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[8] As their route took them through narrow defiles and over rough country, they clashed and trampled on one another and many died without having received a blow from the enemy. For men lay piled up in confusion, some without armour, others in full battle panoply. Some with their swords still drawn killed those who spitted themselves upon them.1 Most of the cavalry, however, bursting out into the plain and driving their horses at full gallop succeeded in reaching the safety of the friendly cities.

1 Arrian. 2.11.8 quotes Ptolemy as reporting that Alexander's cavalry in the pursuit crossed a deep gully on the piled up bodies of the dead. Even a king, it seems, might draw the long bow on occasion in writing history.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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