ALEXANDER

It being my purpose to write the lives of Alexander the king, and

of Caesar, by whom Pompey was destroyed, the multitude of their

great actions affords so large a field that I were to blame if I

should not by way of apology forewarn my reader that I have chosen

rather to epitomize the most celebrated parts of their story, than

to insist at large on every particular circumstance of it. It

must be borne in mind that my design is not to write histories,

but lives. And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish

us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men;

sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest,

informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the

most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest

battles whatsoever. Therefore as portrait-painters are more exact

in the lines and features of the face in which the character is

seen, than in the other parts of the body, so I must be allowed to

give my more particular attention to the marks and indications of

the souls of men, and while I endeavor by these to portray their

lives, may be free to leave more weighty matters and great battles

to be treated of by others.

It is agreed on by all hands, that on the father's side, Alexander

descended from Hercules by Caranus, and from Aeacus by Neoptolemus

on the mother's side. His father Philip, being in Samothrace,

when he was quite young, fell in love there with Olympias, in

company with whom he was initiated in the religious ceremonies of

the country, and her father and mother being both dead, soon

after, with the consent of her brother Arymbas, he married her.

The night before the consummation of their marriage, she dreamed

that a thunderbolt fell upon her body, which kindled a great fire,

whose divided flames dispersed themselves all about, and then were

extinguished. And Philip some time after he was married, dreamt

that he sealed up his wife's body with a seal, whose impression,

as he fancied, was the figure of a lion. Some of the diviners

interpreted this as a warning to Philip to look narrowly to his

wife; but Aristander of Telmessus, considering how unusual it was

to seal up anything that was empty, assured him the meaning of

his dream was, that the queen was with child of a boy, who would

one day prove as stout and courageous as a lion. Once, moreover,

a serpent was found lying by Olympias as she slept, which more

than anything else, it is said, abated Philip's passion for her;

and whether he feared her as an enchantress, or thought she had

commerce with some god, and so looked on himself as excluded, he

was ever after less fond of her conversation. Others say, that

the women of this country having always been extremely addicted

to the enthusiastic Orphic rites, and the wild worship of Bacchus,

(upon which account they were called Clodones, and Mimallones,)

imitated in many things the practices of the Edonian and Thracian

women about Mount Haemus, from whom the word threskeuein, seems

to have been derived, as a special term for superfluous and

over-curious forms of adoration; and that Olympias, zealously

affecting these fanatical and enthusiastic inspirations, to

perform them with more barbaric dread, was wont in the dances

proper to these ceremonies to have great tame serpents about her,

which sometimes creeping out of the ivy and the mystic fans,

sometimes winding themselves about the sacred spears, and the

women's chaplets, made a spectacle which the men could not look

upon without terror.

Philip, after this vision, sent Chaeron of Megalopolis to consult

the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, by which he was commanded to

perform sacrifice, and henceforth pay particular honor, above all

other gods, to Ammon; and was told he should one day lose that eye

with which he presumed to peep through the chink of the door, when

he saw the god, under the form of a serpent, in the company of his

wife. Eratosthenes says that Olympias, when she attended

Alexander on his way to the army in his first expedition, told him

the secret of his birth, and bade him behave himself with courage

suitable to his divine extraction. Others again affirm that she

wholly disclaimed any pretensions of the kind, and was wont to

say, "When will Alexander leave off slandering me to Juno?"

Alexander was born the sixth of Hecatombaeon, which month the

Macedonians call Lous, the same day that the temple of Diana at

Ephesus was burnt; which Hegesias of Magnesia makes the occasion

of a conceit, frigid enough to have stopped the conflagration.

The temple, he says, took fire and was burnt while its mistress

was absent, assisting at the birth of Alexander. And all the

Eastern soothsayers who happened to be then at Ephesus, looking

upon the ruin of this temple to be the forerunner of some other

calamity, ran about the town, beating their faces, and crying,

that this day had brought forth something that would prove fatal

and destructive to all Asia.

Just after Philip had taken Potidaea, he received these three

messages at one time, that Parmenio had overthrown the Illyrians

in a great battle, that his race-horse had won the course at the

Olympic games, and that his wife had given birth to Alexander;

with which being naturally well pleased, as an addition to his

satisfaction, he was assured by the diviners that a son, whose

birth was accompanied with three such successes, could not fail of

being invincible.

The statues that gave the best representation of Alexander's

person, were those of Lysippus, (by whom alone he would suffer his

image to be made,) those peculiarities which many of his

successors afterwards and his friends used to affect to imitate,

the inclination of his head a little on one side towards his left

shoulder, and his melting eye, having been expressed by this

artist with great exactness. But Apelles, who drew him with

thunderbolts in his hand, made his complexion browner and darker

than it was naturally; for he was fair and of a light color,

passing into ruddiness in his face and upon his breast.

Aristoxenus in his Memoirs tells us that a most agreeable odor

exhaled from his skin, and that his breath and body all over was

so fragrant as to perfume the clothes which he wore next him; the

cause of which might probably be the hot and adjust temperament of

his body. For sweet smells, Theophrastus conceives, are produced

by the concoction of moist humors by heat, which is the reason

that those parts of the world which are driest and most burnt up,

afford spices of the best kind, and in the greatest quantity; for

the heat of the sun exhausts all the superfluous moisture which

lies in the surface of bodies, ready to generate putrefaction.

And this hot constitution, it may be, rendered Alexander so

addicted to drinking, and so choleric. His temperance, as to the

pleasures of the body, was apparent in him in his very childhood,

as he was with much difficulty incited to them, and always used

them with great moderation; though in other things he was

extremely eager and vehement, and in his love of glory, and the

pursuit of it, he showed a solidity of high spirit and magnanimity

far above his age. For he neither sought nor valued it upon every

occasion, as his father Philip did, (who affected to show his

eloquence almost to a degree of pedantry, and took care to have

the victories of his racing chariots at the Olympic games

engraved on his coin,) but when he was asked by some about him,

whether he would run a race in the Olympic games, as he was very

swift-footed, he answered, he would, if he might have kings to run

with him. Indeed, he seems in general to have looked with

indifference, if not with dislike, upon the professed athletes.

He often appointed prizes, for which not only tragedians and

musicians, pipers and harpers, but rhapsodists also, strove to

outvie one another; and delighted in all manner of hunting and

cudgel-playing, but never gave any encouragement to contests

either of boxing or of the pancratium.

While he was yet very young, he entertained the ambassadors from

the king of Persia, in the absence of his father, and entering

much into conversation with them, gained so much upon them by his

affability, and the questions he asked them, which were far from

being childish or trifling, (for he inquired of them the length of

the ways, the nature of the road into inner Asia, the character of

their king, how he carried himself to his enemies, and what forces

he was able to bring, into the field,) that they were struck with

admiration of him, and looked upon the ability so much famed of

Philip, to be nothing in comparison with the forwardness and high

purpose that appeared thus early in his son. Whenever he heard

Philip had taken any town of importance, or won any signal

victory, instead of rejoicing at it altogether, he would tell his

companions that his father would anticipate everything, and leave

him and them no opportunities of performing great and illustrious

actions. For being more bent upon action and glory than either

upon pleasure or riches, he esteemed all that he should receive

from his father as a diminution and prevention of his own future

achievements; and would have chosen rather to succeed to a kingdom

involved in troubles and wars, which would have afforded him

frequent exercise of his courage, and a large field of honor, than

to one already flourishing and settled, where his inheritance

would be an inactive life, and the mere enjoyment of wealth and

luxury.

The care of his education, as it might be presumed, was committed

to a great many attendants, preceptors, and teachers, over the

whole of whom Leonidas, a near kinsman of Olympias, a man of an

austere temper, presided, who did not indeed himself decline the

name of what in reality is a noble and honorable office, but in

general his dignity, and his near relationship, obtained him from

other people the title of Alexander's foster father and governor.

But he who took upon him the actual place and style of his

pedagogue, was Lysimachus the Acarnanian, who, though he had

nothing specially to recommend him, but his lucky fancy of calling

himself Phoenix, Alexander Achilles, and Philip Peleus, was

therefore well enough esteemed, and ranked in the next degree

after Leonidas.

