Long Unmechanised Marches.

[Paralus]

[A good argument and one that is even more convincing if we donGÇÖt accept DiodorusGÇÖ figure of 30,000 infantry recruits. (IGÇÖm a little skeptical each time I see that number because of the frequency with which it occurs and am rather inclined to translate it as GÇ£a great number.GÇ¥) ... ItGÇÖs interesting, however, that most historians seem to accept and use DiodorusGÇÖ figure. I did a quick scan through some of my books this morning and found only Hamilton using CurtiusGÇÖ numbers (while still referencing Diodorus).

I agree. We have attested several reinforcements of the army. The single largest of which, prior to this time, was Amyntas' virtual army of 15,000 in 330. It seems a little bit of a stretch to imagine a reinforcement column approaching two thirds that of the original army which crossed the Hellespont.

I suspect the "acceptance" of the Diodorus figure has much to do with the quite fantastical figure of 120,000 given for the "army" during what Green refers to as the "quest for Ocean". Accepting that figure (Diodorus' 30,000) puts the count somewhere between 65-75,000, depending on the number of local Indian levies conscripted. Even so, the bulk of the native troops (aside from the Indian infantry contingents picked up before Jhelum) were mounted. Curtius may well have it correct, never the less, the impetus to reconcile the 120,000 seems strong. Dismissing that figure as army numbers fits the evidence better I believe.

The rest of the 120,000 (if the figure is accepted) had to have been made up by the "city" of camp followers that attached itself to the army of conquest. It is safe to assume that many of those were detached via the Gedrosian debacle.

[Coral]

Just as an afterthought about your post of unmechanised marches- it just occured to me that apart from the Makran or Gedrosian desert march- we didn't mention "crossing the Hindu Kush"- in the centre of Afganistan a mountain range 6000 metres up and snow tipped- suppose it is the kind of journey that Alexander and his Macedonian troops wouldn't have minded.

Yes, those mountains would have been pretty formidable. The Hindu Kush is no joke, especially given high altitude problems for people not used to them. (I was up to 11,000 feet once in the Himalayan foothills and could barely WALK a bit before feeling short of breath.) Also, mountains that high are only accessible for certain seasons of the year - monsoons and winters would be nasty. I wonder how long the army took to trek through the mountains; they probably had to slowly get acclimitized at those heights before climbing further.

Did Alexander mean to return at some future date to India to conquer lands east of the Indus? He certainly wanted to establish trade routes by sea and probably wanted to later build nice little towns set along the Gedrosia coastline for future ships to pick up supplies. If he could have "coaxed" out a land route from Persia to India along the coast, that would have been a bonus too. I also wonder if, having successfully gone to Siwah, he felt he could master another desert, being Amon's son after all! It does seem, though, that he ran into a spate of bad luck with stores, prolonged monsoons that delayed departures, etc. I wonder if he included camels among the pack animals? Thankfully he had sent back part of his army a few months earlier by a separate easy route. He did keep the most difficult "missions" for himself.

I would like to vote for option 3 but it wouldn't let me vote.

[Paralus]

Did Alexander mean to return at some future date to India to conquer lands east of the Indus?

No. His disposition of the "satrapies" speaks volumes. The Persians may well have once reached this far but their level and duration of control is wide open to question. Alexander's attitude is one of "can't really be bothered, here: run what you lost". Certainly Macedonian "Harmosts" were installed but, overall, Alexander had little interest in what transpired here.

Had he ever returned I'm certain he'd have faced a serious Indian army little interested in the foreign invader. The Indian "satrapies" were either in rebellion or about to be by the time Alexander was crossing the Gedrosian desert.