Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, Book 12

This Good Works Translation presents Justin's twelfth book, where the epitome of Pompeius Trogus follows Alexander after Darius through the eastern campaigns, India, Babylon, and death.

The book belongs on the Scythian shelf because it joins Zopyrion's destroyed army in Scythia to Alexander's movement through Parthia, Hyrcania, Bactria, Sogdiana, the Tanais frontier, the Chorasmians, the Dahae, India, and the old Alexander tradition around Amazons and eastern empire.

The English below is a Good Works Translation from the Latin text held in the Scythian source archive.

Translation

Chapter I -- Darius Pursued, Antipater's Letters, and Zopyrion in Scythia

While pursuing Darius, Alexander buried the soldiers he had lost with great funeral expense, and divided thirteen thousand talents among the remaining companions of that expedition. Most of the horses had been lost in the heat, and even those that survived had become useless. All the money, one hundred and ninety thousand talents, was gathered at Ecbatana, and Parmenio was set over it.

While these things were being done, letters from Antipater were delivered to him from Macedonia. They contained news of the war of Agis, king of the Spartans, in Greece; the war of Alexander, king of Epirus, in Italy; and the war of Zopyrion, his prefect, in Scythia. Alexander was moved in different ways by this news, yet he took more joy from learning of the deaths of two rival kings than grief from the loss of the army with Zopyrion.

For after Alexander's departure almost all Greece had rushed to arms at the chance of recovering liberty, following the authority of the Lacedaemonians, who alone had despised the peace and rejected the laws of Philip and Alexander. Agis, king of the Lacedaemonians, was the leader of this war. Antipater gathered troops and crushed the movement at its very birth, though there was great slaughter on both sides.

When King Agis saw his own men turning their backs, he dismissed his attendants, so that he might appear inferior to Alexander in fortune, not in courage, and made such a slaughter of the enemy that at times he drove whole columns into flight. In the end, though overcome by numbers, he surpassed everyone in glory.

Chapter II -- Alexander of Epirus and Zopyrion's Disaster

Alexander, king of Epirus, had been summoned to Italy by the Tarentines, who begged help against the Bruttians. He had set out so eagerly that it was as if, in a division of the world, the East had fallen by lot to Alexander, the son of his sister Olympias, and the West to himself; and as if he would find no smaller field of action in Italy, Africa, and Sicily than the other Alexander would have in Asia and Persia.

There was also this: just as the Delphic oracle had warned Alexander the Great of treachery in Macedonia, so the oracle of Dodonaean Jove had foretold to this Alexander the city Pandosia and the Acherusian river. Since both were in Epirus, he did not know that the same names were also in Italy, and in his desire to avoid the dangers of fate he chose foreign service all the more eagerly.

When he had come into Italy, his first war was with the Apulians. After he learned the fate of one of their cities, he soon made peace and friendship with their king. For at that time there was a city among the Apulians, Brundisium, which the Aetolians had founded, following Diomedes, the famous and noble leader made illustrious by the story of Troy. After being driven out by the Apulians, they consulted oracles and received the answer that they would possess forever the place they had sought again.

For this reason they demanded through ambassadors, with threats of war, that the city be restored to them by the Apulians. But when the oracle became known to the Apulians, they killed the ambassadors and buried them in the city, so that they would have their perpetual dwelling there. In this way, having satisfied the response, they held the city for a long time. When Alexander learned what had happened, he revered the old fates and abstained from war with the Apulians.

He also waged war with the Bruttians and Lucanians and captured many cities; he made a treaty and friendship with the Metapontines, the Poediculi, and the Romans. But when the Bruttians and Lucanians drew help from their neighbors, they renewed the war more sharply. There, near the city Pandosia and the river Acheron, the king was killed, not having learned the fatal name of the place until just before he died; and as he was dying he understood that the dangerous death for which he had fled his homeland had not been in his homeland after all. The people of Thurii redeemed his body at public expense and gave it burial.

While these things were being done in Italy, Zopyrion too, the prefect of Pontus left behind by Alexander the Great, thinking himself idle if he did not accomplish something himself, gathered an army of thirty thousand and brought war upon the Scythians. He was cut down with all his forces, and paid the penalty for a rashly begun war against an innocent people.

Chapter III -- Hyrcania, the Mards, and the Amazon Queen

When this news was reported to Alexander in Parthia, he feigned grief because Alexander of Epirus was his kinsman, and ordered his army to mourn for three days. Then, while everyone was expecting a return home as though the war had been completed, and already in some way embracing their wives and children in their minds, he called the army to assembly.

