For His Instructions To Hiero In Particular Were, To
Circumnavigate Arabia; To Go Up The Red Sea; And Reach The Bay Of
Hieropolis, On The Coast Of Egypt.
All these vessels were small, having
only fifty oars, and therefore not well calculated for such a long and
hazardous navigation.
At the time when Alexander was seized with the illness which occasioned his
death, Nearchus was ready to sail, and he himself, with the army, was to
accompany him as far as was practicable, in the same manner as he had done
from the Indus to the Tigris: two days before the fever commenced, he gave
a grand entertainment to Nearchus and his officers.
Only a very few circumstances regarding Nearchus are known after the death
of Alexander: he was made governor of Lycia and Pamphylia, and seems to
have attached himself to the fortunes of Antigonus. Along with him, he
crossed the mountains of Loristan, when he marched out of Susiana, after
his combat with Eumenes. In this retreat he commanded the light-armed
troops, and was ordered in advance, to drive the Cosseams from their passes
in the mountains. When Antigonus deemed it necessary to march into Lesser
Asia, to oppose the progress of Cassander, he left his son Demetrius, with
part of his army, in Syria; and as that prince was not above 22 years old,
he appointed him several advisers, of whom Nearchus was one. It is by no
means improbable that the instructions or the advice of Nearchus may have
induced Demetrius to survey with great care the lake of Asphaltes, and to
form a computation of the profit of the bitumen which it afforded, and of
the balm which grew in the adjacent country, and may have contributed to
his love for and skill in ship-building; for after he was declared king of
Macedonia, he built a fleet of five hundred gallies, several of which had
fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen benches of oars.
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