Philonicus the Thessalian brought the horse Bucephalas to Philip,

offering to sell him for thirteen talents; but when they went into

the field to try him, they found him so very vicious and

unmanageable, that he reared up when they endeavored to mount him,

and would not so much as endure the voice of any of Philip's

attendants. Upon which, as they were leading him away as wholly

useless and untractable, Alexander, who stood by, said, "What an

excellent horse do they lose, for want of address and boldness to

manage him!" Philip at first took no notice of what he said; but

when he heard him repeat the same thing several times, and saw he

was much vexed to see the horse sent away, "Do you reproach," said

he to him, "those who are older than yourself, as if you knew

more, and were better able to manage him than they?" "I could

manage this horse," replied he, "better than others do." "And if

you do not," said Philip, "what will you forfeit for your

rashness?" "I will pay," answered Alexander, "the whole price of

the horse." At this the whole company fell a laughing; and as

soon as the wager was settled amongst them, he immediately ran to

the horse, and taking hold of the bridle, turned him directly

towards the sun, having, it seems, observed that he was disturbed

at and afraid of the motion of his own shadow; then letting him go

forward a little, still keeping the reins in his hand, and

stroking him gently when he found him begin to grow eager and

fiery, he let fall his upper garment softly, and with one nimble

leap securely mounted him, and when he was seated, by little and

little drew in the bridle, and curbed him without either striking

or spurring him. Presently, when he found him free from all

rebelliousness, and on]y impatient for the course, he let him go

at full speed, inciting him now with a commanding voice, and

urging him also with his heel. Philip and his friends looked on

at first in silence and anxiety for the result, till seeing him

turn at the end of his career, and come back rejoicing and

triumphing for what he had performed, they all burst out into

acclamations of applause; and his father, shedding tears, it is

said, for joy, kissed him as he came down from his horse, and in

his transport, said, "O my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to

and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee."

After this, considering him to be of a temper easy to be led to

his duty by reason, but by no means to be compelled, he always

endeavored to persuade rather than to command or force him to

anything; and now looking upon the instruction and tuition of his

youth to be of greater difficulty and importance, than to be

wholly trusted to the ordinary masters in music and poetry, and

the common school subjects, and to require, as Sophocles says,

The bridle and the rudder too,

he sent for Aristotle, the most learned and most cerebrated

philosopher of his time, and rewarded him with a munificence

proportionable to and becoming the care he took to instruct his

son. For he repeopled his native city Stagira, which he had

caused to be demolished a little before, and restored all the

citizens who were in exile or slavery, to their habitations. As a

place for the pursuit of their studies and exercises, he assigned

the temple of the Nymphs, near Mieza, where, to this very day,

they show you Aristotle's stone seats, and the shady walks which

he was wont to frequent. It would appear that Alexander received

from him not only his doctrines of Morals, and of Politics, but

also something of those more abstruse and profound theories which

these philosophers, by the very names they gave them, professed

to reserve for oral communication to the initiated, and did not

allow many to become acquainted with. For when he was in Asia,

and heard Aristotle had published some treatises of that kind, he

wrote to him, using very plain language to him in behalf of

philosophy, the following letter. "Alexander to Aristotle

greeting. You have not done well to publish your books of oral

doctrine; for what is there now that we excel others in, if those

things which we have been particularly instructed in be laid open

to all? For my part, I assure you, I had rather excel others in

the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power

and dominion. Farewell." And Aristotle, soothing this passion

for preeminence, speaks, in his excuse for himself, of these

doctrines, as in fact both published and not published: as

indeed, to say the truth, his books on metaphysics are written in

a style which makes them useless for ordinary teaching, and

instructive only, in the way of memoranda, for those who have been

already conversant in that sort of learning.

Doubtless also it was to Aristotle, that he owed the inclination

he had, not to the theory only, but likewise to the practice of

the art of medicine. For when any of his friends were sick, he

would often prescribe them their course of diet, and medicines

proper to their disease, as we may find in his epistles. He was

naturally a great lover of all kinds of learning and reading; and

Onesicritus informs us, that he constantly laid Homer's Iliads,

according to the copy corrected by Aristotle, called the casket

copy, with his dagger under his pillow, declaring that he esteemed

it a perfect portable treasure of all military virtue and

knowledge. When he was in the upper Asia, being destitute of

other books, he ordered Harpalus to send him some; who furnished

him with Philistus's History, a great many of the plays of

Euripides, Sophocles, and Aeschylus, and some dithyrambic odes,

composed by Telestes and Philoxenus. For awhile he loved and

cherished Aristotle no less, as he was wont to say himself, than

if he had been his father, giving this reason for it, that as he

had received life from the one, so the other had taught him to

live well. But afterwards, upon some mistrust of him, yet not so

great as to make him do him any hurt, his familiarity and friendly

kindness to him abated so much of its former force and

affectionateness, as to make it evident he was alienated from him.

However, his violent thirst after and passion for learning, which

were once implanted, still grew up with him, and never decayed; as

appears by his veneration of Anaxarchus, by the present of fifty

talents which he sent to Xenocrates, and his particular care and

esteem of Dandamis and Calanus.

While Philip went on his expedition against the Byzantines, he

left Alexander, then sixteen years old, his lieutenant in

Macedonia, committing the charge of his seal to him; who, not to

sit idle, reduced the rebellious Maedi, and having taken their

chief town by storm, drove out the barbarous inhabitants, and

planting a colony of several nations in their room, called the

place after his own name, Alexandropolis. At the battle of

Chaeronea, which his father fought against the Grecians, he is

said to have been the first man that charged the Thebans' sacred

band. And even in my remembrance, there stood an old oak near the

river Cephisus, which people called Alexander's oak, because his

tent was pitched under it. And not far off are to be seen the

graves of the Macedonians who fell in that battle. This early

bravery made Philip so fond of him, that nothing pleased him more

than to hear his subjects call himself their general and Alexander

their king.

But the disorders of his family, chiefly caused by his new

marriages and attachments, (the troubles that began in the women's

chambers spreading, so to say, to the whole kingdom,) raised

various complaints and differences between them, which the

violence of Olympias, a woman of a jealous and implacable temper,

made wider, by exasperating Alexander against his father. Among

the rest, this accident contributed most to their falling out. At

the wedding of Cleopatra, whom Philip fell in love with and

married, she being much too young for him, her uncle Attalus in

his drink desired the Macedonians would implore the gods to give

them a lawful successor to the kingdom by his niece. This so

irritated Alexander, that throwing one of the cups at his head,

"You villain," said he, "what, am I then a bastard?" Then Philip

taking Attalus's part, rose up and would have run his son through;

but by good fortune for them both, either his over-hasty rage, or

the wine he had drunk, made his foot slip, so that he fell down on

the floor. At which Alexander reproachfully insulted over him:

"See there," said he, "the man, who makes preparations to pass out

of Europe into Asia, overturned in passing from one seat to

another." After this debauch, he and his mother Olympias withdrew

from Philip's company, and when he had placed her in Epirus, he

himself retired into Illyria.

About this time, Demaratus the Corinthian, an old friend of the

family, who had the freedom to say anything among them without

offense, coming to visit Philip, after the first compliments and

embraces were over, Philip asked him, whether the Grecians were at

amity with one another. "It ill becomes you," replied Demaratus,

"to be so solicitous about Greece, when you have involved your own

house in so many dissensions and calamities." He was so convinced

by this seasonable reproach, that he immediately sent for his son

home, and by Demartatus's mediation prevailed with him to return.

But this reconciliation lasted not long; for when Pixodorus,

viceroy of Caria, sent Aristocritus to treat for a match between

his eldest daughter and Philip's son Arrhidaeus, hoping by this

alliance to secure his assistance upon occasion, Alexander's

mother, and some who pretended to be his friends, presently filled

his head with tales and calumnies, as if Philip, by a splendid

marriage and important alliance, were preparing the way for

settling the kingdom upon Arrhidaeus. In alarm at this, he

dispatched Thessalus, the tragic actor, into Caria, to dispose

Pixodorus to slight Arrhidaeus, both as illegitimate and a fool,

and rather to accept of himself for his son-in-law. This

proposition was much more agreeable to Pixodorus than the former.

But Philip, as soon as he was made acquainted with this

transaction, went to his son's apartment, taking with him

Philotas, the son of Parmenio, one of Alexander's intimate friends

and companions, and there reproved him severely, and reproached

him bitterly, that he should be so degenerate, and unworthy of the

power he was to leave him, as to desire the alliance of a mean

Carian, who was at best but the slave of a barbarous prince. Nor

did this satisfy his resentment, for he wrote to the Corinthians,

to send Thessalus to him in chains, and banished Harpalus,

Nearchus, Erigyius, and Ptolemy, his son's friends and favorites,

whom Alexander afterwards recalled, and raised to great honor and

preferment.

Not long after this, Pausanias, having had an outrage done to him

at the instance of Attalus and Cleopatra, when he found he could

get no reparation for his disgrace at Philip's hands, watched his

opportunity and murdered him. The guilt of which fact was laid

for the most part upon Olympias, who was said to have encouraged

and exasperated the enraged youth to revenge; and some sort of

suspicion attached even to Alexander himself, who, it was said,

when Pausanias came and complained to him of the injury he had

received, repeated the verse out of Euripides's Medea: --

On husband, and on father, and on bride.

However, he took care to find out and punish the accomplices of

the conspiracy severely, and was very angry with Olympias for

treating Cleopatra inhumanly in his absence.

