Pre-modern Warfare:India And Elsewhere

[Guest]

Here's the complete passage from the campaigns of Alexander into northern India.

"...these truly wise men dwell between the rivers of Ganges and Hyphasis. Their country Alexander never entered, deterred not by fear of the inhabitants but, as I suppose, by religious motives, for had he passed the Hyphasis he might doubless have made himself master of all the country round; but their cities he never could have taken, though he had a thousand men as brave as Achilles, or three thousand like Ajax; for they come not out into the field to fight those who attack them, but rather these holy men, beloved of the gods, overthrow their enemies with tempest and thunderbolts shot from their walls. It is said that the Egyptians Hercules and Bacchus, when they invaded India, attacked this people also, and having prepared warlike engines attempted to conquer them; they in the meantime made no show of resistance, appearing perfectly quiet and secure, but upon the enemy's near approach they repulsed them with storms of lightning and flaming thunderbolts hurled upon their armour from above."