"Alexander's march up the Indus soon became widely known, and Sandrocottus' army became discouraged at facing a general who was widely known to be invincible, and had already beaten many of them before. Thus, while Alexander marched, Sandrocottus' forces began to dwindle: first a few of the men who had served with Taxiles and Porus left, one or two at a time (for they had been dispersed throughout the army in the hopes of preventing mass desertion) and went to join Taxiles' son, who was raising revolt in the north. Then, entire units of men who learned that their towns had surrendered to Alexander. However, this meant that the men he was left with were fanatically loyal to him, or fiercely hated Alexander, as such, when it was time for the two to meet face to face, the battle was hard-fought and bitter, and afterwards, none of Sandrocottus' men were found with wounds on their backs. However, Alexander nonetheless eventually triumphed [1]. Sandrocottus was captured and brought to Alexander, who said to him,
Sandrocottus, you have shown bravery, daring, and courage in your campaign against me, and I would offer to allow you to rule this territory in my name, were it not for the fact that you murdered my men in cold blood. For that, I judge death to be too good a fate for you.
First, he had Sandrocottus' tongue cut out, so he could not try and bribe his tormentors. Then the tendons of his legs were cut, so he could not escape, and the tendons of his arms were cut to keep him from committing suicide. He was then whipped one hundred times on his back, a further hundred on his chest, and was then carried around the camp on a frame, with sign that read "Thus is the fate of the dishonorable" around his neck. He was then nursed back to health for a week, only to receive the same treatment a week later. Things continued in this manner until one of Sandrocottus' former soldiers by the name of Sisicottus [2] who had been a trusted lieutenant, saw his chance one day when Sandrocottus was being paraded around the camp, and grabbed a dagger and drove into Sandrocottus' heart before anyone could stop him.
Sisicottus was brought before Alexander in chains, and was asked why he had killed Sandrocottus. To this, Sisicottus replied that he was loyal to his master until death. Upon hearing this, Alexander said that it was more than Sandrocottus deserved to have someone like Sisicottus in his service, and released him from his chains. Alexander then asked Sisicottus if he would serve Alexander as faithfully as he had his former master, to which Sisicottus replied that he would, and accompanied Alexander from this point onward [3]."
-Plutarch, "Life of Sandrocottus"
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[1] This battle was fought several miles from the city of Taxila, probably as a last ditch attempt by Sandrocottus to get its inhabitants to fight for him. If this was his hope, he was sorely disappointed, as the citizens declared their loyalty to Taxiles' son, shut the gates of their city, and posted guards. They did not go so far as to attack Sandrocottus until it was clear that Alexander had won, and then they primarily just sacked Sandrocottus' camp.
[2] Regarding Indian names: I have gone through Arrian's
Anabasis and copied out a list of every Hellenicized Indian name I could find, and will be using them at random, except for the rare case when the proper Hellenization is known (ie: Sandrocottus, etc.) or I use a historical figure who the Greeks never had a name for.
[3] This concluding paragraph of Sandrocottus' "Life" serves to subtly contrast him with Alexander. Whereas Alexander's lieutenants are depicted as remaining loyal to him after his death (in the form of his son), Sandrocottus' kill their leader for material gain.
So, that's Sandrocottus' rebellion. My apologies to those of you who wanted a long, drawn out campaign ending in an epic battle, but I don't think that's realistic as I mentioned previously in this thread. There are epic battles aplenty coming up with the Nanda, and then with the Chinese, though. I'll write some of them out in detail, but others I'll gloss over like I did this one, simply because I'm not all that confident writing battle plans.