Alexander

He saw that his favourites had grown altogether luxurious, and were vulgar in the extravagance of their ways of living. For instance, Hagnon the Teian used to wear silver nails in his boots; Leonnatus had dust for his gymnastic exercises brought to him on many camels from Egypt; Philotas had hunting-nets a hundred furlongs long; when they took their exercise and their baths, more of them actually used myrrh than olive oil, and they had in their train rubbers and chamberlains. Alexander therefore chided them in gentle and reasonable fashion.

He was amazed, he said, that after they had undergone so many and so great contests they did not remember that those who conquer by toil sleep more sweetly than those who are conquered by their toil, and did not see, from a comparison of their own lives with those of the Persians, that it is a very servile thing to be luxurious, but a very royal thing to toil. And yet, said he, how can a man take care of his own horse or furbish up his spear and helmet, if he is unaccustomed to using his hands on his own dear person?

Know ye not, said he, that the end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered? Accordingly, he exerted himself yet more strenuously in military and hunting expeditions, suffering distress and risking his life , so that a Spartan ambassador who came up with him as he was bringing down a great lion, said: Nobly, indeed, Alexander, hast thou struggled with the lion to see which should be king.

This hunting-scene Craterus dedicated at Delphi, with bronze figures of the lion, the dogs, the king engaged with the lion, and himself coming to his assistance; some of the figures were moulded by Lysippus, and some by Leochares.

Alexander, then, in exercising himself and at the same time inciting others to deeds of valour, was wont to court danger; but his friends, whose wealth and magnificence now gave them a desire to live in luxury and idleness, were impatient of his long wanderings and military expeditions, and gradually went so far as to abuse him and speak ill of him. He, however, was very mildly disposed at first toward this treatment of himself and used to say that it was the lot of a king to confer favours and be ill-spoken of therefor.

And yet in the most trifling attentions which he paid his familiar friends there were marks of great good-will and esteem. I will instance a few of these. He found fault with Peucestas by letter because, after being bitten by a bear, he wrote about it to the rest of his friends but did not tell him. Now, however, said he, write me how you are, and tell me whether any of your fellow-huntsmen left you in the lurch, that I may punish them.

To Hephaestion, who was absent on some business, he wrote that while they were diverting themselves with hunting an ichneumon, Craterus encountered the lance of Perdiccas and was wounded in the thighs. After Peucestas had safely recovered from an illness, Alexander wrote to the physician, Alexippus, expressing his thanks. While Craterus was sick, Alexander had a vision in his sleep, whereupon he offered certain sacrifices himself for the recovery of his friend, and bade him also sacrifice.