At the taking of Susa, Alexander found in the palace forty

thousand talents in money ready coined, besides an unspeakable

quantity of other furniture and treasure; amongst which was five

thousand talents' worth of Hermionian purple, that had been laid

up there a hundred and ninety years, and yet kept its color as

fresh and lively as at first. The reason of which, they say, is

that in dyeing the purple they made use of honey, and of white oil

in the white tincture, both which after the like space of time

preserve the clearness and brightness of their luster. Dinon also

relates that the Persian kings had water fetched from the Nile and

the Danube, which they laid up in their treasuries as a sort of

testimony of the greatness of their power and universal empire.

The entrance into Persia was through a most difficult country,

and was guarded by the noblest of the Persians, Darius himself

having escaped further. Alexander, however, chanced to find a

guide in exact correspondence with what the Pythia had foretold

when he was a child, that a lycus should conduct him into Persia.

For by such an one, whose father was a Lycian, and his mother a

Persian, and who spoke both languages, he was now led into the

country, by a way something about, yet without fetching any

considerable compass. Here a great many of the prisoners were put

to the sword, of which himself gives this account, that he

commanded them to be killed in the belief that it would be for his

advantage. Nor was the money found here less, he says, than at

Susa, besides other movables and treasure, as much as ten thousand

pair of mules and five thousand camels could well carry away.

Amongst other things he happened to observe a large statue of

Xerxes thrown carelessly down to the ground in the confusion made

by the multitude of soldiers pressing; into the palace. He stood

still, and accosting it as if it had been alive, "Shall we," said

he, "neglectfully pass thee by, now thou art prostrate on the

ground, because thou once invadedst Greece, or shall we erect thee

again in consideration of the greatness of thy mind and thy other

virtues?" But at last, after he had paused some time, and

silently considered with himself, he went on without taking any

further notice of it. In this place he took up his winter

quarters, and stayed four months to refresh his soldiers. It is

related that the first time he sat on the royal throne of Persia,

under the canopy of gold, Demaratus, the Corinthian, who was much

attached to him and had been one of his father's friends, wept, in

an old man's manner, and deplored the misfortune of those Creeks

whom death had deprived of the satisfaction of seeing Alexander

seated on the throne of Darius.

From hence designing to march against Darius, before he set out,

he diverted himself with his officers at an entertainment of

drinking and other pastimes, and indulged so far as to let every

one's mistress sit by and drink with them. The most celebrated of

them was Thais, an Athenian, mistress of Ptolemy, who was

afterwards king of Egypt. She, partly as a sort of well-turned

compliment to Alexander, partly out of sport, as the drinking went

on, at last was carried so far as to utter a saying, not

misbecoming her native country's character, though somewhat too

lofty for her own condition. She said it was indeed some

recompense for the toils she had undergone in following the camp

all over Asia, that she was that day treated in, and could insult

over, the stately palace of the Persian monarchs. But, she added,

it would please her much better, if while the king looked on, she

might in sport, with her own hands, set fire to the court of that

Xerxes who reduced the city of Athens to ashes, that it might be

recorded to posterity, that the women who followed Alexander had

taken a severer revenge on the Persians for the sufferings and

affronts of Greece, than all the famed commanders had been able to

do by sea or land. What she said was received with such universal

liking and murmurs of applause, and so seconded by the

encouragement and eagerness of the company, that the king himself,

persuaded to be of the party, started from his seat, and with a

chaplet of flowers on his head, and a lighted torch in his hand,

led them the way, while they went after him in a riotous manner,

dancing and making loud cries about the place; which when the rest

of the Macedonians perceived, they also in great delight ran

thither with torches; for they hoped the burning and destruction

of the royal palace was an argument that he looked homeward, and

had no design to reside among the barbarians. Thus some writers

give their account of this action, while others say it was done

deliberately; however, all agree that he soon repented of it, and

gave order to put out the fire.

Alexander was naturally most munificent, and grew more so as his

fortune increased, accompanying what he gave with that courtesy

and freedom, which, to speak truth, is necessary to make a benefit

really obliging. I will give a few instances of this kind.

Ariston, the captain of the Paeonians, having killed an enemy,

brought his head to show him, and told him that in his country,

such a present was recompensed with a cup of gold. "With an empty

one," said Alexander, smiling, "but I drink to you in this, which

I give you full of wine." Another time, as one of the common

soldier was driving a mule laden with some of the king's treasure,

the beast grew tired, and the soldier took it upon his own back,

and began to march with it, till Alexander seeing the man so

overcharged, asked what was the matter; and when he was informed,

just as he was ready to lay down his burden for weariness, "Do not

faint now," said he to him, "but finish the journey, and carry

what you have there to your own tent for yourself." He was always

more displeased with those who would not accept of what he gave

than with those who begged of him. And therefore he wrote to

Phocion, that he would not own him for his friend any longer, if

he refused his presents. He had never given anything to Serapion,

one of the youths that played at ball with him, because he did not

ask of him, till one day, it coming to Serapion's turn to play, he

still threw the ball to others, and when the king asked him why he

did not direct it to him, "Because you do not ask for it," said

he; which answer pleased him so, that he was very liberal to him

afterwards. One Proteas, a pleasant, jesting, drinking fellow,

having incurred his displeasure, got his friends to intercede for

him, and begged his pardon himself with tears, which at last

prevailed, and Alexander declared he was friends with him. "I

cannot believe it," said Proteas, "unless you first give me some

pledge of it." The king understood his meaning, and presently

ordered five talents to be given him. How magnificent he was in

enriching his friends, and those who attended on his person,

appears by a letter which Olympias wrote to him, where she tells

him he should reward and honor those about him in a more moderate

way, For now," said she, "you make them all equal to kings, you

give them power and opportunity of making many friends of their

own, and in the meantime you leave yourself destitute." She

often wrote to him to this purpose, and he never communicated her

letters to anybody, unless it were one which he opened when

Hephaestion was by, whom he permitted, as his custom was, to read

it along with him; but then as soon as he had done, he took off

his ring, and set the seal upon Hephaestion's lips. Mazaeus, who

was the most considerable man in Darius's court, had a son who was

already governor of a province. Alexander bestowed another upon

him that was better; he, however, modestly refused, and told him,

instead of one Darius, he went the way to make many Alexanders.

To Parmenio he gave Bagoas's house, in which he found a wardrobe

of apparel worth more than a thousand talents. He wrote to

Antipater, commanding him to keep a life-guard about him for the

security of his person against conspiracies. To his mother he

sent many presents, but would never suffer her to meddle with

matters of state or war, not indulging her busy temper, and when

she fell out with him upon this account, he bore her ill-humor

very patiently. Nay more, when he read a long letter from

Antipater, full of accusations against her, "Antipater," he said,

"does not know that one tear of a mother effaces a thousand such

letters as these."

But when he perceived his favorites grow so luxurious and

extravagant in their way of living and expenses, that Hagnon, the

Teian, wore silver nails in his shoes, that Leonnatus employed

several camels, only to bring him powder out of Egypt to use when

he wrestled, and that Philotas had hunting nets a hundred furlongs

in length, that more used precious ointment than plain oil when

they went to bathe, and that they carried about servants

everywhere with them to rub them and wait upon them in their

chambers, he reproved them in gentle and reasonable terms, telling

them he wondered that they who had been engaged in so many signal

battles did not know by experience, that those who labor sleep

more sweetly and soundly than those who are labored for, and could

fail to see by comparing the Persians' manner of living with their

own, that it was the most abject and slavish condition to be

voluptuous, but the most noble arid royal to undergo pain and

labor. He argued with them further, how it was possible for anyone

who pretended to be a soldier, either to look well after his

horse, or to keep his armor bright and in good order, who thought

it much to let his hands be serviceable to what was nearest to

him, his own body. "Are you still to learn," said he, "that the

end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and

infirmities of those whom we subdue?" And to strengthen his

precepts by example, he applied himself now more vigorously than

ever to hunting and warlike expeditions, embracing all

opportunities of hardship and danger, insomuch that a

Lacedaemonian, who was there on an embassy to him, and chanced to

be by when he encountered with and mastered a huge lion, told him

he had fought gallantly with the beast, which of the two should be

king. Craterus caused a representation to be made of this

adventure, consisting of the lion and the dogs, of the king

engaged with the lion, and himself coming in to his assistance,

all expressed in figures of brass, some of which were by Lysippus,

and the rest by Leochares; and had it dedicated in the temple of

Apollo at Delphi. Alexander exposed his person to danger in this

manner, with the object both of inuring himself, and inciting

others to the performance of brave and virtuous actions.

But his followers, who were grown rich, and consequently proud,

longed to indulge themselves in pleasure and idleness, and were

weary of marches and expeditions, and at last went on so far as to

censure and speak ill of him. All which at first he bore very

patiently, saying, it became a king well to do good to others, and

be evil spoken of. Meantime, on the smallest occasions that

called for a show of kindness to his friends, there was every

indication on his part of tenderness and respect. Hearing

Peucestes was bitten by a bear, he wrote to him, that he took it

unkindly he should send others notice of it, and not make him

acquainted with it; "But now," said he, "since it is so, let me

know how you do, and whether any of your companions forsook you

when you were in danger, that I may punish them." He sent

Hephaestion, who was absent about some business, word how while

they were fighting for their diversion with an ichneumon, Craterus

was by chance run through both thighs with Perdiccas's javelin.

