Plutarch: On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander 3
Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 8:30 pm
Plutarch: On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander
Yesterday we forgot, it seems, to remark that the age of Alexander had the good fortune to produce both many artistic achievements and many men of great talent. Perhaps, however, this was not part of Alexander's good fortune, but rather that of the artists, to have obtained as witness and spectator of their achievements the man who was both best able to judge of their success and to reward them most liberally. At any rate, it is said that, when Archestratus, a poet of a later age, who, though an accomplished writer, was passing his days in poverty and neglect, someone remarked to him, "If you had been born in Alexander's time, for every verse he would have given you a Cyprus or a Phoenicia." And I think that the foremost of the artists of that age became so, not because they lived in Alexander's day, but through what Alexander did for them. For a good climate and a lightness of the surrounding air produces a bountiful harvest; and likewise the favour, esteem, and benignity shown by a king evokes a rich increase in the arts and in men of talent. And, conversely, through jealousy and parsimony or emulous rivalry on the part of monarchs all artistic production is quenched and perishes.
Thus the despot Dionysius, as the story goes, while listening to a celebrated harper, engaged to give him a talent. Next day, when the man asked for the fulfilment of the promise, Dionysius said, "Yesterday I was delighted with your performance, and during the time that you were singing I also delighted you with hopes! The result is that at that very time you were receiving full pay for the pleasure you gave by having your pleasure too!"
Alexander, the tyrant of Pherae (this last should be his only appellation; he should not be permitted to disgrace the name of Alexander), as he watched a tragic actor, felt himself much moved to pity through enjoyment of the acting. He jumped up, therefore, and left the theatre at a rapid pace, exclaiming that it would be a dreadful thing, if, when he was slaughtering so many citizens, he should be seen to weep over the sufferings of Hecuba and Polyxena. And he came near visiting punishment upon the actor because the man had softened his heart, as iron in the fire.
Archelaüs was thought to be somewhat niggardly in his favours, and Timotheüs liked to hint at this by often chanting this refrain:
Over the earth-born silver you rave.
But Archelaüs, with some wit, chanted in reply:
That, however, is what you crave.
Ateas, the Scythian king, took the flute-player Ismenias captive, and ordered him to play at a banquet. The rest were delighted, and applauded, but Ateas swore his horse's neighing was sweeter to his ear. So far from the Muses' habitation did he allow his ears to dwell, and his soul he kept in the mangers, better attuned to hear, not horses' neigh, but asses' bray! At the court of monarchs such as these what advancement or esteem could there be for Art, or for Poetry and Music of excellence? Nor, again, could artistic endeavour flourish at the court of those who wish to be rival performers in these arts, and thus through malice and ill-will suppress the true artists. Such a prince was Dionysius (to use him again as an example), who threw the poet Philoxenus into the stone-quarries; for when Dionysius ordered him to correct a tragedy of his, Philoxenus cancelled the whole piece from the very beginning to the final flourish.
Philip also was in these matters somewhat more petty and childish than became him, since he had acquired his knowledge late in life. Thus they tell the tale that Philip once argued with a certain harp-player about the technique of his instrument, and even thought he was confuting the man; but the harp-player smiled gently and said, "God forbid, your Majesty, that you should ever fall so low as to know more of these matters than I."
But Alexander, knowing well in what matters he should be merely a spectator and listener, and in what he should play the chief rôle, trained himself always to be formidable in arms, and, in the words of Aeschylus,
Sturdy contender in arms, baleful to all that oppose.
This art he inherited from his ancestors, the Aeacidae, and from Heracles; but upon the other arts he freely bestowed honour without jealousy according to their worth and artistic excellence; but he was not so easily carried away by the pleasure they gave him as to try to imitate them. The tragic actors of his time were the group that centred about Thettalus and Athenodorus. At the contest of these two, the kings of Cyprus defrayed the expenses of the performance and Alexander's most celebrated generals served as judges. When Athenodorus won, "I would rather," said Alexander, "have lost half my kingdom than see Thettalus defeated." However, he did not intercede with the judges nor find fault with the judgement, since he felt that, while he must be superior to all men, yet he must submit to Justice.
The comic actors of his time were the group that centred about Lycon of Scarpheia. When Lycon inserted in one of his comedies a begging verse, Alexander laughed and gave him ten talents.
Various harp-players also were his friends, among them Aristonicus, who came to Alexander's aid in a certain battle, and was slain, fighting gloriously. Therefore Alexander ordered to be made and set up at Delphi a bronze statue of him, with lyre in hand and spear advanced; thereby he not only honoured this particular man, but also paid tribute to Music herself, in the belief that she is a creator of true men and, in particular, that she fills with inspiration and impetuousness those who are truly her foster-children. For once upon a time, when Antigenides was playing on his flute the Chariot Song, Alexander became so transported, and his spirit so inflamed by the strains, that he leapt up and laid hands upon the weapons that lay near, and thus confirmed the testimony of the Spartans who used to sing,
The noble playing of the lyre is meet to match the sword.
Apelles the painter and Lysippus the sculptor also lived in the time of Alexander. The former painted "Alexander wielding the Thunderbolt" so vividly and with so natural an expression, that men said that, of the two Alexanders, Alexander, son of Philip, was invincible, but the Alexander of Apelles was inimitable. And when Lysippus modelled his first statue of Alexander which represented him looking with his face turned towards the heavens (as indeed Alexander often did look, with a slight inclination of his head to one side), someone engraved these verses on the statue, not without some plausibility,
Eager to speak seems the statue of bronze, up to Zeus as it gazes
"Earth I have set under foot: Zeus, keep Olympus yourself!"
Wherefore Alexander gave orders that Lysippus only should make statues of him. For Lysippus was, it seemed, the only one that revealed in the bronze Alexander's character and in moulding his form portrayed also his virtues. The others wished to imitate the flexing of his neck and liquid softness of his eyes, but were unable to preserve his virile and leonine expression.
Among the other artists at his court was Stasicrates the master-sculptor, not seeking to make something flowery or pleasant or lifelike to look upon, but employing a magnificence in workmanship and design worthy of a king's munificence. He followed Alexander into Asia and found fault with the paintings, sculptures, and moulded likenesses that had been made of him, on the ground that they were the works of timid and ignoble artists. "But I, your Majesty," said he, "have conceived the project of placing your likeness in living and imperishable material, with roots that are everlasting and weight immovable and unshakable. For Mount Athos in Thrace, in that part where is its highest and most conspicuous summit, has well-proportioned surfaces and heights, limbs and joints and proportions that suggest the human form. When it has been properly carved and worked into shape, it can be called Alexander's statue, and Alexander's statue it will be; with its base set in the sea, in its left hand it will encompass and hold a city with ten thousand inhabitants, and with its right pour from a bowl of libation an ever-flowing river down into the sea. But as for gold and bronze, ivory, wooden timbers, and dyes, which make those paltry images that can be bought and sold, stolen, or melted down, let us reject them all!" Alexander listened to his words and admired but declined with thanks the lofty designs and the boldness of the artist. "But," said he, "let Athos remain as it is. It is enough that it be the memorial of the arrogance of one king; but my imprint the Caucasus shall show and the Emodian range and the Tanaïs and the Caspian Sea; these will be the image of my deeds.
