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Hic Alexander Responsum accepit: Usque quo Alexander
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Hic Alexander responsum accepit: usque quo Alexander means 'here Alexander received the answer: how far, Alexander?' This red inscription belongs to the altars Alexander the Great raised on the river Hyphasis in 326 BC to mark the limit of his Indian conquests. The map draws three altars, not the twelve the ancient writers describe. The answer recalls his Macedonian soldiers' mutiny against marching further, or an unfavourable sacrifice. A list of places compiled in Ravenna turns it into an oracle: the edge of that desert could never be reached by human steps.
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