No More Learning

If he states that he was not aware of the debts, it is plain that he cannot at the same time plead that he told me all about them ; and it is palpably unjust to require me to discharge debts of the existence of which the vendor never informed me. . . .
If, however, you did not inform me of the total amount of the debts simply because you did not know it yourself, and I entered into the contract under the belief that what I had heard from you was the full sum of them, which of us ought in fair ness to be liable for them — I, who purchased the property after their contraction, or you, who originally received the sum bor rowed ? In my opinion it should be you ; but if we differ on this point, let the law be our arbiter. The law was not made either by infatuated lovers or by men engaged in conspiracy against their neighbors' property, but by the most public- spirited of statesmen, Solon. Solon, knowing that sales of property are common in the city, enacted a law — and one uni versally admitted to be just — to the effect that fines and expenditures incurred by slaves should be discharged by the master for whom they work. And this is only reasonable ; for if a slave effect a good stroke of business or establish a flourish ing industry, it is his master who reaps the benefit of it. You, however, pass over the law in silence, and are eloquent about the iniquity of breaking contracts. Whereas Solon held that a law was more valid than a temporary ordinance, however just that ordinance might be, you demand that a fraudulent con tract should outweigh all law and all justice alike.
Now, I am no professional perfume seller, neither have I learnt any other trade. I simply till the land which my father gave me. It was solely by this man's craft that I was entrapped into the sale. Which is more probable on the face of things, Athenogenes — that I was coveting your business (a business of which I had no sort of experience), or that you and your mistress were plotting to get my money? I certainly think the design was on your side.
198 ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. By PLUTAKCH.
[Plutarch : A Greek writer of biographies and miscellaneous works ; born about a. d. 50. He came of a wealthy and distinguished family and received a careful philosophical training at Athens under the Peripatetic philosopher Ammonius. After this he made several journeys, and stayed a considerable time in Rome, where he enjoyed friendly intercourse with persons of distinction, and conducted the education of the future Emperor Hadrian. He died about a. d. 120 in his native town, in which he held the office of archon and priest of the Pythian Apollo. His fame as an author is founded upon the celebrated 11Parallel Lives," consisting of the biographies of forty-six Greeks and Romans, divided into pairs. Each pair contains the life of a Greek and a Roman, and generally ends with a comparison of the two. Plutarch's other writings, more than sixty short treatises on a great variety of subjects, are grouped under the title of
"Morals. "]
The Battle of Arbela and Afterward.
His oldest generals, and especially Parmenio, when they beheld all the plain between Niphates and the Gordyaean mountains shining with the lights and fires which were made by the barbarians, and heard the uncertain and confused sounds of voices out of their camp, like the distant roaring of a vast ocean, were so amazed at the thoughts of such a multitude, that after some conference among themselves, they concluded it an enterprise too difficult and hazardous for them to engage so numerous an enemy in the day, and therefore, meeting the king as he came from sacrificing, besought him to attack Darius by night, that the darkness might conceal the danger of the ensu ing battle. To this he gave them the celebrated answer, "I will not steal a victory " : which, though some at the time thought a boyish and inconsiderate speech, as if he played with danger, others regarded as an evidence that he confided in his present condition, and acted on a true judgment of the future ; not wishing to leave Darius, in case he were worsted, the pre
text of trying his fortune again, which he might suppose him self to have if he could impute his overthrow to the disadvantage of the night, as he did before to the mountains, the narrow passages, and the sea. For while he had such numerous forces and large dominions still remaining, it was not any want of men or arms that could induce him to give up the war, but
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only the loss of all courage and hope upon the conviction of an undeniable and manifest defeat.
After they were gone from him with this answer, he laid himself down in his tent and slept the rest of the night more soundly than was usual with him, to the astonishment of the commanders, who came to him early in the morning, and were fain themselves to give order that the soldiers should break fast. But at last, time not giving them leave to wait any longer, Parmenio went to his bedside, and called him twice or thrice by his name till he waked him, and then asked him how it was possible, when he was to fight the most important battle of all, he could sleep as soundly as if he were already victorious. "And are we not so indeed," replied Alexander, smiling,
" since we are at last relieved from the trouble of wandering in pursuit of Darius through a wide and wasted country, hoping in vain that he would fight us ? "
And not only before the battle, but in the height of the danger, he showed himself great, and manifested the self-pos session of a just foresight and confidence. For the battle for some time fluctuated and was dubious. The left wing, where Parmenio commanded, was so impetuously charged by the Bactrian horse that it was disordered and forced to give ground, at the same time that Mazaeus had sent a detachment round about to fall upon those who guarded the baggage, which so disturbed Parmenio, that he sent messengers to acquaint Alex ander that the camp and baggage would be all lost unless he imme diately relieved the rear by a considerable reenforcement drawn out of the front. This message being brought him just as he was giving the signal to those about him for the onset, he bade them tell Parmenio that he must have surely lost the use of his reason, and had forgotten, in his alarm, that soldiers if victori ous became masters of their enemies' baggage ; and if de
feated, instead of taking care of their wealth or their slaves, have nothing more to do but to fight gallantly and die with honor.