But imagine, pray, that such a work had been completed and made evident to men's eyes. Is there anyone who could look upon it and suppose that the form, the arrangement, and the appearance were created by Fortune and Accident? No one, I think. What of Apelles' "Wielder of the Thunderbolt"? What of the statue which takes its name from the Spear? Shall we admit, then, that greatness in a statue cannot, without the help of Art, be created by Fortune's profuse provision of gold and bronze and ivory and much rich material, but is it possible that a great man, or rather the greatest man of all that have ever lived, without the help of Virtue, was perfected through Fortune's supplying him with arms and money, foot and horse? But for him who has not learned how to use these things they are a danger, not a strength and enrichment, but a means of proving his weakness and pettiness. For Antisthenes was right when he said, "We should pray that our enemies be provided with all good things, except courage; for thus these good things will belong, not to their owners, but to those that conquer them." Therefore they say that Nature also for defence has caused horns, wonderful for their size and jagged points, to grow upon the deer, the most cowardly of all animals; and therein does Nature teach us that strength and arms are of no benefit to such as have not the courage to stand their ground. Thus also Fortune, by frequently bestowing on cowards and fools military forces and dominions, in which they disgrace themselves, emblazons and commends Virtue as the one quality that constitutes the greatness and beauty of man. For if indeed, as Epicharmus says,
Mind has sight and Mind has hearing;
but
All things else are deaf and blind;
then it happens that these are really lacking in reason. For our perceptive faculties seem to respond to their own special stimuli; but the fact that it is mind which aids us and mind which emblazons our deeds, and it is mind that conquers and overpowers and plays the monarch, and that "all things else," since they are "blind and deaf" and soulless, mislead and burden and disgrace their possessors, if Virtue be not present, is a truth which may be gleaned from history.
Now of the two monarchs Semiramis and Sardanapalus, in whose hands were placed the same power and dominion, Semiramis, though a woman, equipped great expeditions, armed her ranks, established the Babylonian Empire, and sailed about the Persian Gulf subduing the Ethiopians and Arabs. But Sardanapalus, though born a man, spent his days at home carding purple wool, sitting with his knees drawn up in front of him among his concubines; and when he died, they made a stone statue of him dancing in a barbaric fashion and apparently snapping his fingers above its head. They engraved upon it: "Eat, drink, and sport with love; all else is naught."
When Crates saw a golden statue of Phrynê the courtesan standing at Delphi, he cried out that it stood there as a monument to Greek licentiousness; and thus if one examine either the life or the tomb of Sardanapalus (for I think there is no difference between them), one would say that they are a monument to the bounty of Fortune. But if this be so, shall we allow Fortune to lay hold upon Alexander after Sardanapalus, and to lay claim to Alexander's greatness and power? For what greater gift did she bestow on him than those which other monarchs received at her hands: arms, horses, missiles, money, guardsmen? Let Fortune endeavour to make an Aridaeus great by these, if she can, or an Ochus or Oarses or Tigranes the Armenian, or the Bithynian Nicomedes. Of these Tigranes cast down his crown before the feet of Pompey and ignominiously received back his kingdom, which had become the spoil of war. But Nicomedes shaved his head and put on the freedman's cap and proclaimed himself an emancipated slave of the Roman people.
Shall we say, then, that Fortune makes men petty, timid, and abject in spirit? Yet it is not right for anyone to charge baseness to misfortune, or courage and intelligence to good fortune; but Fortune was magnified by Alexander's reign, for in him she was illustrious, invincible, magnanimous, inoffensive, and humane. Then, immediately after Alexander's decease, Leosthenes said that his forces, as they wandered here and there and fell foul of their own efforts, were like the Cyclops after his blinding, groping about everywhere with his hands, which were directed at no certain goal; even thus did that vast throng roam about with no safe footing, blundering through want of a leader. Or rather, in the manner of dead bodies, after the soul departs, when they are no longer held together by natural forces, but undergo dispersion and dissolution, and finally are dissipated and disappear altogether; even so Alexander's forces, having lost him, maintained a gasping, agitated, and fevered existence through men like Perdiccas, Meleager, Seleucus, and Antigonus, who, as it were, provided still a warm breath of life and blood that still pulsed and circulated. But at length the host wasted away and perished, generating about itself maggots, as it were, of ignoble kings and rulers in their last death-struggle. This, then, it is likely that Alexander himself meant when he rebuked Hephaestion for quarrelling with Craterus: "What," said he, "will be your power and your achievements if someone deprive you of Alexander?" But I, for my part, shall not hesitate to say this very thing to the Fortune that presided over Alexander's career: "What is your greatness or your repute? Where is your power or your invincibility, if someone deprive you of Alexander?" That is to say, "If someone deprive you of your skill in arms, your munificent use of riches, your self-restraint in expending them, your boldness against your foes in battle, your mildness towards the vanquished? Make another great, if you can; but one that shall not be generous w ith his substance, nor court danger in the front ranks, nor give honour to his friends, nor feel pity for his captives, nor be temperate in his pleasures, nor sleepless in crises, nor placable in his victories, nor humane amid his successes. What man is great in the exercise of power, if folly and wickedness attend him? Take away virtue from the fortunate man and in everything he is petty; in acts of generosity, through parsimony; in hard tasks, through softness; in religion, through superstition; towards the good, through envy; among men, through cowardice; among women, through wantonness." Just as inexpert artisans, who construct large pedestals for petty offerings, make the smallness of the offerings noticeable, so Fortune, whenever she elevates a petty character by acts that have a certain pomp and circumstance, makes the more conspicuous and disgraceful the blundering and instability that result from a shallow character.
Wherefore greatness lies, not in the possession of good things, but in our use of them, since even infant children inherit their fathers' kingdoms and dominions, even as Charillus, whom Lycurgus carried in his swaddling-clothes into the common dining-hall and proclaimed king of Sparta in place of himself. Assuredly it was not the child who was great, but he who surrendered to the child its paternal rights, and did not keep them for himself nor take them away.
But who could have made Aridaeus great, whom, differing no whit from a child, only that his swaddling-clothes were royal purple, Meleager set on the throne of Alexander? And indeed it was well that he did so, that for a few days it might be observed how it is that men rule by right of virtue and how by gift of Fortune. For in succession to a real competitor for sovereignty Meleager introduced a mere actor, or rather, did a mute figure wearing a crown parade across the stage, as it were, of the inhabited world.
Even a woman can carry a burden if a man impose it upon her.
