Bucephalus

Thessalian stallion of the breed called 'ox-head' (βουκέφαλος) — a white star on the brow, said to be the only living thing Alexander ever tamed. Plutarch *Alex.* 6 preserves the famous taming-scene: the horse-dealer Philonicus brought him to Pella at a price of thirteen talents, no Macedonian noble could mount him, and the twelve-year-old Alexander noticed that the horse was shying at his own shadow, turned his head toward the sun, and mounted — Philip, Plutarch says, kissed him and said 'My son, seek for a kingdom equal to yourself, for Macedon is too small for you.' Bucephalus carried Alexander from Chaeronea (338) to Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela, and across the Hindu Kush. He died in 326 BC after the Battle of the Hydaspes, age thirty by Arrian's count (5.19), from wounds or age — the sources diverge. Alexander founded the city of Alexandria Bucephalus (Jalalpur) on the west bank of the Jhelum in his memory.

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