He made the longest address that day to the Thessalians and other Greeks, who answered him with loud shouts, desiring him to lead them on against the barbarians, upon which he shifted his javelin into his left hand, and with his right lifted up towards heaven, besought the gods, as Callisthenes tells us, that if he was of a truth the son of Jupiter, they would be pleased to assist and strengthen the Grecians. At the same time the
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augur Aristander, who had a white mantle about him, and a crown of gold on his head, rode by and showed them an eagle that soared just over Alexander and directed his flight towards the enemy ; which so animated the beholders, that after mutual encouragements and exhortations, the horse charged at full speed, and were followed in a mass by the whole phalanx of the foot. But before they could well come to blows with the first ranks, the barbarians shrank back, and were hotly pursued by Alexander, who drove those that fled before him into the middle of the battle, where Darius himself was in person, whom he saw from a distance over the foremost ranks, conspicuous in the midst of his life guard, a tall and fine-looking man, drawn in a lofty chariot, defended by an abundance of the best horse, who stood close in order about it ready to receive the enemy. But Alexander's approach was so terrible, forcing those who gave back upon those who yet maintained their ground, that he beat down and dispersed them almost all. Only a few of the brav est and valiantest opposed the pursuit, who were slain in their king's presence, falling in heaps upon one another, and in the very pangs of death striving to catch hold of the horses.
Darius now seeing all was lost, that those who were placed in front to defend him were broken and beaten back upon him, that he could not turn or disengage his chariot without great difficulty, the wheels being clogged and entangled among the dead bodies, which lay in such heaps as not only stopped, but almost covered the horses, and made them rear and grow so unruly that the frightened charioteer could govern them no longer, in this extremity was glad to quit his chariot and his arms, and mounting, it is said, upon a mare that had been taken from her foal, betook himself to flight. But he had not escaped so either, if Parmenio had not sent fresh messengers to Alexander, to desire him to return and assist him against a considerable body of the enemy which yet stood together and would not give ground. For, indeed, Parmenio is on all hands accused of having been sluggish and unserviceable in this battle, whether age had impaired his courage, or that, as Callisthenes says, he secretly disliked and envied Alexander's growing great ness. Alexander, though he was not a little vexed to be so recalled and hindered from pursuing his victory, yet concealed the true reason from his men, and causing a retreat to be sounded, as if it were too late to continue the execution any longer, marched back towards the place of danger, and by the
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way met with the news of the enemy's total overthrow and flight.
This battle being thus over, seemed to put a period to the Persian empire ; and Alexander, who was now proclaimed king of Asia, returned thanks to the gods in magnificent sacrifices, and rewarded his friends and followers with great sums of money, and places, and governments of provinces. And eager to gain honor with the Grecians, he wrote to them that he would have all tyrannies abolished, that they might live free according to their own laws, and specially to the Plataeans, that their city should be rebuilt, because their ancestors had permitted their countrymen of old to make their territory the seat of the war, when they fought with the barbarians for their common liberty. He sent also part of the spoils into Italy, to the Crotoniats, to honor the zeal and courage of their citizen Phayllus, the wrestler, who, in the Median war, when the other Grecian colonies in Italy disowned Greece, that he might have a share in the danger, joined the fleet at Salamis, with a vessel set forth at his own charge. So affectionate was Alexander to all kind of virtue, and so desirous to preserve the memory of laudable actions.