Conversely, however, one might affirm that it lies within the strength of even a woman or a child to take up and impose the gifts of power and wealth and sovereignty. The eunuch Bagoas took up the kingship of Persia and bestowed it upon Oarses and Darius. But the ability to sustain and administer great authority when one has received it, and not to be crushed or turned from one's purpose by the weight and the magnitude of one's activities, is the mark of a man who possesses virtue, sense, and intelligence. This virtue Alexander possessed, whom some accuse of drunkenness and a passion for wine! But he was truly a great man, for in his conduct of affairs he was sober, nor was he made drunk nor led to revelling by authority and power; but others, when they get but a small portion, or even a taste, of power are unable to control themselves:
Bad men, when gorged with wealth, or chancing on
Some honours in the State, caper and prance
When luck, unhoped for, to their house has come.
Cleitus, when he had scuttled three or four Greek triremes at Amorgos, caused himself to be proclaimed Poseidon and carried a trident. Demetrius, to whom Fortune added the little that she was able to subtract from Alexander's power, allowed himself to be called "The Heaven-descended," and the subject states did not send ambassadors to him, but "Sacred Deputies," and his replies they spoke of as "Oracles." Lysimachus, who obtained possession of the regions adjoining Thrace, the mere outskirts of the kingdom of Alexander, as it were, reached such a pitch of arrogance and boldness as to say, "The Byzantines now come to me when I am touching Heaven with my spear." But Pasiades of Byzantium, who was present, said, "Let us be off, lest he make a hole in the sky with his spear-point!"
And yet why should anyone mention these men who might have some legitimate ground for pride because of Alexander, when even Clearchus, after he became despot of Heracleia, used to carry a thunderbolt, and named one of his sons Thunderer? And Dionysius the younger styled himself the son of Apollo in the inscription:
Sprung from a Dorian mother by union with Phoebus Apollo.
And Dionysius's father killed ten thousand or more citizens, and, led on by envy, betrayed his brother to the enemy, nor could he wait for his already aged mother to die a few days later, but strangled her; yet in one of his tragedies he wrote these words:
The mother of foul wrong is tyranny!
Notwithstanding, of his daughters he named one Virtue, another Temperance, a third Justice. And yet other persons publicly styled themselves Benefactors, Conquerors, Saviours, or The Great; but no one would be able to tell the tale of their marriages one after another, like the matings of horses, as they spent their days with no restraint amid herds of women, their corruption of boys, their beating of drums in the company of emasculated men, their daily dicing, their flute-playing in the public theatres, the night that was too short for them at their dinners, and the day at their breakfasts.
But Alexander took his breakfast at daybreak seated; he dined late in the evening; he drank only after sacrificing to the gods; he played dice with Medius when he had a fever; he played games while travelling, at the same time also learning to wield a bow and mount a chariot. For himself he married Roxanê, the only woman he ever loved; but Stateira, the daughter of Darius, he married for imperial and political reasons, since the union of the two races was highly advantageous. But as for the other Persian women, he was as much their superior in self-control as in valour he was superior to Persian men. For he looked at no woman against her will and those that he looked at he passed by more readily than those that he did not look at; and although he bore himself humanely toward all other persons, it was toward fair youth alone that he conducted himself haughtily. He would not listen to a single word in praise of the beauty of the wife of Darius, who was a very handsome woman; but when she died, he graced her funeral with such a royal pomp and bewailed her death so feelingly that his self-control was questioned amid his display of humanity, and his goodness incurred the charge of wrongdoing. For Darius was disturbed by suspicion of Alexander's power and youth; for he also was still one of those who believed Alexander's victory to be through Fortune. But when he had tested the matter from every angle, and recognized the truth, "Then," said he, "the lot of the Persians is not so utterly wretched, nor will anyone say that we are altogether cowardly or unmanly in that we have been overcome by such a man. But for my part I pray the gods for fair fortune and for might in war, that I may surpass Alexander in bestowing favours; and I am possessed by an ambitious and emulous desire to prove myself more humane than Alexander. But if my power be spent, do thou, O Zeus, ancestral god of the Persians, and ye other gods that guard our kingship, grant that none other than Alexander take his seat upon the throne of Cyrus." This w as Darius's way of adopting Alexander, invoking the gods as witnesses.
Thus do men prevail through Virtue. Ascribe to Fortune, if you will, Arbela and the Cilician victory and his other deeds of violence and war: Fortune battered down the walls of Tyre for him; Fortune opened the way to Egypt; through Fortune Halicarnassus fell, and Miletus was captured, and Mazaeus left the Euphrates unguarded, and the Babylonian plain was strewn with corpses. But at least it was not in any way Fortune's gift that he was temperate, nor was it because of Fortune that he was self-controlled, nor did Fortune lock his soul and keep it impregnable to pleasure and invulnerable to desire; in fact, these were the qualities by which he defeated Darius himself. The rest were but defeats of arms and horses, battles, slaughters and routs of men. But the truly great and indisputable defeat Darius suffered: he yielded in virtue and greatness of soul, in prowess and justice, and marvelled at Alexander's invincibility in pleasure, in toil, in the bestowal of favours. It is true that Tarrias, son of Deinomenes, and Antigenes of Pallenê, and Philotas, the son of Parmenion, were also invincible at least amid shields, pikes, battle-cries, and the clash of arms; but towards pleasures and women and gold and silver they were no better than their captives. In fact, when Alexander was freeing the Macedonians from debt and paying creditors for everybody, Tarrias said falsely that he was a debtor, and produced at the bank a person who asserted that he was Tarrias's creditor; later, when he was detected, he was ready to commit suicide had not Alexander, coming to know of this, exculpated him, and allowed him to keep the money; for the king remembered that when Philip was assaulting Perinthus, Tarrias, although his eye was pierced by a a missile, would not submit nor suffer the shaft to be extracted until they had routed the enemy.
Antigenes joined himself with those who were being sent back to Macedonia because of sickness or wounds, and had himself enrolled among them; but when, however, it was discovered that he had nothing wrong with him, but was feigning some infirmity, and it was seen that he was a stout fighting man whose body was covered with wounds, the matter vexed Alexander. When he asked the reason for such conduct, Antigenes confessed that he was in love with Telesippa, and was accompanying her to the sea, since he could not be left behind if she went away. "Whose is she?" asked Alexander, "and to whom must we speak?" Antigenes replied that she was free-born. "Then," said Alexander, "let us persuade her with promises and presents to remain behind." So ready was he with an excuse for every lover rather than for himself.