And upon Peucestes's recovery from a fit of sickness, he sent a

letter of thanks to his physician Alexippus. When Craterus was

ill, he saw a vision in his sleep, after which he offered

sacrifices for his health, and bade him to do so likewise. He

wrote also to Pausanias, the physician, who was about to purge

Craterus with hellebore, partly out of an anxious concern for him,

and partly to give him a caution how he used that medicine. He

was so tender of his friends' reputation that he imprisoned

Ephialtes and Cissus, who brought him the first news of Harpalus's

flight and withdrawal from his service, as if they had falsely

accused him. When he sent the old and infirm soldiers home,

Eurylochus, a citizen of Aegae, got his name enrolled among the

sick, though he ailed nothing, which being discovered, he

confessed he was in love with a young woman named Telesippa, and

wanted to go along with her to the seaside. Alexander inquired to

whom the woman belonged, and being told she was a free courtesan,

"I will assist you," said he to Eurylochus, "in your amour, if

your mistress be to be gained either by presents or persuasions;

but we must use no other means, because she is free-born."

It is surprising to consider upon what slight occasions he would

write letters to serve his friends. As when he wrote one in which

he gave order to search for a youth that belonged to Seleucus, who

was run away into Cilicia; and in another, thanked and commended

Peucestes for apprehending Nicon, a servant of Craterus; and in

one to Megabyzus, concerning a slave that had taken sanctuary in a

temple, gave direction that he should not meddle with him while he

was there, but if he could entice him out by fair means, then he

gave him leave to seize him. It is reported of him that when he

first sat in judgment upon capital causes, he would lay his hand

upon one of his ears while the accuser spoke, to keep it free and

unprejudiced in behalf of the party accused. But afterwards such

a multitude of accusations were brought before him, and so many

proved true, that he lost his tenderness of heart, and gave credit

to those also that were false; and especially when anybody spoke

ill of him, he would be transported out of his reason, and show

himself cruel and inexorable, valuing his glory and reputation

beyond his life or kingdom.

He now, as we said, set forth to seek Darius, expecting he should

be put to the hazard of another battle, but heard he was taken and

secured by Bessus, upon which news he sent home the Thessalians,

and gave them a largess of two thousand talents over and above the

pay that was due to them. This long and painful pursuit of

Darius, for in eleven days he marched thirty-three hundred

furlongs, harassed his soldiers so that most of them were ready to

give it up, chiefly for want of water. While they were in this

distress, it happened that some Macedonians who had fetched water

in skins upon their mules from a river they had found out, came

about noon to the place where Alexander was, and seeing him almost

choked with thirst, presently filled a helmet and offered it him.

He asked them to whom they were carrying the water; they told him

to their children, adding, that if his life were but saved, it was

no matter for them, they should be able well enough to repair that

loss, though they all perished. Then he took the helmet into his

hands, and looking round about, when he saw all those who were

near him stretching their heads out and looking, earnestly after

the drink, he returned it again with thanks without tasting a drop

of it, "For," said he, "if I alone should drink, the rest will be

out of heart." The soldiers no sooner took notice of his

temperance and magnanimity upon this occasion, but they one and

all cried out to him to lead them forward boldly, and began

whipping on their horses. For whilst they had such a king, they

said they defied both weariness and thirst, and looked upon

themselves to be little less than immortal. But though they were

all equally cheerful and willing, yet not above threescore horse

were able, it is said, to keep up, and to fall in with Alexander

upon the enemy's camp, where they rode over abundance of gold and

silver that lay scattered about, and passing by a great many

chariots full of women that wandered here and there for want of

drivers, they endeavored to overtake the first of those that fled,

in hopes to meet with Darius among them. And at last, after much

trouble, they found him lying in a chariot, wounded all over with

darts, just at the point of death. However, he desired they would

give him some drink, and when he had drunk a little cold water, he

told Polystratus, who gave it him, that it had become the last

extremity of his ill fortune, to receive benefits and not be able

to return them. "But Alexander," said he, "whose kindness to my

mother, my wife, and my children I hope the gods will recompense,

will doubtless thank you for your humanity to me. Tell him,

therefore, in token of my acknowledgment, I give him this right

hand," with which words he took hold of Polystratus's hand and

died. When Alexander came up to them, he showed manifest tokens

of sorrow, and taking off his own cloak, threw it upon the body to

cover it. And sometime afterwards, when Bessus was taken, he

ordered him to be torn in pieces in this manner. They fastened

him to a couple of trees which were bound down so as to meet, and

then being let loose, with a great force returned to their places,

each of them carrying that part of the body along with it that was

tied to it. Darius's body was laid in state, and sent to his

mother with pomp suitable to his quality. His brother Exathres,

Alexander received into the number of his intimate friends.

And now with the flower of his army he marched into Hyrcania,

where he saw a large bay of an open sea, apparently not much less

than the Euxine, with water, however, sweeter than that of other

seas, but could learn nothing of certainty concerning it, further

than that in all probability it seemed to him to be an arm

issuing from the lake of Maeotis. However, the naturalists were

better informed of the truth, and had given an account of it many

years before Alexander's expedition; that of four gulfs which out

of the main sea enter into the continent, this, known

indifferently as the Caspian and as the Hyrcanian sea, is the most

northern. Here the barbarians, unexpectedly meeting with those

who led Bucephalas, took them prisoners, and carried the horse

away with them, at which Alexander was so much vexed, that he sent

a herald to let them know he would put them all to the sword,

men, women, and children, without mercy, if they did not restore

him. But on their doing so, and at the same time surrendering

their cities into his hands, he not only treated them kindly, but

also paid a ramsom for his horse to those who took him.

From hence he marched into Parthia, where not having much to do,

he first put on the barbaric dress, perhaps with the view of

making the work of civilizing them the easier, as nothing gains

more upon men than a conformity to their fashions and customs. Or

it may have been as a first trial, whether the Macedonians might

be brought to adore him, as the Persians did their kings, by

accustoming them by little and little to bear with the alteration

of his rule and course of life in other things. However, he

followed not the Median fashion, which was altogether foreign and

uncouth, and adopted neither the trousers nor the sleeved vest,

nor the tiara for the head, but taking a middle way between the

Persian mode and the Macedonian, so contrived his habit that it

was not so flaunting as the one, and yet more pompous and

magnificent than the other. At first he wore this habit only when

he conversed with the barbarians, or within doors, among his

intimate friends and companions, but afterwards he appeared in it

abroad, when he rode out, and at public audiences, a sight which

the Macedonians beheld with grief; but they so respected his other

virtues and good qualities, that they felt it reasonable in some

things to gratify his fancies and his passion of glory, in pursuit

of which he hazarded himself so far, that, besides his other

adventures, he had but lately been wounded in the leg by an arrow,

which had so shattered the shank-bone that splinters were taken

out. And on another occasion he received a violent blow with a

stone upon the nape of the neck, which dimmed his sight for a good

while afterwards. And yet all this could not hinder him from

exposing himself freely to any dangers, insomuch that he passed

the river Orexartes, which he took to be the Tanais, and putting

the Scythians to flight, followed them above a hundred furlongs,

though suffering all the time from a diarrhea.

Here many affirm that the Amazon came to give him a visit. So

Clitarchus, Polyclitus, Onesicritus, Antigenes, and Ister, tell

us. But Aristobulus and Chares, who held the office of reporter

of requests, Ptolemy and Anticlides, Philon the Theban, Philip of

Theangela, Hecataeus the Eretrian, Philip the Chalcidian, and

Duris the Samian, say it is wholly a fiction. And truly Alexander

himself seems to confirm the latter statement, for in a letter in

which he gives Antipater an account of all that happened, he tells

him that the king of Scythia offered him his daughter in marriage,

but makes no mention at all of the Amazon. And many years after,

when Onesicritus read this story in his fourth book to Lysimachus,

who then reigned, the king laughed quietly and asked, "Where could

I have been at that time?"

But it signifies little to Alexander whether this be credited or

no. Certain it is, that apprehending the Macedonians would be

weary of pursuing the war, he left the greater part of them in

their quarters; and having with him in Hyrcania the choice of his

men only, amounting to twenty thousand foot, and three thousand

horse, he spoke to them to this effect: That hitherto the

barbarians had seen them no otherwise than as it were in a dream,

and if they should think of returning when they had only alarmed

Asia, and not conquered it, their enemies would set upon them as

upon so many women. However, he told them he would keep none of

them with him against their will, they might go if they pleased;

he should merely enter his protest, that when on his way to make

the Macedonians the masters of the world, he was left alone with a

few friends and volunteers. This is almost word for word, as he

wrote in a letter to Antipater, where he adds, that when he had

thus spoken to them, they all cried out, they would go along with

him whithersoever it was his pleasure to lead them. After

succeeding with these, it was no hard matter for him to bring over

the multitude, which easily followed the example of their betters.