In this place [Susa] 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 Greeks whom death had deprived of the satisfaction of seeing Alexan der 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 entertain ment 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,
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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 orders 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 Preonians, 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 soldiers 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
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. 203
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 after wards. 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 mean time 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 Hephaes- tion 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' 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' 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 on this account, he bore her ill humor very patiently. Nay more, when he read a long letter from Antipa ter, 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,
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the Teian, wore silver nails in his shoes, that Leonnatus em ployed 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 single battles did not know by experi ence 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 and royal to undergo pain and labor. He argued with them further, how it was possible for any one 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 ex ample, 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
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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 compan ions forsook you when you were in danger, that I may punish them. " He sent Hephaestion, who was absent about some busi ness, word how while they were fighting for their diversion with an ichneumon, Craterus was by chance run through both thighs with Perdiccas' javelin. And upon Peucestes' 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 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' 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 JEgse, 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 freeborn. "
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 orders to search for a youth that belonged to Seleucus, who was run away into Silicia ; and in another thanked and commanded Peucestes for apprehending Nicon, a servant of Craterus ; and in one to Megabyzus, concerning a slave that had taken sanctuary in a temple, gave directions 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 judg ment upon capital causes, he would lay his hand upon one of his ears while the accuser spoke, to keep it free and unpreju diced in behalf of the party accused. But afterwards such a
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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 repu tation 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 tal ents 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 Mace donians 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, pres ently 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 mat ter 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 tast ing 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,
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wounded all over with darts, just at the point of death. How ever, 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 Alexan der," 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' hand and died. When Alexander came up to them, he showed manifest tokens of sor row, and taking off his own cloak, threw it upon the body to cover it. And some time afterwards, when Bessus was taken, he ordered him to be torn in pieces in this manner. They fas tened 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' 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. . . .
Noticing that among his chief friends and favorites, Hephaes- tion most approved all that he did, and complied with and imi tated 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 trans actions 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,
208 ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
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 any one 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 munifi cent, and the greatest lover of his friends, one of whom ask ing 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 unbe coming 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 Alex ander. 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 Philo tas' share. The young man one day in his cups, in the vaunt ing, 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 com manded 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 sometimes 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 Alex ander 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 appre hended their authority and interest in the army. But about
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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 uncer tain, 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' conspiracy, and by the way let Philotas' 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,
VOL. IV. — 14
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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 him self, sent messengers privately to treat for an alliance with the jEtolians, who stood in fear of Alexander, because they had destroyed the town of the CEniadae ; on being informed of which, Alexander had said the children of the CEniadae need not revenge their father's quarrel, for he would himself take care to punish the ^Etolians.
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 mis chance of the king's, whose anger and overdrinking offered an occasion to the evil genius of Clitus. The king had a present of Grecian fruit brought him from the seacoast, 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, Aris- tander 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' 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 Prani- chus, 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 Alexan der 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,
ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST. 211
saying it was not well done to expose the Macedonians 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' sword ; 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 thor oughly 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 mean time turning about to Xenodochus, the Cardian, and Artemius, the Colo- phonian, asked them if they were not of opinion that the Greeks, in comparison with the Macedonians, behaved them selves like so many demigods among wild beasts.
But Clitus for all this would not give over, desiring Alex ander 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 Alex ander 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 lan guage, which was a certain sign of some great disturbance in
212 ALEXANDER AT HIS BEST AND WORST.
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 immedi ately at another door, very irreverently and" confidently singing the verses out of Euripides' " 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 phi losopher, 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
ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR THE POWER OF MUSIC. 213
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.
ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR THE POWER OF MUSIC.
An Ode on St. Cecilia's Day. By JOHN DBYDEN.
[John Dhtden : An English poet ; born August 9, 1631 ; educated under Dr. Busby at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. The son of a Puritan, he wrote eulogistic stanzas on the death of Cromwell ; but his versatile intellect could assume any phase of feeling, and he wrote equally glowing ones on the Restoration of 1660. His "Annus Mirabilis" appeared in 1667, and in 1668 he was made poet laureate. His " Essay on Dramatic Poesy " is excellent ; but as a dramatist, though voluminous, he has left nothing which lives. His satire "Absalom and Achitophel" is famous; and his "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day " is considered the finest in the language. ]
'Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won, By Philip's warlike son :
Aloft in awful state
The godlike hero sate
On his imperial throne :
His valiant peers were placed around ;
Their brows with roses and with myrtle bound : So should desert in arms be crowned.
The lovely Thais by his side
Sat, like a blooming eastern bride,
In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
Happy, happy, happy pair !
None but the brave,
None but the brave,
None but the brave deserves the fair.
Timotheus placed on high
Amid the tuneful quire,
With flying fingers touched the lyre :
The trembling notes ascend the sky, And heavenly joys inspire.
ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR THE POWER OF MUSIC.
The song began from Jove ;
Who left his blissful seats above, (Such is the power of mighty love ! ) A dragon's fiery form belied the god : Sublime on radiant spheres he rode,
When he to fair Olympia pressed, *******
And stamped an image of himself, a sovereign of the world. The listening crowd admire the lofty sound.
A present deity ! they shout around :
A present deity ! the vaulted roofs rebound.
With ravished ears, The monarch hears, Assumes the god, Affects to nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.
The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung ; Of Bacchus ever fair, and ever young ;
The jolly god in triumph comes ;
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums :
Flushed with a purple grace He shows his honest face.
Now give the hautboys breath. He comes, he comes ! Bacchus, ever fair and young,
Drinking joys did first ordain : Bacchus' blessings are a treasure, Drinking is the soldier's pleasure ;
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure ; Sweet is pleasure after pain.
Soothed with the sound the king grew vain ;
Fought all his battles o'er again ;
And thrice he routed all his foes ; and thrice he slew the slain.
The master saw the madness rise ;
His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes : And while he heaven and earth defied, Changed his hand and checked his pride.
He chose a mournful muse
Soft pity to infuse :
He sung Darius great and good, By too severe a fate,
ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR THE POWER OF MUSIC.
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, Fallen from his high estate, And weltering in his blood :
Deserted at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed, On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
With downcast look the joyless victor sat,
Revolving in his altered soul The various turns of fate below ;
And now and then a sigh he stole ; And tears began to flow.
The mighty master smiled, to see That love was in the next degree ; 'Twas but a kindred sound to move, For pity melts the mind to love.
Softly sweet in Lydian measures, Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. War he sung is toil and trouble ; Honor but an empty bubble ;
Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying :
If the world be worth thy winning, Think, 0, think it worth enjoying !
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,
Take the good the gods provide thee.
The many rend the skies with loud applause ; So love was crowned, but music won the cause. The prince, unable to conceal his pain,
Gazed on the fair,
Who caused his care,
And sighed and looked, sighed and looked, Sighed and looked, and sighed again :
At length with love and wine at once oppressed, The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.
Now strike the golden lyre again ;
A louder yet, and yet a louder strain.
Break his bands of sleep asunder,
And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder.
Hark, hark, the horrid sound Has raised up his head ;
As awaked from the dead,
And amazed he stares around.
ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR THE POWER OF MUSIC.
Revenge ! revenge ! Timotheus cries, See the furies arise !
See the snakes that they rear,
How they hiss in their hair !
And the sparkles that flash from their eyes !
Behold a ghastly band,
Each a torch in his hand !
These are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,
And unburied remain Inglorious on the plain : Give the vengeance due To the valiant crew.
Behold how they toss their torches on high, How they point to the Persian abodes,
And glittering temples of their hostile gods. The princes applaud, with a furious joy ;
And the king seized a flambeau, with zeal to destroy ; Thais led the way,
To light him to his prey,
And, like another Helen, fired another Troy.
Thus, long ago,
Ere heaving bellows learned to blow, While organs yet were mute ; Timotheus to his breathing flute
And sounding lyre,
Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.
At last divine Cecilia came,
Inventress of the vocal frame ;
The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store,
Enlarged the former narrow bounds,
And added length to solemn sounds,
With nature's mother wit, and arts unknown before.
Let old Timotheus yield the prize, Or both divide the crown ;
He raised a mortal to the skies ; She drew an angel down.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 217
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. By J. P. MAHAFFY.
(From "Greek Life and Thought")
[John Pextland Mahafft, born in Switzerland of Irish parentage, February 26, 1839, is one of the most brilliant of recent scholars and writers on classical Greek subjects ; especially the literature, habits, and morals of the Hellenic or Hellenized peoples down to the time of Christ. He is professor of ancient his tory in Trinity College, Dublin. He has written only one formal history of events, " The Empire of the Ptolemies " (1896) ; though much valuable incidental historic and biographic matter is contained in his other works, the chief of which are "Social Life in Greece," " Greek Life and Thought" (a continuation of the former), "Greece under Roman Sway," "Problems in Greek History,"
There was no king throughout all the Eastern world in the third century B. C. who did not set before him Alexander as the ideal of what a monarch ought to be. His transcendent figure so dominates the imagination of his own and the follow ing age, that from studying his character we can draw all the materials for the present chapter. For this purpose the bril liant sketch of Plutarch, who explicitly professes to write the life and not the history of the king, is on the whole more instructive than the detailed chronicle of Arrian. From both we draw much that is doubtful and even fabulous, but much also which is certain and of unparalleled interest, as giving us a picture of the most extraordinary man that ever lived. The astonishing appearance of this lad of twenty, hurried to the throne by his father's death, in the midst of turmoil within and foes without, surrounded by doubtful friends and timid advisers, without treasury, without allies — and yet at once and without hesitation asserting his military genius, defeating his bravest enemies, cowing his disloyal subjects, crushing sedition, and then starting to conquer Asia, and to weld together two continents by a new policy — this wonder was indeed likely to fascinate the world, and if his successors aped the leftward in clination of his head and the leonine sit of his hair, they were sure enough to try to imitate what was easier and harder — the ways of his court and the policy of his kingdom.
