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Plutarch on Alexander

[Plutarch, "Alexander," in The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, John Dryden and

Arthur H. Clough, trs. and eds. vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1902)]

http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/PlutAlex.html

….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. …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… How magnificent he was in enriching his friends, and those who attended

on his person, appears by a letter which [his mother] Olympias wrote to him, where she tells him

he should reward and honour 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 meantime you leave yourself destitute."

Certain it is, that apprehending the Macedonians would be weary of pursuing the war, he left the

greater part of them in their quarters; and having with him in Hyrcania [provinces of Iran and

part of Turkmenistan] he choice of his men only, amounting to twenty thousand foot and three

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thousand horse, he spoke to them to this effect: That hitherto the barbarians had seen them no

otherwise than as it were in a dream, and if they should think of returning when they had only

alarmed Asia, and not conquered it, their enemies would set upon them as upon so many women.

However he told them he would keep none of them with him against their will, they might go if

they pleased; he should merely enter his protest, that when on his way to make the Macedonians

the masters of the world, he was left alone with a few friends and volunteers… when he had thus

spoken to them, they all cried out, they would go along with him whithersoever it was his

pleasure to lead them. After succeeding with these, it was no hard matter for him to bring over

the multitude, which easily followed the example of their betters. Now, also, he more and more

accommodated himself in his way of living to that of the natives, and tried to bring them also as

near as he could to the Macedonian customs, wisely considering that whilst he was engaged in an

expedition which would carry him far from thence, it would be wiser to depend upon the good-

will which might arise from intermixture and association as a means of maintaining tranquillity,

than upon force and compulsion. In order to this, he chose out thirty thousand boys, whom he put

under masters to teach them the Greek tongue, and to train them up to arms in the Macedonian

discipline. As for his marriage with Roxana, whose youthfulness and beauty had charmed him at

a drinking entertainment, where he first happened to see her taking part in a dance, it was, indeed

a love affair, yet it seemed at the same time to be conducive to the object he had in hand. For it

gratified the conquered people to see him choose a wife from among themselves, and it made

them feel the most lively affection for him, to find that in the only passion which he, the most

temperate of men, was overcome by, he yet forbore till he could obtain her in a lawful and

honourable way.

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When he came into Persia, ...[t]he 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 only 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, after a gentle reproof spoke

kindly to them, and dismissed those who were unserviceable with magnificent rewards, and with

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his recommendation to Antipater, that when they came home, at all public shows and in the

theatres, 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

father's pay continued to them….

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. … Besides this, he was disturbed by

many other prodigies [omens]. A tame ass fell upon the biggest and handsomest lion that he kept,

and killed him by a kick…

When once Alexander had given way to fears of supernatural influence, his mind grew so

disturbed and so easily alarmed that, if the least unusual or extraordinary thing happened, he

thought it a prodigy or a presage, and his court was thronged with diviners and priests whose

business was to sacrifice and purify and foretell the future. So miserable a thing is incredulity

and contempt of divine power on the one hand, and so miserable, also, superstition on the other,

which like water, where the level has been lowered, flowing in and never stopping, fills the mind

with slavish fears and follies, as now in Alexander's case. But upon some answers which were

brought him from the oracle concerning Hephaestion, he laid aside his sorrow, and fell again to

sacrificing and drinking; and having given Nearchus a splendid entertainment, after he had

bathed, as was his custom, just as he was going to bed, at Medius's request he went to supper

with him. Here he drank all the next day, and was attacked with a fever, which seized him, not as

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some write, after he had drunk of the bowl of Hercules, nor was he taken with any sudden pain in

his back, as if he had been struck with a lance, for these are the inventions of some authors who

thought it their duty to make the last scene of so great an action as tragical and moving as they

could. Aristobulus tells us, that in the rage of his fever and a violent thirst, he took a draught of

wine, upon which he fell into delirium, and died on the thirtieth day of the month Daesius.

But the journals give the following record. On the eighteenth day of the month he slept in the

bathing-room on account of his fever. The next day he bathed and removed into his chamber, and

spent his time in playing at dice with Medius. In the evening he bathed and sacrificed, and ate

freely, and had the fever on him through the night. On the twentieth, after the usual sacrifices and

bathing, he lay in the bathing-room and heard Nearchus's narrative of his voyage, and the

observations he had made in the great sea. The twenty-first he passed in the same manner, his

fever still increasing, and suffered much during the night. The next day the fever was very

violent, and he had himself removed and his bed set by the great bath, and discoursed with his

principal officers about finding fit men to fill up the vacant places in the army. On the twenty-

fourth he was much worse, and was carried out of his bed to assist at the sacrifices, and gave

order that the general officers should wait within the court, whilst the inferior officers kept watch

without doors. On the twenty-fifth he was removed to his palace on the other side the river,

where he slept a little, but his fever did not abate, and when the generals came into his chamber

he was speechless and continued so the following day. The Macedonians, therefore, supposing

he was dead, came with great clamours to the gates, and menaced his friends so that they were

forced to admit them, and let them all pass through unarmed by his bedside. The same day

Python and Seleucus were despatched to the temple of Serapis to inquire if they should bring

Alexander thither, and were answered by the god that they should not remove him. On the

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twenty-eighth, in the evening, he died. This account is most of it word for word as it is written in

the diary….