Now, also, he more and more accommodated himself in his way of

living to that of the natives, and tried to bring them, also, as

near as he could to the Macedonian customs, wisely considering

that whilst he was engaged in an expedition which would carry him

far from thence, it would be wiser to depend upon the goodwill

which might arise from intermixture and association as a means of

maintaining tranquillity, than upon force and compulsion. In

order to this, he chose out thirty thousand boys, whom he put

under masters to teach them the Greek tongue, and to train them up

to arms in the Macedonian discipline. As for his marriage with

Roxana, whose youthfulness and beauty had charmed him at a

drinking entertainment, where he first happened to see her, taking

part in a dance, it was, indeed, a love affair, yet it seemed at

the same time to be conducive to the object he had in hand. For

it gratified the conquered people to see him choose a wife from

among themselves, and it made them feel the most lively affection

for him, to find that in the only passion which he, the most

temperate of men, was overcome by, he yet forbore till he could

obtain her in a lawful and honorable way.

Noticing, also, that among his chief friends and favorites,

Hephaestion most approved all that he did, and complied with and

imitated him in his change of habits, while Craterus continued

strict in the observation of the customs and fashions of his own

country, he made it his practice to employ the first in all

transactions with the Persians, and the latter when he had to do

with the Greeks or Macedonians. And in general he showed more

affection for Hephaestion, and more respect for Craterus;

Hephaestion, as he used to say, being Alexander's, and Craterus

the king's friend. And so these two friends always bore in secret

a grudge to each other, and at times quarreled openly, so much so,

that once in India they drew upon one another, and were proceeding

in good earnest, with their friends on each side to second them,

when Alexander rode up and publicly reproved Hephaestion, calling

him fool and madman, not to be sensible that without his favor he

was nothing. He rebuked Craterus, also, in private, severely, and

then causing them both to come into his presence, he reconciled

them, at the same time swearing by Ammon and the rest of the gods,

that he loved them two above all other men, but if ever he

perceived them fall out again he would be sure to put both of them

to death, or at least the aggressor. After which they neither

ever did or said anything, so much as in jest, to offend one

another.

There was scarcely anyone who had greater repute among the

Macedonians than Philotas, the son of Parmenio. For besides that

he was valiant and able to endure any fatigue of war, he was also

next to Alexander himself the most munificent, and the greatest

lover of his friends, one of whom asking him for some money, he

commanded his steward to give it him; and when he told him he had

not wherewith, "Have you not any plate then," said he, "or any

clothes of mine to sell?" But he carried his arrogance and his

pride of wealth and his habits of display and luxury to a degree

of assumption unbecoming a private man, and affecting all the

loftiness without succeeding in showing any of the grace or

gentleness of true greatness, by this mistaken and spurious

majesty he gained so much envy and ill-will, that Parmenio would

sometimes tell him, "My son, to be not quite so great would be

better." For he had long before been complained of, and accused

to Alexander. Particularly when Darius was defeated in Cilicia,

and an immense booty was taken at Damascus, among the rest of the

prisoners who were brought into the camp, there was one Antigone

of Pydna, a very handsome woman, who fell to Philotas's share.

The young man one day in his cups, in the vaunting, outspoken,

soldier's manner, declared to his mistress, that all the great

actions were performed by him and his father, the glory and

benefit of which, he said, together with the title of king, the

boy Alexander reaped and enjoyed by their means. She could not

hold, but discovered what he had said to one of her acquaintance,

and he, as is usual in such cases, to another, till at last the

story came to the ears of Craterus, who brought the woman secretly

to the king. When Alexander had heard what she had to say, he

commanded her to continue her intrigue with Philotas, and give him

an account from time to time of all that should fall from him to

this purpose. He thus unwittingly caught in a snare, to gratify

some times a fit of anger, sometimes a mere love of vainglory, let

himself utter numerous foolish, indiscreet speeches against the

king in Antigone's hearing, of which though Alexander was informed

and convinced by strong evidence, yet he would take no notice of

it at present, whether it was that he confided in Parmenio's

affection and loyalty, or that he apprehended their authority and

interest in the army. But about this time one Limnus, a

Macedonian of Chalastra, conspired against Alexander's life, and

communicated his design to a youth whom he was fond of, named

Nicomachus, inviting him to be of the party. But he not relishing

the thing, revealed it to his brother Balinus, who immediately

addressed himself to Philotas, requiring him to introduce them

both to Alexander, to whom they had something of great moment to

impart which very nearly concerned him. But he, for what reason

is uncertain, went not with them, professing that the king was

engaged with affairs of more importance. And when they had urged

him a second time, and were still slighted by him, they applied

themselves to another, by whose means being admitted into

Alexander's presence, they first told about Limnus's conspiracy,

and by the way let Philotas's negligence appear, who had twice

disregarded their application to him. Alexander was greatly

incensed, and on finding that Limnus had defended himself, and had

been killed by the soldier who was sent to seize him, he was still

more discomposed, thinking he had thus lost the means of detecting

the plot. As soon as his displeasure against Philotas began to

appear, presently all his old enemies showed themselves, and said

openly, the king was too easily imposed on, to imagine that one so

inconsiderable as Limnus, a Chalastrian, should of his own head

undertake such an enterprise; that in all likelihood he was but

subservient to the design, an instrument that was moved by some

greater spring; that those ought to be more strictly examined

about the matter whose interest it was so much to conceal it.

When they had once gained the king's ear for insinuations of this

sort, they went on to show a thousand grounds of suspicion against

Philotas, till at last they prevailed to have him seized and put

to the torture, which was done in the presence of the principal

officers, Alexander himself being placed behind some tapestry to

understand what passed. Where, when he heard in what a miserable

tone, and with what abject submissions Philotas applied himself to

Hephaestion, he broke out, it is said, in this manner: "Are you

so mean-spirited and effeminate, Philotas, and yet can engage in

so desperate a design?" After his death, he presently sent into

Media, and put also Parmenio, his father, to death, who had done

brave service under Philip, and was the only man, of his older

friends and counselors, who had encouraged Alexander to invade

Asia. Of three sons whom he had had in the army, he had already

lost two, and now was himself put to death with the third. These

actions rendered Alexander an object of terror to many of his

friends, and chiefly to Antipater, who, to strengthen himself,

sent messengers privately to treat for an alliance with the

Aetolians, who stood in fear of Alexander, because they had

destroyed the town of the Oeniadae; on being informed of which,

Alexander had said the children of the Oeniadae need not revenge

their fathers' quarrel, for he would himself take care to punish

the Aetolians.

Not long after this happened the deplorable end of Clitus, which

to those who barely hear the matter-of-fact, may seem more inhuman

than that of Philotas; but if we consider the story with its

circumstance of time, and weigh the cause, we shall find it to

have occurred rather through a sort of mischance of the king's,

whose anger and over-drinking offered an occasion to the evil

genius of Clitus. The king had a present of Grecian fruit brought

him from the sea-coast, which was so fresh and beautiful, that he

was surprised at it, and called Clitus to him to see it, and to

give him a share of it. Clitus was then sacrificing, but he

immediately left off and came, followed by three sheep, on whom

the drink-offering had been already poured preparatory to

sacrificing them. Alexander, being informed of this, told his

diviners, Aristander and Cleomantis the Lacedaemonian, and asked

them what it meant; on whose assuring him, it was an ill omen, he

commanded them in all haste to offer sacrifices for Clitus's

safety, forasmuch as three days before he himself had seen a

strange vision in his sleep, of Clitus all in mourning, sitting by

Parmenio's sons who were dead. Clitus, however, stayed not to

finish his devotions, but came straight to supper with the king,

who had sacrificed to Castor and Pollux. And when they had drunk

pretty hard, some of the company fell a singing the verses of one

Pranichus, or as others say of Pierion, which were made upon those

captains who had been lately worsted by the barbarians, on purpose

to disgrace and turn them to ridicule. This gave offense to the

older men who were there, and they upbraided both the author and

the singer of the verses, though Alexander and the younger men

about him were much amused to hear them, and encouraged them to go

on, till at last Clitus, who had drunk too much, and was besides

of a froward and willful temper, was so nettled that he could hold

no longer, saying, it was not well done to expose the Macedonians

so before the barbarians and their enemies, since though it was

their unhappiness to be overcome, yet they were much better men

than those who laughed at them. And when Alexander remarked, that

Clitus was pleading his own cause, giving cowardice the name of

misfortune, Clitus started up; "This cowardice, as you are pleased

to term it," said he to him, "saved the life of a son of the gods,

when in flight from Spithridates's sword; and it is by the expense

of Macedonian blood, and by these wounds, that you are now raised

to such a height, as to be able to disown your father Philip, and

call yourself the Son of Ammon." "Thou base fellow," said

Alexander, who was now thoroughly exasperated, "dost thou think to

utter these things everywhere of me, and stir up the Macedonians

to sedition, and not be punished for it?" "We are sufficiently

punished already," answered Clitus, "if this be the recompense of

our toils, and we must esteem theirs a happy lot, who have not

lived to see their countrymen scourged with Median rods, and

forced to sue to the Persians to have access to their king."

