Alexander the Great with reference to Asia Minor and beyond #11
326-325 BC The Indian adventure
For Alexander, the main thing now is to set a natural eastern border for his newly won empire. The ocean, which according to ancient ideas should already be visible from the Hindu Kush, seems to be the natural end point of the campaign. In the spring of 326 Alexander crossed the Indus with about 50,000 men. The competition of the Indian princes among themselves facilitates his action. In a big field battle (it will be Alexander's last) he defeats Poros, the ruler of the Punjab region.
Inexorably Alexander fights to the east, but it comes because of the monsoon and numerous raids of indigenous tribes to high losses among his men. Owned by the idea of reaching the ocean in the east, Alexander hears of rich areas on the Ganges. But this time the army refuses his orders. Even higher wages and permission to loot can not change the tired troops, and so Alexander has to abandon his original plan. The river Hyphasis (now Beas) now forms the final eastern border of his empire.
For the return journey, Alexander has a fleet of about a thousand ships built, with which he drives the Indus downstream. Martial tribes encountered on the way are subjected. Serious resistance is shown only once: When the Macedonians want to storm the main fortress of the tribe of the Maller, Alexander is hit by an arrow in the chest. Badly wounded, two bodyguards take him to safety; For days he fights with death. After his recovery, the fleet reached the ocean in the summer of 325, seven months after their departure.