Alexander was but twenty years old when his father was murdered,

and succeeded to a kingdom beset on all sides with great dangers,

and rancorous enemies. For not only the barbarous nations that

bordered on Macedonia, were impatient of being governed by any but

their own native princes; but Philip likewise, though he had been

victorious over the Grecians, yet, as the time had not been

sufficient for him to complete his conquest and accustom them to

his sway, had simply left all things in a general disorder and

confusion. It seemed to the Macedonians a very critical time; and

some would have persuaded Alexander to give up all thought of

retaining the Grecians in subjection by force of arms, and rather

to apply himself to win back by gentle means the allegiance of the

tribes who were designing revolt, and try the effect of indulgence

in arresting the first motions towards revolution. But he

rejected this counsel as weak and timorous, and looked upon it to

be more prudence to secure himself by resolution and magnanimity,

than, by seeming to buckle to any, to encourage all to trample on

him. In pursuit of this opinion, he reduced the barbarians to

tranquility, and put an end to all fear of war from them, by a

rapid expedition into their country as far as the river Danube,

where he gave Syrmus, king of the Triballians, an entire

overthrow. And hearing the Thebans were in revolt, and the

Athenians in correspondence with them, he immediately marched

through the pass of Thermopylae, saying that to Demosthenes who

had called him a child while he was in Illyria and in the country

of the Triballians, and a youth when he was in Thessaly, he would

appear a man before the walls of Athens.

When he came to Thebes, to show how willing he was to accept of

their repentance for what was past, he only demanded of them

Phoenix and Prothytes, the authors of the rebellion, and

proclaimed a general pardon to those who would come over to him.

But when the Thebans merely retorted by demanding Philotas and

Antipater to be delivered into their hands, and by a proclamation

on their part, invited all who would assert the liberty of Greece

to come over to them, he presently applied himself to make them

feel the last extremities of war. The Thebans indeed defended

themselves with a zeal and courage beyond their strength, being

much outnumbered by their enemies. But when the Macedonian garrison

sallied out upon them from the citadel, they were so hemmed in on

all sides, that the greater part of them fell in the battle; the

city itself being taken by storm, was sacked and razed,

Alexander's hope being that so severe an example might terrify the

rest of Greece into obedience, and also in order to gratify the

hostility of his confederates, the Phocians and Plataeans. So

that, except the priests, and some few who had heretofore been the

friends and connections of the Macedonians, the family of the poet

Pindar, and those who were known to have opposed the public vote

for the war, all the rest, to the number of thirty thousand, were

publicly sold for slaves; and it is computed that upwards of six

thousand were put to the sword. Among the other calamities that

befell the city, it happened that some Thracian soldiers having

broken into the house of a matron of high character and repute,

named Timoclea, their captain, after he had used violence with

her, to satisfy his avarice as well as lust, asked her, if she

knew of any money concealed; to which she readily answered she

did, and bade him follow her into a garden, where she showed him a

well, into which, she told him, upon the taking of the city she

had thrown what she had of most value. The greedy Thracian

presently stooping down to view the place where he thought the

treasure lay, she came behind him, and pushed him into the well,

and then flung great stones in upon him, till she had killed him.

After which, when the soldiers led her away bound to Alexander,

her very mien and gait showed her to be a woman of dignity, and of

a mind no less elevated, not betraying the least sign of fear or

astonishment. And when the king asked her who she was, "I am,"

said she, "the sister of Theagenes, who fought the battle of

Chaeronea with your father Philip, and fell there in command for

the liberty of Greece." Alexander was so surprised, both at what

she had done, and what she said, that he could not choose but give

her and her children their freedom to go whither they pleased.

After this he received the Athenians into favor, although they had

shown themselves so much concerned at the calamity of Thebes that

out of sorrow they omitted the celebration of the Mysteries, and

entertained those who escaped with all possible humanity. Whether

it were, like the lion, that his passion was now satisfied, or

that after an example of extreme cruelty, he had a mind to appear

merciful, it happened well for the Athenians; for he not only

forgave them all past offenses, but bade them to look to their

affairs with vigilance, remembering that if he should miscarry,

they were likely to be the arbiters of Greece. Certain it is,

too, that in after-time he often repented of his severity to the

Thebans, and his remorse had such influence on his temper as to

make him ever after less rigorous to all others. He imputed also

the murder of Clitus, which he committed in his wine, and the

unwillingness of the Macedonians to follow him against the

Indians, by which his enterprise and glory was left imperfect, to

the wrath and vengeance of Bacchus, the protector of Thebes. And

it was observed that whatsoever any Theban, who had the good

fortune to survive this victory, asked of him, he was sure to

grant without the least difficulty.

Soon after, the Grecians, being assembled at the Isthmus, declared

their resolution of joining with Alexander in the war against the

Persians, and proclaimed him their general. While he stayed here,

many public ministers and philosophers came from all parts to

visit him, and congratulated him on his election, but contrary to

his expectation, Diogenes of Sinope, who then was living at

Corinth, thought so little of him, that instead of coming to

compliment him, he never so much as stirred out of the suburb

called the Cranium, where Alexander found him lying along in the

sun. When he saw so much company near him, he raised himself a

little, and vouchsafed to look upon Alexander; and when he kindly

asked him whether he wanted anything, "Yes," said he, "I would

have you stand from between me and the sun." Alexander was so

struck at this answer, and surprised at the greatness of the man,

who had taken so little notice of him, that as he went away, he

told his followers who were laughing at the moroseness of the

philosopher, that if he were not Alexander, he would choose to be

Diogenes.

Then he went to Delphi, to consult Apollo concerning the success

of the war he had undertaken, and happening to come on one of the

forbidden days, when it was esteemed improper to give any answers

from the oracle, he sent messengers to desire the priestess to do

her office; and when she refused, on the plea of a law to the

contrary, he went up himself, and began to draw her by force into

the temple, until tired and overcome with his importunity, "My

son," said she, "thou art invincible." Alexander taking hold of

what she spoke, declared he had received such an answer as he

wished for, and that it was needless to consult the god any

further. Among other prodigies that attended the departure of his

army, the image of Orpheus at Libethra, made of cypress-wood, was

seen to sweat in great abundance, to the discouragement of many.

But Aristander told him, that far from presaging any ill to him,

it signified he should perform acts so important and glorious as

would make the poets and musicians of future ages labor and sweat

to describe and celebrate them.

His army, by their computation who make the smallest amount,

consisted of thirty thousand foot, and four thousand horse; and

those who make the most of it, speak but of forty-three thousand

foot, and three thousand horse. Aristobulus says, he had not a

fund of above seventy talents for their pay, nor had he more than

thirty days' provision, if we may believe Duris; Onesicritus tells

us, he was two hundred talents in debt. However narrow and

disproportionable the beginnings of so vast an undertaking might

seem to be, yet he would not embark his army until he had informed

himself particularly what means his friends had to enable them to

follow him, and supplied what they wanted, by giving good farms to

some, a village to one, and the revenue of some hamlet or harbor

town to another. So that at last he had portioned out or engaged

almost all the royal property; which giving Perdiccas an occasion

to ask him what he would leave himself, he replied, his hopes.

"Your soldiers," replied Perdiccas, "will be your partners in

those," and refused to accept of the estate he had assigned him.

Some others of his friends did the like, but to those who

willingly received, or desired assistance of him, he liberally

granted it, as far as his patrimony in Macedonia would reach, the

most part of which was spent in these donations.

With such vigorous resolutions, and his mind thus disposed, he

passed the Hellespont, and at Troy sacrificed to Minerva, and

honored the memory of the heroes who were buried there, with

solemn libations; especially Achilles, whose gravestone he

anointed, and with his friends, as the ancient custom is, ran

naked about his sepulchre, and crowned it with garlands, declaring

how happy he esteemed him, in having while he lived so faithful a

friend, and when he was dead, so famous a poet to proclaim his

actions. While he was viewing the rest of the antiquities and

curiosities of the place, being told he might see Paris's harp, if

he pleased, he said, he thought it not worth looking on, but he

should be glad to see that of Achilles, to which he used to sing

the glories and great actions of brave men.

In the meantime Darius's captains having collected large forces,

were encamped on the further bank of the river Granicus, and it

was necessary to fight, as it were, in the gate of Asia for an

entrance into it. The depth of the river, with the unevenness and

difficult ascent of the opposite bank, which was to be gained by

main force, was apprehended by most, and some pronounced it an

improper time to engage, because it was unusual for the kings of

Macedonia to march with their forces in the month called Daesius.

