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. We are informed that they
were all built by the particular contrivance of Demetrius himself, and that
the ablest artizans, without his directions, were unable to construct such
vessels, which united the pomp and splendour of royal ships to the strength
and conveniences of ordinary ships of war. The period and circumstances of
the death of Nearchus are not known. Dr. Vincent supposes that he may have
lost his life at the battle of Ipsus, where Antigonus fell: or, after the
battle, by command of the four kings who obtained the victory. Previous to
his grand expedition, it appears that he was a native of Crete, and
enrolled a citizen of Amphipolis, it is supposed, at the time when Philip
intended to form there a mart for his conquests in Thrace. He soon
afterwards came to the court of Philip, by whom he and some others were
banished, because he thought them too much attached to the interests of
Alexander in the family dissensions which arose on the secession of
Olympias, and some secret transactions of Alexander in regard to a marriage
with a daughter of a satrap of Caria. On the death of Philip, Nearchus was
recalled, and rewarded for his sufferings by the favour of his sovereign.
[4] The object of these dykes is supposed by Niebuhr to have been
very different: be observes that they were constructed for the purpose
of keeping up the waters to inundate the contiguous level: he found
these dykes both in the Euphrates and Tigris. And Tavernier mentions
one, 120 feet high, in the fall between Mosul and the great Zab.
CHAPTER III.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY, AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRIZE,
FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, TO THE TIME OF PTOLEMY THE
GEOGRAPHER, A.D. 150. - WITH A DIGRESSION ON THE INLAND TRADE BETWEEN INDIA
AND THE SHORES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN, THROUGH ARABIA, FROM THE EARLIEST
AGES.
For several centuries after the death of Alexander, the impulse and
direction of discovery and commercial enterprize continued towards the
countries of the East. Of his successors, Seleucus Nicanor and some of the
Ptolemies of Egypt prosecuted his plans of commerce with this part of the
world with the most zeal and success. Seleucus, after the death of
Alexander, obtained possession of those provinces of his empire which were
comprized under the name of Upper Asia; he, therefore, naturally regarded
the conquered districts of India as belonging to him. In order to secure
these, and at the same time to derive from them all the political and
commercial advantages which they were capable of bestowing, he marched into
India; and it is supposed that he carried his arms into districts that had
not been visited by Alexander. The route assigned to his march is obscurely
given; but it seems to point out the country from the Hyphasis to the
Hysudrus, from thence to Palibothra, at the junction of the Saone and the
Ganges, or, perhaps, where Patna now stands. There is no good reason to
believe, with some authors, that he reached the mouth of the Ganges.
Seleucus was stopt in his progress by the intelligence that Antigonus was
about to invade his dominions; but before he retraced his steps towards the
Euphrates, he formed a treaty with the Indian king Sandracottus, who
resided at Palibothra: and afterwards sent Megasthenes, who had some
knowledge of the country, from having accompanied Alexander, as his
ambassador to him. In this city, Megasthenes resided several years, and on
his return he published an account of that part of India; fragments of this
account are given by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Arrian; and though it
contains many false and fabulous stories, yet these are intermixed with
much that is valuable and correct. He gives a faithful picture of the
Indian character and manners; and his account of the geography and
dimensions of India is curious and accurate. Some further insight into
these countries was derived from the embassy of Daimachus, to the son and
successor of Sandracottus; this terminated the connection of the Syrian
monarchs with India which was probably wrested from them soon after the
death of Seleucus. At the time when this monarch was assassinated, Pliny
informs us, that he entertained a design of joining the Euxine and Caspian
seas, by means of a canal; he was undoubtedly the most sagacious of the
Syrian kings, and the only one who imitated Alexander in endeavouring to
unite conquest with commerce.
But it is to the Egyptian successors of Alexander that we must look for the
systematic extension of commerce; towards which they were in a manner
impelled by the highly favourable situation of Alexandria. It has justly
been observed by Harris, in his Collection of Voyages, that most of the
cities founded by the Syrian kings existed little longer than their
founders; and, perhaps, with the exception of Antioch, on the Orontes, and
Seleucia, on the Tigris, none of them, from the situation in which they
were built, and the countries by which they were surrounded, could under
any circumstances be of long duration.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 35 of 268
Words from 34842 to 35854
of 273188