There he said that nothing had been accomplished by so many brilliant battles if the barbarian East were left unharmed; that he had sought not the body of Darius but his kingdom; and that those who had defected from the kingdom must be pursued. By this speech the spirits of the soldiers were stirred up as if from the beginning, and he subdued Hyrcania and the Mards.

There Thalestris, or Minythyia, queen of the Amazons, came to him with three hundred women after completing a thirty-five-day journey through very crowded nations, seeking children from the king. Her appearance and arrival were a wonder to everyone, both because of the dress unusual for women and because of the intercourse she sought. For this reason the king gave her thirteen days of leisure, and when she seemed to have conceived, she departed.

After this Alexander adopted the dress of the Persian kings and the diadem, previously unfamiliar to Macedonian kings, as though he were passing into the laws of those whom he had conquered. So that these things would not be seen as more hateful in him alone, he ordered his friends also to take up the long gold and purple robe. And to imitate Persian luxury as well as dress, he divided nights among companies of royal concubines chosen for beauty and nobility. To these things he added enormous preparations for banquets, so that luxury would not seem starved and bare, and he adorned the feast with games in keeping with royal magnificence, wholly forgetting that so great riches are usually lost by such manners, not gained.

Chapter IV -- Camp Marriage and the Epigoni

Meanwhile indignation ran through the whole camp: he had fallen so far from Philip his father that he even renounced the name of his fatherland and adopted the customs of the Persians, whom he had conquered because of such customs. But so that he would not appear to have yielded alone to the vices of those he had subdued by arms, he permitted his soldiers also, if they were attached to any captive women by habit, to take them as wives.

He thought that their desire to return home would be less if they had in the camp a kind of image of household gods and settled home, and that the sweetness of wives would make the labor of service softer. He also judged that Macedonia would be less drained for replacements if sons, as recruits, succeeded their veteran fathers and served in the camp in which they had been born; and that they would be more steadfast if they had placed not only their first service but their very cradles in the camps.

This custom remained among Alexander's successors too. Accordingly food allowances were established for the boys, arms and horses were given to the young men, and rewards were assigned to fathers according to the number of sons. If any fathers had died, the orphan boys nevertheless drew their fathers' pay; their childhood was a military life amid many expeditions. So, hardened from a very small age by labors and dangers, they became an unconquered army, and they regarded the camp as no other thing than their fatherland, and battle as nothing other than victory.

This offspring received the name Epigoni. After the Parthians were subdued, Andragoras, one of the Persian nobles, was appointed prefect over them; from him the kings of the Parthians later took their origin.

Chapter V -- Parmenio, Bessus, Tanais, Bactria, and Sogdiana

Meanwhile Alexander began to rage against his own men not with royal severity but with the hatred of an enemy. He was especially indignant that he was being criticized in the talk of his men for overturning the customs of Philip his father and of his fatherland. Because of these charges Parmenio too, an old man next in dignity to the king, was killed with his son Philotas after inquiries had first been held against them both.

Therefore everyone throughout the camp began to murmur, pitying the fall of an innocent old man and his son, and sometimes saying that they too ought to hope for no better. When this was reported to Alexander, he feared that this opinion would also spread into Macedonia and that the glory of his victory would be stained by a blot of cruelty. He pretended that he would send some of his friends home as messengers of victory, and urged the soldiers to write to their people, saying they would have a rarer opportunity because of the more distant campaign. He ordered the bundles of letters that had been given to be brought secretly to him; and from them, learning each man's judgment about him, he formed into one cohort those who had thought too harshly of the king, either to use them up or to distribute them into colonies in the farthest lands.

From there he subdued the Drancae, the Euergetae or Arimaspi, the Parapamesadae, and the other peoples who lived at the root of the Caucasus. Meanwhile Bessus, one of Darius' friends, was brought in chains; he had not only betrayed the king but killed him. Alexander handed him over to Darius' brother to be tortured in vengeance for his treachery, judging that Darius had been not so much his own enemy as the friend of the man by whom he had been killed.

And so that he might leave his name in those lands, he founded the city Alexandria on the river Tanais, completing a wall of six miles within the seventeenth day, and transferring into it the peoples of three cities that Cyrus had founded. In Bactria and Sogdiana also he founded twelve cities, distributing among them all those he had in the army as seditious men.

Chapter VI -- Clitus, Repentance, Chorasmians, and Dahae

When these things had been done, on a solemn day he summoned his friends to a banquet. There, when a mention arose among the drunken company of the achievements of Philip, Alexander began to prefer himself to his father and to lift the greatness of his own deeds to the sky, with the greater part of the guests agreeing. And so when one of the older men, Clitus, relying on the king's friendship, whose prize he held, defended the memory of Philip and praised his achievements, he offended the king so deeply that Alexander snatched a weapon from an attendant and butchered him at the feast.