But Alexander broke through these scruples, telling; them they

should call it a second Artemisius. And when Parmenio advised him

not to attempt anything that day, because it was late, he told

him that he should disgrace the Hellespont, should he fear the

Granicus. And so without more saying, he immediately took the

river with thirteen troops of horse, and advanced against whole

showers of darts thrown from the steep opposite side, which was

covered with armed multitudes of the enemy's horse and foot,

notwithstanding the disadvantage of the ground and the rapidity of

the stream; so that the action seemed to have more of frenzy and

desperation in it, than of prudent conduct. However, he persisted

obstinately to gain the passage, and at last with much ado making

his way up the banks, which were extremely muddy and slippery, he

had instantly to join in a mere confused hand-to-hand combat with

the enemy, before he could draw up his men, who were still passing

over, into any order. For the enemy pressed upon him with loud

and warlike outcries; and charging horse against horse, with their

lances, after they had broken and spent these, they fell to it

with their swords. And Alexander, being easily known by his

buckler, and a large plume of white feathers on each side of his

helmet, was attacked on all sides, yet escaped wounding, though

his cuirass was pierced by a javelin in one of the joinings. And

Rhoesaces and Spithridates, two Persian commanders, falling upon

him at once, he avoided one of them, and struck at Rhoesaces, who

had a good cuirass on, with such force, that his spear breaking in

his hand, he was glad to betake himself to his dagger. While they

were thus engaged, Spithridates came up on one side of him, and

raising himself upon his horse, gave him such a blow with his

battle-axe on the helmet, that he cut off the crest of it, with

one of his plumes, and the helmet was only just so far strong

enough to save him, that the edge of the weapon touched the hair

of his head. But as he was about to repeat his stroke, Clitus,

called the black Clitus, prevented him, by running him through the

body with his spear. At the same time Alexander dispatched

Rhoesaces with his sword. While the horse were thus dangerously

engaged, the Macedonian phalanx passed the river, and the foot on

each side advanced to fight. But the enemy hardly sustaining the

first onset, soon gave ground and fled, all but the mercenary

Greeks, who, making a stand upon a rising ground, desired quarter,

which Alexander, guided rather by passion than judgment, refused

to grant, and charging them himself first, had his horse (not

Bucephalas, but another) killed under him. And this obstinacy of

his to cut off these experienced desperate men, cost him the lives

of more of his own soldiers than all the battle before, besides

those who were wounded. The Persians lost in this battle twenty

thousand foot, and two thousand five hundred horse. On

Alexander's side, Aristobulus says there were not wanting above

four and thirty, of whom nine were foot-soldiers; and in memory of

them he caused so many statues of brass, of Lysippus's making, to

be erected. And that the Grecians might participate the honor of

his victory, he sent a portion of the spoils home to them,

particularly to the Athenians three hundred bucklers, and upon all

the rest he ordered this inscription to be set: "Alexander the

son of Philip, and the Grecians, except the Lacedaemonians, won

these from the barbarians who inhabit Asia." All the plate and

purple garments, and other things of the same kind that he took

from the Persians, except a very small quantity which he reserved

for himself, he sent as a present to his mother.

This battle presently made a great change of affairs to

Alexander's advantage. For Sardis itself, the chief seat of the

barbarian's power in the maritime provinces, and many other

considerable places were surrendered to him; only Halicarnassus

and Miletus stood out, which he took by force, together with the

territory about them. After which he was a little unsettled in

his opinion how to proceed. Sometimes he thought it best to find

out Darius as soon as he could, and put all to the hazard of a

battle; another while he looked upon it as a more prudent course

to make an entire reduction of the sea-coast, and not to seek the

enemy till he had first exercised his power here and made himself

secure of the resources of these provinces. While he was thus

deliberating what to do, it happened that a spring of water near

the city of Xanthus in Lycia, of its own accord swelled over its

banks, and threw up a copper plate upon the margin, in which was

engraven in ancient characters, that the time would come, when the

Persian empire should be destroyed by the Grecians. Encouraged by

this accident, he proceeded to reduce the maritime parts of

Cilicia and Phoenicia, and passed his army along the sea-coasts of

Pamphylia with such expedition that many historians have described

and extolled it with that height of admiration, as if it were no

less than a miracle, and an extraordinary effect of divine favor,

that the waves which usually come rolling in violently from the

main, and hardly ever leave so much as a narrow beach under the

steep, broken cliffs at any time uncovered, should on a sudden

retire to afford him passage. Menander, in one of his comedies,

alludes to this marvel when he says,

Was Alexander ever favored more?

Each man I wish for meets me at my door,

And should I ask for passage through the sea,

The sea I doubt not would retire for me.

But Alexander himself in his epistles mentions nothing unusual in

this at all, but says he went from Phaselis, and passed through

what they call the Ladders. At Phaselis he stayed some time, and

finding the statue of Theodectes, who was a native of this town

and was now dead, erected in the marketplace, after he had supped,

having drunk pretty plentifully, he went and danced about it, and

crowned it with garlands, honoring not ungracefully in his sport,

the memory of a philosopher whose conversation he had formerly

enjoyed, when he was Aristotle's scholar.

Then he subdued the Pisidians who made head against him, and

conquered the Phrygians, at whose chief city Gordium, which is

said to be the seat of the ancient Midas, he saw the famous

chariot fastened with cords made of the rind of the corner-tree,

which whosoever should untie, the inhabitants had a tradition,

that for him was reserved the empire of the world. Most authors

tell the story that Alexander, finding himself unable to untie the

knot, the ends of which were secretly twisted round and folded up

within it, cut it asunder with his sword. But Aristobulus tells

us it was easy for him to undo it, by only pulling the pin out of

the pole, to which the yoke was tied, and afterwards drawing off

the yoke itself from below. From hence he advanced into

Paphlagonia and Cappadocia, both which countries he soon reduced

to obedience, and then hearing of the death of Memnon, the best

commander Darius had upon the sea-coasts, who, if he had lived,

might, it was supposed, have put many impediments and difficulties

in the way of the progress of his arms, he was the rather

encouraged to carry the war into the upper provinces of Asia.

Darius was by this time upon his march from Susa, very confident,

not only in the number of his men, which amounted to six hundred

thousand, but likewise in a dream, which the Persian soothsayers

interpreted rather in flattery to him, than according to the

natural probability. He dreamed that he saw the Macedonian

phalanx all on fire, and Alexander waiting on him, clad in the

same dress which he himself had been used to wear when he was

courier to the late king; after which, going into the temple of

Belus, he vanished out of his sight. The dream would appear to

have supernaturally signified to him the illustrious actions the

Macedonians were to perform, and that as he from a courier's place

had risen to the throne, so Alexander should come to be master of

Asia, and not long surviving his conquests, conclude his life with

glory. Darius's confidence increased the more, because Alexander

spent so much time in Cilicia, which he imputed to his cowardice.

But it was sickness that detained him there, which some say he

contracted from his fatigues, others from bathing in the river

Cydnus, whose waters were exceedingly cold. However it happened,

none of his physicians would venture to give him any remedies,

they thought his case so desperate, and were so afraid of the

suspicions and ill-will of the Macedonians if they should fail in

the cure; till Philip, the Acarnanian, seeing how critical his

case was, but relying on his own well-known friendship for him,

resolved to try the last efforts of his art, and rather hazard his

own credit and life, than suffer him to perish for want of physic,

which he confidently administered to him, encouraging him to take

it boldly, if he desired a speedy recovery, in order to prosecute

the war. At this very time, Parmenio wrote to Alexander from the

camp, bidding him have a care of Philip, as one who was bribed by

Darius to kill him, with great sums of money, and a promise of his

daughter in marriage. When he had perused the letter, he put it

under his pillow, without showing it so much as to any of his most

intimate friends, and when Philip came in with the potion, he took

it with great cheerfulness and assurance, giving him meantime the

letter to read. This was a spectacle well worth being present at,

to see Alexander take the draught, and Philip read the letter at

the same time, and then turn and look upon one another, but with

different sentiments; for Alexander's looks were cheerful and

open, to show his kindness to and confidence in his physician,

while the other was full of surprise and alarm at the accusation,

appealing to the gods to witness his innocence, sometimes lifting

up his hands to heaven, and then throwing himself down by the

bedside, and beseeching Alexander to lay aside all fear, and

follow his directions without apprehension. For the medicine at

first worked so strongly as to drive, so to say, the vital forces

into the interior; he lost his speech, and falling into a swoon,

had scarce any sense or pulse left. However, in no long time, by

Philip's means, his health and strength returned, and he showed

himself in public to the Macedonians, who were in continual fear

and dejection until they saw him abroad again.

There was at this time in Darius's army a Macedonian refugee,

named Amyntas, one who was pretty well acquainted with Alexander's

character. This man, when he saw Darius intended to fall upon the

enemy in the passes and defiles, advised him earnestly to keep

where he was, in the open and extensive plains, it being the

advantage of a numerous army to have field-room enough when it

engages with a lesser force. Darius, instead of taking his

counsel, told him he was afraid the enemy would endeavor to run

away, and so Alexander would escape out of his hands. "That

fear," replied Amyntas, "is needless, for assure yourself that far

from avoiding, you, he will make all the speed he can to meet you,

and is now most likely on his march towards you." But Amyntas's

counsel was to no purpose, for Darius immediately decamping,

marched into Cilicia, at the same time that Alexander advanced

into Syria to meet him; and missing one another in the night, they

both turned back again. Alexander, greatly pleased with the

event, made all the haste he could to fight in the defiles, and

Darius to recover his former ground, and draw his army out of so

disadvantageous a place. For now he began to perceive his error

in engaging himself too far in a country in which the sea, the

mountains, and the river Pinarus running through the midst of it,

would necessitate him to divide his forces, render his horse

almost unserviceable, and only cover and support the weakness of

the enemy. Fortune was not kinder to Alexander in the choice of

the ground, than he was careful to improve it to his advantage.

