Chapter 18 When Alexander had his fleet ready on the banks of the Hydaspes, he manned his ships with crews picked from the Phoenicians, Cypriots, and Egyptians who had joined the expedition into central Asia, selecting as oarsmen and ancillary crew those of them who had seafaring experience. There were also a good many islanders in the army with that sort of background, as well as Ionians and Hellespontines. The list of those he appointed trierarchs is as follows… ...When Alexander had made all these arrangements, he sacrificed to all his ancestral gods and those prescribed by the oracles, to Poseidon, Amphitrite, the Nereids, and Ocean himself, to the river Hydaspes, where the expedition would start, to the Acesines, into which the Hydaspes runs, and to the Indus, into which both these rivers run. He then held festival games with competitions in the performing arts and athletics, and distributed animals for sacrifice to every company in his army. Chapter 36 When the district governor, arrested by Alexander for a supposedly false report, saw Nearchus, there in person, he fell to his knees in supplication and said: ‘I am the one who brought Alexander the news of your safe arrival---and now look what has happened to me.’ So Nearchus interceded for the man, and Alexander released him. Alexander now set about making thank-offerings for the survival of the expedition, sacrificing to Zeus the Savior, Heracles, Apollo the Protector, Poseidon, and all the other gods of the sea: and he held festival games with competitions in athletics and the performing arts, and put on a parade. Nearchus was one of the leaders of the parade, and the troops showered him with ribbons and flowers. At the end of all this Alexander said to him: ‘Nearchus, I will not have you exposed to danger and hardship any longer, so somebody else will take command of the fleet from now on until he can bring it in to Susa.’ Nearchus replied: ‘Your majesty, it is both my wish and my duty to obey you in all things. But if it might be your wish to show me some favour, please let it not be that. Allow me to command the expedition through to the end, until I bring your ships safe to Susa. I would not want you to have entrusted me with all the dangerous and difficult work, only to relieve me of the final easy run and give this imminent triumph to another man.’ Alexander stopped him in mid-flow to acknowledge the debt of gratitude he owed him, and in that recognitionsent him back to the fleet with a detachment of troops to escort him---only a small force, as the route lay through friendly territory. Even so, his journey down to the sea was not without problems. The surrounding barbarians had gathered their forces and occupied the dominant positions in Carmania, as their previous satrap had been put to death on Alexander’s orders, and the newly appointed successor, Tlepolemus, had not yet established firm control. So two or three times on the same day the troops with Nearchus had to fight off successive groups of barbarians who appeared out of nowhere, and there was no respite until with much difficulty they just managed to reach safety on the coast. Once there, Nearchus sacrificed to Zeus the Saviour and held athletic games. Chapter 42 Here they received information that Alexander was on his way to Susa. So they travelled back the way they had come, in order to sail up the river Pasitigris [Karun] and meet Alexander. On his return stretch they had the Susian coast on their left, and sailed round the lake into which the Tigris runs. The Tigris flows from Armenia past the once large and prosperous city of Ninus [Nineveh], and gives the area between it and the Euphrates the name of Mesopotamia (‘the land between the rivers’). The voyage up from the lake to the river itself is sixty miles: at that point there is a Susian village called Aginis, fifty miles from Susa. The distance along the Susian coast to the mouth of the Pasitigris is two hundred miles. They then sailed up the Pasitigris, passing now through populated and populated country. They anchored some fifteen miles up-river to await the return of the men Nearchus had sent out to establish the whereabouts of the king. For his part Nearchus made sacrifices to the Saviour gods and put on a festival of athletic games, and there was a holiday atmosphere enjoyed by all members of the expedition. When news came of Alexander’s imminent approach, they sailed on again up-river and anchored by the pontoon bridge over which Alexander was going to take his army on their way to Susa---and here the two forces met. Alexander offered sacrifices in thanks for the preservation of his ships and men, and games were held: wherever Nearchus appeared among the troops they showered him with flowers and ribbons. Here too Nearchus and Leonnatus had golden crowns conferred upon them by Alexander, Nearchus for the safe return of the fleet, and Leonnatus for his victory over the Oreitans and their neighboring tribes. This, then is the story of how Alexander’s fleet came safely through from the start of its voyage at the mouths of the Indus. Text used: Arrian, and Martin Hammond. Alexander the Great The "Anabasis" and the "Indica". Oxford University Press, 2013.