Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
ravens, which flew before them when on their march, and waited for
them when they lingered and fell behind; and the greatest miracle,
as Callisthenes tells us, was that if any of the company went
astray in the night, they never ceased croaking and making a
noise, till by that means they had brought them into the right way
again. Having passed through the wilderness, they came to the
place; where the high-priest at the first salutation bade
Alexander welcome from his father Ammon. And being asked by him
whether any of his father's murderers had escaped punishment, he
charged him to speak with more respect, since his was not a mortal
father. Then Alexander, changing his expression, desired to know
of him if any of those who murdered Philip were yet unpunished,
and further concerning dominion, whether the empire of the world
was reserved for him? This, the god answered, he should obtain,
and that Philip's death was fully revenged, which gave him so much
satisfaction, that he made splendid offerings to Jupiter, and gave
the priests very rich presents. This is what most authors write
concerning the oracles. But Alexander, in a letter to his mother,
tells her there were some secret answers, which at his return he
would communicate to her only. Others say that the priest,
desirous as a piece of courtesy to address him in Greek, "O
Paidion," by a slip in pronunciation ended with the s instead of
the n, and said, "O Paidios," which mistake Alexander was well
enough pleased with, and it went for current that the oracle had
called him so.
Among the sayings of one Psammon, a philosopher, whom he heard in
Egypt, he most approved of this, that all men are governed by God,
because in everything, that which is chief and commands, is
divine. But what he pronounced himself upon this subject, was
even more like a philosopher, for he said, God was the common
father of us all, but more particularly of the best of us. To the
barbarians he carried himself very haughtily, as if he were fully
persuaded of his divine birth and parentage; but to the Grecians
more moderately, and with less affectation of divinity, except it
were once in writing to the Athenians about Samos, when he tells
them that he should not himself have bestowed upon them that free
and glorious city; "You received it," he says, "from the bounty of
him who at that time was called my lord and father," meaning
Philip. However, afterwards being wounded with an arrow, and
feeling much pain, he turned to those about him, and told them,
"This, my friends, is real flowing blood, not Ichor,
"Such as immortal gods are wont to shed."
And another time, when it thundered so much that everybody was
afraid, and Anaxarchus, the sophist, asked him if he who was
Jupiter's son could do anything like this, "Nay," said Alexander,
laughing, "I have no desire to be formidable to my friends, as you
would have me, who despised my table for being furnished with
fish, and not with the heads of governors of provinces." For in
fact it is related as true, that Anaxarchus seeing a present of
small fishes, which the king sent to Hephaestion, had used this
expression, in a sort of irony, and disparagement of those who
undergo vast labors and encounter great hazards in pursuit of
magnificent objects, which after all bring them little more
pleasure or enjoyment than what others have. From what I have
said upon this subject, it is apparent that Alexander in himself
was not foolishly affected, or had the vanity to think himself
really a god, but merely used his claims to divinity as a means of
maintaining among other people the sense of his superiority.
At his return out of Egypt into Phoenicia, he sacrificed and made
solemn processions, to which were added shows of lyric dances and
tragedies, remarkable not merely for the splendor of the equipage
and decorations, but for the competition among those who exhibited
them. For the kings of Cyprus were here the exhibitors, just in
the same manner as at Athens those who are chosen by lot out of
the tribes. And, indeed, they showed the greatest emulation to
outvie each other; especially Nicocreon, king of Salamis, and
Pasicrates of Soli, who furnished the chorus, and defrayed the
expenses of the two most celebrated actors, Athenodorus and
Thessalus, the former performing for Pasicrates, and the latter
for Nicocreon. Thessalus was most favored by Alexander, though it
did not appear till Athenodorus was declared victor by the
plurality of votes. For then at his going away, he said the
judges deserved to be commended for what they had done, but that
he would willingly have lost part of his kingdom, rather than to
have seen Thessalus overcome. However, when he understood
Athenodorus was fined by the Athenians for being absent at the
festivals of Bacchus, though he refused his request that he would
write a letter in his behalf, he gave him a sufficient sum to
satisfy the penalty. Another time, when Lycon of Scarphia
happened to act with great applause in the theater, and in a verse
which he introduced into the comic part which he was acting,
begged for a present of ten talents, he laughed and gave him the
money.
Darius wrote him a letter, and sent friends to intercede with him,
requesting him to accept as a ransom of his captives the sum of a
thousand talents, and offering him in exchange for his amity and
alliance, all the countries on this side the river Euphrates,
together with one of his daughters in marriage. These propositions
he communicated to his friends, and when Parmenio told him, that
for his part, if he were Alexander, he should readily embrace
them, "So would I," said Alexander, "if I were Parmenio."