For being much inferior in numbers, so far from allowing himself

to be outflanked, he stretched his right wing much further out

than the left wing of his enemies, and fighting there himself in

the very foremost ranks, put the barbarians to flight. In this

battle he was wounded in the thigh, Chares says by Darius, with

whom he fought hand to hand. But in the account which he gave

Antipater of the battle though indeed he owns he was wounded in

the thigh with sword, though not dangerously, yet he takes no

notice who it was that wounded him.

Nothing was wanting to complete this victory, in which he

overthrew above a hundred and ten thousand of his enemies, but

the taking the person of Darius, who escaped very narrowly by

flight. However, having taken his chariot and his bow, he

returned from pursuing him, and found his own men busy in

pillaging the barbarians' camp, which (though to disburden

themselves, they had left most of their baggage at Damascus) was

exceedingly rich. But Darius's tent, which was full of splendid

furniture, and quantities of gold and silver, they reserved for

Alexander himself, who after he had put off his arms, went to

bathe himself, saying, "Let us now cleanse ourselves from the

toils of war in the bath of Darius." "Not so," replied one of his

followers, "but in Alexander's rather; for the property of the

conquered is, and should be called the conqueror's." Here, when

he beheld the bathing vessels, the water-pots, the pans, and the

ointment boxes, all of gold, curiously wrought, and smelt the

fragrant odors with which the whole place was exquisitely

perfumed, and from thence passed into a pavilion of great size and

height, where the couches and tables and preparations for an

entertainment were perfectly magnificent, he turned to those about

him and said, "This, it seems, is royalty."

But as he was going to supper, word was brought him that Darius's

mother and wife and two unmarried daughters, being taken among the

rest of the prisoners, upon the sight of his chariot and bow were

all in mourning and sorrow, imagining him to be dead. After a

little pause, more livelily affected with their affliction than

with his own success he sent Leonnatus to them to let them know

Darius was not dead, and that they need not fear any harm from

Alexander, who made war upon him only for dominion; they should

themselves be provided with everything they had been used to

receive from Darius. This kind message could not but be very

welcome to the captive ladies, especially being made good by

actions no less humane and generous. For he gave them leave to

bury whom they pleased of the Persians, and to make use for this

purpose of what garments and furniture they thought fit out of the

booty. He diminished nothing of their equipage, or of the

attentions and respect formerly paid them, and allowed larger

pensions for their maintenance than they had before. But the

noblest and most royal part of their usage was, that he treated

these illustrious prisoners according to their virtue and

character, not suffering them to hear, or receive, or so much as

to apprehend anything that was unbecoming. So that they seemed

rather lodged in some temple, or some holy virgin chambers, where

they enjoyed their privacy sacred and uninterrupted, than in the

camp of an enemy. Nevertheless Darius's wife was accounted the

most beautiful princess then living, as her husband the tallest

and handsomest man of his time, and the daughters were not

unworthy of their parents. But Alexander, esteeming it more

kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies, sought no

intimacy with any one of them, nor indeed with any other woman

before marriage, except Barsine, Memnon's widow, who was taken

prisoner at Damascus. She had been instructed in the Grecian

learning, was of a gentle temper, and, by her father Artabazus,

royally descended, which good qualities, added to the

solicitations and encouragement of Parmenio, as Aristobulus tells

us, made him the more willing to attach himself to so agreeable

and illustrious a woman. Of the rest of the female captives

though remarkably handsome and well proportioned, he took no

further notice than to say jestingly, that Persian women were

terrible eye-sores. And he himself, retaliating, as it were, by

the display of the beauty of his own temperance and self-control,

bade them be removed, as he would have done so many lifeless

images. When Philoxenus, his lieutenant on the sea-coast, wrote

to him to know if he would buy two young boys, of great beauty,

whom one Theodorus, a Tarentine, had to sell, he was so offended,

that he often expostulated with his friends, what baseness

Philoxenus had ever observed in him, that he should presume to

make him such a reproachful offer. And he immediately wrote him a

very sharp letter, telling him Theodorus and his merchandise might

go with his good-will to destruction. Nor was he less severe to

Hagnon, who sent him word he would buy a Corinthian youth named

Crobylus, as a present for him. And hearing that Damon and

Timotheus, two of Parmenio's Macedonian soldiers, had abused the

wives of some strangers who were in his pay, he wrote to Parmenio,

charging him strictly, if he found them guilty, to put them to

death, as wild beasts that were only made for the mischief of

mankind. In the same letter he added, that he had not so much as

seen or desired to see the wife of Darius, no, nor suffered

anybody to speak of her beauty before him. He was wont to say,

that sleep and the act of generation chiefly made him sensible

that he was mortal; as much as to say, that weariness and pleasure

proceed both from the same frailty and imbecility of human nature.

In his diet, also, he was most temperate, as appears, omitting

many other circumstances, by what he said to Ada, whom he adopted,

with the title of mother, and afterwards created queen of Caria.

For when she out of kindness sent him every day many curious

dishes, and sweetmeats, and would have furnished him with some

cooks and pastry-men, who were thought to have great skill, he

told her he wanted none of them, his preceptor, Leonidas, having

already given him the best, which were a night march to prepare

for breakfast, and a moderate breakfast to create an appetite for

supper. Leonidas also, he added, used to open and search the

furniture of his chamber, and his wardrobe, to see if his mother

had left him anything that was delicate or superfluous. He was

much less addicted to wine than was generally believed; that which

gave people occasion to think so of him was, that when he had

nothing else to do, he loved to sit long and talk, rather than

drink, and over every cup hold a long conversation. For when his

affairs called upon him, he would not be detained, as other

generals often were, either by wine, or sleep, nuptial

solemnities, spectacles, or any other diversion whatsoever; a

convincing argument of which is, that in the short time he lived,

he accomplished so many and so great actions. When he was free

from employment, after he was up, and had sacrificed to the gods,

he used to sit down to breakfast, and then spend the rest of the

day in hunting, or writing memoirs, giving decisions on some

military questions, or reading. In marches that required no great

haste, he would practice shooting as he went along, or to mount a

chariot, and alight from it in full speed. Sometimes, for sport's

sake, as his journals tell us, he would hunt foxes and go fowling.

When he came in for the evening, after he had bathed and was

anointed, he would call for his bakers and chief cooks, to know if

they had his dinner ready. He never cared to dine till it was

pretty late and beginning to be dark, and was wonderfully

circumspect at meals that everyone who sat with him should be

served alike and with proper attention; and his love of talking,

as was said before, made him delight to sit long at his wine. And

then, though otherwise no prince's conversation was ever so

agreeable, he would fall into a temper of ostentation and soldierly

boasting, which gave his flatterers a great advantage to ride him,

and made his better friends very uneasy. For though they thought

it too base to strive who should flatter him most, yet they found

it hazardous not to do it; so that between the shame and the

danger, they were in a great strait how to behave themselves.

After such an entertainment, he was wont to bathe, and then

perhaps he would sleep till noon, and sometimes all day long. He

was so very temperate in his eating, that when any rare fish or

fruits were sent him, he would distribute them among his friends,

and often reserve nothing for himself. His table, however, was

always magnificent, the expense of it still increasing with his

good fortune, till it amounted to ten thousand drachmas a day, to

which sum he limited it, and beyond this he would suffer none to

lay out in any entertainment where he himself was the guest.

After the battle of Issus, he sent to Damascus to seize upon the

money and baggage, the wives and children of the Persians, of

which spoil the Thessalian horsemen had the greatest share; for

he had taken particular notice of their gallantry in the fight,

and sent them thither on purpose to make their reward suitable to

their courage. Not but that the rest of the army had so

considerable a part of the booty as was sufficient to enrich them

all. This first gave the Macedonians such a taste of the Persian

wealth and women and barbaric splendor of living, that they were

ready to pursue and follow upon it with all the eagerness of

hounds upon a scent. But Alexander, before he proceeded any

further, thought it necessary to assure himself of the sea-coast.