While he talked thus at random, and those near Alexander got up

from their seats and began to revile him in turn, the elder men

did what they could to compose the disorder. Alexander, in the

meantime turning about to Xenodochus, the Cardian, and Artemius,

the Colophonian, asked them if they were not of opinion that the

Greeks, in comparison with the Macedonians, behaved themselves

like so many demi-gods among wild beasts. But Clitus for all this

would not give over, desiring Alexander to speak out if he had

anything more to say, or else why did he invite men who were

freeborn and accustomed to speak their minds openly without

restraint, to sup with him. He had better live and converse with

barbarians and slaves who would not scruple to bow the knee to his

Persian girdle and his white tunic. Which words so provoked

Alexander, that not able to suppress his anger any longer, he threw

one of the apples that lay upon the table at him, and hit him, and

then looked about for his sword. But Aristophanes, one of his

life-guard, had hid that out of the way, and others came about him

and besought him, but in vain. For breaking from them, he called

out aloud to his guards in the Macedonian language, which was a

certain sign of some great disturbance in him, and commanded a

trumpeter to sound, giving him a blow with his clenched fist for

not instantly obeying him; though afterwards the same man was

commended for disobeying an order which would have put the whole

army into tumult and confusion. Clitus still refusing to yield,

was with much trouble forced by his friends out of the room. But

he came in again immediately at another door, very irreverently

and confidently singing the verses out of Euripides's Andromache, --

In Greece, alas! how ill things ordered are!

Upon this, at last, Alexander, snatching a spear from one of the

soldiers, met Clitus as he was coming forward and was putting by

the curtain that hung before the door, and ran him through the

body. He fell at once with a cry and a groan. Upon which the

king's anger immediately vanishing, he came perfectly to himself,

and when he saw his friends about him all in a profound silence,

he pulled the spear out of the dead body, and would have thrust it

into his own throat, if the guards had not held his hands, and by

main force carried him away into his chamber, where all that night

and the next day he wept bitterly, till being quite spent with

lamenting and exclaiming, he lay as it were speechless, only

fetching deep sighs. His friends apprehending some harm from his

silence, broke into the room, but he took no notice of what any of

them said, till Aristander putting him in mind of the vision he

had seen concerning Clitus, and the prodigy that followed, as if

all had come to pass by an unavoidable fatality, he then seemed to

moderate his grief. They now brought Callisthenes, the

philosopher, who was the near friend of Aristotle, and Anaxarchus

of Abdera, to him. Callisthenes used moral language, and gentle

and soothing means, hoping to find access for words of reason, and

get a hold upon the passion. But Anaxarchus, who had always taken

a course of his own in philosophy, and had a name for despising

and slighting his contemporaries, as soon as he came in, cried out

aloud, "Is this the Alexander whom the whole world looks to, lying

here weeping like a slave, for fear of the censure and reproach of

men, to whom he himself ought to be a law and measure of equity,

if he would use the right his conquests have given him as supreme

lord and governor of all, and not be the victim of a vain and idle

opinion? Do not you know," said he, "that Jupiter is represented

to have Justice and Law on each hand of him, to signify that all

the actions of a conqueror are lawful and just?" With these and

the like speeches, Anaxarchus indeed allayed the king's grief, but

withal corrupted his character, rendering him more audacious and

lawless than he had been. Nor did he fail by these means to

insinuate himself into his favor, and to make Callisthenes's

company, which at all times, because of his austerity, was not

very acceptable, more uneasy and disagreeable to him.

It happened that these two philosophers meeting at an

entertainment, where conversation turned on the subject of climate

and the temperature of the air, Callisthenes joined with their

opinion, who held that those countries were colder, and the winter

sharper there than in Greece. Anaxarchus would by no means allow

this, but argued against it with some heat. "Surely," said

Callisthenes, "you cannot but admit this country to be colder than

Greece, for there you used to have but one threadbare cloak to

keep out the coldest winter, and here you have three good warm

mantles one over another." This piece of raillery irritated

Anaxarchus and the other pretenders to learning, and the crowd of

flatterers in general could not endure to see Callisthenes so much

admired and followed by the youth, and no less esteemed by the

older men for his orderly life, and his gravity, and for being

contented with his condition; all confirming what he had professed

about the object he had in his journey to Alexander, that it was

only to get his countrymen recalled from banishment, and to

rebuild and repeople his native town. Besides the envy which his

great reputation raised, he also, by his own deportment, gave

those who wished him ill, opportunity to do him mischief. For

when he was invited to public entertainments, he would most times

refuse to come, or if he were present at any, he put a constraint

upon the company by his austerity and silence, which seemed to

intimate his disapproval of what he saw. So that Alexander

himself said in application to him,

That vain pretense to wisdom I detest,

Where a man's blind to his own interest.

Being with many more invited to sup with the king, he was called

upon when the cup came to him, to make an oration extempore in

praise of the Macedonians; and he did it with such a flow of

eloquence, that all who heard it rose from their seats to clap and

applaud him, and threw their garland upon him; only Alexander told

him out of Euripides,

I wonder not that you have spoke so well,

'Tis easy on good subjects to excel.

"Therefore," said he, "if you will show the force of your

eloquence, tell my Macedonians their faults, and dispraise them,

that by hearing their errors they may learn to he better for the

future." Callisthenes presently obeyed him, retracting all he had

said before, and, inveighing against the Macedonians with great

freedom, added, that Philip thrived and grew powerful, chiefly by

the discord of the Grecians, applying this verse to him:--

In civil strife e'en villains rise to fame;

which so offended the Macedonians, that he was odious to them ever

after. And Alexander said, that instead of his eloquence, he had

only made his ill-will appear in what he had spoken. Hermippus

assures us, that one Stroebus, a servant whom Callisthenes kept to

read to him, gave this account of these passages afterwards to

Aristotle; and that when he perceived the king grow more and more

averse to him, two or three times, as he was going away, he

repeated the verses, --

Death seiz'd at last on great Patroclus too,

Though he in virtue far exceeded you.

Not without reason, therefore, did Aristotle give this character

of Callisthenes, that he was, indeed, a powerful speaker, but had

no judgment. He acted certainly a true philosopher's part in

positively refusing, as he did, to pay adoration; and by speaking

out openly against that which the best and gravest of the

Macedonians only repined at in secret, he delivered the Grecians

and Alexander himself from a great disgrace, when the practice was

given up. But he ruined himself by it, because he went too

roughly to work, as if he would have forced the king to that which

he should have effected by reason and persuasion. Chares of

Mitylene writes, that at a banquet, Alexander, after he had drunk,

reached the cup to one of his friends, who, on receiving it, rose

up towards the domestic altar, and when he had drunk, first

adored, and then kissed Alexander, and afterwards laid himself

down at the table with the rest. Which they all did one after

another, till it came to Callisthenes's turn, who took the cup and

drank, while the king who was engaged in conversation with

Hephaestion was not observing, and then came and offered to kiss

him. But Demetrius, surnamed Phidon, interposed, saying, "Sir, by

no means let him kiss you, for he only of us all has refused to

adore you;" upon which the king declined it, and all the concern

Callisthenes showed was, that he said aloud, "Then I go away with

a kiss less than the rest." The displeasure he incurred by this

action procured credit for Hephaestion's declaration that he had

broken his word to him in not paying the king the same veneration

that others did, as he had faithfully promised to do. And to

finish his disgrace, a number of such men as Lysimachus and Hagnon

now came in with their asseverations that the sophist went about

everywhere boasting of his resistance to arbitrary power, and that

the young men all ran after him, and honored him as the only man

among so many thousands who had the courage to preserve his

liberty. Therefore when Hermolaus's conspiracy came to be

discovered, the charges which his enemies brought against him were

the more easily believed, particularly that when the young man

asked him what he should do to be the most illustrious person on

earth, he told him the readiest way was to kill him who was

already so; and that to incite him to commit the deed, he bade him

not be awed by the golden couch, but remember Alexander was a man

equally infirm and vulnerable as another. However, none of

Hermolaus's accomplices, in the utmost extremity, made any mention

of Callisthenes's being engaged in the design. Nay, Alexander

himself, in the letters which he wrote soon after to Craterus,

Attalus, and Alcetas, tells them that the young men who were put

to the torture, declared they had entered into the conspiracy of

themselves, without any others being privy to, or guilty of it.

But yet afterwards, in a letter to Antipater, he accuses

Callisthenes. "The young men," he says, "were stoned to death by

the Macedonians, but for the sophist," (meaning Callisthenes,) "I

will take care to punish him with them too who sent him to me, and

who harbor those in their cities who conspire against my life," an

unequivocal declaration against Aristotle, in whose house

Callisthenes, for his relationship's sake, being his niece Hero's

son, had been educated. His death is variously related. Some say

he was hanged by Alexander's orders; others, that he died of

sickness in prison; but Chares writes he was kept in chains seven

months after he was apprehended, on purpose that he might be

proceeded against in full council, when Aristotle should be

present; and that growing very fat, and contracting a disease of

vermin, he there died, about the time that Alexander was wounded

in India, in the country of the Malli Oxydracae, all which came

to pass afterwards.

