At The Time When Alexander Was Seized With The Illness Which Occasioned His
Death, Nearchus Was Ready To Sail, And He Himself, With The Army, Was To
Accompany Him As Far As Was Practicable, In The Same Manner As He Had Done
From The Indus To The Tigris:
Two days before the fever commenced, he gave
a grand entertainment to Nearchus and his officers.
Only a very few circumstances regarding Nearchus are known after the death
of Alexander: he was made governor of Lycia and Pamphylia, and seems to
have attached himself to the fortunes of Antigonus. Along with him, he
crossed the mountains of Loristan, when he marched out of Susiana, after
his combat with Eumenes. In this retreat he commanded the light-armed
troops, and was ordered in advance, to drive the Cosseams from their passes
in the mountains. When Antigonus deemed it necessary to march into Lesser
Asia, to oppose the progress of Cassander, he left his son Demetrius, with
part of his army, in Syria; and as that prince was not above 22 years old,
he appointed him several advisers, of whom Nearchus was one. It is by no
means improbable that the instructions or the advice of Nearchus may have
induced Demetrius to survey with great care the lake of Asphaltes, and to
form a computation of the profit of the bitumen which it afforded, and of
the balm which grew in the adjacent country, and may have contributed to
his love for and skill in ship-building; for after he was declared king of
Macedonia, he built a fleet of five hundred gallies, several of which had
fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen benches of oars. We are informed that they
were all built by the particular contrivance of Demetrius himself, and that
the ablest artizans, without his directions, were unable to construct such
vessels, which united the pomp and splendour of royal ships to the strength
and conveniences of ordinary ships of war. The period and circumstances of
the death of Nearchus are not known. Dr. Vincent supposes that he may have
lost his life at the battle of Ipsus, where Antigonus fell: or, after the
battle, by command of the four kings who obtained the victory. Previous to
his grand expedition, it appears that he was a native of Crete, and
enrolled a citizen of Amphipolis, it is supposed, at the time when Philip
intended to form there a mart for his conquests in Thrace. He soon
afterwards came to the court of Philip, by whom he and some others were
banished, because he thought them too much attached to the interests of
Alexander in the family dissensions which arose on the secession of
Olympias, and some secret transactions of Alexander in regard to a marriage
with a daughter of a satrap of Caria. On the death of Philip, Nearchus was
recalled, and rewarded for his sufferings by the favour of his sovereign.
[4] The object of these dykes is supposed by Niebuhr to have been
very different:
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