XIII.

DIOGENES JEERS AT ALEXANDER OF MACEDON FOR HIS LATE PRETENSIONS TO DIVINITY, AT THE SAME TIME SATIRIZING THE SERVILE ATTITUDE OF THE CONQUERED GREEK STATES TOWARDS HIM. HE PROCEEDS TO REMIND THE ARROGANT CONQUEROR OF ALL HIS VAIN POWER AND GLORY, AND CASTS LARGE PART OF THE BLAME ON ALEXANDER'S PRECEPTOR ARISTOTLE, FOR FLATTERING AND FOSTERING THE PRIDE AND AMBITION OF HIS PUPIL. DIOGENES, FINALLY, RECOMMENDS THE DEAD POTENTATE TO DRINK THE WATERS OF THE RIVER LETHE.

Diogenes and Alexander.

Diogenes. What's this, Alexander? Have you, too, died, like the rest of us?

Alexander. You see for yourself it is so, Diogenes; but it is nothing strange if, man as I was, I am dead.

Diogenes. Then Ammon lied in saying that you were his son, while, in fact, you were Philip's ?1

1

Alexander. Philip's undoubtedly; for had I been Ammon's, I should not have died.

2

Diogenes. Yet similar stories used to be told of Olympias —that a serpent visited her, and was seen in her bed; that the Kaioapes of Julian, Alexander is put in comparison with the "Divine Julius." It is worth notice that the great Roman satirist, who makes frequent use of the name of the arch-enemy of Rome, selects him as an example, кár' ¿žóxŋv, of the nothingness of human glory:

"Expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo

Invenies?

وو

Fontenelle, the most famous modern imitator of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead, has imitated this Dialogue in his Jules César et Charles XII. (Dialogues des Morts).

According to Plutarch, it was the ignorance of Greek on the part of the priests of Ammon which assigned to him a divine father. Intending to greet him with the words "Q naidíov, they addressed him as 'Q Tai Aioç (son of Zeus) a slight verbal error, which Alexander was not anxious to correct.

2 Hemsterhuis would substitute for ouvia of the received text orоlα (qualia). As for the prodigy of the Serpent, Scipio Africanus aspired to the same semi-reptile origin. Livy, xxvi. 19. Cf. Ælian, ПIɛpi Ζώων. xii. 30.

then you were born from such intercourse, and that Philip was altogether deceived in supposing you were of his begetting.

Alexander. I, too, like you, used to hear these tales; but now I see that neither my mother nor the Ammonian prophets spoke at all rationally.

Diogenes. But their lie was not unserviceable to you, Alexander, in regard to your exploits; for many were cowed, under the impression that you were a God. But, tell me, to whom have you left behind this so great empire of yours?

Alexander. I don't know, Diogenes; for I had not made any arrangements about it beforehand, or only this much -that on my death-bed I gave over my ring to Perdikkas. But, however, why do you laugh, Diogenes?

1

Diogenes. Why, at what else than the recollection of the doings of Hellas, that servilely flattered you, who had but just succeeded to the throne, and elected you to the hegemony and command-in-chief against the foreigners. And some even added you to the twelve principal deities,2 both building to you temples and sacrificing to you as to a Serpent's son! But, tell me, where did the Macedonians bury you?

Alexander. I am still lying in Babylon, after three days, unburied; but Ptolemæus, of my foot-guards, promises, if ever he has leisure from the troubles immediately before him, to carry me away to Egypt and bury me there, so that I may become one of the Egyptian divinities.

1 One of the principal generals of Alexander. Appointed to the regency, and trusting to this mark of confidence on the part of his dying master, he laid claim to the supremacy. He was defeated, and slain by his own troops, in Egypt, while making war on Ptolemæus Soter, 321 B.C.

2 The Dii Majores, as they were called in the Latin theology, who, in the Homeric and Hesiodic theogony, occupy, as the third dynasty, the summits of Mount Olympus. See Plutarch's fine reflection upon the perverse titular ambition of the kings and conquerors. Eulogizing the just moderation of Aristeides, he remarks:-"Obεv ảvýp névng Kai δημοτικὸς ἐκτήσατο τὴν βασιλικωτάτην καὶ θειοτάτην προσηγορίαν τὸν Δίκαιον. Ὃ τῶν βασιλέων καὶ τυράννων οὐδεὶς ἐζήλωσεν, ἀλλὰ Πολιορκηταὶ καὶ Κέραυνοι καὶ Νικάτορες, ἔνιοι δ ̓ Αετοὶ καὶ ̔Ιέρακες ἔχαιρον προσηγορευόμενοι· τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς βίας καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως, ὡς ἔοικε, μᾶλλον ἤ τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετης δόξαν ἀγαπῶντες (Βίοι Παρ. Αριστ.).

Diogenes. May I not, pray, be excused for laughing, Alexander, at seeing you even in Hades still playing_the fool, and expecting to become an Anubis or Osiris? But, however, don't for a moment expect it, most respectable of godships; for it is not allowed to any of those who have once crossed the Lake, and passed within this side of the mouth of the Cavern, to go back up to Earth. For akus is not so careless, nor is Kerberus so easily to be despised. However, I would gladly learn this from you-how you endure, whenever you reflect upon it, the thought of how much happiness you have left behind, above ground, to come here-body-guards, your picked corps of shieldbearers,1 and satraps, and gold in such heaps, and adoring nations, and Babylon and Baktra, and the huge elephants, and honour, and glory, and the riding in your chariot with all the insignia of your rank, with your head encircled with a white fillet, arrayed in a brooch-fastened purple robe. Do not these things cause you grief, when they recur to your memory?-Why do you weep, fool? Did not the wise Aristotle instruct you even so much as that—not to suppose the gifts of Fortune to last for ever?