Quite apart from his genius, which was unique, his position in Greece was perfectly novel, in that he combined Hellenic training, language, and ideas with a totally un-Hellenic thing —royalty. For generations, the Macedonian kings had been trying to assert themselves as real Greeks. They had sue
" History of Greek Classical Literature," etc. ]
218 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
ceeded in having their splendid genealogy accepted — an un deniable gain in those days, but their other claims were as yet hardly established. It is true they had entertained great poets at their court, and had odes and tragedies composed for the benefit of their subjects, but none of them, not even Philip, who was just dead, had yet been accepted as a really naturalized Greek. Yet Philip had come closer to it than his predecessors; he had spent his youth in the glorious Thebes of Epaminondas ; he trained himself carefully in the rhetoric of Athens, and could compose speeches and letters which passed muster even with such fastidious stylists as Demosthenes. But though he could assume Greek manners and speak good Greek in his seri ous moments, when on his good behavior, it was known that his relaxations were of a very different kind. Then he showed the Thracian — then his Macedonian breeding came out.
Nevertheless he saw so clearly the importance of attaining this higher level that he spared no pains to educate his son, and with him his son's court, in the highest culture. We know not whether it was accident or his clear judgment of human character which made him choose Aristotle as Alexander's tutor — there were many other men employed to instruct him — but we feel how foreign must have been Aristotle's conver sation at the palace and among the boon companions of Philip, and hence Mieza, a quiet place away from court, was chosen for the prince's residence. There Aristotle made a Hellene of him in every real sense. It is certain, if we compare Alexander's manifesto to Darius with what is called Philip's letter, that he did not write so well as his father ; but he learned to know and love the great poets, and to associate with men of culture and of sober manners. Every one testifies to the dignity and urbanity of his address, even if at late carouses with intimates he rather bored the company with self-assertion and boasting. But this social defect was not unknown among the purest Hellenes. All through his life he courted Greek letters, he attended Greek plays, he talked in Greek to Greek men, and we can see how deep his sympathy with Hellenedom was from his cutting remark — in vino Veritas — to two Greeks sitting at the fatal banquet where the Macedonian veteran, Clitus, broke out into indecent altercation. " Don't you feel like demigods among savages when you are sitting in company with these Macedonians ? " It may be said that Hellenedom was less fas tidious in the days of Alexander than in the days of his prede-
Alexander in the Tent of Darin From a rare old print
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 219
cessors. I need not argue that question ; suffice it to say that even had he made no world conquests he would have been recognized as a really naturalized Hellene, and fit to take his place among the purest Greeks, in opposition to the most re spectable barbarians. The purest Hellene, such as the Spartan Pausanias, was liable to degradation of character from the temptations of absolute power no less than a Macedonian or a Roman.
But on the other hand he was a king in a sense quite novel and foreign to the Greeks. They recognized one king, the King of Persia, as a legitimate sovereign, ruling in great splendor, but over barbarians. So they were ready to grant such a thing as a king over other barbarians of less importance ; but a king over Greeks, in the proper sense of the word, had not existed since the days of legendary Greece. There were indeed tyrants, plenty of them, and some of them mild men and fond of culture, friends of poets, and respectable men ; and there were the kings of Sparta. But the former were always regarded as arch heretics were regarded by the Church in the Middle Ages, as men whose virtues were of no account and whose crime was unpardonable ; to murder them was a heroic deed, which wiped out all the murderer's previous sins. On the other hand, the latter were only hereditary, respected generals of an oligarchy, the real rulers of which were the ephors. Neither of these cases even approached the idea of a sovereign, as the Macedo nians and as the kingdoms of mediaeval and modern Europe have conceived it.
