Bactria, Sogdiana & India

Military History: Alexander the Great

Chapter 8 · The Real Conquest of the East: Bactria, Sogdiana & the Indian Campaign

Darius's death in 330 BCE (Chapter 7) ended the great battles against Persia, but not the fighting. For the next five years Alexander's army fought in the mountains and deserts of Central Asia and then in India — a harder, slower war of guerrilla resistance, fortress sieges, and one last great battle. It was also the period when tensions inside Alexander's own army turned deadly, and when that army finally refused to go on.

Trouble Inside the Army, 330–327 BCE

Philotas and Parmenion (330 BCE)

Philotas, commander of the Companion cavalry, was accused of failing to report a plot against Alexander and executed. His father Parmenion, Alexander's most senior general (Chapters 3–7), was murdered on Alexander's orders at Ecbatana without trial.

Cleitus the Black (328 BCE)

At a drunken feast at Maracanda (Samarkand), Cleitus, who had saved Alexander's life at the Granicus (Chapter 3), taunted him for adopting Persian ways and taking credit for Philip's achievements. Alexander killed him with a spear, then was overcome with grief.

Proskynesis and Callisthenes (327 BCE)

Alexander tried to introduce proskynesis, the Persian custom of bowing before the king. Greeks and Macedonians saw it as worship fit only for gods. The court historian Callisthenes openly refused and was later arrested over a plot by the royal pages; he died in captivity.

King of Macedon or King of Asia? All three crises had the same root. To rule a vast empire, Alexander took on Persian dress, ceremony, and officials — and, after Siwa (Chapter 6), a claim to be more than an ordinary king. Many Macedonians felt he was turning into the kind of ruler they had marched east to defeat.

Bactria and Sogdiana: A Different Kind of War

329 BCE Alexander crosses the Hindu Kush into Bactria in pursuit of Bessus, who has proclaimed himself king. Bessus's own allies hand him over; he is mutilated and later executed as a regicide.
329 BCE On the Jaxartes River, the empire's northern edge, Alexander founds a city, Alexandria Eschate ("the Furthest"). He defeats Scythian nomads across the river, using catapults to cover the crossing — an early use of field artillery.
329–328 BCE The Sogdian noble Spitamenes leads a revolt and ambushes and destroys a Macedonian detachment. Alexander splits his army into mobile columns and builds a network of fortified posts.
328 BCE Spitamenes is defeated and then killed by his own allies, who send his head to Alexander.
327 BCE The Sogdian Rock, a cliff-top fortress, is taken after about 300 volunteers climb its rock face at night; around 30 fall to their deaths. Among the captives is Roxana, whom Alexander marries.

Why It Was So Hard Here there were no enemy armies to beat in a single day. Spitamenes used speed, horse archers, and local support, struck at isolated units, and vanished into the steppe. Alexander's answer — mobile columns, forts, and marriage alliances with local nobles — is a pattern later armies fighting insurgents would recognise (compare Military History: The British Empire, Chapter 7).

India, 327–326 BCE

In 327 BCE Alexander crossed back over the Hindu Kush into the Indus valley, the eastern edge of the old Persian Empire. The ruler of Taxila allied with him; after storming several strongholds, including the steep mountain fortress of Aornos, he advanced to the Hydaspes River (the modern Jhelum), where King Porus was waiting.

	Macedonian army	Army of Porus
Strength	Around 40,000 infantry and 5,000–7,000 cavalry	Estimates of 20,000–50,000 infantry and 2,000–4,000 cavalry
Special weapons	Horse archers from Central Asia	Between 85 and 200 war elephants, and chariots

Crossing the River, May 326 BCE

The Hydaspes was swollen by monsoon rains, and Porus held the far bank with his elephants, which would terrify horses trying to cross. For nights on end, Alexander marched troops noisily up and down the bank, until Porus stopped responding. Then, leaving Craterus with part of the army at the main camp, he took a picked force about 27 km upstream and crossed at night, in a thunderstorm that covered the noise, using an island to screen the crossing and hay-stuffed skins as floats.

The Battle

Porus turned to face him. Alexander's cavalry attacked the Indian flanks and drew off their cavalry, while the phalanx engaged the elephants. The elephants caused heavy losses at first, but as their drivers were killed, the wounded, panicking animals trampled their own side. The Indian army was surrounded and broke.

"Treat Me as a King"

Porus, wounded, fought on until almost the end. Asked how he wished to be treated, he is said to have replied: "As a king." Alexander restored him to his kingdom, enlarged it, and made him an ally. Nearby he founded two cities, Nicaea ("Victory") and Bucephala, named after his horse Bucephalus, who died around this time.

The Mutiny at the Hyphasis, 326 BCE

Alexander pushed on east to the Hyphasis River (the modern Beas). Beyond it, reports said, lay great kingdoms with even more elephants. There the army stopped. After eight years and thousands of miles, soaked by the monsoon, its equipment worn out, the soldiers refused to go further.

The Army Says No Alexander appealed to them and then shut himself away in his tent for three days, hoping they would change their minds. They didn't. The officer Coenus spoke for them, asking him to lead them home. In the end Alexander let the omens for crossing be declared unfavourable, built twelve great altars to mark the limit of his advance, and turned back. It was the only time his own army defeated him.

The Road Back, 326–325 BCE

326–325 BCE The army sails and marches down the Indus to the sea, fighting peoples along the way. Storming a town of the Malli, Alexander leaps into it almost alone and is shot through the chest with an arrow; he nearly dies.
325 BCE The admiral Nearchus takes the fleet along the coast toward the Persian Gulf, while Alexander leads much of the army west through the Gedrosian desert. Heat, thirst, and flash floods kill a large number of soldiers and followers; Arrian says the losses were worse than in all the fighting in Asia.

Questions to Sit With

Were the killings of Parmenion and Cleitus signs of Alexander's weakness, or the price of ruling a new kind of empire?

Why was the war against Spitamenes harder than the battles against Darius?

Was the army right to refuse to go on at the Hyphasis? What does the mutiny tell us about the limits of even the most successful commander?

Quick Reference — Chapter 8

Philotas was executed and Parmenion murdered (330 BCE); Alexander killed Cleitus (328 BCE); the proskynesis dispute led to Callisthenes's downfall (327 BCE)
Bessus was handed over and executed; Alexandria Eschate was founded on the Jaxartes (329 BCE)
Spitamenes led a guerrilla revolt until his death in 328 BCE; the Sogdian Rock was taken by climbers in 327 BCE, and Alexander married Roxana
Hydaspes (May 326 BCE): a night river crossing about 27 km upstream in a storm; Porus's 85–200 elephants were turned against his own army; Porus was restored as an ally
At the Hyphasis (326 BCE) the army refused to go further; Alexander built twelve altars and turned back
On the return, Alexander was nearly killed among the Malli, and the Gedrosian desert march caused heavy losses (325 BCE)

What's Next

Chapter 9: Alexander's Real Military Innovations & Their Legacy.