Alexander and Babylon (1)

Text
Appian, The Civil Wars 2.153:
As he (= Alexander) was returning from India to Babylon with his army, and was nearing the latter place, the Chaldeans urged him to postpone his entrance for the present. He replied with the iambic verse, “He is the best prophet who can guess right.” Again, the Chaldeans urged him not to march his army into the city while looking toward the setting sun, but to go around, but being impeded by a lake and marshy ground, he disregarded this prophecy also, and entered the city looking toward the west. Not long after entering he went down the Euphrates in a boat to the river Pallacotta, which takes its water from the Euphrates and carries it away in marshes and ponds and thus hinders the irrigation of the Assyrian country. While he was considering how he should dam this stream, and while he was sailing out to it for this purpose, it is said that he jeered at the Chaldeans because he had gone into Babylon and sailed out of it safely. But yet the moment he returned back to it he was to die.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Appian, The Civil Wars 2.153

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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