Arrian, a Greek from the second century AD, wrote this life of Alexander from older eyewitness books, mainly Ptolemy and Aristobulus. This is Book 5 of the Anabasis of Alexander. Book 4 left him in Bactria and Sogdiana — Afghanistan and Uzbekistan — after taking Bessus, marrying Roxane, and turning on his own circle: Philotas, Parmenion, Cleitus, Callisthenes.

Book 5 is India, and the first order the army will not take. They chase the last of Persia into the monsoon. The Rock of Aornos falls, a cliff they say even Heracles could not take. At the Hydaspes — the Jhelum in Pakistan — Porus, an Indian king, brings elephants through the rain. Bucephalus, Alexander’s horse, dies after the battle and gets a city. Wounded Porus is asked how he should be treated and answers, like a king; Alexander gives him his realm back and more. At the Hyphasis, the Beas, Coenus speaks for the men: they can go no farther. Alexander sulks in his tent, then raises twelve altars and turns. The eastern edge is a limit, not a victory. What remains is the long way home.