arsenes himself could well forbear,) they speedily followed the footsteps of their general, gleaning after his harvest. Thus Alexander without labour got both the entrance of Cilicia, abandoned by the cowardice of his enemies, and the whole province that had been alienated from the Persian side by their indiscretion.

SECT. IV.

Of the unwarlike army levied by Darius against Alexander. The unadvised courses which Darius took in this expedition. He is vanquished at Issus, where his mother, wife, and children are made prisoners. Of some things following the battle of Issus.

IN the mean season Darius approached, who (as Curtius reports) had compounded an army of more than two hundred and ninety thousand soldiers out of divers nations; Justin musters them at three hundred thousand foot, and a hundred thousand horse; Plutarch at six hundred thousand.

The manner of his coming on, as Curtius describes it, was rather like a masker than a man of war, and like one that took more care to set out his glory and riches, than to

provide for his own safety, persuading himself, as it seemed, to beat Alexander with pomp and sumptuous pageants. For before the army there was carried the holy fire which the Persians worshipped, attended by their priests, and after them three hundred and threescore and five young men, answering the number of the days of the year, covered with scarlet; then the chariot of Jupiter drawn with white horses, with their riders clothed in the same colour, with rods of gold in their hands; and after it, the horse of the sun. Next after these followed ten sumptuous chariots, inlaid and garnished with silver and gold, and then the vanguard of their horse, compounded of twelve several nations, which the better to avoid confusion did hardly understand each other's language, and these marshalled in the head of the rest, being beaten, might serve very fitly to disorder all that followed them; in the tail of these horses the regiment of foot marched, with the Persians called immortal, because if any died the number was presently supplied; and these were armed with chains of gold, and their coats with the same metal embroidered, whereof the sleeves were garnished with pearl, baits either to catch the hungry Macedonians withal, or to persuade them that it were great incivility to cut and to deface such glorious garments. But it was well said, Sumptuose inductus miles, se virtute superiorem aliis non existimet, cum in præliis oportet fortitudine animi, et non vestimentis se muniri, quoniam hostes vestibus non debellantur ; "Let no man think that he ex"ceedeth those in valour whom he exceedeth in gay gar66 ments; for it is by men armed with fortitude of mind, and "not by the apparel they put on, that enemies are beaten." And it was perchance from the Roman Papyrius that this advice was borrowed, who when he fought against the Samnite in that fatal battle, wherein they all sware either to prevail or die, thirty thousand of them having apparelled themselves in white garments, with high crests and great plumes of feathers, bade the Roman soldiers to lay aside all fear: " Non enim cristas vulnera facere, et per picta atque

u Liv. 1. 10.

aurata scuta transire Romanum pilum; "For these plumed "crests would wound nobody, and the Roman pile would "bore holes in painted and gilded shields."

To second this court-like company, fifteen thousand were appointed more rich and glittering than the former, but apparelled like women, (belike to breed the more terror,) and these were honoured with the title of the king's kinsmen. Then came Darius himself, the gentlemen of his guardrobe, riding before his chariot, which was supported with the gods of his nation, cast and cut in pure gold; these the Macedonians did not serve, but they served their turns of these by changing their massy bodies into thin portable and current coin. The head of this chariot was set with precious stones, with two little golden idols, covered with an open-winged eagle of the same metal; the hinder part being raised high whereon Darius sat, had a covering of inestimable value; this chariot of the king was followed with ten thousand horsemen, their lances plated with silver, and their heads gilt; which they meant not to embrue in the Macedonian blood, for fear of marring their beauty. He had for the proper guard of his person two hundred of the blood royal, blood too royal and precious to be spilt by any valorous adventure, (I am of opinion that two hundred sturdy fellows, like the Switzers, would have done him more service,) and these were backed with thirty thousand footmen, after whom again were led four hundred spare horses for the king, which if he had meant to have used he would have marshalled somewhat nearer bim.

Now followed the rearward, the same being led by Sisygambis the king's mother, and by his wife, drawn in glorious chariots, followed by a great train of ladies their attendants on horseback, with fifteen waggons of the king's children and the wives of the nobility, waited on by two hundred and fifty concubines, and a world of nurses and eunuchs, most sumptuously apparelled; by which it should seem that Darius thought that the Macedonians had been comedians or tumblers; for this troop was far fitter to be

hold those sports than to be present at battles. Between these and a company of slight-armed slaves, with a world of valets, was the king's treasure, charged on six hundred mules, and three hundred camels, brought, as it proved, to pay the Macedonians. In this sort came this May-game king into the field, encumbered with a most unnecessary train of strumpets, attended with troops of divers nations, speaking divers languages, and for their numbers impossible to be marshalled, and for the most part so effeminate and so rich in gold and in garments, as the same could not but have encouraged the nakedest nation of the world against them. We find it in daily experience that all discourse of magnanimity, of national virtue, of religion, of liberty, and whatsoever else hath been wont to move and encourage virtuous men, hath no force at all with the common soldier in comparison of spoil and riches; the rich ships are boarded upon all disadvantages, the rich towns are furiously assaulted, and the plentiful countries willingly invaded. Our English nations have attempted many places in the Indies, and run upon the Spaniards headlong, in hope of their royals of plate and pistolets, which had they been put to it upon the like disadvantages in Ireland, or in any poor country, they would have turned their pieces and pikes against their commanders, contesting that they had been brought without reason to the butchery and slaughter. It is true that the war is made willingly, and for the most part with good success, that is ordained against the richest nations; for as the needy are always adventurous, so plenty is wont to shun peril, and men that have well to live, do rather study how to live well, I mean wealthily, than care to die (as they call it) honourably. Car où il n'y à rien à gagner que des coups, volontiers il n'y va pas; "No man "makes haste to the market, where there is nothing to be "bought but blows."

Now if Alexander had beheld this preparation before his consultation with his soothsayers, he would have satisfied himself by the outsides of the Persians, and never have looked into the entrails of beasts for success. For leaving

the description of this second battle, (which is indeed nowhere well described, neither for the confusion and hasty running away of the Asians could it be,) we have enough, by the slaughter that was made of them, and by the few that fell of the Macedonians, to inform us what manner of resistance was made. For if it be true that threescore thousand Persian footmen were slain in this battle, with ten thousand of their horsemen; or (as Curtius saith) an hundred thousand footmen, with the same number of horsemen, and besides this slaughter forty thousand taken prisoners, while of Alexander's army there miscarried but two hundred and fourscore of all sorts, of which numbers Arianus and other historians cut off almost the one half; I do verily believe that this small number rather died with the over-travail and pains-taking in killing their enemies, than by any strokes received from them. And surely if the Persian nation (at this time degenerate, and the basest of the world) had had any savour remaining of the ancient valour of their forefathers, they would never have sold so good cheap, and at so vile a price, the mother, the wife, the daughters, and other the king's children, had their own honour been valued by them at nothing, and the king's safety and his estate at less. Darius by this time found it true that Charidemus, a banished Grecian of Athens, had told him, when he made a view of his army about Babylon, to wit, that the multitude which he had assembled of divers nations, richly attired, but poorly armed, would be found more terrible to the inhabitants of the country, whom in passing by they would devour, than to the Macedonians, whom they meant to assail; who being all old and obedient soldiers, embattled in gross squadrons, which they call their phalanx, well covered with armour for defence, and furnished with weapons for offence of great advantage, would make so little account of his delicate Persians, loving their ease and their palate, being withal ill-armed and worse disciplined, as except it would please him to entertain (having so great abundance of treasure to do it withal) a sufficient number of the same Grecians, and so to encounter the Ma