Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
interpreted rather in flattery to him, than according to the
natural probability. He dreamed that he saw the Macedonian
phalanx all on fire, and Alexander waiting on him, clad in the
same dress which he himself had been used to wear when he was
courier to the late king; after which, going into the temple of
Belus, he vanished out of his sight. The dream would appear to
have supernaturally signified to him the illustrious actions the
Macedonians were to perform, and that as he from a courier's place
had risen to the throne, so Alexander should come to be master of
Asia, and not long surviving his conquests, conclude his life with
glory. Darius's confidence increased the more, because Alexander
spent so much time in Cilicia, which he imputed to his cowardice.
But it was sickness that detained him there, which some say he
contracted from his fatigues, others from bathing in the river
Cydnus, whose waters were exceedingly cold. However it happened,
none of his physicians would venture to give him any remedies,
they thought his case so desperate, and were so afraid of the
suspicions and ill-will of the Macedonians if they should fail in
the cure; till Philip, the Acarnanian, seeing how critical his
case was, but relying on his own well-known friendship for him,
resolved to try the last efforts of his art, and rather hazard his
own credit and life, than suffer him to perish for want of physic,
which he confidently administered to him, encouraging him to take
it boldly, if he desired a speedy recovery, in order to prosecute
the war. At this very time, Parmenio wrote to Alexander from the
camp, bidding him have a care of Philip, as one who was bribed by
Darius to kill him, with great sums of money, and a promise of his
daughter in marriage. When he had perused the letter, he put it
under his pillow, without showing it so much as to any of his most
intimate friends, and when Philip came in with the potion, he took
it with great cheerfulness and assurance, giving him meantime the
letter to read. This was a spectacle well worth being present at,
to see Alexander take the draught, and Philip read the letter at
the same time, and then turn and look upon one another, but with
different sentiments; for Alexander's looks were cheerful and
open, to show his kindness to and confidence in his physician,
while the other was full of surprise and alarm at the accusation,
appealing to the gods to witness his innocence, sometimes lifting
up his hands to heaven, and then throwing himself down by the
bedside, and beseeching Alexander to lay aside all fear, and
follow his directions without apprehension. For the medicine at
first worked so strongly as to drive, so to say, the vital forces
into the interior; he lost his speech, and falling into a swoon,
had scarce any sense or pulse left. However, in no long time, by
Philip's means, his health and strength returned, and he showed
himself in public to the Macedonians, who were in continual fear
and dejection until they saw him abroad again.
There was at this time in Darius's army a Macedonian refugee,
named Amyntas, one who was pretty well acquainted with Alexander's
character. This man, when he saw Darius intended to fall upon the
enemy in the passes and defiles, advised him earnestly to keep
where he was, in the open and extensive plains, it being the
advantage of a numerous army to have field-room enough when it
engages with a lesser force. Darius, instead of taking his
counsel, told him he was afraid the enemy would endeavor to run
away, and so Alexander would escape out of his hands. "That
fear," replied Amyntas, "is needless, for assure yourself that far
from avoiding, you, he will make all the speed he can to meet you,
and is now most likely on his march towards you." But Amyntas's
counsel was to no purpose, for Darius immediately decamping,
marched into Cilicia, at the same time that Alexander advanced
into Syria to meet him; and missing one another in the night, they
both turned back again. Alexander, greatly pleased with the
event, made all the haste he could to fight in the defiles, and
Darius to recover his former ground, and draw his army out of so
disadvantageous a place. For now he began to perceive his error
in engaging himself too far in a country in which the sea, the
mountains, and the river Pinarus running through the midst of it,
would necessitate him to divide his forces, render his horse
almost unserviceable, and only cover and support the weakness of
the enemy. Fortune was not kinder to Alexander in the choice of
the ground, than he was careful to improve it to his advantage.
For being much inferior in numbers, so far from allowing himself
to be outflanked, he stretched his right wing much further out
than the left wing of his enemies, and fighting there himself in
the very foremost ranks, put the barbarians to flight. In this
battle he was wounded in the thigh, Chares says by Darius, with
whom he fought hand to hand. But in the account which he gave
Antipater of the battle though indeed he owns he was wounded in
the thigh with sword, though not dangerously, yet he takes no
notice who it was that wounded him.
Nothing was wanting to complete this victory, in which he
overthrew above a hundred and ten thousand of his enemies, but
the taking the person of Darius, who escaped very narrowly by
flight. However, having taken his chariot and his bow, he
returned from pursuing him, and found his own men busy in
pillaging the barbarians' camp, which (though to disburden
themselves, they had left most of their baggage at Damascus) was
exceedingly rich. But Darius's tent, which was full of splendid
furniture, and quantities of gold and silver, they reserved for
Alexander himself, who after he had put off his arms, went to
bathe himself, saying, "Let us now cleanse ourselves from the
toils of war in the bath of Darius." "Not so," replied one of his
followers, "but in Alexander's rather; for the property of the
conquered is, and should be called the conqueror's." Here, when
he beheld the bathing vessels, the water-pots, the pans, and the
ointment boxes, all of gold, curiously wrought, and smelt the
fragrant odors with which the whole place was exquisitely
perfumed, and from thence passed into a pavilion of great size and
height, where the couches and tables and preparations for an
entertainment were perfectly magnificent, he turned to those about
him and said, "This, it seems, is royalty."
