Calumniae non temere credundum

In the court of Alexander it was once the greatest of all slanderous charges to say that a man did not worship Hephaestion or even make obeisance to him —for after the death of Hephaestion, Alexander for the love he bore him determined to add to his other great feats that of appointing the dead man a god. So the cities at once erected temples; plots of ground - were consecrated ; altars, sacrifices and feasts were established in honour of this new god, and everybody’s strongest oath was “By Hephaestion.” If anyone smiled at what went on or failed to'seem quite reverent, the penalty prescribed was death. The flatterers, taking hold of this childish passion of Alexander’s, at once began to feed it and fan it into flame by telling about dreams of Hephaestion, in that way ascribing to him visitations and cures and accrediting him with prophecies; and at last

they began to sacrifice to him as “‘ Coadjutor” and "Saviour.”[*](In this way they made him out the associate of Apollo.) Alexander liked to hear all this, and at length believed it, and was very proud of himself for being, as he thought, not only the son of a god but also able to make gods. Well, how many of Alexander's friends, do you suppose, reaped the results of Hephaestion’s divinity during that period, through being accused of not honouring the universal god, and consequently being banished and deprived of the king’s favour?