For this implied in the first place a legitimate succession, such as the Spartan kings indeed possessed, and with it a divine right in the strictest sense. As the Spartan, so the Macedonian kings came directly from Zeus, through his greatest hero sons, Heracles and iEacus. But while the Spartan kings had long lost, if they ever possessed, the rights of Menelaus, who could offer to give a friend seven inhabited towns as a gift, while they only retained the religious preeminence of their pedigree, the kings of Macedonia had preserved all their ancient privi leges. Grote thinks them the best representatives of that pre historic sovereignty which we find in the Greece of Homer. But all through his history he urges upon us the fact that there was no settled constitutional limit to the authority of the kings even in cases of life and death. On the other hand, German inquirers, who are better acquainted with absolute monarchy,
220 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
see in the assembly of free Macedonians — occasionally con vened, especially in cases of high treason or of a succession to the throne — a check like that of the Commons in earlier Eng land. There seem in fact to have been two powers, both supreme, which could be brought into direct collision any day, and so might produce a deadlock only to be removed by a trial of strength. Certain it is that Macedonian kings often ordered to death, or to corporal punishment and torture, free citizens and even nobles. It is equally certain that the kings often formally appealed to an assembly of soldiers or of peers to decide in cases of life and death. Such inconsistencies are not impossible where there is a recognized divine right of kings, and when the summoning of an assembly lies altogether in the king's hands. Except in time of war, when its members were together under arms, the assembly had probably no way of combining for a protest, and the low condition of their civiliza tion made them indulgent to acts of violence on the part of their chiefs.
Niebuhr, however, suggests a very probable solution of this difficulty. He compares the case of the Frankish kings, who were only princes among their own free men, but absolute lords over lands which they conquered. Thus many individual kings came to exercise absolute power illegally by transferring their rights as conquerors to those cases where they were limited monarchs. It is very possible too that both they and the Macedonian kings would prefer as household officers nobles of the conquered lands, over whom they had absolute control. Thus the constitutional and the absolute powers of the king might be confused, and the extent of either determined by the force of the man who occupied the throne.
That Alexander exerted his supreme authority over all his subjects is quite certain. And yet in this he differed absolutely from a tyrant, such as the Greeks knew, that he called together his peers and asked them to pass legal sentence upon a subject charged with grave offenses against the crown. No Greek tyrant ever could do this, for he had around him no halo of legitimacy, and, moreover, he permitted no order of nobility among his subjects.
It appears that for a long time back the relations of king and nobles had been in Macedonia much as they were in the Middle Ages in Europe. There were large landed proprietors, and many of them had sovereign rights in their own provinces.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 221
Not only did the great lords gather about the king as their natural head, but they were proud to regard themselves as his personal servants, and formed the household, which was known as the therapeia in Hellenistic times. Earlier kings had adopted the practice of bringing to court noble children, to be the companions of the prince, and to form an order of royal pages ; so no doubt Greek language and culture had been dis seminated among them, and perhaps this was at first the main object. But in Alexander's time they were a permanent part of the king's household, and were brought up in his personal service, to become his aids-de-camp and his lords in waiting as well as his household brigade of both horse and foot guards, and perform for him many semi-menial offices which great lords and ladies are not ashamed to perform for royalty, even up to the present day.
I will add but one more point, which is a curious illustration of the position of the Macedonian kings among their people. None of them contented himself with one wife, but either kept concubines, like all the kings in Europe, and even in Eng land till George III. , or even formally married second wives, as did Philip and Alexander. These practices led to constant and bloody tragedies in the royal family. Every king of Macedon who was not murdered by his relatives was at least conspired against by them. What is here, however, of consequence, is the social position of the royal bastards. They take their place not with the dishonored classes, but among the nobles, and are all regarded as pretenders to the throne.
I need not point out to the reader the curious analogies of mediaeval European history. The facts seem based on the idea that the blood of kings was superior to that of the highest noble, and that even when adulterated by an ignoble mother, it was far more sacred than that of any subject. The Macedo nians had not indeed advanced to the point of declaring all mar riages with subjects morganatic, but they were not very far from it; for they certainly suffered from all the evils which English history as well as other histories can show, where alliances of powerful subjects with the sovereign are permitted.
