EN120.10 Alexander
Ott 2025
S. Frethorik
3. Liudgeart’s Diary
Alexander the King
120.10 Liudgeart, Wichhirte’s watch-by-night, became my ally and later my friend. From his diary, I have the history that follows:
After we had lived at the Five Waters (Panj-ab) for twelve hundred and twice twelve years, in which our sea campaigners explored all seas in the region, came Alexander the king with a mighty army, moving downstream along the river towards our villages. None could resist him. But we navigators, living near the coast, embarked with all our portable goods and departed.
When Alexander learned that such a great fleet had escaped him, he became furious, swearing he would sacrifice all villages to the flames if we did not come back. Wichhirte lay ill in bed. When Alexander heard this, he waited until the sea king got better. Then he came to him, speaking most kindly, [121] though he still made threats as he had done before. Wichhirte answered: “O greatest of all kings, we navigators go everywhere. We have heard of your great deeds, so we are full of respect for your weapons, and yet more for your prowess. But we differ from one another. We are free-born children of Frya. We are forbidden to become slaves. Even were I to submit, the others would rather die, for so is it commanded by our eternal law.”
Alexander replied: “I desire neither to make your land my own nor to enslave your folk. I merely wish to engage your services for pay. This I will swear by both our gods, so that none shall bear resentment against me.” When Alexander then shared bread and salt with him, Wichhirte chose the wisest option: He had his son retrieve the ships.
When they were back, Alexander hired them all. With them, he intended to transport his force to the Holy Ganges, which he had not been able to reach by land. Now he chose those of his folk and his mercenaries who were accustomed to seafaring. Wichhirte had fallen ill again, so I went off alone with them and Nearchus, who represented the king.[1] This expedition failed as a result of the [122] constant quarreling between the Ionians and the Phoenicians, which undermined Nearchus’ authority.
Meanwhile, the king had not been idle. He had ordered his mercenaries to cut down trees and make planks, of which, with the help of our carpenters, he constructed ships. Now he wanted to become sea king himself and sail up the Ganges with his whole army. But the mercenaries from the highlands feared the sea. When they heard that they had to join the fleet, they set the timberyards ablaze, reducing our whole village to ash. At first, we thought Alexander had ordered it and were all prepared to take to the sea. But Alexander was furious and wanted his own people to kill the mercenaries. Then Nearchus, who was not only Alexander’s top general, but also his friend, dissuaded him. And so Alexander feigned belief that it had been mere accident — but he dared not resume his expedition.
Instead, he decided to turn back homeward. But before leaving, he first ordered an investigation into who was responsible. Once he identified the perpetrators, he disarmed them all and made them build a new village. Weaponed men of his own household he left behind to oversee the others [123] and build a burg. We were obliged to take the women and children with us, and it was agreed that, when we arrived at the mouth of the Euphrates, we would be permitted to choose a place to settle or to return home; our wage would be paid either way. On the new ships that had escaped the blaze, the king embarked Ionians and Greeks. He himself went along the coast with his other men through the barren desert — that is the land that Earth had raised from the sea when she closed the strait after our ancestors entered the Red Sea.
When we arrived to take on water at New Geartmania,[2] a harbor we ourselves had made, we met Alexander with his army. Nearchus went ashore and abode three days. Then the journey proceeded.
Arriving at the Euphrates, Nearchus went ashore with the mercenaries and much of his folk. But he soon returned, saying: “The king bids you to undertake another minor voyage for him, to the end of the Red Sea. After that, each of you shall take as much gold as he can carry.”
When we arrived there, he showed us where the strait had once been. He lingered for thirty-one days, steadily looking out over the desert. At last, a host of people came, bringing [124] with them two hundred elephants and a thousand camels, loaded with timber, along with ropes and all manner of equipment to tow our fleet to the Middle Sea. That astonished us and seemed to us a bad idea. But Nearchus told us that his king wanted to show the other kings that he was more powerful than any of the Tyrian kings had ever been. We should but help, he said. It would surely do us no harm. We were obliged to yield to his wishes, and Nearchus was so efficient that the fleet lay in the Middle Sea before three months had passed.
When Alexander learned how his project had succeeded, he was so overcome with rashness that he wanted to dig out the dry strait, to the mockery of Earth. But Wralda deserted his soul, and, in his arrogance, he drowned himself in wine before he could even start.[3]
After his death, the empire was divided by his generals. It was their duty to each guard a part of it for his sons, but they never meant to do so. Every one of them desired to keep and even increase his part. War broke out and we could not return.
Nearchus now wanted us to settle on the Phoenician coast, but none of us wanted that. We said we would rather attempt to [125] reach Fryasland. Then he brought us to the new port of Athenia, whither all true Frya’s children were drawn in former times. From there, we shipped mercenaries, food supplies, and weapons.
Notes
- ↑ ‘Nearchus’ (NÉARCHUS, Greek Νέαρχος, c. 360 - 300 BCE) — Alexander's navarch or admiral, known from other sources for his celebrated voyage from the Indus river to the Persian Gulf in 326–324 BCE.
- ↑ ‘New Geartmania’ (NY.GÉRTMANJA) — compare Carmania (Greek: Καρμανία), a historical region that approximately corresponds to the modern Iranian province of Kerman.
- ↑ ‘and, in his...’ — lit.: ‘therefore, he drowned in wine and in his overconfidence’.
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Chapter S3: Sandbach 1876