Page 785 all sorts of Vessels wherein Water might be carried, and help their Companions that were behind. But those that drank immoderately, quench'd their natural Heat by Surfeit, and died presently, by which means he lost far more Men than he had done before in any Battel.
HE came to a little Town where the Branchidans inhabited, who heretofore remov'd from Miletus, by the Command of Xerxes when he return'd out of Greece, and settled themselves in this place: They were they that violated the Temple call'd Did ••eus, to ingratiate themselves with Xerxes. The Customs and Manners of their Country were not as yet wholly laid aside, but they spoke a kind of broken Language, neither perfect Greek nor Barbarian. They receiv'd therefore the King very joyfully, and gave up themselves and their City into his hands. He thereupon call'd together the Milesians that were in his Army, who bore an old Grudge and inveterate Hatred against the Branchidans, he left it therefore to these Milesians, whose Ancestors had been betray'd by 'em, to do with them what they thought fit either to remember the Injury, and so revenge themselves, or the Original of the Branchidans, who were so their Country-men, and upon that account to spare them. When they cou'd not agree amongst themselves what to resolve upon, the King told 'em he himself wou'd take time to consider what was fittest to be done. The next day the Branchidans meeting him, he order'd 'em to go along with him; and when he came to the City, he enter'd the Gate with a select Detachment, having in the mean time order'd the Phalanx to surround the Walls, and upon a Sign given to raze the City to the Ground, that had been a Nest for the Traitors, and to put them all to the Sword, Man, Woman, and Child. Hereupon being all disarm'd, they were knock'd on the head in every place up and down, and no stop cou'd be put to their Cruelty by nearness of Language, or the Prayers and Tears of the poor and miserable People.
At length they raz'd the Walls to the very bottom of the Foundation, that there might not remain so much as the least sign where it had once stood. Neither stopt they here, for they not only cut down, but rooted up the Sacred Groves, that they might leave all a vast and solitary Desert, barren, without so much as a Root in the Ground; which Executions, had they been inflicted upon the first Actors of the Treason, might have been judg'd a just Revenge, and not the Effects of Cruelty, as they seem'd to be; sor now the Posterity, who never so much as ever saw Miletus (and therefore cou'd not betray it to Xerxes) suffered for the Faults of their Ancestors.—.
IN the mean time the Barbarians that border'd next to the River, surpriz'd the Macedonians that were plac'd in Garisons in Scythia, and put them all to the Sword, and fortified the Cities for their greater Security. Many of the Sogdians join'd with him in the Defection, being sollicited thereunto by them that had seiz'd upon Bessus, who likewise drew away after them some of the Bactrians, either because they were afraid of Alexander, or for that (as they gave the reason for their Rebellion) Alexander had summon'd a Senate of the Governours of the Province to meet at Zariaspa, the greatest City there, from which Convention they saw no ground to hope for any good to themselves. When Intelligence was brought to Alexander of these things, he forthwith commanded his Foot in every Regiment to prepare Scaling Ladders; and he himself march'd away with his Army to a City call'd Gaza, which was next to the Camp, and lay first in his way; for it was said the Barbarians had fled into seven Towns of that Country. Craterus he sent to Cyropolis, the greatest of all the Cities, and in which a very great number of the Barbarians had shelter'd themselves. The King commanded him to encamp near the City, and to fortifie his Camp with a Trench and Wall drawn round, and place such Engines upon