t the night before his tent
with his diviner Aristander, performing certain mysterious ceremonies,
and sacrificing to the god Fear.

In the meanwhile the oldest of his commanders, and chiefly Parmenio,
when they beheld all the plain between Niphates and the Gordyaean
mountains shining with the lights and fires which were made by the
barbarians, and heard the uncertain and confused sound of voices out of
their camp, like the distant roaring of a vast ocean, were so amazed
at the thoughts of such a multitude, that after some conference among
themselves, they concluded it an enterprise too difficult and hazardous
for them to engage so numerous an enemy in the day, and therefore
meeting the king as he came from sacrificing, besought him to attack
Darius by night, that the darkness might conceal the danger of the
ensuing battle. To this he gave them the celebrated answer, "I will not
steal a victory," which, though some at the time thought it a boyish and
inconsiderate speech, as if he played with danger, others regarded as an
evidence that the confided in his present condition, and acted on a true
judgment of the future, not wishing to leave Darius, in case he were
worsted, the pretext of trying his fortune again, which he might suppose
himself to have, if he could impute his overthrow to the disadvantage of
the night, as he did before to the mountains, the narrow passages, and
the sea. For while he had such numerous forces and large dominions still
remaining, it was not any want of men or arms that could induce him
to give up the war, but only the loss of all courage and hope upon the
conviction of an undeniable and manifest defeat.

After they were gone from him with this answer, he laid himself down
in his tent and slept the rest of the night more soundly than was usual
with him, to the astonishment of the commanders. Not only before the
battle, but in the height of the danger, he showed himself great, and
manifested the self-possession of a just foresight and confidence. For
the battle for some time fluctuated and was dubious. The left wing,
where Parmenio commanded, was so impetuously charged by the Bactrian
horse that it was disordered and forced to give ground, at the same time
that Mazaeus had sent a detachment around to fall upon those who guarded
the baggage, which so disturbed Parmenio, that he sent messengers to
acquaint Alexander that the camp and baggage would be all lost unless he
immediately relieved the re