Those who governed in Cyprus, put that island into his possession,

and Phoenicia, Tyre only excepted, was surrendered to him. During

the siege of this city, which with mounds of earth cast up, and

battering engines, and two hundred galleys by sea, was carried on

for seven months together, he dreamt that he saw Hercules upon the

walls, reaching, out his hand, and calling to him. And many of

the Tyrians in their sleep, fancied that Apollo told them he was

displeased with their actions, and was about to leave them and go

over to Alexander. Upon which, as if the god had been a deserting

soldier, they seized him, so to say, in the act, tied down the

statue with ropes, and nailed it to the pedestal, reproaching him,

that he was a favorer of Alexander. Another time, Alexander

dreamed he saw a Satyr mocking him at a distance, and when he

endeavored to catch him, he still escaped from him, till at last

with much perseverance, and running about after him, he got him

into his power. The soothsayers making two words of Satyrus,

assured him, that Tyre should he his own. The inhabitants at this

time show a spring of water, near which they say Alexander slept,

when he fancied the Satyr appeared to him.

While the body of the army lay before Tyre, he made an excursion

against the Arabians who inhabit the Mount Antilibanus, in which

he hazarded his life extremely to bring off his master Lysimachus,

who would needs go along with him, declaring he was neither older

nor inferior in courage to Phoenix, Achilles's guardian. For

when, quitting their horses, they began to march up the hills on

foot, the rest of the soldiers outwent them a great deal, so that

night drawing on, and the enemy near, Alexander was fain to stay

behind so long, to encourage and help up the lagging and tired old

man, that before he was aware, he was left behind, a great way

from his soldiers, with a slender attendance, and forced to pass

an extremely cold night in the dark, and in a very inconvenient

place; till seeing a great many scattered fires of the enemy at

some distance, and trusting to his agility of body, and as he was

always wont by undergoing toils and labors himself to cheer and

support the Macedonians in any distress, he ran straight to one of

the nearest fires, and with his dagger dispatching two of the

barbarians that sat by it, snatched up a lighted brand, and

returned with it to his own men. They immediately made a great

fire, which so alarmed the enemy that most of them fled, and those

that assaulted them were soon routed, and thus they rested

securely the remainder of the night. Thus Chares writes.

But to return to the siege, it had this issue. Alexander, that he

might refresh his army, harassed with many former encounters, had

led only a small party towards the walls, rather to keep the enemy

busy, than with any prospect of much advantage. It happened at

this time that Aristander, the soothsayer, after he had

sacrificed, upon view of the entrails, affirmed confidently to

those who stood by, that the city should be certainly taken that

very month, upon which there was a laugh and some mockery among

the soldiers, as this was the last day of it. The king seeing him

in perplexity, and always anxious to support the credit of the

predictions, gave order that they should not count it as the

thirtieth, but as the twenty-third of the month, and ordering the

trumpets to sound, attacked the walls more seriously than he at

first intended. The sharpness of the assault so inflamed the rest

of his forces who were left in the camp, that they could not hold

from advancing to second it, which they performed with so much

vigor, that the Tyrians retired, and the town was carried that

very day. The next place he sat down before was Gaza, one of the

largest cities of Syria, where this accident befell him. A large

bird flying over him, let a clod of earth fall upon his shoulder,

and then settling upon one of the battering engines, was suddenly

entangled and caught in the nets composed of sinews, which

protected the ropes with which the machine was managed. This fell

out exactly according to Aristander's prediction, which was, that

Alexander should be wounded, and the city reduced.

From hence he sent great part of the spoils to Olympias,

Cleopatra, and the rest of his friends, not omitting his preceptor

Leonidas, on whom he bestowed five hundred talents weight of

frankincense, and a hundred of myrrh, in remembrance of the hopes

he had once expressed of him when he was but a child. For

Leonidas, it seems, standing by him one day while he was

sacrificing, and seeing him take both his hands full of incense to

throw into the fire, told him it became him to be more sparing in

his offerings, and not be so profuse till he was master of the

countries which those sweet gums and spices came from. So

Alexander now wrote to him, saying, "We have sent you abundance of

myrrh and frankincense, that for the future you may not be stingy

to the gods." Among the treasures and other booty that was taken

from Darius, there was a very precious casket, which being brought

to Alexander for a great rarity, he asked those about him what

they thought fittest to be laid up in it; and when they had

delivered their various opinions, he told them he should keep

Homer's Iliad in it. This is attested by many credible authors,

and if what those of Alexandria tell us, relying upon the

authority of Heraclides, be true, Homer was neither an idle, nor

an unprofitable companion to him in his expedition. For when he

was master of Egypt, designing to settle a colony of Grecians

there, he resolved to build a large and populous city, and give

it his own name. In order to which, after he had measured and

staked out the ground with the advice of the best architects, he

chanced one night in his sleep to see a wonderful vision; a

grey-headed old man, of a venerable aspect, appeared to stand by

him, and pronounce these verses:--

An island lies, where loud the billows roar,

Pharos they call it, on the Egyptian shore.

Alexander upon this immediately rose up and went to Pharos, which,

at that time, was an island lying a little above the Canobic mouth

of the river Nile, though it has now been joined to the main land

by a mole. As soon as he saw the commodious situation of the

place, it being a long neck of land, stretching like an isthmus

between large lagoons and shallow waters on one side, and the sea

on the other, the latter at the end of it making a spacious

harbor, he said, Homer, besides his other excellences, was a very

good architect, and ordered the plan of a city to be drawn out

answerable to the place. To do which, for want of chalk, the soil

being black, they laid out their lines with flour, taking in a

pretty large compass of ground in a semicircular figure, and

drawing into the inside of the circumference equal straight lines

from each end, thus giving it something of the form of a cloak or

cape. While he was pleasing himself with his design, on a sudden

an infinite number of great birds of several kinds, rising like a

black cloud out of the river and the lake, devoured every morsel

of the flour that had been used in setting out the lines; at which

omen even Alexander himself was troubled, till the augurs restored

his confidence again by telling him, it was a sign the city he was

about to build would not only abound in all things within itself,

but also be the nurse and feeder of many nations. He commanded

the workmen to proceed, while he went to visit the temple of

Ammon.

This was a long and painful, and, in two respects, a dangerous

journey; first, if they should lose their provision of water, as

for several days none could be obtained; and, secondly, if a

violent south wind should rise upon them, while they were

traveling through the wide extent of deep sands, as it is said to

have done when Cambyses led his army that way, blowing the sand

together in heaps, and raising, as it were, the whole desert like

a sea upon them, till fifty thousand were swallowed up and

destroyed by it. All these difficulties were weighed and

represented to him; but Alexander was not easily to be diverted

from anything he was bent upon. For fortune having hitherto

seconded him in his designs, made him resolute and firm in his

opinions, and the boldness of his temper raised a sort of passion

in him for surmounting difficulties; as if it were not enough to

be always victorious in the field, unless places and seasons and

nature herself submitted to him. In this journey, the relief and

assistance the gods afforded him in his distresses, were more

remarkable, and obtained greater belief than the oracles he

received afterwards, which, however, were valued and credited the

more on account of those occurrences. For first, plentiful rains

that fell, preserved them from any fear of perishing by drought,

and, allaying the extreme dryness of the sand, which now became

moist and firm to travel on, cleared and purified the air.

Besides this, when they were out of their way, and were wandering

up and down, because the marks which were wont to direct the

guides were disordered and lost, they were set right again by some

ravens, which flew before them when on their march, and waited for

them when they lingered and fell behind; and the greatest miracle,

as Callisthenes tells us, was that if any of the company went

astray in the night, they never ceased croaking and making a

noise, till by that means they had brought them into the right way

again. Having passed through the wilderness, they came to the

place; where the high-priest at the first salutation bade

Alexander welcome from his father Ammon. And being asked by him

whether any of his father's murderers had escaped punishment, he

charged him to speak with more respect, since his was not a mortal

father. Then Alexander, changing his expression, desired to know

of him if any of those who murdered Philip were yet unpunished,

and further concerning dominion, whether the empire of the world

was reserved for him? This, the god answered, he should obtain,

and that Philip's death was fully revenged, which gave him so much

satisfaction, that he made splendid offerings to Jupiter, and gave

the priests very rich presents. This is what most authors write

concerning the oracles. But Alexander, in a letter to his mother,

tells her there were some secret answers, which at his return he

would communicate to her only. Others say that the priest,

desirous as a piece of courtesy to address him in Greek, "O

Paidion," by a slip in pronunciation ended with the s instead of

the n, and said, "O Paidios," which mistake Alexander was well

enough pleased with, and it went for current that the oracle had

called him so.

Among the sayings of one Psammon, a philosopher, whom he heard in

Egypt, he most approved of this, that all men are governed by God,

because in everything, that which is chief and commands, is

divine. But what he pronounced himself upon this subject, was

even more like a philosopher, for he said, God was the common

father of us all, but more particularly of the best of us. To the

barbarians he carried himself very haughtily, as if he were fully

persuaded of his divine birth and parentage; but to the Grecians

more moderately, and with less affectation of divinity, except it

were once in writing to the Athenians about Samos, when he tells

them that he should not himself have bestowed upon them that free

and glorious city; "You received it," he says, "from the bounty of

him who at that time was called my lord and father," meaning

Philip. However, afterwards being wounded with an arrow, and

feeling much pain, he turned to those about him, and told them,

"This, my friends, is real flowing blood, not Ichor,

"Such as immortal gods are wont to shed."