Thus Alexander the Great, the third Macedonian king of his name, stood forth really and thoroughly in the position assigned by Herodotus to his elder namesake — a Greek man in pedigree, education, and culture, and king of the Macedonians, a position unknown and unrecognized in the Greek world since
222 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
the days of that Iliad which the conqueror justly prized, as to him the best and most sympathetic of all Hellenic books. Let us add that in the text, which Aristotle revised for him, there were assertions of royalty, including the power of life and death, which are expunged from our texts. He had the sanction of divine right, but what was far more important, the practical control of life and death, regarding the nobility as his household servants, and the property of his subjects as his own, keeping court with considerable state, and in every respect expressing, as Grote says, the principle VJEtat c'est moi.
A very few words will point out what changes were made in this position by his wonderful conquests. Though brought up in considerable state, and keeping court with all the splen dor which his father's increased kingdom and wealth could supply, he was struck with astonishment, we are told, at the appointments of Darius' tents, which he captured after the battle of Issus. When he went into the bath prepared for his opponent, and found all the vessels of pure gold, and smelt the whole chamber full of frankincense and myrrh, and then passed out into a lofty dining tent with splendid hangings, and with the appointments of an oriental feast, he exclaimed to his staff : "Well, this is something like royalty. " Accordingly there was no part of Persian dignity which he did not adopt. We hear that the expenses of his table — he always dined late — rose to about £400 daily, at which limit he fixed it. Nor is this surprising when we find that he dined as publicly as the kings of France in the old days, surrounded by a brilliant staff of officers and pages, with a bodyguard present, and a trumpeter ready to summon the household troops. All manner of deli cacies were brought from the sea and from remote provinces for his table.
In other respects, in dress and manners, he drifted gradually into Persian habits also. The great Persian lords, after a gal lant struggle for their old sovereign, loyally went over to his side. Both his wives were oriental princesses, and perhaps too little has been said by historians about the influence they must have had in recommending to him Persian officers and pages. The loyalty of these people, great aristocrats as they were, was quite a different thing from that of the Macedonians, who had always been privileged subjects, and who now attributed to their own prowess the king's mighty conquests. The orien tals, on the other hand, accepted him as an absolute monarch,
ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 223
nay, as little short of a deity, to whom they readily gave the homage of adoration. It is a characteristic story that when the rude and outspoken Casander had just arrived at Babylon for the first time, on a mission from his father Antipater, the regent of Macedonia, he saw orientals approaching Alexander with their customary prostrations, and burst out laughing. Upon this Alexander was so enraged that he seized him by the hair and dashed his head against the wall, and there can be little doubt that the king's death, which followed shortly, saved Casander from a worse fate. Thus the distinction pointed out by Niebuhr would lead Alexander to prefer the orientals, whom he had conquered, and who were his absolute property, to the Macedonians, who were not only constantly grumbling but had even planned several conspiracies against him.
There was yet another feature in Alexander's court which marks a new condition of things. The keeping of a regular court journal, Ephemerides, wherein the events of each day were care fully registered, gave an importance to the court which it had never before attained within Greek or Macedonian experience. The daily bulletins of his last illness are still preserved to us by Arrian and Plutarch from these diaries. In addition to this we hear that he sent home constant and detailed public dis patches to his mother and Antipater, in which he gave the minutest details of his life.
In these the public learned a new kind of ideal of pleasure as well as of business. The Macedonian king, brought up in a much colder climate than Greece, among mountains which gave ample opportunity for sport, was so far not a " Greek man " that he was less frugal as regards his living, and had very differ ent notions of amusement. The Hellene, who was mostly a townsman, living in a country of dense cultivation, was beholden to the gymnasium and palestra for his recreation, of which the highest outcome was the Olympic and other games, where he could attain glory by competition in athletic meetings. The men who prize this sort of recreation are always abstemious and careful to keep in hard condition by diet and special exercising of muscles. The Macedonian ideal was quite different, and more like that of our country gentleman, who can afford to despise bodily training in the way of abstinence, who eats and drinks what he likes, nay, often drinks to excess, but works off evil effects by those field sports which have always produced the finest type of man — hunting, shooting, fishing — in fact
224 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
the life of the natural or savage man reproduced with artificial
improvements.
Alexander took the Macedonian side strongly against the
Greek in these matters. He is said to have retorted upon the people who advised him to run in the sprint race at Olympia, that he would do so when he found kings for competitors. But the better reason was that he despised that kind of bodily train ing; he would not have condescended to give up his social evenings, at which he drank freely ; and above all he so delighted in hunting that he felt no interest in athletic meet ings. When he got into the preserves of Darius he fought the lion and the bear, and incurred such personal danger that his adventures were commemorated by his fellow-sportsmen in bronze. He felt and asserted that this kind of sport, requiring not only courage and coolness but quick resource, was the proper training for war, in contrast to the athletic habit of body, which confessedly produced dullness of mind and sleepi ness of body.