For to go on in order, Demaratus of Corinth, now quite an old man,

had made a great effort, about this time, to pay Alexander a

visit; and when he had seen him, said he pitied the misfortune of

those Grecians, who were so unhappy as to die before they had

beheld Alexander seated on the throne of Darius. But he did not

long enjoy the benefit of the king's kindness for him, any

otherwise than that soon after falling sick and dying, he had a

magnificent funeral, and the army raised him a monument of earth,

fourscore cubits high, and of a vast circumference. His ashes

were conveyed in a very rich chariot, drawn by four horses, to the

seaside.

Alexander now intent upon his expedition into India, took notice

that his soldiers were so charged with booty that it hindered

their marching. Therefore, at break of day, as soon as the

baggage wagons were laden, first he set fire to his own, and to

those of his friends, and then commanded those to be burnt which

belonged to the rest of the army. An act which in the

deliberation of it had seemed more dangerous and difficult than it

proved in the execution, with which few were dissatisfied; for

most of the soldiers, as if they had been inspired, uttering loud

outcries and warlike shoutings, supplied one another with what was

absolutely necessary, and burnt and destroyed all that was

superfluous, the sight of which redoubled Alexander's zeal and

eagerness for his design. And, indeed, he was now grown very

severe and inexorable in punishing those who committed any fault.

For he put Menander, one of his friends, to death, for deserting a

fortress where he had placed him in garrison, and shot Orsodates,

one of the barbarians who revolted from him, with his own hand.

At this time a sheep happened to yean a lamb, with the perfect

shape and color of a tiara upon the head, and testicles on each

side; which portent Alexander regarded with such dislike, that he

immediately caused his Babylonian priests, whom he usually carried

about with him for such purposes, to purify him, and told his

friends he was not so much concerned for his own sake as for

theirs, out of an apprehension that after his death the divine

power might suffer his empire to fall into the hands of some

degenerate, impotent person. But this fear was soon removed by a

wonderful thing that happened not long after, and was thought to

presage better. For Proxenus, a Macedonian, who was the chief of

those who looked to the king's furniture, as he was breaking up

the ground near the river Oxus, to set up the royal pavilion,

discovered a spring of a fat, oily liquor, which after the top was

taken off, ran pure, clear oil, without any difference either of

taste or smell, having exactly the same smoothness and brightness,

and that, too, in a country where no olives grew. The water,

indeed, of the river Oxus, is said to be the smoothest to the

feeling of all waters, and to leave a gloss on the skins of those

who bathe themselves in it. Whatever might be the cause, certain

it is that Alexander was wonderfully pleased with it, as appears

by his letters to Antipater, where he speaks of it as one of the

most remarkable presages that God had ever favored him with. The

diviners told him it signified his expedition would be glorious in

the event, but very painful, and attended with many difficulties;

for oil, they said, was bestowed on mankind by God as a

refreshment of their labors.

Nor did they judge amiss, for he exposed himself to many hazards

in the battles which he fought, and received very severe wounds,

but the greatest loss in his army was occasioned through the

unwholesomeness of the air, and the want of necessary provisions.

But he still applied himself to overcome fortune and whatever

opposed him, by resolution and virtue, and thought nothing

impossible to true intrepidity, and on the other hand nothing

secure or strong for cowardice. It is told of him that when he

besieged Sisimithres, who held an inaccessible, impregnable rock

against him, and his soldiers began to despair of taking it, he

asked Oxyartes whether Sisimithres was a man of courage, who

assuring him he was the greatest coward alive, "Then you tell me,"

said he, "that the place may easily be taken, since what is in

command of it is weak." And in a little time he so terrified

Sisimithres, that he took it without any difficulty. At an attack

which he made upon such another precipitous place with some of his

Macedonian soldiers, he called to one whose name was Alexander,

and told him, he at any rate must fight bravely, if it were but

for his name's sake. The youth fought gallantly and was killed in

the action, at which he was sensibly afflicted. Another time,

seeing his men march slowly and unwillingly to the siege of the

place called Nysa, because of a deep river between them and the

town, he advanced before them, and standing upon the bank, "What a

miserable man," said he, "am I, that I have not learned to swim!"

and then was hardly dissuaded from endeavoring to pass it upon his

shield. Here, after the assault was over, the ambassadors who

from several towns which he had blocked up, came to submit to him

and make their peace, were surprised to find him still in his

armor, without anyone in waiting or attendance upon him, and when

at last some one brought him a cushion, he made the eldest of

them, named Acuphis, take it and sit down upon it. The old man,

marveling at his magnanimity and courtesy, asked him what his

countrymen should do to merit his friendship. "I would have

them," said Alexander, "choose you to govern them, and send one

hundred of the most worthy men among them to remain with me as

hostages." Acuphis laughed and answered, "I shall govern them

with more ease, Sir, if I send you so many of the worst, rather

than the best of my subjects."

The extent of king Taxiles's dominions in India was thought to be

as large as Egypt, abounding in good pastures, and producing

beautiful fruits. The king himself had the reputation of a wise

man, and at his first interview with Alexander, he spoke to him

in these terms: "To what purpose," said he, "should we make war

upon one another, if the design of your coming into these parts be

not to rob us of our water or our necessary food, which are the

only things that wise men are indispensably obliged to fight for?

As for other riches and possessions, as they are accounted in the

eye of the world, if I am better provided of them than you, I am

ready to let you share with me; but if fortune has been more

liberal to you than me, I have no objection to be obliged to you."

This discourse pleased Alexander so much, that embracing him, "Do

you think," said he to him, "your kind words and courteous

behavior will bring you off in this interview without a contest?

No, you shall not escape so. I shall contend and do battle with

you so far, that how obliging soever you are, you shall not have

the better of me." Then receiving some presents from him, he

returned him others of greater value, and to complete his bounty,

gave him in money ready coined one thousand talents; at which his

old friends were much displeased, but it gained him the hearts of

many of the barbarians. But the best soldiers of the Indians now

entering into the pay of several of the cities, undertook to

defend them, and did it so bravely, that they put Alexander to a

great deal of trouble, till at last, after a capitulation, upon

the surrender of the place, he fell upon them as they were

marching away, and put them all to the sword. This one breach of

his word remains as a blemish upon his achievements in war, which

he otherwise had performed throughout with that justice and honor

that became a king. Nor was he less incommoded by the Indian

philosophers, who inveighed against those princes who joined his

party, and solicited the free nations to oppose him. He took

several of these also, and caused them to be hanged.

Alexander, in his own letters, has given us an account of his war

with Porus. He says the two armies were separated by the river

Hydaspes, on whose opposite bank Porus continually kept his

elephants in order of battle, with their heads towards their

enemies, to guard the passage; that he, on the other hand, made

every day a great noise and clamor in his camp, to dissipate the

apprehensions of the barbarians; that one stormy dark night he

passed the river, at a distance from the place where the enemy

lay, into a little island, with part of his foot, and the best of

his horse. Here there fell a most violent storm of rain,

accompanied with lightning and whirlwinds, and seeing some of his

men burnt and dying with the lightning, he nevertheless quitted

the island and made over to the other side. The Hydaspes, he

says, now after the storm, was so swollen and grown so rapid, as

to have made a breach in the bank, and a part of the river was now

pouring in here, so that when he came across, it was with

difficulty he got a footing on the land, which was slippery and

unsteady, and exposed to the force of the currents on both sides.

This is the occasion when he is related to have said, "O ye

Athenians, will ye believe what dangers I incur to merit your

praise?" This, however, is Onesicritus's story. Alexander says,

here the men left their boats, and passed the breach in their

armor, up to the breast in water, and that then he advanced with

his horse about twenty furlongs before his foot, concluding that

if the enemy charged him with their cavalry, he should be too

strong for them; if with their foot, his own would come up time

enough to his assistance. Nor did he judge amiss; for being

charged by a thousand horse, and sixty armed chariots, which

advanced before their main body, he took all the chariots, and

killed four hundred horse upon the place. Porus, by this time

guessing that Alexander himself had crossed over, came on with his

whole army, except a party which he left behind, to hold the rest

of the Macedonians in play, if they should attempt to pass the

river. But he, apprehending the multitude of the enemy, and to

avoid the shock of their elephants, dividing his forces, attacked

their left wing himself, and commanded Coenus to fall upon the

right, which was performed with good success. For by this means

both wings being broken, the enemies fell back in their retreat

upon the center, and crowded in upon their elephants. There

rallying, they fought a hand to hand battle, and it was the eighth

hour of the day before they were entirely defeated. This

description the conqueror himself has left us in his own epistles.