And another time, when it thundered so much that everybody was

afraid, and Anaxarchus, the sophist, asked him if he who was

Jupiter's son could do anything like this, "Nay," said Alexander,

laughing, "I have no desire to be formidable to my friends, as you

would have me, who despised my table for being furnished with

fish, and not with the heads of governors of provinces." For in

fact it is related as true, that Anaxarchus seeing a present of

small fishes, which the king sent to Hephaestion, had used this

expression, in a sort of irony, and disparagement of those who

undergo vast labors and encounter great hazards in pursuit of

magnificent objects, which after all bring them little more

pleasure or enjoyment than what others have. From what I have

said upon this subject, it is apparent that Alexander in himself

was not foolishly affected, or had the vanity to think himself

really a god, but merely used his claims to divinity as a means of

maintaining among other people the sense of his superiority.

At his return out of Egypt into Phoenicia, he sacrificed and made

solemn processions, to which were added shows of lyric dances and

tragedies, remarkable not merely for the splendor of the equipage

and decorations, but for the competition among those who exhibited

them. For the kings of Cyprus were here the exhibitors, just in

the same manner as at Athens those who are chosen by lot out of

the tribes. And, indeed, they showed the greatest emulation to

outvie each other; especially Nicocreon, king of Salamis, and

Pasicrates of Soli, who furnished the chorus, and defrayed the

expenses of the two most celebrated actors, Athenodorus and

Thessalus, the former performing for Pasicrates, and the latter

for Nicocreon. Thessalus was most favored by Alexander, though it

did not appear till Athenodorus was declared victor by the

plurality of votes. For then at his going away, he said the

judges deserved to be commended for what they had done, but that

he would willingly have lost part of his kingdom, rather than to

have seen Thessalus overcome. However, when he understood

Athenodorus was fined by the Athenians for being absent at the

festivals of Bacchus, though he refused his request that he would

write a letter in his behalf, he gave him a sufficient sum to

satisfy the penalty. Another time, when Lycon of Scarphia

happened to act with great applause in the theater, and in a verse

which he introduced into the comic part which he was acting,

begged for a present of ten talents, he laughed and gave him the

money.

Darius wrote him a letter, and sent friends to intercede with him,

requesting him to accept as a ransom of his captives the sum of a

thousand talents, and offering him in exchange for his amity and

alliance, all the countries on this side the river Euphrates,

together with one of his daughters in marriage. These propositions

he communicated to his friends, and when Parmenio told him, that

for his part, if he were Alexander, he should readily embrace

them, "So would I," said Alexander, "if I were Parmenio."

Accordingly, his answer to Darius was, that if he would come and

yield himself up into his power, he would treat him with all

possible kindness; if not, he was resolved immediately to go

himself and seek him. But the death of Darius's wife in

childbirth made him soon after regret one part of this answer, and

he showed evident marks of grief, at being thus deprived of a

further opportunity of exercising his clemency and good nature,

which he manifested, however, as far as he could, by giving her a

most sumptuous funeral.

Among the eunuchs who waited in the queen's chamber, and were

taken prisoners with the women, there was one Tireus, who getting

out of the camp, fled away on horseback to Darius, to inform him

of his wife's death. He, when he heard it, beating his head, and

bursting into tears and lamentations, said, "Alas! how great is

the calamity of the Persians! Was it not enough that their king's

consort and sister was a prisoner in her lifetime, but she must,

now she is dead also, be but meanly and obscurely buried?" "Oh

king," replied the eunuch, "as to her funeral rites, or any

respect or honor that should have been shown in them, you have not

the least reason to accuse the ill-fortune of your country; for to

my knowledge neither your queen Statira when alive, nor your

mother, nor children, wanted anything of their former happy

condition, unless it were the light of your countenance, which I

doubt not but the lord Oromasdes will yet restore to its former

glory. And after her decease, I assure you, she had not only all

due funeral ornaments, but was honored also with the tears of your

very enemies; for Alexander is as gentle after victory, as he is

terrible in the field." At the hearing of these words, such was

the grief and emotion of Darius's mind, that they carried him into

extravagant suspicions; and taking Tireus aside into a more

private part of his tent, "Unless thou likewise," said he to him,

"hast deserted me, together with the good fortune of Persia, and

art become a Macedonian in thy heart; if thou yet ownest me for

thy master Darius, tell me, I charge thee, by the veneration thou

payest the light of Mithras, and this right hand of thy king, do I

not lament the least of Statira's misfortunes in her captivity and

death? Have I not suffered something more injurious and

deplorable in her lifetime? And had I not been miserable with

less dishonor, if I had met with a more severe and inhuman enemy?

For how is it possible a young man as he is, should treat the wife

of his opponent with so much distinction, were it not from some

motive that does me disgrace?" Whilst he was yet speaking, Tireus

threw himself at his feet, and besought him neither to wrong

Alexander so much, nor his dead wife and sister, as to give

utterance to any such thoughts, which deprived him of the greatest

consolation left him in his adversity, the belief that he was

overcome by a man whose virtues raised him above human nature;

that he ought to look upon Alexander with love and admiration, who

had given no less proofs of his continence towards the Persian

women, than of his valor among the men. The eunuch confirmed all

he said with solemn and dreadful oaths, and was further enlarging

upon Alexander's moderation and magnanimity on other occasions,

when Darius, breaking away from him into the other division of the

tent, where his friends and courtiers were, lifted up his hands to

heaven, and uttered this prayer, "Ye gods," said he, "of my

family, and of my kingdom, if it be possible, I beseech you to

restore the declining affairs of Persia, that I may leave them in

as flourishing a condition as I found them, and have it in my

power to make a grateful return to Alexander for the kindness

which in my adversity he has shown to those who are dearest to me.

But if, indeed, the fatal time be come, which is to give a period

to the Persian monarchy, if our ruin be a debt that must be paid

to the divine jealousy and the vicissitude of things, then I

beseech you grant that no other man but Alexander may sit upon the

throne of Cyrus." Such is the narrative given by the greater

number of the historians.

But to return to Alexander. After he had reduced all Asia on this

side the Euphrates, he advanced towards Darius, who was coming

down against him with a million of men. In his march, a very

ridiculous passage happened. The servants who followed the camp,

for sport's sake divided themselves into two parties, and named

the commander of one of them Alexander, and of the other Darius.

At first they only pelted one another with clods of earth, but

presently took to their fists, and at last, heated with the

contention, they fought in good earnest with stones and clubs, so

that they had much ado to part them; till Alexander, upon hearing

of it, ordered the two captains to decide the quarrel by single

combat, and armed him who bore his name himself, while Philotas

did the same to him who represented Darius. The whole army were

spectators of this encounter, willing from the event of it to

derive an omen of their own future success. After they had fought

stoutly a pretty long while, at last he who was called Alexander

had the better, and for a reward of his prowess, had twelve

villages given him, with leave to wear the Persian dress. So we

are told by Eratosthenes.

But the great battle of all that was fought with Darius, was not,

as most writers tell us, at Arbela, but at Gaugamela, which, in

their language, signifies the camel's house, forasmuch as one of

their ancient kings having escaped the pursuit of his enemies on a

swift camel, in gratitude to his beast, settled him at this place,

with an allowance of certain villages and rents for his

maintenance. It came to pass that in the month Boedromion, about

the beginning of the feast of Mysteries at Athens, there was an

eclipse of the moon, the eleventh night after which, the two

armies being now in view of one another, Darius kept his men in

arms, and by torchlight took a general review of them. But

Alexander, while his soldiers slept, spent the night before his

tent with his diviner Aristander, performing certain mysterious

ceremonies, and sacrificing to the god Fear. In the meanwhile

the oldest of his commanders, and chiefly Parmenio, when they

beheld all the plain between Niphates and the Gordyaean mountains

shining with the lights and fires which were made by the

barbarians, and heard the uncertain and confused sound of voices

out of their camp, like the distant roaring of a vast ocean, were

so amazed at the thoughts of such a multitude, that after some

conference among themselves, they concluded it an enterprise too

difficult and hazardous for them to engage so numerous an enemy in

the day, and therefore meeting the king as he came from

sacrificing, besought him to attack Darius by night, that the

darkness might conceal the danger of the ensuing battle. To this

he gave them the celebrated answer, "I will not steal a victory,"

which though some at the time thought a boyish and inconsiderate

speech, as if he played with danger, others, however, regarded as

an evidence that he confided in his present condition, and acted

on a true judgment of the future, not wishing to leave Darius, in

case he were worsted, the pretext of trying his fortune again,

which he might suppose himself to have, if he could impute his

overthrow to the disadvantage of the night, as he did before to

the mountains, the narrow passages, and the sea. For while he had

such numerous forces and large dominions still remaining, it was

not any want of men or arms that could induce him to give up the

war, but only the loss of all courage and hope upon the conviction

of an undeniable and manifest defeat.

