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(1)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.
(2)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.
(3)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.
(4)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.
(5)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.
(6)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."
(7)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.
(8)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.
(9)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.
(10)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.
(11)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.
(12)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.
(13)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.
(14)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.
(15)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.
(16)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 hono |