He now set out again in pursuit of Darius, with the intention of fighting another battle with him:  but on hearing that Darius had been taken by the satrap Bessus, he dismissed all his Thessalian cavalry and sent them home, giving them a largess of two thousand talents over and above the pay which was due to them.  He now set out on a long and toilsome journey in pursuit of Darius, for in eleven days he rode more than five hundred miles, so that his men were terribly distressed, especially by want of water.  One day he met some Macedonians who were carrying water from a river in skins on the backs of mules.  Seeing Alexander faint with thirst, as it was the hottest time of the day, they quickly filled a helmet with water and gave it to him to drink.  He asked them to whom they were carrying the water, to which they answered, “To our own sons; but provided that you live, even if they should die, we can beget other children.”  On hearing this he took the helmet into his hands; but seeing all the horsemen around him eagerly watching him and coveting the water, he gave it back without tasting it.  He thanked the men for offering it to him, but said, “If I alone drink it, all these soldiers will be discontented.”  The soldiers, when they saw the noble courage and self-denial of Alexander, bade him lead them on boldly, and urged forward their horses, saying that they felt neither hunger nor thirst, and did not think themselves to be mortal men, so long as they had such a king as Alexander to lead them.

XLIII.  The whole of his army was equally enthusiastic; yet the fatigues of the march were so great, that when Alexander burst into the enemy’s camp, only sixty men are said to have followed him.  Here they passed over great heaps of gold and silver, and pursued a long line of waggons, full of women and children, which were proceeding along without any drivers, until they had reached the foremost of them, because they imagined that Darius might be hidden in them.  At last he was found, lying in his chariot, pierced with innumerable javelins, and just breathing his last.  He was able to ask for drink, and when given some cold water by Polystratus, he said to him, “My good sir, this is the worst of all my misfortunes that I am unable to recompense you for your kindness to me; but Alexander will reward you, and the gods will reward Alexander for his courteous treatment of my mother and wife and daughters.  Wherefore I pray thee, embrace him, as I embrace thee.”  With these words he took Polystratus by the hand and died.  When Alexander came up, he showed great grief at the sight, and covered the body with his own cloak.  He afterwards captured Bessus and tore him asunder, by bending down the tops of trees and tying different parts of his body to each, and then letting them spring up again so that each tore off the limb to which it was attached.  Alexander now had the corpse of Darius adorned as became a prince, and sent it to his mother, while he received his brother Exathres into the number of his intimate friends.