And further, Philotas, the son of Parmenion, had in his licentiousness the nurse, as it were, of all his ills. For among the captives taken at Damascus was a courtesan from Pella, by name Antigona. Ere this she had crossed over to Samothrace, and there had been taken captive by Autophradates. She was comely enough to look upon and, after Philotas had attached himself to her, she had complete possession of him. Indeed that man of iron was so softened that he was not in control of his reasoning powers amid his pleasures, but unlocked and brought forth many of his secrets for the woman: "What was that famed Philip, were it not for Parmenion? What was this Alexander, were it not for Philotas? Where his Ammon, and where his serpents, if we do not wish it so?" These words Antigona reported to an intimate friend of hers among the women, and she reported them to Craterus; Craterus brought Antigona herself secretly to Alexander, who did not touch her person, but restrained himself and, working secretly through her, he discovered the whole of Philotas's plans. And for a period of more than seven years Alexander never revealed his suspicion; not in his cups, the reputed drunkard! not in anger, this man of fiery temper! not to a friend, this man who trusted Hephaestion in everything and shared everything with him! In fact it is recorded that once, when he had broken the seal of a confidential letter from his mother and was reading it silently to himself, Hephaestion quietly put his head beside Alexander's and read the letter with him; Alexander could not bear to stop him, but took off his ring and placed the seal on Hephaestion's lips.
Cf. Moralia, 41 D-E.
£200, or $1000. Thayer's Note: A reminder that this equivalent dates to 1936 (notice the pound at $5); in 2004, the figures would be about $12,000 or £6700.
Cf. Life of Pelopidas, xxix (293 F); Aelian, Varia Historia, xiv.40.
Cf. Moralia, 177 B and the note.
Cf. Moralia, 174 F, and the note.
Ibid. 471 E; Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, v.22 (63); Aelian, Varia Historia, xii.44; Diodorus, xv.6.
The coronis at the end of the roll.
Cf. Moralia, 67 F, 179 B, 634 D.
Cf. 317 E, supra, and the note.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. ii (665 B).
Ibid. chap. xxix (681 D).
Cf. Arrian, Anabasis, iv.16.7.
Cf. Moralia, 1133 D (=Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, i pp4-8). See also Dio Chrysostom, Oration i.1-2, where Timotheus is the flute-player and the tune the Orthian.
Attributed to Alcman in Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxi (53 D): cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii p51, or Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, i p90.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. iv (666 B); Pliny, Natural History, xxxv.10 (92).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. iv (666 B).
Cf. ibid. and Moralia, 53 D.
Cf. 331 A, supra, and the note.
Cf. Pliny, Natural History, vii.37 (125); Horace, Epistles, ii.1.240; Valerius Maximus, viii.11.2; Arrian, Anabasis, i.16.4.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. lxxii (705 A): the man is called Deinocrates by Vitruvius, ii. praef.; and Cheirocrates by the MSS. of Strabo, xiv.1.23.
The reference is to the chryselephantine statues of Pheidias and his school with their inner frame-work of timbers, and painted without.
Xerxes' canal; cf. 342 E, infra.
A range of north-western India, the Prakrit Haimota; cf. Arrian, Indica, 2.3; 6.4; Pliny, Natural History, vi.17 (56).
Cf. 335 A, supra, Moralia, 360 D.
Cf. Moralia, 99 B-C.
Cf. Stobaeus, Florilegium, lix.41 (Hense, vol. iv p362).
An oft-quoted line. Cf. G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graec. Frag. i.137, Epicharmus, no. 249; Moralia, 98 C, with the note; also Cicero, Tusculan Disp. 1.20 (46); Maximus Tyrius, xi.10.
Cf. Plato, Menexenus, 246 E.
Cf. Diodorus, ii.4-20; Justin, i.2.
Cf. 326 F, supra; Diodorus, ii.21.8 ff.; Athenaeus, 528 F; W. K. Prentice, in Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc. liv (1923) p79: but the theory rightly set forth there, that this description comes from Ctesias's Persica, is as old as Hemsterhuys; see Wyttenbach's note on this passage.
See the note on 330 F, supra.
Cf. Moralia, 401 A; Athenaeus, 591 B; Stobaeus, Florilegium, vi.39 (vol. iii p296 Hense).
Cf. 337 D, infra.
Cf. 337 E, infra.
Cf. Life of Pompey, chap. xxxiii (637 A); Comp. of Cimon and Lucullus, iii (522 E); Velleius Paterculus, ii.37; Valerius Maximus, v.1.10.
Plutarch has confused Nicomedes with his father Prusias; cf. Polybius, xxx.19; Livy, xlv.44; Diodorus, xxxi.15; Appian, Mithridatica, 2.
The saying is elsewhere attributed to Demades; cf. Moralia, 181 F, and the note.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xlvii (691 F-692 A).
Cf. Life of Lycurgus, chap. iii (41 A).
Cf. Moralia, 791 E.
Aristophanes, Knights, 1056: see Rogers's note ad loc.
Cf. Arrian, Anabasis, ii.14.5; Aelian, Varia Historia, vi.8; Diodorus, xvii.5.
Cf. 326 F, supra.
From a much longer fragment of Euripides' Erechtheus; Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p471, Euripides, no. 362, 29-31.
Cf. Diodorus, xviii.15.9, 72.
"Avatar," he that descends from Heaven (in thunder and lightning), a common title of Zeus; cf. Life of Demetrius, chaps. x, xi (893 D, E).
In Pontus: cf. Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii p526.
i.e. a skepton, instead of skeptron, "sceptre."
Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii p324.
Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xiii.45.
Cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p797, Dionysius, no 7.
Cf. Life of Dion, chap. vi (960 C).
Probably Ptolemy Euergetes II Physcon (cf. Athenaeus xii.549 D), rather than Philopator (cf. Moralia, 56 E, Polybius v.34), is alluded to.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xxiii (677 D).
Ibid. chap. lxxvi (706 D).
Cf. 332 E, supra.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. lxx (703 E); Diodorus, xvii.107; Justin, xii.10.
Cf. Moralia, 97 D, 522 A; Life of Alexander, chap. xxi (676 F).
Ibid. chap. xxii (677 A); Arrian, Anabasis, iv.20; Athenaeus, xiii 603 C; Quintus Curtius, Hist. Alexandri, iv.10.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xxx (682 C-D).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xxv (679 A); Arrian, Anabasis, ii.23.
Cf. 326 F, supra.
Cf. Arrian, Anabasis, iii.7.2.
Tarrias is elsewhere unknown; the stories here related of him are told of Antigenes in Life of Alexander, chap. lxx (703 E-F).
Cf. 343 D, infra; Arrian, Anabasis, vii.5.1-3.
Repeated in Moralia, 181 A; but told of Eurylochus in Life of Alexander, chap. xli (689 B).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. lxxi (704 B).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chaps. xlviii, xlix (692 A-693 A).
The Doric form suggests quotation from some poem or drama.
A reference, perhaps, to Ammon (i.e. Zeus) in the form of a serpent, seen with Olympias, as told in Life of Alexander, chap. iii (665 D); or perhaps to the expedition to the oracle of Ammon, cf. Arrian, Anabasis, iii.3.5.
Cf. 333 A, supra.
