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making claim to divinity, or recounting my mother's dreams; but acknowledging myself to be human; and putting myself in competition with the most skilful generals, and engaging with the most warlike soldiers in the world-not contending against Medes and Armenians, who seek refuge in flight before any one pursues, and yield the victory at once to the bold aggressor. Alexander, on the other hand, enlarged a dominion which he had received from his father, and extended it considerably by availing himself of the start given him by Fortune. But, when he had gained the victory over and vanquished at Issus and Arbela' that wretched pest Dareius, revolting from the customs of his ancestors, he began to put forth claims to divine worship, and changed his way of life to the Median mode; and polluted his hands in the blood of his friends at his banquets, and seized them for the purpose of putting them to death.3 Whereas I ruled my country upon terms of equality with my fellow-citizens, and when it summoned me to its aid, on the sailing of the enemy to Libya with a great armament, I obeyed with inclines to one bushel only (xxiii. 12). To compare great things with small, Cannæ was the "Battle of the Spurs" of modern times, as far as similarity of spoil is concerned.

1 The young King of Macedon was first saluted by the Egyptian priests as the son of Zeus Ammon (Amun), one of the divinities of the Egyptian theology, upon his visit to the oracular temple in the oasis of the African desert. See Arrian, 'Aváßaoiç ’Aλež., and Plutarch. the dream of Olympias, see Plutarch, AXɛž. ii.

For

2 The battle of Issus (B.C. 333) was fought near the city of that name in the extreme south-east of Cilicia, on the confines of Syria and the Lesser Asia. The Macedonians owed the victory as much to the unwieldy and heterogeneous masses of the enemy as to their own prowess. One of the finest of mosaics of ancient Greek art describes this subject. It was found in a mutilated state at Pompeii; and is supposed to be a copy of a painting of Apelles. The second great overthrow took place at Gaugamela.

3 The friends and attendants of Alexander who fell victims to his intemperate fits of passion, or to his suspicions well or ill-founded, were Parmenion, to whose skill he owed, in great measure, his chief victories, and his son Philotus; Kleitus, his intimate friend and companion, who had saved his life at the battle of the Granikus, whom he murdered in a fit of intoxication at Baktra; his page, Hermolaus, who, with other alienated or disgusted Macedonians, had conspired against his master, in revenge for a public indignity; and Kleisthenes, a pupil of Aristotle. See Plutarch, 'Aλɛ. 49-55.

speed,' and offered myself as a private citizen; and after condemnation, I bore the matter with good will. These achievements I performed, non-Greek as I was, and uninstructed by a Greek education; neither reciting and declaiming Homer,2 as he did, nor educated under Aristotle, that famous sophist; but availing myself of my natural good qualities alone. These are the points as to which I maintain that I am superior to Alexander. And, if this fellow has a handsomer appearance, because he was accustomed to encircle his brows with the diadem-with Macedonians, doubtless, those things are objects of veneration —he surely should not on that account be thought superior to a man of genuine nobility and of true military capacity, who owed more to his judgment than to fortune.

Minos. He has delivered no ignoble plea, and one not such as it was likely a Libyan would, on his own behalf. Now, you, Alexander, what do you say to these arguments ?

Alexander. I ought, Minos, to make no reply at all to so impudent a man; for Fame is quite enough to instruct you what a king I was, and what a mere brigand he was. However, just consider if it is by a small difference I surpass him—I who while yet a mere youth entered upon public business, and became master of a kingdom all in a state of confusion, and pursued and punished my father's

1 When the Romans, under the elder Scipio, carried the war into Africa, which resulted in their decisive victory at Zama, 202 B.C., Hannibal was driven from his country by a hostile faction, with Roman co-operation.

2 Cf. Plutarch. Dion Chrysostom says that Alexander knew by heart the whole of the Iliad, and many parts of the Odyssey (Aóyou iv.). His great exemplar and admiration was the hero of the Iliad, Achilleus, whose ideal form and features were infused into his portraits by his laureate-painter, Apelles. As for the character of Hannibal, Valerius Maximus allows to the great enemy of Rome some virtues, for "humanitatis dulcedo etiam in efferata barbarorum ingenia penetrat" (De Factis, &c., v. 1).

3 There were not wanting, as Hemsterhuis reminds us, some who attached this title to the father of the conqueror of the Persian Empire himself. Demosthenes publicly stigmatized him as the λῃστης τῶν Ἑλλήνων (Þ. iv.), just as, in later times, there were some who characterized the Roman generals and armies as "latrones, communisque omnium libertatis raptores." Seneca assigns the same character to Alexander-latro gentiumque vastator, &c. De Beneficiis, i. 13. Cf. De Benef. v. 6.