Almost all the historians agree in relating that Porus was four

cubits and a span high, and that when he was upon his elephant,

which was of the largest size, his stature and bulk were so

answerable, that he appeared to be proportionably mounted, as a

horseman on his horse. This elephant, during the whole battle,

gave many singular proofs of sagacity and of particular care of

the king, whom as long as he was strong and in a condition to

fight, he defended with great courage, repelling those who set

upon him; and as soon as he perceived him overpowered with his

numerous wounds and the multitude of darts that were thrown at

him, to prevent his falling off, he softly knelt down and began to

draw out the darts with his proboscis. When Porus was taken

prisoner; and Alexander asked him how he expected to be used, he

answered, "As a king." For that expression, he said, when the

same question was put to him a second time, comprehended

everything. And Alexander, accordingly, not only suffered him to

govern his own kingdom as satrap under himself, but gave him also

the additional territory of various independent tribes whom he

subdued, a district which, it is said, contained fifteen several

nations and five thousand considerable towns, besides abundance of

villages. To another government, three times as large as this, he

appointed Philip, one of his friends.

Some little time after the battle with Porus, Bucephalas died, as

most of the authorities state, under cure of his wounds, or as

Onesicritus says, of fatigue and age, being thirty years old.

Alexander was no less concerned at his death, than if he had lost

an old companion or an intimate friend, and built a city, which he

named Bucephalia, in memory of him, on the bank of the river

Hydaspes. He also, we are told, built another city, and called it

after the name of a favorite dog, Peritas, which he had brought up

himself. So Sotion assures us he was informed by Potamon of

Lesbos.

But this last combat with Porus took off the edge of the

Macedonians' courage, and stayed their further progress into

India. For having found it hard enough to defeat an enemy who

brought but twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse into the

field, they thought they had reason to oppose Alexander's design

of leading them on to pass the Ganges too, which they were told

was thirty-two furlongs broad and a hundred fathoms deep, and the

banks on the further side covered with multitudes of enemies. For

they were told that the kings of the Gandaritans and Praesians

expected them there with eighty thousand horse, two hundred

thousand foot, eight thousand armed chariots, and six thousand

fighting elephants. Nor was this a mere vain report, spread to

discourage them. For Androcottus, who not long after reigned in

those parts, made a present of five hundred elephants at once to

Seleucus, and with an army of six hundred thousand men subdued all

India. Alexander at first was so grieved and enraged at his men's

reluctancy, that he shut himself up in his tent, and threw himself

upon the ground, declaring, if they would not pass the Ganges, he

owed them no thanks for anything they had hitherto done, and that

to retreat now, was plainly to confess himself vanquished. But at

last the reasonable persuasions of his friends and the cries and

lamentations of his soldiers, who in a suppliant manner crowded

about the entrance of his tent, prevailed with him to think of

returning. Yet he could not refrain from leaving behind him

various deceptive memorials of his expedition, to impose upon

after-times, and to exaggerate his glory with posterity, such as

arms larger than were really worn, and mangers for horses, with

bits of bridles above the usual size, which he set up, and

distributed in several places. He erected altars, also, to the

gods, which the kings of the Praesians even in our time do honor

to when they pass the river, and offer sacrifice upon them after

the Grecian manner. Androcottus, then a boy, saw Alexander there,

and is said often afterwards to have been heard to say, that he

missed but little of making himself master of those countries;

their king, who then reigned, was so hated and despised for the

viciousness of his life, and the meanness of his extraction.

Alexander was now eager to see the ocean. To which purpose he

caused a great many row-boats and rafts to be built, in which he

fell gently down the rivers at his leisure, yet so that his

navigation was neither unprofitable nor inactive. For by several

descents upon the banks, he made himself master of the fortified

towns, and consequently of the country on both sides. But at a

siege of a town of the Mallians, who have the repute of being the

bravest people of India, he ran in great danger of his life. For

having beaten off the defendants with showers of arrows, he was

the first man that mounted the wall by a scaling ladder, which, as

soon as he was up, broke and left him almost alone, exposed to the

darts which the barbarians threw at him in great numbers from

below. In this distress, turning himself as well as he could, he

leaped down in the midst of his enemies, and had the good fortune

to light upon his feet. The brightness and clattering of his

armor when he came to the ground, made the barbarians think they

saw rays of light, or some bright phantom playing before his body,

which frightened them so at first, that they ran away and

dispersed. Till seeing him seconded but by two of his guards,

they fell upon him hand to hand, and some, while he bravely

defended himself, tried to wound him through his armor with their

swords and spears. And one who stood further off, drew a bow with

such just strength, that the arrow finding its way through his

cuirass, stuck in his ribs under the breast. This stroke was so

violent, that it made him give back, and set one knee to the

ground, upon which the man ran up with his drawn scimitar,

thinking to dispatch him, and had done it, if Peucestes and

Limnaeus had not interposed, who were both wounded, Limnaeus

mortally, but Peucestes stood his ground, while Alexander killed

the barbarian. But this did not free him from danger; for besides

many other wounds, at last he received so weighty a stroke of a

club upon his neck, that he was forced to lean his body against

the wall, still, however, facing the enemy. At this extremity,

the Macedonians made their way in and gathered round him. They

took him up, just as he was fainting away, having lost all sense

of what was done near him, and conveyed him to his tent, upon

which it was presently reported all over the camp that he was

dead. But when they had with great difficulty and pains sawed off

the shaft of the arrow, which was of wood, and so with much

trouble got off his cuirass, they came to cut out the head of it,

which was three fingers broad and four long, and stuck fast in the

bone. During the operation, he was taken with almost mortal

swoonings, but when it was out he came to himself again. Yet

though all danger was past, he continued very weak, and confined

himself a great while to a regular diet and the method of his

cure, till one day hearing the Macedonians clamoring outside in

their eagerness to see him, he took his cloak and went out. And

having sacrificed to the gods, without more delay he went on board

again, and as he coasted along, subdued a great deal of the

country on both sides, and several considerable cities.

In this voyage, he took ten of the Indian philosophers prisoners,

who had been most active in persuading Sabbas to revolt, and had

caused the Macedonians a great deal of trouble. These men, called

Gymnosophists, were reputed to be extremely ready and succinct in

their answers, which he made trial of, by putting difficult

questions to them, letting them know that those whose answers were

not pertinent, should be put to death, of which he made the eldest

of them judge. The first being asked which he thought most

numerous, the dead or the living, answered, "The living, because

those who are dead are not at all." Of the second, he desired to

know whether the earth or the sea produced the largest beast; who

told him, "The earth, for the sea is but a part of it." His

question to the third was, Which is the cunningest of beasts?

"That," said he, "which men have not yet found out." He bade the

fourth tell him what argument he used to Sabbas to persuade him to

revolt. "No other," said he, "than that he should either live or

die nobly." Of the fifth he asked, Which was eldest, night or

day? The philosopher replied, "Day was eldest, by one day at

least." But perceiving Alexander not well satisfied with that

account, he added, that he ought not to wonder if strange

questions had as strange answers made to them. Then he went on and

inquired of the next, what a man should do to be exceedingly

beloved. "He must be very powerful," said he, "without making

himself too much feared." The answer of the seventh to his

question, how a man might become a god, was, "By doing that which

was impossible for men to do." The eighth told him, "Life is

stronger than death, because it supports so many miseries." And

the last being asked, how long he thought it decent for a man to

live, said, "Till death appeared more desirable than life." Then

Alexander turned to him whom he had made judge, and commanded him

to give sentence. "All that I can determine," said he, "is, that

they have every one answered worse than another." "Nay," said the

king, "then you shall die first, for giving such a sentence."

"Not so, O king," replied the gymnosophist, "unless you said

falsely that he should die first who made the worst answer." In

conclusion he gave them presents and dismissed them.

But to those who were in greatest reputation among them, and lived

a private quiet life, he sent Onesicritus, one of Diogenes the

Cynic's disciples, desiring them to come to him. Calanus, it is

said, very arrogantly and roughly commanded him to strip himself,

and hear what he said, naked, otherwise he would not speak a word

to him, though he came from Jupiter himself. But Dandamis

received him with more civility, and hearing him discourse of

Socrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes, told him he thought them men

of great parts, and to have erred in nothing so much as in

having too great respect for the laws and customs of their

country. Others say, Dandamis only asked him the reason why

Alexander undertook so long a journey to come into those parts.

Taxiles, however, persuaded Calanus to wait upon Alexander. His

proper name was Sphines, but because he was wont to say Cale,

which in the Indian tongue is a form of salutation, to those he

met with anywhere, the Greeks called him Calanus. He is said to

have shown Alexander an instructive emblem of government, which

was this. He threw a dry shriveled hide upon the ground, and trod

upon the edges of it. The skin when it was pressed in one place,

still rose up in another, wheresoever he trod round about it, till

he set his foot in the middle, which made all the parts lie even

and quiet. The meaning of this similitude being that he ought to

reside most in the middle of his empire, and not spend too much

time on the borders of it.