After they were gone from him with this answer, he laid himself

down in his tent and slept the rest of the night more soundly than

was usual with him, to the astonishment of the commanders, who

came to him early in the morning, and were fain themselves to give

order that the soldiers should breakfast. But at last, time not

giving them leave to wait any longer, Parmenio went to his

bedside, and called him twice or thrice by his name, till he waked

him, and then asked him how it was possible, when he was to fight

the most important battle of all, he could sleep as soundly as if

he were already victorious. "And are we not so, indeed," replied

Alexander, smiling, "since we are at last relieved from the

trouble of wandering in pursuit of Darius through a wide and

wasted country, hoping in vain that he would fight us?" And not

only before the battle, but in the height of the danger, he showed

himself great, and manifested the self-possession of a just

foresight and confidence. For the battle for some time fluctuated

and was dubious. The left wing, where Parmenio commanded, was so

impetuously charged by the Bactrian horse that it was disordered

and forced to give ground, at the same time that Mazaeus had sent

a detachment round about to fall upon those who guarded the

baggage, which so disturbed Parmenio, that he sent messengers to

acquaint Alexander that the camp and baggage would be all lost

unless he immediately believed the rear by a considerable

reinforcement drawn out of the front. This message being brought

him just as he was giving the signal to those about him for the

onset, he bade them tell Parmenio that he must have surely lost

the use of his reason, and had forgotten, in his alarm, that

soldiers, if victorious, become masters of their enemies' baggage;

and if defeated, instead of taking care of their wealth or their

slaves, have nothing more to do but to fight gallantly and die

with honor. When he had said this, he put on his helmet, having

the rest of his arms on before he came out of his tent, which were

coat of the Sicilian make, girt close about him, and over that a

breastpiece of thickly quilted linen, which was taken among other

booty at the battle of Issus. The helmet, which was made by

Theophilus, though of iron, was so well wrought and polished, that

it was as bright as the most refined silver. To this was fitted a

gorget of the same metal, set with precious stones. His sword,

which was the weapon he most used in fight, was given him by the

king of the Citieans, and was of an admirable temper and

lightness. The belt which he also wore in all engagements, was of

much richer workmanship than the rest of his armor. It was a work

of the ancient Helicon, and had been presented to him by the

Rhodians, as mark of their respect to him. So long as he was

engaged in drawing up his men, or riding about to give orders or

directions, or to view them, he spared Bucephalas, who was now

growing old, and made use of another horse; but when he was

actually to fight, he sent for him again, and as soon as he was

mounted, commenced the attack.

He made the longest address that day to the Thessalians and other

Greeks, who answered him with loud shouts, desiring him to lead

them on against the barbarians, upon which he shifted his javelin

into his left hand, and with his right lifted up towards heaven,

besought the gods, as Callisthenes tells us, that if he was of a

truth the son of Jupiter, they would he pleased to assist and

strengthen the Grecians. At the same time the augur Aristander,

who had a white mantle about him, and a crown of gold on his head,

rode by and showed them an eagle that soared just over Alexander,

and directed his Right towards the enemy; which so animated the

beholders, that after mutual encouragements and exhortations, the

horse charged at full speed, and were followed in a mass by the

whole phalanx of the foot. But before they could well come to

blows with the first ranks, the barbarians shrunk back, and were

hotly pursued by Alexander, who drove those that fled before him

into the middle of the battle, where Darius himself was in person,

whom he saw from a distance over the foremost ranks, conspicuous

in the midst of his life-guard, a tall and fine-looking man, drawn

in a lofty chariot, defended by an abundance of the best horse,

who stood close in order about it, ready to receive the enemy.

But Alexander's approach was so terrible, forcing those who gave

back upon those who yet maintained their ground, that he beat down

and dispersed them almost all. Only a few of the bravest and

valiantest opposed the pursuit, who were slain in their king's

presence, falling in heaps upon one another, and in the very pangs

of death striving to catch hold of the horses. Darius now seeing

all was lost, that those who were placed in front to defend him

were broken and beat back upon him, that he could not turn or

disengage his chariot without great difficulty, the wheels being

clogged and entangled among the dead bodies, which lay in such

heaps as not only stopped, but almost covered the horses, and made

them rear and grow so unruly, that the frighted charioteer could

govern them no longer, in this extremity was glad to quit his

chariot and his arms, and mounting, it is said, upon a mare that

had been taken from her foal, betook himself to flight. But he

had not escaped so either, if Parmenio had not sent fresh

messengers to Alexander, to desire him to return and assist him

against a considerable body of the enemy which yet stood together,

and would not give ground. For, indeed, Parmenio is on all hands

accused of having been sluggish and unserviceable in this battle,

whether age had impaired his courage, or that, as Callisthenes

says, he secretly disliked and envied Alexander's growing

greatness. Alexander, though he was not a little vexed to be so

recalled and hindered from pursuing his victory, yet concealed the

true reason from his men, and causing a retreat to be sounded, as

if it were too late to continue the execution any longer, marched

back towards the place of danger, and by the way met with the news

of the enemy's total overthrow and flight.

This battle being thus over, seemed to put a period to the Persian

empire; and Alexander, who was now proclaimed king of Asia,

returned thanks to the gods in magnificent sacrifices, and

rewarded his friends and followers with great sums of money, and

places, and governments of provinces. And eager to gain honor

with the Grecians, he wrote to them that he would have all

tyrannies abolished, that they might live free according to their

own laws, and specially to the Plataeans, that their city should

be rebuilt, because their ancestors had permitted their countrymen

of old to make their territory the seat of the war, when they

fought with the barbarians for their common liberty. He sent also

part of the spoils into Italy, to the Crotoniats, to honor the

zeal and courage of their citizen Phayllus, the wrestler, who, in

the Median war, when the other Grecian colonies in Italy disowned

Greece, that he might have a share in the danger, joined the fleet

at Salamis, with a vessel set forth at his own charge. So

affectionate was Alexander to all kind of virtue, and so desirous

to preserve the memory of laudable actions.

From hence he marched through the province of Babylon, which

immediately submitted to him, and in Ecbatana was much surprised

at the sight of the place where fire issues in a continuous

stream, like a spring of water, out of a cleft in the earth, and

the stream of naphtha, which, not far from this spot, flows out so

abundantly as to form a sort of lake. This naphtha, in other

respects resembling bitumen, is so subject to take fire, that

before it touches the flame, it will kindle at the very light that

surrounds it, and often inflame the intermediate air also. The

barbarians, to show the power and nature of it, sprinkled the

street that led to the king's lodgings with little drops of it,

and when it was almost night, stood at the further end with

torches, which being applied to the moistened places, the first at

once taking fire, instantly, as quick as a man could think of it,

it caught from one end to another, in such a manner that the whole

street was one continued flame. Among those who used to wait on

the king and find occasion to amuse him when he anointed and

washed himself, there was one Athenophanes, an Athenian, who

desired him to make an experiment of the naphtha upon Stephanus,

who stood by in the bathing place, a youth with a ridiculously

ugly face, whose talent was singing well, "For," said he, "if it

take hold of him and is not put out, it must undeniably be allowed

to be of the most invincible strength." The youth, as it

happened, readily consented to undergo the trial, and as soon as

he was anointed and rubbed with it, his whole body broke out into

such a flame, and was so seized by the fire, that Alexander was

in the greatest perplexity and alarm for him, and not without

reason; for nothing could have prevented his being consumed by it,

if by good chance there had not been people at hand with a great

many vessels of water for the service of the bath, with all which

they had much ado to extinguish the fire; and his body was so

burned all over, that he was not cured of it a good while after.

And thus it is not without some plausibility that they endeavor to

reconcile the fable to truth, who say this was the drug in the

tragedies with which Medea anointed the crown and veil which she

gave to Creon's daughter. For neither the things themselves, nor

the fire could kindle of its own accord, but being prepared for it

by the naphtha, they imperceptibly attracted and caught a flame

which happened to be brought near them. For the rays and

emanations of fire at a distance have no other effect upon some

bodies than bare light and heat, but in others, where they meet

with airy dryness, and also sufficient rich moisture, they collect

themselves and soon kindle and create a transformation. The

manner, however, of the production of naphtha admits of a

diversity of opinion on whether this liquid substance that

feeds the flame does not rather proceed from a soil that is

unctuous and productive of fire, as that of the province of

Babylon is, where the ground is so very hot, that oftentimes the

grains of barley leap up, and are thrown out, as if the violent

inflammation had made the earth throb; and in the extreme heats

the inhabitants are wont to sleep upon skins filled with water.

Harpalus, who was left governor of this country, and was desirous

to adorn the palace gardens and walks with Grecian plants,

succeeded in raising all but ivy, which the earth would not bear,

but constantly killed. For being a plant that loves a cold soil,

the temper of this hot and fiery earth was improper for it. But

such digressions as these the impatient reader will be more

willing to pardon, if they are kept within a moderate compass.