Identifier: alexanderhistory02dodg (find matches)
Title: Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from the earliest times to the battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301, with a detailed account of the campaigns of the great Macedonian
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Dodge, Theodore Ayrault, 1842-1909
Subjects: Alexander, the Great, 356-323 B.C Military art and science
Publisher: Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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nt. IfAlexander could but do what Hercules had been unable toaccomplish, was not his divine origin more surely made man-ifest to his Eastern subjects ? And though this was alwaysone of the strongest of motives with Alexander, it is verynoteworthy that it was uniformly secondary to military com-mon sense. Thisfact alone, and itis indisputable, si-lences much of theunreasoning criti-cism of Alexandersweaknesses. Situated, as iden-tified by Major Ab-bot (though itswhereabouts can-not be surely de-termined), on theIndus about sixtymiles from the Co-phen, the last out-post of the mountainranges, the rock ofAornus (Mount Ma-habun) was sometwenty-three milesin circumference at the base, and stood up, it is said, fivethousand feet at its summit above the plain. This made thisfastness much larger and more formidable than Gibraltar,which is about six miles around the base, and but fourteenhundred feet high. According to General Cunningham,Aornus is the rock of Rani-gat, which is but twelve hun-
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Rock of Aornus. 530 MARCH ON AORNUS, dred feet in height, and some five miles round 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 spring;and 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 no 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 Mace-donians. Alexander saw that he could 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 O

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