This way of spending the day in the pursuit of large game, and then coming home to a late dinner and a jovial carouse, where the events of the day are discussed and parallel anec dotes brought out, was so distinctive as to produce a marked effect on the social habits of succeeding generations. The older Spartans had indeed similar notions ; they despised competi tions in the arena, and spent their time hunting in the wilds of Mount Taygetus ; but the days for Sparta to influence the world were gone by, and indeed none but Arcadians and iEto- lians among the Greeks had like opportunities.
It would require a separate treatise to discuss fully the innovations made by Alexander in the art of war. But here it is enough to notice, in addition to Philip's abandonment of citizen for professional soldiers, the new development Alex ander gave to cavalry as the chief offensive branch of military service. He won all his battles by charges of heavy cavalry, while the phalanx formed merely the defensive wing of his line. He was even breaking up the phalanx into lighter order at the time of his death. So it came that the noblest and most esteemed of his Companions were cavalry officers, and from this time onward no general thought of fighting, like Epami- nondas, a battle on foot. Eastern warfare also brought in the use of elephants, but this was against the practice of Alex ander, who did not use them in battle, so far as we know.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
225
I believe I was the first to call attention to the curious anal ogies between the tactics of Alexander and those of Cromwell. Each lived in an age when heavy cavalry were found to be superior to infantry, if kept in control, and used with skill. Hence each of them fought most of his battles by charging with his cavalry on the right wing, overthrowing the enemy's horse, and then, avoiding the temptation to pursue, charging the enemy's infantry in flank, and so deciding the issue. Meanwhile they both felt strong enough to disregard a defeat on their left wing by the enemy's horse, which was not under proper discipline, and went far away out of the battle in pur suit. So similar is the course of these battles, that one is tempted to believe that Cromwell knew something of Alex ander. It is not so. Each of these men found by his genius the best way of using the forces at his disposal. Alexander's Companions were Cromwell's Ironsides.
In one point, however, he still held to old and chivalrous ways, and so fell short of our ideal of a great commander. He always charged at the head of his cavalry, and himself took part in the thickest of the fight. Hence in every battle he ran the risk of ending the campaign with his own life. It may be said that he had full confidence in his fortune, and that the king's valor gave tremendous force to the charge of his personal com panions. But nothing can convince us that Hannibal's view of his duties was not far higher, of whom it was noted that he always took ample care for his own safety, nor did he ever, so far as we know, risk himself as a combatant. Alexander's example, here as elsewhere, gave the law, and so a large pro portion of his successors found their death on the battlefield. The aping of Alexander was apparently the main cause of this serious result.
Modern historians are divided as regards Alexander into two classes: First those like Grote, who regard him as a partly civilized barbarian, with a lust for conquest, but with no ideas of organization or of real culture beyond the establishment of a strong military control over a vast mass of heterogeneous subjects. Secondly, those like Droysen, who are the majority, and have better reasons on their side, feel that the king's genius in fighting battles was not greater than his genius in
founding cities, not merely as outposts, but as marts, by which commerce and culture should spread through the world. He is reported to have disputed with Aristotle, who wished him to
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226 ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
treat the orientals like a master and to have asserted that his policy was to treat them as their leader. We know from Aris totle's " Politics " that with all his learning, the philosopher had not shaken off Hellenic prejudices, and that he regarded the Eastern nations as born for slavery. Apart from the question able nature of his theory, he can have known little of the great Aryan barons of Bactriana or Sogdiana, who had for centuries looked on the Greek adventurers they met as the Romans did in later days. But Alexander belongs to a different age from Aristotle, as different as Thucydides from Herodotus, contem porary though they were in their lives, and he determined to carry out the "marriage of Europe and Asia. " To a Hellene the marriage with a foreigner would seem a more or less dis graceful concubinage. The children of such a marriage could not inherit in any petty Greek state. Now the greatest Mace donian nobles were allied to Median and Persian princesses, and the Greeks who had attained high official position at court, such as Eumenes, the chief secretary, were only too proud to be admitted to the same privilege.
The fashion of making or cementing alliances by marriages becomes from this time a feature of the age.