Exulting over the slaughter, he threw in the dead man's face his defense of Philip and his praise of the father's soldiery. After his spirit, sated with bloodshed, grew quiet, and reflection succeeded anger, he considered now the person killed, now the cause of the killing, and began to regret the deed. He grieved that he had received his father's praises with such anger as not even insults deserved, and that an old and innocent friend had been killed by him amid banquets and cups.

Therefore, with the same fury turned toward repentance that had earlier turned toward anger, he wished to die. First he went on into tears, embraced the dead man, handled the wounds, confessed his madness as if the man could hear him, and turned the weapon he had seized against himself; and he would have completed the deed if his friends had not intervened. This will to die remained even on the following days. For the memory of his nurse and of Clitus' sister had been added to his repentance; he was especially ashamed before her in her absence, since so foul a payment had been given for the care that had nourished him: to the woman in whose hands he had spent his childhood, he, as a young man and conqueror, sent back funerals in return for benefits.

Then he considered how much talk and hatred of him he had caused in his army, among conquered nations, and among his other friends; how bitter and grim he had made his banquet; how he had been more terrible not armed in battle than at a feast. Then Parmenio and Philotas came before him; then Amyntas his cousin; then his stepmother and brothers killed; then Attalus, Eurylochus, Pausanias, and other extinguished princes of Macedonia.

Because of these things he persisted in fasting for four days, until he was prevailed upon by the prayers of the whole army, begging him not to grieve over the death of one man in such a way as to destroy all of them, whom he had led into the farthest barbarian land and would abandon among nations hostile and stirred up by war. The prayers of the philosopher Callisthenes helped greatly; he was familiar to Alexander from their shared schooling under Aristotle, and had then been summoned by the king himself to hand down his deeds to memory.

So, when his mind had been recalled to war, Alexander received the Chorasmians and the Dahae in surrender.

Chapter VII -- Proskynesis, India, Nysa, Cleophis, and the Rock

Next, because at first he had postponed it according to the Persian custom of royal pride, so that all things would not be hateful at once, he ordered himself not to be greeted but adored. The sharpest among those who refused was Callisthenes. This matter brought death both to him and to many leaders of the Macedonians, since they were all killed under the appearance of a plot. Yet the Macedonians kept their manner of greeting the king, and the act of adoration was rejected.

After this he went to India, so that he might make Ocean and the farthest East the boundary of his empire. So that the adornment of the army might match that glory too, he overlaid the trappings of the horses and the arms of the soldiers with silver, and called his army the Argyraspides from their silver shields.

When he came to the city Nysa, whose inhabitants did not resist out of confidence in the religion of Father Liber, by whom the city had been founded, he ordered them spared, rejoicing that he had followed not only the campaigns but the very footprints of the god. Then he led the army to view the sacred mountain, clothed with natural goods, vine and ivy, no differently than if it had been adorned by the hand and industry of those who cultivated it.

But when his army approached the mountain, it was driven by a sudden impulse of mind into the sacred cries of the god and ran about without harm, to the king's astonishment, so that he understood he had taken thought not so much for the townsmen by sparing them as for his own army. From there he sought the Daedalan mountains and the kingdoms of Queen Cleophis. When she surrendered herself to him, she recovered her kingdom from Alexander, redeemed by intercourse; by enticements she obtained what she could not by arms. A son born from him she named Alexander, and he later possessed the kingdom of the Indians. Because her chastity had been overthrown, Queen Cleophis was from that time called by the Indians the king's courtesan.

After passing through India, Alexander came to a rock of marvelous roughness and height into which many peoples had fled. He learned that Hercules had been kept from storming the same rock by an earthquake. Seized therefore by desire to surpass the deeds of Hercules, he took the rock with very great labor and danger, and received into surrender all the peoples of that place.

Chapter VIII -- Porus, the Indian Campaign, and the Army's Limit

One of the kings of the Indians was named Porus, a man distinguished equally by bodily strength and greatness of spirit. Having heard Alexander's reputation long before, he was preparing war for his arrival. When battle was joined, he ordered his army to attack the Macedonians, and demanded their king for himself as a private enemy.

Alexander did not delay the fight. But in the first encounter, when his horse was wounded and he fell headlong to the ground, he was saved by the rush of his attendants. Porus, overwhelmed by many wounds, was captured. He grieved so deeply that he had been defeated that, although he had received pardon from the enemy, he was unwilling either to take food or to allow his wounds to be treated; only with difficulty did Alexander obtain from him that he would be willing to live. Alexander sent him back unharmed into his kingdom in honor of his courage. He founded two cities there: one he called Nicaea, the other Bucephala from the name of his horse.