But as he was going to supper, word was brought him that Darius's
mother and wife and two unmarried daughters, being taken among the
rest of the prisoners, upon the sight of his chariot and bow were
all in mourning and sorrow, imagining him to be dead. After a
little pause, more livelily affected with their affliction than
with his own success he sent Leonnatus to them to let them know
Darius was not dead, and that they need not fear any harm from
Alexander, who made war upon him only for dominion; they should
themselves be provided with everything they had been used to
receive from Darius. This kind message could not but be very
welcome to the captive ladies, especially being made good by
actions no less humane and generous. For he gave them leave to
bury whom they pleased of the Persians, and to make use for this
purpose of what garments and furniture they thought fit out of the
booty. He diminished nothing of their equipage, or of the
attentions and respect formerly paid them, and allowed larger
pensions for their maintenance than they had before. But the
noblest and most royal part of their usage was, that he treated
these illustrious prisoners according to their virtue and
character, not suffering them to hear, or receive, or so much as
to apprehend anything that was unbecoming. So that they seemed
rather lodged in some temple, or some holy virgin chambers, where
they enjoyed their privacy sacred and uninterrupted, than in the
camp of an enemy. Nevertheless Darius's wife was accounted the
most beautiful princess then living, as her husband the tallest
and handsomest man of his time, and the daughters were not
unworthy of their parents. But Alexander, esteeming it more
kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies, sought no
intimacy with any one of them, nor indeed with any other woman
before marriage, except Barsine, Memnon's widow, who was taken
prisoner at Damascus. She had been instructed in the Grecian
learning, was of a gentle temper, and, by her father Artabazus,
royally descended, which good qualities, added to the
solicitations and encouragement of Parmenio, as Aristobulus tells
us, made him the more willing to attach himself to so agreeable
and illustrious a woman. Of the rest of the female captives
though remarkably handsome and well proportioned, he took no
further notice than to say jestingly, that Persian women were
terrible eye-sores. And he himself, retaliating, as it were, by
the display of the beauty of his own temperance and self-control,
bade them be removed, as he would have done so many lifeless
images. When Philoxenus, his lieutenant on the sea-coast, wrote
to him to know if he would buy two young boys, of great beauty,
whom one Theodorus, a Tarentine, had to sell, he was so offended,
that he often expostulated with his friends, what baseness
Philoxenus had ever observed in him, that he should presume to
make him such a reproachful offer. And he immediately wrote him a
very sharp letter, telling him Theodorus and his merchandise might
go with his good-will to destruction. Nor was he less severe to
Hagnon, who sent him word he would buy a Corinthian youth named
Crobylus, as a present for him. And hearing that Damon and
Timotheus, two of Parmenio's Macedonian soldiers, had abused the
wives of some strangers who were in his pay, he wrote to Parmenio,
charging him strictly, if he found them guilty, to put them to
death, as wild beasts that were only made for the mischief of
mankind. In the same letter he added, that he had not so much as
seen or desired to see the wife of Darius, no, nor suffered
anybody to speak of her beauty before him. He was wont to say,
that sleep and the act of generation chiefly made him sensible
that he was mortal; as much as to say, that weariness and pleasure
proceed both from the same frailty and imbecility of human nature.
In his diet, also, he was most temperate, as appears, omitting
many other circumstances, by what he said to Ada, whom he adopted,
with the title of mother, and afterwards created queen of Caria.
For when she out of kindness sent him every day many curious
dishes, and sweetmeats, and would have furnished him with some
cooks and pastry-men, who were thought to have great skill, he
told her he wanted none of them, his preceptor, Leonidas, having
already given him the best, which were a night march to prepare
for breakfast, and a moderate breakfast to create an appetite for
supper. Leonidas also, he added, used to open and search the
furniture of his chamber, and his wardrobe, to see if his mother
had left him anything that was delicate or superfluous. He was
much less addicted to wine than was generally believed; that which
gave people occasion to think so of him was, that when he had
nothing else to do, he loved to sit long and talk, rather than
drink, and over every cup hold a long conversation. For when his
affairs called upon him, he would not be detained, as other
generals often were, either by wine, or sleep, nuptial
solemnities, spectacles, or any other diversion whatsoever; a
convincing argument of which is, that in the short time he lived,
he accomplished so many and so great actions. When he was free
from employment, after he was up, and had sacrificed to the gods,
he used to sit down to breakfast, and then spend the rest of the