"Silently," for reading was generally done aloud.
Yesterday we forgot, it seems, to remark that the age of Alexander had the good fortune to produce both many artistic achievements and many men of great talent. Perhaps, however, this was not part of Alexander's good fortune, but rather that of the artists, to have obtained as witness and spectator of their achievements the man who was both best able to judge of their success and to reward them most liberally. At any rate, it is said that, when Archestratus, a poet of a later age, who, though an accomplished writer, was passing his days in poverty and neglect, someone remarked to him, "If you had been born in Alexander's time, for every verse he would have given you a Cyprus or a Phoenicia." And I think that the foremost of the artists of that age became so, not because they lived in Alexander's day, but through what Alexander did for them. For a good climate and a lightness of the surrounding air produces a bountiful harvest; and likewise the favour, esteem, and benignity shown by a king evokes a rich increase in the arts and in men of talent. And, conversely, through jealousy and parsimony or emulous rivalry on the part of monarchs all artistic production is quenched and perishes.
Thus the despot Dionysius, as the story goes, while listening to a celebrated harper, engaged to give him a talent. Next day, when the man asked for the fulfilment of the promise, Dionysius said, "Yesterday I was delighted with your performance, and during the time that you were singing I also delighted you with hopes! The result is that at that very time you were receiving full pay for the pleasure you gave by having your pleasure too!"
Alexander, the tyrant of Pherae (this last should be his only appellation; he should not be permitted to disgrace the name of Alexander), as he watched a tragic actor, felt himself much moved to pity through enjoyment of the acting. He jumped up, therefore, and left the theatre at a rapid pace, exclaiming that it would be a dreadful thing, if, when he was slaughtering so many citizens, he should be seen to weep over the sufferings of Hecuba and Polyxena. And he came near visiting punishment upon the actor because the man had softened his heart, as iron in the fire.
Archelaüs was thought to be somewhat niggardly in his favours, and Timotheüs liked to hint at this by often chanting this refrain:
Over the earth-born silver you rave.
But Archelaüs, with some wit, chanted in reply:
That, however, is what you crave.
Ateas, the Scythian king, took the flute-player Ismenias captive, and ordered him to play at a banquet. The rest were delighted, and applauded, but Ateas swore his horse's neighing was sweeter to his ear. So far from the Muses' habitation did he allow his ears to dwell, and his soul he kept in the mangers, better attuned to hear, not horses' neigh, but asses' bray! At the court of monarchs such as these what advancement or esteem could there be for Art, or for Poetry and Music of excellence? Nor, again, could artistic endeavour flourish at the court of those who wish to be rival performers in these arts, and thus through malice and ill-will suppress the true artists. Such a prince was Dionysius (to use him again as an example), who threw the poet Philoxenus into the stone-quarries; for when Dionysius ordered him to correct a tragedy of his, Philoxenus cancelled the whole piece from the very beginning to the final flourish.
Philip also was in these matters somewhat more petty and childish than became him, since he had acquired his knowledge late in life. Thus they tell the tale that Philip once argued with a certain harp-player about the technique of his instrument, and even thought he was confuting the man; but the harp-player smiled gently and said, "God forbid, your Majesty, that you should ever fall so low as to know more of these matters than I."
But Alexander, knowing well in what matters he should be merely a spectator and listener, and in what he should play the chief rôle, trained himself always to be formidable in arms, and, in the words of Aeschylus,
Sturdy contender in arms, baleful to all that oppose.
This art he inherited from his ancestors, the Aeacidae, and from Heracles; but upon the other arts he freely bestowed honour without jealousy according to their worth and artistic excellence; but he was not so easily carried away by the pleasure they gave him as to try to imitate them. The tragic actors of his time were the group that centred about Thettalus and Athenodorus. At the contest of these two, the kings of Cyprus defrayed the expenses of the performance and Alexander's most celebrated generals served as judges. When Athenodorus won, "I would rather," said Alexander, "have lost half my kingdom than see Thettalus defeated." However, he did not intercede with the judges nor find fault with the judgement, since he felt that, while he must be superior to all men, yet he must submit to Justice.
The comic actors of his time were the group that centred about Lycon of Scarpheia. When Lycon inserted in one of his comedies a begging verse, Alexander laughed and gave him ten talents.
Various harp-players also were his friends, among them Aristonicus, who came to Alexander's aid in a certain battle, and was slain, fighting gloriously. Therefore Alexander ordered to be made and set up at Delphi a bronze statue of him, with lyre in hand and spear advanced; thereby he not only honoured this particular man, but also paid tribute to Music herself, in the belief that she is a creator of true men and, in particular, that she fills with inspiration and impetuousness those who are truly her foster-children. For once upon a time, when Antigenides was playing on his flute the Chariot Song, Alexander became so transported, and his spirit so inflamed by the strains, that he leapt up and laid hands upon the weapons that lay near, and thus confirmed the testimony of the Spartans who used to sing,
The noble playing of the lyre is meet to match the sword.
Apelles the painter and Lysippus the sculptor also lived in the time of Alexander. The former painted "Alexander wielding the Thunderbolt" so vividly and with so natural an expression, that men said that, of the two Alexanders, Alexander, son of Philip, was invincible, but the Alexander of Apelles was inimitable. And when Lysippus modelled his first statue of Alexander which represented him looking with his face turned towards the heavens (as indeed Alexander often did look, with a slight inclination of his head to one side), someone engraved these verses on the statue, not without some plausibility,
Eager to speak seems the statue of bronze, up to Zeus as it gazes
"Earth I have set under foot: Zeus, keep Olympus yourself!"
Wherefore Alexander gave orders that Lysippus only should make statues of him. For Lysippus was, it seemed, the only one that revealed in the bronze Alexander's character and in moulding his form portrayed also his virtues. The others wished to imitate the flexing of his neck and liquid softness of his eyes, but were unable to preserve his virile and leonine expression.
Among the other artists at his court was Stasicrates the master-sculptor, not seeking to make something flowery or pleasant or lifelike to look upon, but employing a magnificence in workmanship and design worthy of a king's munificence. He followed Alexander into Asia and found fault with the paintings, sculptures, and moulded likenesses that had been made of him, on the ground that they were the works of timid and ignoble artists. "But I, your Majesty," said he, "have conceived the project of placing your likeness in living and imperishable material, with roots that are everlasting and weight immovable and unshakable. For Mount Athos in Thrace, in that part where is its highest and most conspicuous summit, has well-proportioned surfaces and heights, limbs and joints and proportions that suggest the human form. When it has been properly carved and worked into shape, it can be called Alexander's statue, and Alexander's statue it will be; with its base set in the sea, in its left hand it will encompass and hold a city with ten thousand inhabitants, and with its right pour from a bowl of libation an ever-flowing river down into the sea. But as for gold and bronze, ivory, wooden timbers, and dyes, which make those paltry images that can be bought and sold, stolen, or melted down, let us reject them all!" Alexander listened to his words and admired but declined with thanks the lofty designs and the boldness of the artist. "But," said he, "let Athos remain as it is. It is enough that it be the memorial of the arrogance of one king; but my imprint the Caucasus shall show and the Emodian range and the Tanaïs and the Caspian Sea; these will be the image of my deeds.
