DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69942#0024
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, [greece.
oracle; but that he pitied those who were compelled to
serve under a prince who imagined himself superior
to human nature.” When he desired the republics of
Greece to acknowledge his divinity, the Spartans re-
turned a more cautious but equally ironical answer,
and expressed with their characteristic brevity-since
Alexander wishes to be a God—let him be a God. The
truth is, he had reached that point of prosperity which
overpowers human reason—for the excess of good or
evil fortune wiH lead to the same result. In the de-
lirium, which had destroyed the faculties of his mind, the
qualities of his heart were alike extinguished. He be-
came sanguinary and ferocious. Having murdered Phi-
lotas, he inflicted his brutal vengeance on his father, the
aged Parmenio, his most skilful commander, and equally
famed in council as in war. For such monstrous cruelty
no pretext can be urged, unless he dreaded the effects of
Parmenio’s resentment for the murder of his son, basely
condemned on the report of a courtezan. The self-created
God killed with his own hand Clitus the son of his nurse,
and the friend of his infancy. It is true this last atrocious
act was committed in a fit of intoxication, and we are told
that he evinced the most lively regret. But this repen-
tance was perhaps occasioned by the consequences which
he feared in his sober moments such an outrage might
produce in the army, where every officer expected to
share the fate of Philotas and Parmenio—tremere itaque
omnes universis castris c&pere, innoxis senis, fdiiqne casum
iniserantes-Se quoque non debere melius sperare. Justin.
The death of Callisthenes, the pupil and friend of Aris-
totle, was still more odious. In short, so blind was his
rage, and so easily was it excited, that his best generals
perished on the slightest suspicion ; and, at the close of a
drunken party, the companions of his orgies could easily
obtain the death of their private enemies and rivals. Be-
oracle; but that he pitied those who were compelled to
serve under a prince who imagined himself superior
to human nature.” When he desired the republics of
Greece to acknowledge his divinity, the Spartans re-
turned a more cautious but equally ironical answer,
and expressed with their characteristic brevity-since
Alexander wishes to be a God—let him be a God. The
truth is, he had reached that point of prosperity which
overpowers human reason—for the excess of good or
evil fortune wiH lead to the same result. In the de-
lirium, which had destroyed the faculties of his mind, the
qualities of his heart were alike extinguished. He be-
came sanguinary and ferocious. Having murdered Phi-
lotas, he inflicted his brutal vengeance on his father, the
aged Parmenio, his most skilful commander, and equally
famed in council as in war. For such monstrous cruelty
no pretext can be urged, unless he dreaded the effects of
Parmenio’s resentment for the murder of his son, basely
condemned on the report of a courtezan. The self-created
God killed with his own hand Clitus the son of his nurse,
and the friend of his infancy. It is true this last atrocious
act was committed in a fit of intoxication, and we are told
that he evinced the most lively regret. But this repen-
tance was perhaps occasioned by the consequences which
he feared in his sober moments such an outrage might
produce in the army, where every officer expected to
share the fate of Philotas and Parmenio—tremere itaque
omnes universis castris c&pere, innoxis senis, fdiiqne casum
iniserantes-Se quoque non debere melius sperare. Justin.
The death of Callisthenes, the pupil and friend of Aris-
totle, was still more odious. In short, so blind was his
rage, and so easily was it excited, that his best generals
perished on the slightest suspicion ; and, at the close of a
drunken party, the companions of his orgies could easily
obtain the death of their private enemies and rivals. Be-