Moreover, when Philoxenus, the commander of his forces on the sea-board, wrote that there was with him a certain Theodorus, of Tarentum, who had two boys of surpassing beauty to sell, and enquired whether Alexander would buy them, Alexander was incensed, and cried out many times to his friends, asking them what shameful thing Philoxenus had ever seen in him that he should spend his time in making such disgraceful proposals. And on Philoxenus himself he heaped much reproach in a letter, bidding him send Theodorus to perdition, merchandize and all.
He severely rebuked Hagnon also for writing to him that he wanted to buy Crobylus, whose beauty was famous in Corinth, as a present for him. Furthermore, on learning that Damon and Timotheus, two Macedonian soldiers under Parmenio’s command, had ruined the wives of certain mercenaries, he wrote to Parmenio ordering him, in case the men were convicted, to punish them and put them to death as wild beasts born for the destruction of mankind.
In this letter he also wrote expressly concerning himself: As for me,
indeed, it will be found not only that I have not seen the wife of
Dareius or desired to see her, but that I have not even allowed
people to speak to me of her beauty.
And he used to say that
sleep and sexual intercourse, more than any thing else, made him
conscious that he was mortal, implying that both weariness and pleasure
arise from one and the same natural weakness.
He had also the most complete mastery over his appetite, and showed this
both in many other ways, and especially by what he said to Ada, whom he
honoured with the title of Mother and made queen of Caria.
for he had better cooks which had been given him by
his tutor, Leonidas; for his breakfast, namely, a night march, and for
his supper, a light breakfast. And this same Leonidas,
he said,
used to come and open my chests of bedding and clothing, to see
that my mother did not hide there for me some luxury or
superfluity.