But imagine, pray, that such a work had been completed and made evident to men's eyes. Is there anyone who could look upon it and suppose that the form, the arrangement, and the appearance were created by Fortune and Accident? No one, I think. What of Apelles' "Wielder of the Thunderbolt"? What of the statue which takes its name from the Spear? Shall we admit, then, that greatness in a statue cannot, without the help of Art, be created by Fortune's profuse provision of gold and bronze and ivory and much rich material, but is it possible that a great man, or rather the greatest man of all that have ever lived, without the help of Virtue, was perfected through Fortune's supplying him with arms and money, foot and horse? But for him who has not learned how to use these things they are a danger, not a strength and enrichment, but a means of proving his weakness and pettiness. For Antisthenes was right when he said, "We should pray that our enemies be provided with all good things, except courage; for thus these good things will belong, not to their owners, but to those that conquer them." Therefore they say that Nature also for defence has caused horns, wonderful for their size and jagged points, to grow upon the deer, the most cowardly of all animals; and therein does Nature teach us that strength and arms are of no benefit to such as have not the courage to stand their ground. Thus also Fortune, by frequently bestowing on cowards and fools military forces and dominions, in which they disgrace themselves, emblazons and commends Virtue as the one quality that constitutes the greatness and beauty of man. For if indeed, as Epicharmus says,
Mind has sight and Mind has hearing;
but
All things else are deaf and blind;
then it happens that these are really lacking in reason. For our perceptive faculties seem to respond to their own special stimuli; but the fact that it is mind which aids us and mind which emblazons our deeds, and it is mind that conquers and overpowers and plays the monarch, and that "all things else," since they are "blind and deaf" and soulless, mislead and burden and disgrace their possessors, if Virtue be not present, is a truth which may be gleaned from history.
Now of the two monarchs Semiramis and Sardanapalus, in whose hands were placed the same power and dominion, Semiramis, though a woman, equipped great expeditions, armed her ranks, established the Babylonian Empire, and sailed about the Persian Gulf subduing the Ethiopians and Arabs. But Sardanapalus, though born a man, spent his days at home carding purple wool, sitting with his knees drawn up in front of him among his concubines; and when he died, they made a stone statue of him dancing in a barbaric fashion and apparently snapping his fingers above its head. They engraved upon it: "Eat, drink, and sport with love; all else is naught."
When Crates saw a golden statue of Phrynê the courtesan standing at Delphi, he cried out that it stood there as a monument to Greek licentiousness; and thus if one examine either the life or the tomb of Sardanapalus (for I think there is no difference between them), one would say that they are a monument to the bounty of Fortune. But if this be so, shall we allow Fortune to lay hold upon Alexander after Sardanapalus, and to lay claim to Alexander's greatness and power? For what greater gift did she bestow on him than those which other monarchs received at her hands: arms, horses, missiles, money, guardsmen? Let Fortune endeavour to make an Aridaeus great by these, if she can, or an Ochus or Oarses or Tigranes the Armenian, or the Bithynian Nicomedes. Of these Tigranes cast down his crown before the feet of Pompey and ignominiously received back his kingdom, which had become the spoil of war. But Nicomedes shaved his head and put on the freedman's cap and proclaimed himself an emancipated slave of the Roman people.
Shall we say, then, that Fortune makes men petty, timid, and abject in spirit? Yet it is not right for anyone to charge baseness to misfortune, or courage and intelligence to good fortune; but Fortune was magnified by Alexander's reign, for in him she was illustrious, invincible, magnanimous, inoffensive, and humane. Then, immediately after Alexander's decease, Leosthenes said that his forces, as they wandered here and there and fell foul of their own efforts, were like the Cyclops after his blinding, groping about everywhere with his hands, which were directed at no certain goal; even thus did that vast throng roam about with no safe footing, blundering through want of a leader. Or rather, in the manner of dead bodies, after the soul departs, when they are no longer held together by natural forces, but undergo dispersion and dissolution, and finally are dissipated and disappear altogether; even so Alexander's forces, having lost him, maintained a gasping, agitated, and fevered existence through men like Perdiccas, Meleager, Seleucus, and Antigonus, who, as it were, provided still a warm breath of life and blood that still pulsed and circulated. But at length the host wasted away and perished, generating about itself maggots, as it were, of ignoble kings and rulers in their last death-struggle. This, then, it is likely that Alexander himself meant when he rebuked Hephaestion for quarrelling with Craterus: "What," said he, "will be your power and your achievements if someone deprive you of Alexander?" But I, for my part, shall not hesitate to say this very thing to the Fortune that presided over Alexander's career: "What is your greatness or your repute? Where is your power or your invincibility, if someone deprive you of Alexander?" That is to say, "If someone deprive you of your skill in arms, your munificent use of riches, your self-restraint in expending them, your boldness against your foes in battle, your mildness towards the vanquished? Make another great, if you can; but one that shall not be generous w ith his substance, nor court danger in the front ranks, nor give honour to his friends, nor feel pity for his captives, nor be temperate in his pleasures, nor sleepless in crises, nor placable in his victories, nor humane amid his successes. What man is great in the exercise of power, if folly and wickedness attend him? Take away virtue from the fortunate man and in everything he is petty; in acts of generosity, through parsimony; in hard tasks, through softness; in religion, through superstition; towards the good, through envy; among men, through cowardice; among women, through wantonness." Just as inexpert artisans, who construct large pedestals for petty offerings, make the smallness of the offerings noticeable, so Fortune, whenever she elevates a petty character by acts that have a certain pomp and circumstance, makes the more conspicuous and disgraceful the blundering and instability that result from a shallow character.
Wherefore greatness lies, not in the possession of good things, but in our use of them, since even infant children inherit their fathers' kingdoms and dominions, even as Charillus, whom Lycurgus carried in his swaddling-clothes into the common dining-hall and proclaimed king of Sparta in place of himself. Assuredly it was not the child who was great, but he who surrendered to the child its paternal rights, and did not keep them for himself nor take them away.
But who could have made Aridaeus great, whom, differing no whit from a child, only that his swaddling-clothes were royal purple, Meleager set on the throne of Alexander? And indeed it was well that he did so, that for a few days it might be observed how it is that men rule by right of virtue and how by gift of Fortune. For in succession to a real competitor for sovereignty Meleager introduced a mere actor, or rather, did a mute figure wearing a crown parade across the stage, as it were, of the inhabited world.
Even a woman can carry a burden if a man impose it upon her.
