When he was awake, Parmenio asked him why he slept so
soundly, as if he had already won the victory instead of being just
about to fight the most important of all his battles. Alexander
answered with a smile; "Do you not think we have already won the
victory, now that we are no longer obliged to chase Darius over an
enormous tract of wasted country?"
Alexander both before the battle, and in the most dangerous crisis of
the day proved himself truly great, always taking judicious measures,
with a cheerful confidence of success. His left wing was terribly
shaken by a tumultuous charge of the Bactrian cavalry, who broke into
the ranks of the Macedonians, while Mazaeus sent some horsemen
completely round the left wing, who fell upon the troops left to guard
the baggage. Parmenio, finding his men thrown into confusion by these
attacks, sent a message to Alexander, that his fortified camp and
baggage would be lost, if he did not at once despatch a strong
reinforcement to the rear. At the time when Alexander received this
message, he was in the act of giving his own troops orders to attack,
and he answered that Parmenio must, in his confusion, have forgotten
that the victors win all the property of the vanquished, and that men
who are defeated must not think about treasure or prisoners, but how
to fight and die with honour. After sending back this answer to
Parmenio, he put on his helmet; for he had left his tent fully armed
at all other points, wearing a tunic of Sicilian manufacture closely
girt round his waist, and over that a double-woven linen corslet,
which had been among the spoils taken at Issus.
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