Alexander. He wise, who was the most inveterate of all flatterers? Just let me alone for having some know

3

'Yяασπιoтàç. The name given to the select body-guard of foot soldiers formed by Alexander. They numbered 3,000 men, and acted a considerable part in the achievements of the Macedonian army. Their splendid shields gave them their distinguishing name. Besides these were a body-guard called Argyraspids, "with the silver shields." the most magnificent "household-troops" were the "horse-guards," 1,200 in number, in imitation of the Persian "Immortals."

But

2 Tavia. The original form of the diadem. A narrow band of white wool, worn by the Persian monarchs round the tiara. Cf. Xenophon, Kuponaidsía, viii. 3; Arrian, 'Aváßaois, vii. 22. In Greek dress, it was the narrow band worn by women under the bosom, beneath the chiton. See Becker, Charicles.

3 Plutarch quotes letters from Alexander to Antipater and Kassander, - in which the pupil of the Stageirite charges his former preceptor with the same courtier-like behaviour. As for the charge of extorting large sums of money, the great natural philosopher expended at least a great part of the gift in making his great Zoological Collection, the outcome of which is preserved to us in his Ζώων Ιστορία. Cf. the Πράσις Βίων. For the Tayalóv, (summum bonum), see Plato IIoλ. vi; and cf. Cicero, De Fin. v. 6., &c.

ledge of the character of Aristotle-how many things he begged of me, what sort of letters he sent me, and how he abused my zeal for learning, cajoling and eulogizing me now for my beauty (as though that, too, were a part of "the summum bonum"), and now for my actions and riches; for, indeed, he was used to consider that, also, a good," so that he did not blush, even himself, to take it— a juggling fellow, Diogenes, and a crafty trickster. But, however, this benefit I have gained from his philosophy -to be grieved at the loss of those things as the greatest "goods," which you but just now enumerated.'

2

Diogenes. Well, know you what you should do? I will suggest to you a remedy for your grief. Since hellebore " does not grow hereabouts, do you, at least, even gulp down and drink with wide-opened mouth forthwith the waters of Lethe, and drink again and often; for thus will you cease to be troubled at "the goods" of Aristotle. -Why, really, I see the Kleitus you know about, and Kallisthenes, and many others rushing towards you, as though they would tear you in pieces, and wreak their vengeance upon you for what you did to them. So step off you by this other path, and [shouting after him] drink often, as I told you.

1 Plutarch quotes a letter from Alexander to Aristotle, in which he finds fault with him for publishing to the world his esoteric teaching (τοὺς ἀκροαματικοὺς τῶν λόγων), and so depriving him of the sole possession of such lucubrations.

2 A plant which grew, in particular, in two places-Anticyra, a small island off Phokis, and Anticyra in Thessaly—hence often used as synonyms for hellebore itself-having reputation in Greece and Italy as a specific for madness, and recommended by the authority of Hippokrates. Cf. Aristoph. Zoñкes, 1489; the poets of the New Comedy, passim ; Strabo, ix.^; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxv. 5; Plautus, Pseudolus, iv. 7; Persius, Sat. iii. 63, iv. 16, v. 100; Juv. Sat. xiii. 96, 97; Hor. Sat. ii. 3, Epist. ii. 2; Lucian, passim.

XIV.

PHILIP, KING OF MACEDON, RIDICULES HIS SON ALEXANDER'S ABSURD ARROGANCE IN CLAIMING TO BE THE SON OF AMMON, AND CALLS IN QUESTION THE GREATNESS OF HIS MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS. ALEXANDER DEFENDS HIMSELF.

Philip and Alexander.

Philip. Now then, Alexander, you will not be for denying that you are my son; for, had you been Ammon's, you had not died.

Alexander. Nor was I myself ignorant, father, that I am the son of Philip and grandson of Amyntas; but I accepted the oracle as supposing it to be of service to the success of my undertakings.

Philip. What do you say? Did it appear to you to be of advantage-the giving yourself up to be deceived out-and-out by the prophets?

Alexander. Not that; but the non-Greeks were struck with consternation, and not one of them any longer resisted, thinking that they were fighting with a divine being; so that I kept gaining victories over them with the greater ease.

Philip. And what people worth fighting with did you gain victories over, you who always came into conflict with cowards, defending themselves with miserable bows and paltry light shields, and Persian bucklers of osier-twigs ? 1 To conquer Hellenes-Bootians, Phokians, and Athenians -was an achievement, and to utterly defeat the heavyarmed troops of Arkadia, and the Thessalian cavalry, and the javelin-armed soldiers of Elis, and the Mantineian

• Πελτάρια καὶ γέρρα οἰσύϊνα. The Πέλται were a light kind of shield covered with leather, adopted from the Thracians by Iphikrates, the famous Athenian military commander, about 390 B.C. With his peltasts Iphikrates gained some decided victories over the heavily-armed Spartans. The yέppov, also, was a light, wicker-made shield, oblong in shape, and covered with ox-hide, used chiefly by the Persian troops. See Herod. vii. 75; Xen. Kupoπ. vii. 1, 33.