DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69942#0023
Greece.] ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
was suspended alive by the heels to the victor’s car, and
dragged round the walls of the city, in imitation of
Achilles, who had thus vented his wrath on the dead body
of Hector,
When Egypt submitted to his power, his residence in
that fertile country was rendered remarkable by two
actions that bear very little resemblance to each other:
the foundation of a new city, and his visit to the temple
of Jupiter Ammon. Struck with the power which Tyre
had acquired by its commerce and trading intercourse
with every part of the globe, he conceived the idea of
building a city that should bear his name, and become the
emporium of the world. He has been deservedly praised
and admired for the conception and execution of so vast
a design. In undertaking this journey to the temple of
Ammon, his object was to be declared, by the most ac-
credited oracle of those days, the son of Jupiter, and
invincible. But in this excessive instance of his vanity,
he miserably failed. It has been ingeniously supposed
that he wished to inspire the most unbounded confidence
in his army, previous to his projected conquest of India.
It is evident, however, that his soldiers were disgusted
rather than pleased with these immoderate pretensions.
The sturdy Macedonians refused to prostrate themselvesr
before him, and tarnish their own fame by rendering him
the divine honours he exacted, Determined at all hazards
to be thought the son of Jupiter, he revenged himself on
those who had ventured to oppose his intention. Many
who had not evinced sufficient complaisance on this £oint,
fell the victims of his disappointed vanity; among the rest
Philotas, one of his most favourite generals, who was ex-
ecuted as a conspirator; but whose real crime consisted
in having tauntingly written to him “ that he congratu-
lated him at having been placed among the gods by the
was suspended alive by the heels to the victor’s car, and
dragged round the walls of the city, in imitation of
Achilles, who had thus vented his wrath on the dead body
of Hector,
When Egypt submitted to his power, his residence in
that fertile country was rendered remarkable by two
actions that bear very little resemblance to each other:
the foundation of a new city, and his visit to the temple
of Jupiter Ammon. Struck with the power which Tyre
had acquired by its commerce and trading intercourse
with every part of the globe, he conceived the idea of
building a city that should bear his name, and become the
emporium of the world. He has been deservedly praised
and admired for the conception and execution of so vast
a design. In undertaking this journey to the temple of
Ammon, his object was to be declared, by the most ac-
credited oracle of those days, the son of Jupiter, and
invincible. But in this excessive instance of his vanity,
he miserably failed. It has been ingeniously supposed
that he wished to inspire the most unbounded confidence
in his army, previous to his projected conquest of India.
It is evident, however, that his soldiers were disgusted
rather than pleased with these immoderate pretensions.
The sturdy Macedonians refused to prostrate themselvesr
before him, and tarnish their own fame by rendering him
the divine honours he exacted, Determined at all hazards
to be thought the son of Jupiter, he revenged himself on
those who had ventured to oppose his intention. Many
who had not evinced sufficient complaisance on this £oint,
fell the victims of his disappointed vanity; among the rest
Philotas, one of his most favourite generals, who was ex-
ecuted as a conspirator; but whose real crime consisted
in having tauntingly written to him “ that he congratu-
lated him at having been placed among the gods by the