When he had returned from Egypt into Phoenicia,
For the lot assigned to these exhibitors the most celebrated actors, to Pasicrates Athenodorus, and to Nicocreon Thessalus, in whose success Alexander himself was interested. He did not reveal this interest, however, until, by the votes of the judges, Athenodorus had been proclaimed victor. But then, as it would appear, on leaving the theatre, he said that he approved the decision of the judges, but would gladly have given up a part of his kingdom rather than to have seen Thessalus vanquished.
And yet, when Athenodorus, who had been fined by the Athenians for not
keeping his engagement in the dramatic contest of their Dionysiac
festival, asked the king to write a letter to them in his behalf, though
he would not do this, he sent them the amount of the fine from his own
purse. Furthermore, when Lycon of Scarpheia, who was acting successfully
before Alexander, inserted into the comedy a verse containing a request
for ten talents, Alexander laughed and gave them to him.
When Dareius sent to him a letter and friends,If I were Alexander,
said
Parmenio, I would accept these terms.
And so indeed would I,
said Alexander, were I Parmenio.
But to Dareius he wrote: Come to me, and thou shalt receive every
courtesy; but otherwise I shall march at once against thee.
Soon, however, he repented him of this answer, when the wife of Dareius died in childbirth, and it was evident that he was distressed at this loss of opportunity to show great kindness. Accordingly, he gave the woman a sumptuous burial. One of the eunuchs of the bed-chamber who had been captured with the women, Teireos by name, ran away from the camp, made his way on horseback to Dareius, and told him of the death of his wife.
Then the king, beating upon his head and bursting into lamentation, said:
Alas for the evil genius of the Persians, if the sister and wife
of their king must not only become a captive in her life, but also
in her death be deprived of royal burial.
Nay, O King,
answered the chamberlain, as regards her burial,
and her receiving every fitting honour, thou hast no charge to make
against the evil genius of the Persians.
For neither did my mistress Stateira, while she lived, or thy mother
or thy children, lack any of their former great blessings except the
light of thy countenance, which Lord Oromazdes will cause to shine
again with lustre; nor after her death was she deprived of any
funeral adornment, nay, she was honoured with the tears of enemies.
For Alexander is as gentle after victory as he is terrible in
battle.
When Dareius heard this, his agitation and grief swept him into absurd
suspicions, and leading the eunuch away into a more secluded part of his
tent, he said: If thou also, together with the fortune of the
Persians, dost not side with the Macedonians, and if I, Dareius, am
still thy lord and master, tell me, as thou reverest the great light
of Mithras and the right hand of thy king, is it not the least of
Stateira’s misfortunes that I am now lamenting? While she was alive
did I not suffer more pitiful evils? And would not my wretched
fortune have been more compatible with my honour if I had met with
an angry and savage enemy? For what intercourse that is proper can a
young man have with an enemy’s wife when it leads to such marks of
honour?
While the king was still speaking, Teireos threw himself down at his feet and besought him to hold his peace, and neither to wrong Alexander, nor shame his dead sister and wife, nor rob himself of the greatest consolation for his disasters, namely, the belief that he had been conquered by a man who was superior to human nature; nay, he should even admire Alexander for having shown greater self-restraint in dealing with Persian women than valour against Persian men.