Note 37 — Chapter I · THE CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER

Sir Thomas Holdich, in his excellent book The Gates of India (p. 104), says that when he defeated the Aspasians or Yusufzai in the Kuner Valley he sent the pick of their cattle back to Macedonia to improve the native breed. Arrian, Anabasis, Bk IV. c. 25, however, in quoting the story from Ptolemy, says only that Alexander “wished to send them” to till the soil. It seems impossible that they could have survived the journey before the days of steamships. Still more incredible is the story in Plutarch, Life of Alexander, c. L. that when Alexander was at Prophthasia (probably Farrah in Seistan), he received some grapes grown on the coast of Greece. But such stories, although coloured by age, may serve to show how perfect his communications were always thought to have been.