Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
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