Alexander's tsunami

[Manny E]

In Mary Renault's "The Persian Boy," Alexander almost drowned in a flashflood in the middle of the Gedrosian desert (Makran in present day Pakistan-Iran border). He lost thousands of soldiers and camp followers in this scene, in addition to the ones who died of thirst and starvation. What I want to know is if this was from Arrian, Diodorus, or Curtius (all of which I do not have a copy of) or just Mary Renault. Like tsunamis, flashfloods are preceded by a warning----a grinding, rushing sound, except that, as Renault pointed out, water and a horrendous lot it is the last thing you expect to be coming your way next when you're dying of thirst in the desert. With tsunamis, only a counter-intuitive phenomenon precedes the disaster: the shores retreating at a "miraculous" rate, like a low tide being fast-forwarded by god, and so, unlike the Japanese, Alexander's army, like all the countries that surrounded the Indian Ocean, gawked with dropped jaws and waited for what's next after the sound. If this was from the primary sources, then it must have been related by the survivors, many of which were probably from the area. And made Alexander a very lucky man indeed. If this was Renault's own invention, then her genius at drawing with words intricately detailed pictures of colliding cultures remain unheralded, much less her literary brilliance at finding the best possible angle from which to view a complex and blinding lightning-flash such as Alexander's. And this, of course, is her choice of an oblique angle---the limited first person-point-of-view of a minor character, the eunuch Bagoas. The built-in biases are of course there, but then considering that ALL the primary sources are second-hand anyway (the sentiments of the Romans about the Greeks of Alexander's time would have been unrecognizable to the Greeks), the most organic and recognizable outline of Alexander's career in fiction remains an uncontested territory of Mary Renault.Manny E

[susan]

Hi Manny, it's Susan. Arrian has an account of the flash-flood here."On one occasion, when the army bivouacked, for the sake of its water, near a small brook which was a winter torrent, about the second watch of the night the brook which flowed there was suddenly swelled by the rains in the mountains which had fallen unperceived by the soldiers. The torrent advanced with so great a flood as to destroy most of the wives and children of the men who followed the army, and to sweep away all the royal baggage as well as all the beasts of burden still remaining. The soldiers, after great exertions, were hardly able to save themselves together with their weapons, many of which they lost beyond recovery."
This is online at my Alexander sources site (http://www.alexander-sources.org), where you can find Arrian and other authors online; the exact page is (http://websfor.org/alexander/arrian/book6b.asp). The site needs much more work but there isn't enough time in the day, unfortunately.In November I went to Sri Lanka to see someone I met through Alexander - we're now running a tsunami relief organisation together and it's taking over my life. When you get get an email address, I'd love to email you offline - I've got lots to tell you.Best regardsSusan

[pam]

Thank you for posting the link to that website. It seems very informative; I'm sure I'm be spending much time there in the near future.Pam