Subjugation of the Cossaeans.—Embassies from Distant Nations. The mourning was prolonged for many days; and as he was now beginning to recall himself from it, under such circumstances his Companions had less difficulty in rousing him to action. Then at length he made an expedition against the Cossaeans,910 a warlike race bordering on the territory of the Uxians. They are mountaineers, inhabiting strong positions in separate villages. Whenever a force approached them, they were in the habit of retiring to the summits of their mountains, either in a body or separately as each man found it practicable; and thus they escaped, making it difficult for those who attacked them with their forces to come near them. After the enemy’s departure, they used to turn themselves again to marauding, by which occupation they supported themselves. But Alexander subdued this race, though he marched against them in the winter; for neither winter nor ruggedness of ground 399was any impediment either to him or to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who led a part of the army in the campaign against them. Thus no military enterprise which Alexander undertook was ever unsuccessful. As he was marching back to Babylon, he was met by embassies from the Libyans, who congratulated him and crowned him as conqueror of the kingdom of Asia.911 From Italy also came Bruttians, Lucanians, and Tyrrhenians912 as envoys, for the same purpose. The Carthaginians are said to have sent an embassy to him at this time913; and it is also asserted that envoys came to request his friendship fro............