'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis.' [‎302] (337/450)

302
NOTES ON THE
[APP. II.
Curtius (lib. iv., p. 445) says, Darius, arriving at
Arbela, from Babylon, left his heavy baggage at that town,
and threw a bridge over the Lycus, by which his army was
five days defiling. From the passage of the bridge he
marched on, eighty stadia, to another river, called the
Bumadus, where he encamped.
Arrian, besides what has been noticed above, says (lib.
vi., c. 2, p. 430) that the greatest distance assigned to the
field of battle from the town of Arbela was six hun
dred, and the least, five hundred stadia. He says both
Ptolemy and Aristobulus agree that the battle was fought at
Gaugamela, which was a large village, on the Bumadus or
Bumelus.
Curtius does not mention the distance from Arbela to
the bridge of the Lycus ; but eighty stadia is correct enough
for the distance between the rivers. The six hundred or
even five hundred stadia of Arrian are quite unintelligible;
and had it not been for the same distance being again given
more circumstantially in another part of the work, I should,
without hesitation, set this down as an error of the copyists.
This distance will bring the battle up, at least, as high as
Mousul.
(Arrian, lib. iii., c. 9, pp. 197-B.) We have now brought
the two armies to the stations they occupied before the
battle, and from which the subsequent movements are to be
calculated, i, e. Darius, on the Bumadus, near Gaugaraela,
and Alexander sixty stadia from it in his intrenched camp,
where he remained four days. There he left all his bag
gage and incumbrances, and prepared to attack Darius
with his efficient men, having nothing but their arms with
them. He marched at the second watch of the night.
Darius, when he heard of this, also got under arms. Ihe
camps, as before said, were sixty stadia from each other,