Note 326 — Chapter X · —Alexander goes homeward by land, leaving Nearchus to follow by sea and conduct the fleet to the head of the Persian Gulf—Disastrous march through Gedrosia—Alexander arrives in Carmania, where he holds Bacchic revels to celebrate his conquests

“No magnificent idea,” says Vincent, “is requisite to conceive the building of cities in the East. A fort or citadel with a mud wall to mark the circumference of the pettah or town is all that falls to the share of the founder. The habitations are raised in a few days or hours.... The Soldan of Egypt insults Timour by telling him: ‘The cities of the East are built of mud, and ephemeral; ours in Syria and Egypt are of stone, and eternal.’”