Accordingly, his answer to Darius was, that if he would come and
yield himself up into his power, he would treat him with all
possible kindness; if not, he was resolved immediately to go
himself and seek him. But the death of Darius's wife in
childbirth made him soon after regret one part of this answer, and
he showed evident marks of grief, at being thus deprived of a
further opportunity of exercising his clemency and good nature,
which he manifested, however, as far as he could, by giving her a
most sumptuous funeral.
Among the eunuchs who waited in the queen's chamber, and were
taken prisoners with the women, there was one Tireus, who getting
out of the camp, fled away on horseback to Darius, to inform him
of his wife's death. He, when he heard it, beating his head, and
bursting into tears and lamentations, said, "Alas! how great is
the calamity of the Persians! Was it not enough that their king's
consort and sister was a prisoner in her lifetime, but she must,
now she is dead also, be but meanly and obscurely buried?" "Oh
king," replied the eunuch, "as to her funeral rites, or any
respect or honor that should have been shown in them, you have not
the least reason to accuse the ill-fortune of your country; for to
my knowledge neither your queen Statira when alive, nor your
mother, nor children, wanted anything of their former happy
condition, unless it were the light of your countenance, which I
doubt not but the lord Oromasdes will yet restore to its former
glory. And after her decease, I assure you, she had not only all
due funeral ornaments, but was honored also with the tears of your
very enemies; for Alexander is as gentle after victory, as he is
terrible in the field." At the hearing of these words, such was
the grief and emotion of Darius's mind, that they carried him into
extravagant suspicions; and taking Tireus aside into a more
private part of his tent, "Unless thou likewise," said he to him,
"hast deserted me, together with the good fortune of Persia, and
art become a Macedonian in thy heart; if thou yet ownest me for
thy master Darius, tell me, I charge thee, by the veneration thou
payest the light of Mithras, and this right hand of thy king, do I
not lament the least of Statira's misfortunes in her captivity and
death? Have I not suffered something more injurious and
deplorable in her lifetime? And had I not been miserable with
less dishonor, if I had met with a more severe and inhuman enemy?
For how is it possible a young man as he is, should treat the wife
of his opponent with so much distinction, were it not from some
motive that does me disgrace?" Whilst he was yet speaking, Tireus
threw himself at his feet, and besought him neither to wrong
Alexander so much, nor his dead wife and sister, as to give
utterance to any such thoughts, which deprived him of the greatest
consolation left him in his adversity, the belief that he was
overcome by a man whose virtues raised him above human nature;
that he ought to look upon Alexander with love and admiration, who
had given no less proofs of his continence towards the Persian
women, than of his valor among the men. The eunuch confirmed all
he said with solemn and dreadful oaths, and was further enlarging
upon Alexander's moderation and magnanimity on other occasions,
when Darius, breaking away from him into the other division of the
tent, where his friends and courtiers were, lifted up his hands to
heaven, and uttered this prayer, "Ye gods," said he, "of my
family, and of my kingdom, if it be possible, I beseech you to
restore the declining affairs of Persia, that I may leave them in
as flourishing a condition as I found them, and have it in my
power to make a grateful return to Alexander for the kindness
which in my adversity he has shown to those who are dearest to me.
But if, indeed, the fatal time be come, which is to give a period
to the Persian monarchy, if our ruin be a debt that must be paid
to the divine jealousy and the vicissitude of things, then I
beseech you grant that no other man but Alexander may sit upon the
throne of Cyrus." Such is the narrative given by the greater
number of the historians.
But to return to Alexander. After he had reduced all Asia on this
side the Euphrates, he advanced towards Darius, who was coming
down against him with a million of men. In his march, a very
ridiculous passage happened. The servants who followed the camp,
for sport's sake divided themselves into two parties, and named
the commander of one of them Alexander, and of the other Darius.
At first they only pelted one another with clods of earth, but
presently took to their fists, and at last, heated with the
contention, they fought in good earnest with stones and clubs, so
that they had much ado to part them; till Alexander, upon hearing
of it, ordered the two captains to decide the quarrel by single
combat, and armed him who bore his name himself, while Philotas
did the same to him who represented Darius. The whole army were
spectators of this encounter, willing from the event of it to
derive an omen of their own future success. After they had fought
stoutly a pretty long while, at last he who was called Alexander
had the better, and for a reward of his prowess, had twelve
villages given him, with leave to wear the Persian dress. So we
are told by Eratosthenes.
But the great battle of all that was fought with Darius, was not,
as most writers tell us, at Arbela, but at Gaugamela, which, in
their language, signifies the camel's house, forasmuch as one of
their ancient kings having escaped the pursuit of his enemies on a
swift camel, in gratitude to his beast, settled him at this place,
with an allowance of certain villages and rents for his
maintenance. It came to pass that in the month Boedromion, about
the beginning of the feast of Mysteries at Athens, there was an
eclipse of the moon, the eleventh night after which, the two
armies being now in view of one another, Darius kept his men in
arms, and by torchlight took a general review of them. But
Alexander, while his soldiers slept, spent the night before his