His voyage down the rivers took up seven months' time, and when he

came to the sea, he sailed to an island which he himself called

Scillustis, others Psiltucis, where going ashore, he sacrificed,

and made what observations he could as to the nature of the sea

and the sea-coast. Then having besought the gods that no other

man might ever go beyond the bounds of this expedition, he ordered

his fleet of which he made Nearchus admiral, and Onesicritus

pilot, to sail round about, keeping the Indian shore on the right

hand, and returned himself by land through the country of the

Orites, where he was reduced to great straits for want of

provisions, and lost a vast number of men, so that of an army of

one hundred and twenty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse,

he scarcely brought back above a fourth part out of India, they

were so diminished by diseases, ill diet, and the scorching heats,

but most by famine. For their march was through an uncultivated

country whose inhabitants fared hardly, possessing only a few

sheep, and those of a wretched kind, whose flesh was rank and

unsavory, by their continual feeding upon sea-fish.

After sixty days march he came into Gedrosia, where he found great

plenty of all things, which the neighboring kings and governors of

provinces, hearing of his approach, had taken care to provide.

When he had here refreshed his army, he continued his march

through Carmania, feasting all the way for seven days together.

He with his most intimate friends banqueted and reveled night and

day upon a platform erected on a lofty, conspicuous scaffold,

which was slowly drawn by eight horses. This was followed by a

great many chariots, some covered with purple and embroidered

canopies, and some with green boughs, which were continually

supplied afresh, and in them the rest of his friends and

commanders drinking, and crowned with garlands of flowers. Here

was now no target or helmet or spear to be seen; instead of armor,

the soldiers handled nothing but cups and goblets and Thericlean

drinking vessels, which, along the whole way, they dipped into

large bowls and jars, and drank healths to one another, some

seating themselves to it, others as they went along. All places

resounded with music of pipes and flutes, with harping and

singing, and women dancing as in the rites of Bacchus. For this

disorderly, wandering march, besides the drinking part of it, was

accompanied with all the sportiveness and insolence of bacchanals,

as much as if the god himself had been there to countenance and

lead the procession. As soon as he came to the royal palace of

Gedrosia, he again refreshed and feasted his army; and one day

after he had drunk pretty hard, it is said, he went to see a prize

of dancing contended for, in which his favorite Bagoas, having

gained the victory, crossed the theater in his dancing habit, and

sat down close by him, which so pleased the Macedonians, that they

made loud acclamations for him to kiss Bagoas, and never stopped

clapping their hands and shouting till Alexander put his arms

round him and kissed him.

Here his admiral, Nearchus, came to him and delighted him so with

the narrative of his voyage, that he resolved himself to sail out

of the mouth of Euphrates with a great fleet, with which he

designed to go round by Arabia and Africa, and so by Hercules's

Pillars into the Mediterranean; in order for which, he directed

all sorts of vessels to be built at Thapsacus, and made great

provision everywhere of seamen and pilots. But the tidings of the

difficulties he had gone through in his Indian expedition, the

danger of his person among the Mallians, the reported loss of a

considerable part of his forces, and a general doubt as to his own

safety, had begun to give occasion for revolt among many of the

conquered nations, and for acts of great injustice, avarice, and

insolence on the part of the satraps and commanders in the

provinces, so that there seemed to be an universal fluctuation and

disposition to change. Even at home, Olympias and Cleopatra had

raised a faction against Antipater, and divided his government

between them, Olympias seizing upon Epirus, and Cleopatra upon

Macedonia. When Alexander was told of it, he said his mother had

made the best choice, for the Macedonians would never endure to be

ruled by a woman. Upon this he dispatched Nearchus again to his

fleet, to carry the war into the maritime provinces, and as he

marched that way himself, he punished those commanders who had

behaved ill, particularly Oxyartes, one of the sons of Abuletes,

whom he killed with his own hand, thrusting him through the body

with his spear. And when Abuletes, instead of the necessary

provisions which he ought to have furnished, brought him three

thousand talents in coined money, he ordered it to be thrown to

his horses, and when they would not touch it, "What good," he

said, "will this provision do us?" and sent him away to prison.

When he came into Persia, he distributed money among the women, as

their own kings had been wont to do, who as often as they came

thither, gave every one of them a piece of gold; on account of

which custom, some of them, it is said, had come but seldom, and

Ochus was so sordidly covetous, that to avoid this expense, he

never visited his native country once in all his reign. Then

finding Cyrus's sepulchre opened and rifled, he put Polymachus,

who did it, to death, though he was a man of some distinction, a

born Macedonian of Pella. And after he had read the inscription,

he caused it to be cut again below the old one in Greek

characters; the words being these: "O man, whosoever thou art,

and from whencesoever thou comest (for I know thou wilt come), I

am Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire; do not grudge me this

little earth which covers my body." The reading of this sensibly

touched Alexander, filling him with the thought of the uncertainty

and mutability of human affairs. At the same time, Calanus having

been a little while troubled with a disease in the bowels,

requested that he might have a funeral pile erected, to which he

came on horseback, and after he had said some prayers and

sprinkled himself and cut off some of his hair to throw into the

fire, before he ascended it, he embraced and took leave of the

Macedonians who stood by, desiring them to pass that day in mirth

and good-fellowship with their king, whom in a little time, he

said, he doubted not but to see again at Babylon. Having thus

said, he lay down, and covering up his face, he stirred not when

the fire came near him, but continued still in the same posture

as at first, and so sacrificed himself, as it was the ancient

custom of the philosophers in those countries to do. The same

thing was done long after by another Indian, who came with Caesar

to Athens, where they still show you "the Indian's monument." At

his return from the funeral pile, Alexander invited a great many

of his friends and principal officers to supper, and proposed a

drinking match, in which the victor should receive a crown.

Promachus drank twelve quarts of wine, and won the prize, which

was a talent, from them all; but he survived his victory but three

days, and was followed, as Chares says, by forty-one more, who

died of the same debauch, some extremely cold weather having set

in shortly after.

At Susa, he married Darius's daughter Statira, and celebrated also

the nuptials of his friends, bestowing the noblest of the Persian

ladies upon the worthiest of them, at the same time making in an

entertainment in honor of the other Macedonians whose marriages

had already taken place. At this magnificent festival, it is

reported, there were no less than nine thousand guests, to each of

whom he gave a golden cup for the libations. Not to mention other

instances of his wonderful magnificence, he paid the debts of his

army, which amounted to nine thousand eight hundred and seventy

talents. But Antigenes, who had lost one of his eyes, though he

owed nothing, got his name set down in the list of those who were

in debt, and bringing one who pretended to be his creditor, and to

have supplied him from the bank, received the money. But when the

cheat was found out, the king was so incensed at it, that he

banished him from court, and took away his command, though he was

an excellent soldier, and a man of great courage. For when he was

but a youth, and served under Philip at the siege of Perinthus,

where he was wounded in the eye by an arrow shot out of an engine,

he would neither let the arrow be taken out, nor be persuaded to

quit the field, till he had bravely repulsed the enemy and forced

them to retire into the town. Accordingly he was not able to

support such a disgrace with any patience, and it was plain that

grief and despair would have made him kill himself, but that the

king fearing it, not only pardoned him, but let him also enjoy the

benefit of his deceit.

The thirty thousand boys whom he left behind him to be taught and

disciplined, were so improved at his return, both in strength and

beauty, and performed their exercises with such dexterity and

wonderful agility, that he was extremely pleased with them, which

grieved the Macedonians, and made them fear he would have the less

value for them. And when he proceeded to send down the infirm and

maimed soldiers to the sea, they said they were unjustly and

infamously dealt with, after they were worn out in his service

upon all occasions, now to be turned away with disgrace and sent

home into their country among their friends and relations, in a

worse condition than when they came out; therefore they desired

him to dismiss them one and all, and to account his Macedonians

useless, now he was so well furnished with a set of dancing boys,

with whom, if he pleased, he might go on and conquer the world.

These speeches so incensed Alexander, that after he had given them

a great deal of reproachful language in his passion, he drove them

away, and committed the watch to Persians, out of whom he chose

his guards and attendants. When the Macedonians saw him escorted

by these men, and themselves excluded and shamefully disgraced,

their high spirits fell, and conferring with one another, they

found that jealousy and rage had almost distracted them. But at

last coming to themselves again, they went without their arms,

with on]y their under garments on, crying and weeping, to offer

themselves at his tent, and desired him to deal with them as their

baseness and ingratitude deserved. However, this would not

prevail; for though his anger was already something mollified, yet

he would not admit them into his presence, nor would they stir

from thence, but continued two days and nights before his tent,

bewailing themselves, and imploring him as their lord to have

compassion on them. But the third day he came out to them, and

seeing them very humble and penitent, he wept himself a great

while, and after a gentle reproof spoke kindly to them, and

dismissed those who were unserviceable with magnificent rewards,

and with this recommendation to Antipater, that when they came

home, at all public shows and in the theaters, they should sit on

the best and foremost seats, crowned with chaplets of flowers. He

ordered, also, that the children of those who had lost their lives

in his service, should have their fathers' pay continued to them.

