Alexander

Its removal, therefore, threw the king into swoons and brought him to death’s door, but nevertheless he recovered. And after he was out of danger, though he was still weak and kept himself for a long time under regimen and treatment, perceiving from their tumult at his door that his Macedonians were yearning to see him, he took his cloak and went out to them. And after sacrificing to the gods he went on board ship again and dropped down the river, subduing much territory and great cities as he went.

He captured ten of the Gymnosophists who had done most to get Sabbas to revolt, and had made the most trouble for the Macedonians. These philosophers were reputed to be clever and concise in answering questions, and Alexander therefore put difficult questions to them, declaring that he would put to death him who first made an incorrect answer, and then the rest, in an order determined in like manner; and he commanded one of them, the oldest, to be judge in the contest.

The first one, accordingly, being asked which, in his opinion, were more numerous, the living or the dead, said that the living were, since the dead no longer existed. The second, being asked whether the earth or the sea produced larger animals, said the earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth. The third, being asked what animal was most cunning, said: That which up to this time man has not discovered.

The fourth, when asked why he had induced Sabbas to revolt, replied: Because I wished him either to live nobly or to die nobly. The fifth, being asked which, in his opinion, was older, day or night, replied: Day, by one day; and he added, upon the king expressing amazement, that hard questions must have hard answers.

Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved; If, said the philosopher, he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear. Of the three remaining, he who was asked how one might become a god instead of man, replied: By doing something which a man cannot do; the one who was asked which was the stronger, life or death, answered: Life, since it supports so many ills.

And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered: Until he does not regard death as better than life. So, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that they had answered one worse than another. Well, then, said Alexander, thou shalt die first for giving such a verdict. That cannot be, O King, said the judge, unless thou falsely saidst that thou wouldst put to death first him who answered worst.

These philosophers, then, he dismissed with gifts; but to those who were in the highest repute and lived quietly by themselves he sent Onesicritus, asking them to pay him a visit. Now, Onesicritus was a philosopher of the school of Diogenes the Cynic.

And he tells us that Calanus very harshly and insolently bade him strip off his tunic and listen naked to what he had to say, otherwise he would not converse with him, not even if he came from Zeus; but he says that Dandamis was gentler, and that after hearing fully about Socrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes, he remarked that the men appeared to him to have been of good natural parts but to have passed their lives in too much awe of the laws.

Others, however, say that the only words uttered by Dandamis were these: Why did Alexander make such a long journey hither? Calanus, nevertheless, was persuaded by Taxiles to pay a visit to Alexander. His real name was Sphines, but because he greeted those whom he met with Cale, the Indian word of salutation, the Greeks called him Calanus. It was Calanus, as we are told, who laid before Alexander the famous illustration of government. It was this.