Conversely, however, one might affirm that it lies within the strength of even a woman or a child to take up and impose the gifts of power and wealth and sovereignty. The eunuch Bagoas took up the kingship of Persia and bestowed it upon Oarses and Darius. But the ability to sustain and administer great authority when one has received it, and not to be crushed or turned from one's purpose by the weight and the magnitude of one's activities, is the mark of a man who possesses virtue, sense, and intelligence. This virtue Alexander possessed, whom some accuse of drunkenness and a passion for wine! But he was truly a great man, for in his conduct of affairs he was sober, nor was he made drunk nor led to revelling by authority and power; but others, when they get but a small portion, or even a taste, of power are unable to control themselves:
Bad men, when gorged with wealth, or chancing on
Some honours in the State, caper and prance
When luck, unhoped for, to their house has come.
Cleitus, when he had scuttled three or four Greek triremes at Amorgos, caused himself to be proclaimed Poseidon and carried a trident. Demetrius, to whom Fortune added the little that she was able to subtract from Alexander's power, allowed himself to be called "The Heaven-descended," and the subject states did not send ambassadors to him, but "Sacred Deputies," and his replies they spoke of as "Oracles." Lysimachus, who obtained possession of the regions adjoining Thrace, the mere outskirts of the kingdom of Alexander, as it were, reached such a pitch of arrogance and boldness as to say, "The Byzantines now come to me when I am touching Heaven with my spear." But Pasiades of Byzantium, who was present, said, "Let us be off, lest he make a hole in the sky with his spear-point!"
And yet why should anyone mention these men who might have some legitimate ground for pride because of Alexander, when even Clearchus, after he became despot of Heracleia, used to carry a thunderbolt, and named one of his sons Thunderer? And Dionysius the younger styled himself the son of Apollo in the inscription:
Sprung from a Dorian mother by union with Phoebus Apollo.
And Dionysius's father killed ten thousand or more citizens, and, led on by envy, betrayed his brother to the enemy, nor could he wait for his already aged mother to die a few days later, but strangled her; yet in one of his tragedies he wrote these words:
The mother of foul wrong is tyranny!
Notwithstanding, of his daughters he named one Virtue, another Temperance, a third Justice. And yet other persons publicly styled themselves Benefactors, Conquerors, Saviours, or The Great; but no one would be able to tell the tale of their marriages one after another, like the matings of horses, as they spent their days with no restraint amid herds of women, their corruption of boys, their beating of drums in the company of emasculated men, their daily dicing, their flute-playing in the public theatres, the night that was too short for them at their dinners, and the day at their breakfasts.
But Alexander took his breakfast at daybreak seated; he dined late in the evening; he drank only after sacrificing to the gods; he played dice with Medius when he had a fever; he played games while travelling, at the same time also learning to wield a bow and mount a chariot. For himself he married Roxanê, the only woman he ever loved; but Stateira, the daughter of Darius, he married for imperial and political reasons, since the union of the two races was highly advantageous. But as for the other Persian women, he was as much their superior in self-control as in valour he was superior to Persian men. For he looked at no woman against her will and those that he looked at he passed by more readily than those that he did not look at; and although he bore himself humanely toward all other persons, it was toward fair youth alone that he conducted himself haughtily. He would not listen to a single word in praise of the beauty of the wife of Darius, who was a very handsome woman; but when she died, he graced her funeral with such a royal pomp and bewailed her death so feelingly that his self-control was questioned amid his display of humanity, and his goodness incurred the charge of wrongdoing. For Darius was disturbed by suspicion of Alexander's power and youth; for he also was still one of those who believed Alexander's victory to be through Fortune. But when he had tested the matter from every angle, and recognized the truth, "Then," said he, "the lot of the Persians is not so utterly wretched, nor will anyone say that we are altogether cowardly or unmanly in that we have been overcome by such a man. But for my part I pray the gods for fair fortune and for might in war, that I may surpass Alexander in bestowing favours; and I am possessed by an ambitious and emulous desire to prove myself more humane than Alexander. But if my power be spent, do thou, O Zeus, ancestral god of the Persians, and ye other gods that guard our kingship, grant that none other than Alexander take his seat upon the throne of Cyrus." This w as Darius's way of adopting Alexander, invoking the gods as witnesses.
Thus do men prevail through Virtue. Ascribe to Fortune, if you will, Arbela and the Cilician victory and his other deeds of violence and war: Fortune battered down the walls of Tyre for him; Fortune opened the way to Egypt; through Fortune Halicarnassus fell, and Miletus was captured, and Mazaeus left the Euphrates unguarded, and the Babylonian plain was strewn with corpses. But at least it was not in any way Fortune's gift that he was temperate, nor was it because of Fortune that he was self-controlled, nor did Fortune lock his soul and keep it impregnable to pleasure and invulnerable to desire; in fact, these were the qualities by which he defeated Darius himself. The rest were but defeats of arms and horses, battles, slaughters and routs of men. But the truly great and indisputable defeat Darius suffered: he yielded in virtue and greatness of soul, in prowess and justice, and marvelled at Alexander's invincibility in pleasure, in toil, in the bestowal of favours. It is true that Tarrias, son of Deinomenes, and Antigenes of Pallenê, and Philotas, the son of Parmenion, were also invincible at least amid shields, pikes, battle-cries, and the clash of arms; but towards pleasures and women and gold and silver they were no better than their captives. In fact, when Alexander was freeing the Macedonians from debt and paying creditors for everybody, Tarrias said falsely that he was a debtor, and produced at the bank a person who asserted that he was Tarrias's creditor; later, when he was detected, he was ready to commit suicide had not Alexander, coming to know of this, exculpated him, and allowed him to keep the money; for the king remembered that when Philip was assaulting Perinthus, Tarrias, although his eye was pierced by a a missile, would not submit nor suffer the shaft to be extracted until they had routed the enemy.
Antigenes joined himself with those who were being sent back to Macedonia because of sickness or wounds, and had himself enrolled among them; but when, however, it was discovered that he had nothing wrong with him, but was feigning some infirmity, and it was seen that he was a stout fighting man whose body was covered with wounds, the matter vexed Alexander. When he asked the reason for such conduct, Antigenes confessed that he was in love with Telesippa, and was accompanying her to the sea, since he could not be left behind if she went away. "Whose is she?" asked Alexander, "and to whom must we speak?" Antigenes replied that she was free-born. "Then," said Alexander, "let us persuade her with promises and presents to remain behind." So ready was he with an excuse for every lover rather than for himself.
