Information AboutAornos |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT AORNOS | |
| mountains of italy | |
| alexander the great | |
| deities in the aeneid | |
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.]] Aornos was the site of and Alexander's secretary Eumenes , whose account provided material for all later ones, reconnoitered and reinforced a neighboring spur to the west with a stockade and ditch. His signal fire to Alexander also alerted the defenders of Pir-Sar, and it took two days of skirmishing in the narrow ravines for Alexander to regroup. At the vulnerable north side leading to the fort, Alexander and his catapults were stopped by a deep ravine. To bring the siege engines within reach, an earthwork mound was constructed to bridge the ravine with carpentry, brush and earth. The first day's work brought the siege mound sixty yards closer, but as the sides of the ravine fell away steeply below, progress rapidly slowed; nevertheless, at the end of the third day, a low hill connected to the nearest tip of Pir-Sar was within reach and was taken, after Alexander in the vanguard and his first force were repelled by boulders rolled down from above. Three days of drumbeats marked the defenders' celebration of the initial repulse, followed by a surprise retreat. Alexander hauled himself up the last rockface on a rope. Alexander cleared the summit, slaying some fugitives (Fox) —inflated by Arrian to a massacre—and erected altars to Athena Nike , Athena of Victory, traces of which were identified by Stein (Fox 1973, Arrian). Alexander was now free to pursue his journey into Punjab , and his reputation for invincibility seemed to be established in India. The Battle Of The Hydaspes River lay in the future. - Main article Avernus Aornos, ("without birds") was also the Greek name of the cavern Avernus by the Crater Lake of Lake Avernus (Lago d'Averno) in Magna Graecia Italy , according to Pliny and Virgil . Of the cavern Pliny's Natural History (Book IV) records that its volcanic fumes were deadly to birds (''locus Aornos et pestifera avibus exhalatio''). According to the '' Aeneid '' :"There was a wide-mouthed cavern, deep and vast :and rugged, sheltered by a shadowed lake :and darkened groves; such vapor poured from those :black jaws to heaven's vault, no bird could fly :above unharmed (for which the Greeks have called :the place "Aornos" or "The Birdless")..." REFERENCES
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