When he came to Ecbatana in Media, and had dispatched his most

urgent affairs, he began to divert himself again with spectacles

and public entertainments, to carry on which he had a supply of

three thousand actors and artists, newly arrived out of Greece.

But they were soon interrupted by Hephaestion's falling sick of a

fever, in which, being a young man and a soldier too, he could not

confine himself to so exact a diet as was necessary; for whilst

his physician Glaucus was gone to the theater, he ate a fowl for

his dinner, and drank a large draught of wine, upon which he

became very ill, and shortly after died. At this misfortune,

Alexander was so beyond all reason transported, that to express

his sorrow, he immediately ordered the manes and tails of all his

horses and mules to be cut, and threw down the battlements of the

neighboring cities. The poor physician he crucified, and forbade

playing on the flute, or any other musical instrument in the camp

a great while, till directions came from the oracle of Ammon, and

enjoined him to honor Hephaestion, and sacrifice to him as to a

hero. Then seeking to alleviate his grief in war, he set out, as

it were, to a hunt and chase of men, for he fell upon the

Cossaeans, and put the whole nation to the sword. This was called

a sacrifice to Hephaestion's ghost. In his sepulchre and monument

and the adorning of them, he intended to bestow ten thousand

talents; and designing that the excellence of the workmanship and

the singularity of the design might outdo the expense, his wishes

turned, above all other artists, to Stasicrates, because he always

promised something very bold, unusual, and magnificent in his

projects. Once when they had met before, he had told him, that of

all the mountains he knew, that of Athos in Thrace was the most

capable of being adapted to represent the shape and lineaments of

a man; that if he pleased to command him, he would make it the

noblest and most durable statue in the world, which in its left

hand should hold a city of ten thousand inhabitants, and out of

its right should pour a copious river into the sea. Though

Alexander declined this proposal, yet now he spent a great deal of

time with workmen to invent and contrive others even more

extravagant and sumptuous.

As he was upon his way to Babylon, Nearchus, who had sailed back

out of the ocean up the mouth of the river Euphrates, came to tell

him he had met with some Chaldaean diviners, who had warned him

against Alexander's going thither. Alexander, however, took no

thought of it, and went on, and when he came near the walls of the

place, he saw a great many crows fighting with one another, some

of whom fell down just by him. After this, being privately

informed that Apollodorus, the governor of Babylon, had

sacrificed, to know what would become of him, he sent for

Pythagoras, the soothsayer, and on his admitting the thing, asked

him, in what condition he found the victim; and when he told him

the liver was defective in its lobe, "A great presage indeed!"

said Alexander. However, he offered Pythagoras no injury, but was

sorry that he had neglected Nearchus's advice, and stayed for the

most part outside the town, removing his tent from place to place,

and sailing up and down the Euphrates. Besides this, he was

disturbed by many other prodigies. A tame ass fell upon the

biggest and handsomest lion that he kept, and killed him by a

kick. And one day after he had undressed himself to be anointed,

and was playing at ball, just as they were going to bring his

clothes again, the young men who played with him perceived a man

clad in the king's robes, with a diadem upon his head, sitting

silently upon his throne. They asked him who he was, to which he

gave no answer a good while, till at last coming to himself, he

told them his name was Dionysius, that he was of Messenia, that

for some crime of which he was accused, he was brought thither

from the sea-side, and had been kept long in prison, that Serapis

appeared to him, had freed him from his chains, conducted him to

that place, and commanded him to put on the king's robe and

diadem, and to sit where they found him, and to say nothing.

Alexander, when he heard this, by the direction of his

soothsayers, put the fellow to death, but he lost his spirits, and

grew diffident of the protection and assistance of the gods, and

suspicious of his friends. His greatest apprehension was of

Antipater and his sons, one of whom, Iolaus, was his chief

cupbearer; and Cassander, who had lately arrived, and had been

bred up in Greek manners, the first time he saw some of the

barbarians adore the king, could not forbear laughing at it aloud,

which so incensed Alexander, that he took him by the hair with

both hands, and dashed his head against the wall. Another time,

Cassander would have said something in defense of Antipater to

those who accused him, but Alexander interrupting him said, "What

is it you say? Do you think people, if they had received no

injury, would come such a journey only to calumniate your father?"

To which when Cassander replied, that their coming so far from the

evidence was a great proof of the falseness of their charges,

Alexander smiled, and said those were some of Aristotle's

sophisms, which would serve equally on both sides; and added, that

both he and his father should be severely punished, if they were

found guilty of the least injustice towards those who complained.

All which made such a deep impression of terror in Cassander's

mind, that long after when he was king of Macedonia, and master of

Greece, as he was walking up and down at Delphi, and looking at

the statues, at the sight of that of Alexander he was suddenly

struck with alarm, and shook all over, his eyes rolled, his head

grew dizzy, and it was long before he recovered himself.

When once Alexander had given way to fears of supernatural

influence, his mind grew so disturbed and so easily alarmed, that

if the least unusual or extraordinary thing happened, he thought

it a prodigy or a presage, and his court was thronged with

diviners and priests whose business was to sacrifice and purify

and foretell the future. So miserable a thing is incredulity and

contempt of divine power on the one hand, and so miserable, also,

superstition on the other, which like water, where the level has

been lowered, flowing in and never stopping, fills the mind with

slavish fears and follies, as now in Alexander's case. But upon

some answers which were brought him from the oracle concerning

Hephaestion, he laid aside his sorrow, and fell again to

sacrificing and drinking; and having given Nearchus a splendid

entertainment, after he had bathed, as was his custom, just as he

was going to bed, at Medius's request he went to supper with him.

Here he drank all the next day, and was attacked with a fever,

which seized him, not as some write, after he had drunk of the

bowl of Hercules; nor was he taken with any sudden pain in his

back, as if he had been struck with lance, for these are the

inventions of some authors who thought it their duty to make the

last scene of so great an action as tragical and moving as they

could. Aristobulus tells us, that in the rage of his fever and a

violent thirst, he took a draught of wine, upon which he fell into

delirium, and died on the thirtieth day of the month Daesius.

But the journals give the following record. On the eighteenth of

the month, he slept in the bathing-room on account of his fever.

The next day he bathed and removed into his chamber, and spent

his time in playing dice with Medius. In the evening he bathed

and sacrificed, and ate freely, and had the fever on him through

the night. On the twentieth, after the usual sacrifices and

bathing, he lay in the bathing-room and heard Nearchus's narrative

of his voyage, and the observations he had made in the great sea.

The twenty-first he passed in the same manner, his fever still

increasing, and suffered much during the night. The next day the

fever was very violent, and he had himself removed and his bed set

by the great bath, and discoursed with his principal officers

about finding fit men to fill up the vacant places in the army.

On the twenty-fourth he was much worse, and was carried out of his

bed to assist at the sacrifices, and gave order that the general

officers should wait within the court, whilst the inferior

officers kept watch without doors. On the twenty-fifth he was

removed to his palace on the other side the river, where he slept

a little, but his fever did not abate, and when the generals came

into his chamber, he was speechless, and continued so the

following day. The Macedonians, therefore, supposing he was dead,

came with great clamors to the gates, and menaced his friends so

that they were forced to admit them, and let them all pass through

unarmed along by his bedside. The same day Python and Seleucus

were dispatched to the temple of Serapis to inquire if they should

bring Alexander thither, and were answered by the god, that they

should not remove him. On the twenty-eighth, in the evening, he

died. This account is most of it word for word as it is written

in the diary.

At the time, nobody had any suspicion of his being poisoned, but

upon some information given six years after, they say Olympias put

many to death, and scattered the ashes of Iolaus, then dead, as if

he had given it him. But those who affirm that Aristotle

counseled Antipater to do it, and that by his means the poison was

brought, adduce one Hagnothemis as their authority, who, they say,

heard king Antigonus speak of it, and tell us that the poison was

water, deadly cold as ice, distilling from a rock in the district

of Nonacris, which they gathered like a thin dew, and kept in an

ass's hoof; for it was so very cold and penetrating that no other

vessel would hold it. However, most are of opinion that all this

is a mere made-up story, no slight evidence of which is, that

during the dissensions among the commanders, which lasted several

days, the body continued clear and fresh, without any sign of such

taint or corruption, though it lay neglected in a close, sultry

place.

Roxana, who was now with child, and upon that account much honored

by the Macedonians, being jealous of Statira, sent for her by a

counterfeit letter, as if Alexander had been still alive; and when

she had her in her power, killed her and her sister, and threw

their bodies into a well, which they filled up with earth, not

without the privity and assistance of Perdiccas, who in the time

immediately following the king's death, under cover of the name of

Arrhidaeus, whom he carried about him as a sort of guard to his

person, exercised the chief authority Arrhidaeus, who was Philip's

son by an obscure woman of the name of Philinna, was himself of

weak intellect, not that he had been originally deficient either

in body or mind; on the contrary, in his childhood, he had showed

a happy and promising character enough. But a diseased habit of

body, caused by drugs which Olympias gave him, had ruined not only

his health, but his understanding.