And further, Philotas, the son of Parmenion, had in his licentiousness the nurse, as it were, of all his ills. For among the captives taken at Damascus was a courtesan from Pella, by name Antigona. Ere this she had crossed over to Samothrace, and there had been taken captive by Autophradates. She was comely enough to look upon and, after Philotas had attached himself to her, she had complete possession of him. Indeed that man of iron was so softened that he was not in control of his reasoning powers amid his pleasures, but unlocked and brought forth many of his secrets for the woman: "What was that famed Philip, were it not for Parmenion? What was this Alexander, were it not for Philotas? Where his Ammon, and where his serpents, if we do not wish it so?" These words Antigona reported to an intimate friend of hers among the women, and she reported them to Craterus; Craterus brought Antigona herself secretly to Alexander, who did not touch her person, but restrained himself and, working secretly through her, he discovered the whole of Philotas's plans. And for a period of more than seven years Alexander never revealed his suspicion; not in his cups, the reputed drunkard! not in anger, this man of fiery temper! not to a friend, this man who trusted Hephaestion in everything and shared everything with him! In fact it is recorded that once, when he had broken the seal of a confidential letter from his mother and was reading it silently to himself, Hephaestion quietly put his head beside Alexander's and read the letter with him; Alexander could not bear to stop him, but took off his ring and placed the seal on Hephaestion's lips.
Cf. Moralia, 41 D-E.
£200, or $1000. Thayer's Note: A reminder that this equivalent dates to 1936 (notice the pound at $5); in 2004, the figures would be about $12,000 or £6700.
Cf. Life of Pelopidas, xxix (293 F); Aelian, Varia Historia, xiv.40.
Cf. Moralia, 177 B and the note.
Cf. Moralia, 174 F, and the note.
Ibid. 471 E; Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, v.22 (63); Aelian, Varia Historia, xii.44; Diodorus, xv.6.
The coronis at the end of the roll.
Cf. Moralia, 67 F, 179 B, 634 D.
Cf. 317 E, supra, and the note.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. ii (665 B).
Ibid. chap. xxix (681 D).
Cf. Arrian, Anabasis, iv.16.7.
Cf. Moralia, 1133 D (=Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, i pp4-8). See also Dio Chrysostom, Oration i.1-2, where Timotheus is the flute-player and the tune the Orthian.
Attributed to Alcman in Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxi (53 D): cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii p51, or Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, i p90.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. iv (666 B); Pliny, Natural History, xxxv.10 (92).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. iv (666 B).
Cf. ibid. and Moralia, 53 D.
Cf. 331 A, supra, and the note.
Cf. Pliny, Natural History, vii.37 (125); Horace, Epistles, ii.1.240; Valerius Maximus, viii.11.2; Arrian, Anabasis, i.16.4.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. lxxii (705 A): the man is called Deinocrates by Vitruvius, ii. praef.; and Cheirocrates by the MSS. of Strabo, xiv.1.23.
The reference is to the chryselephantine statues of Pheidias and his school with their inner frame-work of timbers, and painted without.
Xerxes' canal; cf. 342 E, infra.
A range of north-western India, the Prakrit Haimota; cf. Arrian, Indica, 2.3; 6.4; Pliny, Natural History, vi.17 (56).
Cf. 335 A, supra, Moralia, 360 D.
Cf. Moralia, 99 B-C.
Cf. Stobaeus, Florilegium, lix.41 (Hense, vol. iv p362).
An oft-quoted line. Cf. G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graec. Frag. i.137, Epicharmus, no. 249; Moralia, 98 C, with the note; also Cicero, Tusculan Disp. 1.20 (46); Maximus Tyrius, xi.10.
Cf. Plato, Menexenus, 246 E.
Cf. Diodorus, ii.4-20; Justin, i.2.
Cf. 326 F, supra; Diodorus, ii.21.8 ff.; Athenaeus, 528 F; W. K. Prentice, in Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc. liv (1923) p79: but the theory rightly set forth there, that this description comes from Ctesias's Persica, is as old as Hemsterhuys; see Wyttenbach's note on this passage.
See the note on 330 F, supra.
Cf. Moralia, 401 A; Athenaeus, 591 B; Stobaeus, Florilegium, vi.39 (vol. iii p296 Hense).
Cf. 337 D, infra.
Cf. 337 E, infra.
Cf. Life of Pompey, chap. xxxiii (637 A); Comp. of Cimon and Lucullus, iii (522 E); Velleius Paterculus, ii.37; Valerius Maximus, v.1.10.
Plutarch has confused Nicomedes with his father Prusias; cf. Polybius, xxx.19; Livy, xlv.44; Diodorus, xxxi.15; Appian, Mithridatica, 2.
The saying is elsewhere attributed to Demades; cf. Moralia, 181 F, and the note.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xlvii (691 F-692 A).
Cf. Life of Lycurgus, chap. iii (41 A).
Cf. Moralia, 791 E.
Aristophanes, Knights, 1056: see Rogers's note ad loc.
Cf. Arrian, Anabasis, ii.14.5; Aelian, Varia Historia, vi.8; Diodorus, xvii.5.
Cf. 326 F, supra.
From a much longer fragment of Euripides' Erechtheus; Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p471, Euripides, no. 362, 29-31.
Cf. Diodorus, xviii.15.9, 72.
"Avatar," he that descends from Heaven (in thunder and lightning), a common title of Zeus; cf. Life of Demetrius, chaps. x, xi (893 D, E).
In Pontus: cf. Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii p526.
i.e. a skepton, instead of skeptron, "sceptre."
Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii p324.
Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xiii.45.
Cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p797, Dionysius, no 7.
Cf. Life of Dion, chap. vi (960 C).
Probably Ptolemy Euergetes II Physcon (cf. Athenaeus xii.549 D), rather than Philopator (cf. Moralia, 56 E, Polybius v.34), is alluded to.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xxiii (677 D).
Ibid. chap. lxxvi (706 D).
Cf. 332 E, supra.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. lxx (703 E); Diodorus, xvii.107; Justin, xii.10.
Cf. Moralia, 97 D, 522 A; Life of Alexander, chap. xxi (676 F).
Ibid. chap. xxii (677 A); Arrian, Anabasis, iv.20; Athenaeus, xiii 603 C; Quintus Curtius, Hist. Alexandri, iv.10.
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xxx (682 C-D).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. xxv (679 A); Arrian, Anabasis, ii.23.
Cf. 326 F, supra.
Cf. Arrian, Anabasis, iii.7.2.
Tarrias is elsewhere unknown; the stories here related of him are told of Antigenes in Life of Alexander, chap. lxx (703 E-F).
Cf. 343 D, infra; Arrian, Anabasis, vii.5.1-3.
Repeated in Moralia, 181 A; but told of Eurylochus in Life of Alexander, chap. xli (689 B).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chap. lxxi (704 B).
Cf. Life of Alexander, chaps. xlviii, xlix (692 A-693 A).
The Doric form suggests quotation from some poem or drama.
A reference, perhaps, to Ammon (i.e. Zeus) in the form of a serpent, seen with Olympias, as told in Life of Alexander, chap. iii (665 D); or perhaps to the expedition to the oracle of Ammon, cf. Arrian, Anabasis, iii.3.5.
Cf. 333 A, supra.
"Silently," for reading was generally done aloud.