assassins; and then, by the total destruction of Thebes having terrorized all Hellas, and having been elected by them to the command-in-chief, I did not think fit to confine my cares to my Macedonian dominions, and to be content to rule over what my father had left behind him; but, extending my thoughts to the whole Earth, and thinking it intolerable if I should not become master of the world, with a few soldiers I invaded Asia; and at the Granikus I gained a great battle; and seizing upon Lydia, Ionia, and Phrygia, and, in fine, conquering in succession everything in my way, I advanced to Issus, where Dareius awaited me with an army of many myriads. From that time, Minos, you know how many dead I sent below to you on one day; at all events, the Ferryman says that his boat did not suffice, at that time, for them, but that the majority of them constructed rafts for themselves, and so made the passage. And this I accomplished by being foremost in danger myself, and deeming it glorious to get myself wounded. Not to recount to you my exploits at Tyre, or at Arbela, not only all that, but I advanced as far as the Indians, and made for myself the Ocean the boundary of my empire; and I captured their elephants, and worsted Porus. And as for the Scythians, not a people to be despised with impunity, I crossed the Don and conquered them in a great cavalry battle. And I conferred benefits on my friends, and avenged myself on my enemies; and, if I appeared to men to be indeed divine, they are to be excused, in consideration of the greatness of my actions, for believing something of the kind about me. Finally, I died while yet a king, whereas this fellow died in exile at the court of Prusias of Bithynia, as it was right a man of the greatest villainy and cruelty should. For how he conquered the Italians I omit to say-that he did not do it by force, but by corruption, and not keeping faith, and by stratagems; nothing according to the usages of war or above-board. And, as for his reproaching me with luxury, I think he has forgotten entirely what he was accustomed to do in Capua, living with ladies of the demi-monde, and, admirable General, wasting in pleasures the opportunities of war. I, on the

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"Punica fides" became proverbial with the Romans, but Romana fides, perhaps, would have been equally forcible.

other hand, if I had not esteemed the affairs of the West a small matter, and made my first attacks, rather, on the side of the East, what great achievement could I have done-seizing, without shedding a drop of blood, upon Italy, and subjecting to my power Libya and the continent as far as Gades? No; those parts of the world seemed to me not worth fighting for, being already cowed and acknowledging a master. I have said. Now do you,

Minos, judge; for, out of many facts, these are quite enough to decide by.

Scipio. Not before you have heard me, too.

Minos. Why, who are you, my fine Sir? or as what countryman will you speak?

Scipio. An Italian; Scipio, the general who razed Carthage, and conquered the Libyans in great battles. Minos. What, pray, would you say?

Scipio. That I am inferior, indeed, to Alexander, but superior to Hannibal-I who vanquished and pursued him, and forced him to a disgraceful flight. How, then, is this fellow not ashamed to contend in rivalry with Alexander, with whom not even I, Scipio, his.conqueror, claim to put myself in comparison?

Minos. By my faith, you speak the words of reason, Scipio; so let Alexander be judged to be first, next to him come you; then, by your leave, follows Hannibal third; for neither is he to be despised with impunity."

1 'Iraλurns. Properly a Greek resident in Italy; but sometimes, as here, used for 'Iráλos--an Italian.

2 In the 'Anong 'Ioropía, one of the wittiest and most entertaining of the works of Lucian, and the original of so many other satirical romances, Alexander and Hannibal are again introduced to us contending for precedence, in their posthumous existence, in the Island of the Blessed. On this occasion Rhadamanthys, who is the judge, assigns the first place, also, to the conqueror of Dareius, on a throne by the side of the founder of the Persian monarchy. Scipio does not figure in this scene; and it is a curious fact that no Roman is admitted into Lucian's Elysium. By Livy (xxxv. 14) Hannibal is represented as much more modest than he appears in this Dialogue; for, in reply to a question of Scipio, he pronounces Alexander to be the first of military commanders, Pyrrhus, King of Epeirus, second, and himself third; although, if he had been so fortunate as to conquer his questioner, as he had the other Roman generals, he would not have hesitated to give the precedence to himself. Cf. Appian, 'Iσr. Pwμ. xi. In

XIII.

DIOGENES JEERS AT ALEXANDER OF MACEDON FOR HIS LATE PRETENSIONS TO DIVINITY, AT THE SAME TIME SATIRIZING THE SERVILE ATTITUDE OF THE CONQUERED GREEK STATES TOWARDS HIM. HE PROCEEDS TO REMIND THE ARROGANT CONQUEROR OF ALL HIS VAIN POWER AND GLORY, AND CASTS LARGE PART OF THE BLAME ON ALEXANDER'S PRECEPTOR ARISTOTLE, FOR FLATTERING AND FOSTERING THE PRIDE AND AMBITION OF HIS PUPIL. DIOGENES, FINALLY, RECOMMENDS THE DEAD POTENTATE TO DRINK THE WATERS OF THE RIVER LETHE.

Diogenes and Alexander.

Diogenes. What's this, Alexander? Have you, too, died, like the rest of us?

Alexander. You see for yourself it is so, Diogenes; but it is nothing strange if, man as I was, I am dead.

Diogenes. Then Ammon lied in saying that you were his son, while, in fact, you were Philip's ?

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Alexander. Philip's undoubtedly; for had I been Ammon's, I should not have died.

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Diogenes. Yet similar stories used to be told of Olympias -that a serpent visited her, and was seen in her bed; that the Kaioapes of Julian, Alexander is put in comparison with the "Divine Julius." It is worth notice that the great Roman satirist, who makes frequent use of the name of the arch-enemy of Rome, selects him as an example, кáт' ¿žóxŋv, of the nothingness of human glory :

"Expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo
Invenies?"

Fontenelle, the most famous modern imitator of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead, has imitated this Dialogue in his Jules César et Charles XII. (Dialogues des Morts).

According to Plutarch, it was the ignorance of Greek on the part of the priests of Ammon which assigned to him a divine father. Intending to greet him with the words ' raidiov, they addressed him as 'Q Tai Aíoc (son of Zeus) a slight verbal error, which Alexander was not anxious to correct.

2 Hemsterhuis would substitute for ouvia of the received text orоlα (qualia). As for the prodigy of the Serpent, Scipio Africanus aspired to the same semi-reptile origin. Livy, xxvi. 19. Cf. Ælian, IIɛpì Ζώων. xii. 30.

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