ND now with the
flower of his army he marched into Hyrcania, where he saw a large bay of an
open sea, apparently not much less than the Euxine, with water, however,
sweeter than that of other seas, but could learn nothing of certainty
concerning it, further than that in all probability it seemed to him to be an
arm issuing from the lake of Maeotis. However, the naturalists were better
informed of the truth, and had given an account of it many years before
Alexander's expedition; that of four gulfs which out of the main sea enter
into the continent, this, known indifferently as the Caspian and as the
Hyrcanian sea, is the most northern. Here the barbarians, unexpectedly meeting
with those who led Bucephalas, took them prisoners, and carried the horse away
with them, at which Alexander was so much vexed, that he sent a herald to let
them know he would put them all to the sword, men, women, and children,
without mercy, if they did not restore him. But on their doing so, and at the
same time surrendering their cities into his hands, he not only treated them
kindly, but also paid a ramsom for his horse to those who took him.
Plutarch: ALEXANDER
ND now with the flower of his army he marched into Hyrcania, where he saw a large bay of an open sea, apparently not much less than the Euxine, with water, however, sweeter than that of other seas, but could learn nothing of certainty concerning it, further than that in all probability it seemed to him to be an arm issuing from the lake of Maeotis. However, the naturalists were better informed of the truth, and had given an account of it many years before Alexander's expedition; that of four gulfs which out of the main sea enter into the continent, this, known indifferently as the Caspian and as the Hyrcanian sea, is the most northern. Here the barbarians, unexpectedly meeting with those who led Bucephalas, took them prisoners, and carried the horse away with them, at which Alexander was so much vexed, that he sent a herald to let them know he would put them all to the sword, men, women, and children, without mercy, if they did not restore him. But on their doing so, and at the same time surrendering their cities into his hands, he not only treated them kindly, but also paid a ramsom for his horse to those who took him.
