CHAPTER V.
Alexander at the Tomb of Sardanapalus.—Proceedings in Cilicia.
After this he sent Parmenio to the other Gates which separate the land of the Cilicians from that of the Assyrians, in order to capture them before the enemy could do so, and to guard the pass.[1] He gave him the allied infantry, the Grecian mercenaries, the Thracians who were under the command of Sitalces, and the Theassalian cavalry. He afterwards marched from Tarsus, and on the first day arrived at the city of Anchialus.[2] According to report, this city was founded by Sardanapalus the Assyrian;[3] and both from the circumference and from the foundations of the walls it is evident that a large city had been founded and that it had reached a great pitch of power. Also near the wall of Anchialus was the monument of Sardanapalus, upon the top of which stood the statue of that king with the hands joined to each other just as they are joined for clapping.[4] An inscription had been placed upon it in Assyrian characters,[5] which the Assyrians asserted to be in metre. The meaning which the words expressed was this:—"Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxas, built Anchialus and Tarsus in one day; but do thou, O stranger, eat, drink, and
- ↑ This pass was called the Syrian Gates, lying between the shore of the Gulf of Issus and Mount Amanus. Cyrus the Younger was six days marching from Tarsus through this pass. See Xenophon (Anab., i. 4). The Greeks often gave the name of Assyria to the country usually called by them Syria. The Hebrew name for it is Aram (high-land). Cf. Cicero (ad Diversos, xv. 4, 4); Diod., xiv. 21.
- ↑ A city of Cilicia on the coast, a Little west of the mouth of the Cydnus.
- ↑ Said to have been the last of the Assyrian kings.
- ↑ Cf . Strabo (xiv. 5) for a description of this statue.
- ↑ This was, doubtless, the arrow-headed writing which has been deciphered by Sir Henry Rawlinson. Cf. Herodotus, iv. 87; Thucydides, iv. 50.
