BUCEPHALA
BUCEPHALA or
BUCEPHALI´A (
τὰ Βουκέφαλα, Arrian,
Anab. 5.29;
Ptol. 7.1.46;
ἡ Βουκεφάλη, Arrian,
Anab. 5.19;
Diod. 17.95;
Steph. B. sub voce Βοὸς Κεφαλαί; ἡ Βουκεφαλία,
Strab. xv. p.698; Plut.
de Fort. Alex. 1.5; Suid. s. v.;
ἡ Βουκεφάλεια,
Hesych. sub voce Steph. B. sub voce ἡ Βουκέφαλος,
Peripl. p. 27), a city of India, on the Hydaspes (
Jelum), built by Alexander, after his great victory over Porus (B.C. 326), at the place where he had crossed the river before the battle, and in memory of his celebrated charger Bucephalus, who had expired in the hour of victory, from fatigue and old age, or from wounds. (Arrian. &c.,
ll. cc.; Curt. 9.3.23.)
The exact site is not ascertained; but the probabilities seem to be in favour of
Jelum, at which place is the ordinary modern passage of the river, or of
Jellapoor, about 16 miles lower down. (Court,
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1836, pp. 468, foll.; Elphinstone,
Cabul, p. 80; and an important note in Thirlwall,
Hist. of Greece, vol. vii. p. 16.)
It was one of Ptolemy's points of recorded astronomical observations, having about 14 1/4 hours for its longest day, and being distant a little more than 4 1/3 hours E. of Alexandria.
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