From there he stormed the Adrestae, the Catheans, the Praesidae, and the Gangaridae, after cutting down their armies. When he had come to the kingdom of Sophites, where two hundred thousand infantry and twenty thousand cavalry of the enemy were waiting for him, the whole army, exhausted no less by the number of victories than by its labors, begged him with tears to make an end at last to wars, at some point to remember their fatherland and return, and to look at the years of the soldiers, for whom age would scarcely be enough for the journey home.

One showed his white hair, another his wounds, another his body consumed by age, another his body exhausted with scars. They alone, they said, had endured the continuous service of two kings, Philip and Alexander. They begged only that he at least restore their remnants to their fathers' tombs; their strength failed not through lack of zeal but through years. And if he would not spare his soldiers, he should at least spare himself, lest by loading his fortune too heavily he wear it out.

Moved by these just prayers, as if at the end of victory, he ordered the camp to be made more magnificent than usual, so that by its works the enemy might be terrified and admiration of him left to posterity. No work did the soldiers perform more gladly. And so, after cutting down the enemy, they returned in the same direction with rejoicing.

Chapter IX -- The Acesines, Ocean, and Alexander Wounded

From there Alexander went to the river Acesines; through it he was carried down to Ocean. There he received into surrender the Agensonae and the Sibi, whom Hercules had founded. From there he sailed against the Mandri and Sudracae, peoples who met him with eighty thousand armed infantry and sixty thousand cavalry.

When he had won the battle, he led the army to their city. Seeing from the wall, which he had been the first to seize, that the city had been abandoned by its defenders, he leapt down into the level space of the city without any attendant. When the enemy saw him alone, they raised a shout and ran together from every side, hoping, if they could, to end the wars of the world and give vengeance to so many nations in one head.

Alexander stood no less steadfastly and fought alone against so many thousands. It is incredible to tell how neither the multitude of the enemy, nor the great force of missiles, nor the loud cry of so many attacking him terrified him; alone he cut down and put to flight so many thousands. But when he saw that he was being overwhelmed by the crowd, he put himself against a tree trunk that then stood near the wall. Protected by its help, he held the line for a long time, until at last his friends, having learned his danger, leapt down to him. Many of them were killed, and the battle remained uncertain for so long that the whole army had to tear down the walls and come to his aid.

In that battle he was pierced by an arrow beneath the breast, and though he was failing from the flow of blood, he fought on with one knee set down until he killed the man by whom he had been wounded. The treatment of the wound was more serious than the wound itself.

Chapter X -- The Ocean Circuit and Return to Babylon

And so, finally restored from great despair to safety, Alexander sent Polypercon with the army to Babylonia, while he himself, embarking with a chosen force on ships, traveled along the shores of Ocean. When he came to the city of King Ambi, the townsmen, hearing that he was unconquered by iron, armed their arrows with poison; thus, driving the enemy back from the walls with a double wound of death, they killed many.

When, among many others, Ptolemy too had been wounded and already seemed on the point of death, a plant was shown to the king in sleep as a remedy for the poison. When Ptolemy took it in drink, he was immediately freed from danger, and the greater part of the army was saved by this remedy. After storming the city, Alexander returned to the ship and poured libations to Ocean, praying for a prosperous return to his fatherland.

Then, as if he had driven a chariot around the turning post and set the boundaries of empire wherever the solitude of lands or the navigable sea allowed him to go, he entered the mouth of the Indus on a favorable tide. There, as monuments of his achievements, he founded the city Barce and set up altars, leaving as prefect over the coastal Indians one of his friends. From there, intending to make the journey by land, and being told that there were dry places in the middle of the route, he ordered wells to be made in suitable places; when a great supply of fresh water was found there, he returned to Babylon.

There many conquered peoples accused their prefects, whom Alexander ordered killed in the sight of the envoys without regard for friendship. After this he took Statira, daughter of King Darius, in marriage; and he gave to the Macedonian nobles the noblest maidens chosen from all the nations, so that by a common act the charge against the king might be lightened.

Chapter XI -- Debt Remission and the Veterans

From here he called the army to assembly and promised that he would pay at his own expense the debts of everyone, so that they might carry home their plunder and rewards whole. This generosity was remarkable not only in its amount but also in the name of the gift, and it was received with no less gratitude by creditors than by debtors, since collection and payment were equally difficult for both. Twenty thousand talents were spent on this expense.

After dismissing the veterans, he filled out the army with younger men. But those who were retained, resenting the departure of the veterans, demanded discharge themselves too. They ordered him not to count their years but their campaigns, judging it fair that those who had been enlisted together for service should be released together from the oath. They were no longer acting with prayers but with insults, ordering him to enter upon wars alone with his father Ammon, since he despised his soldiers.

Against this he now rebuked the soldiers, now warned them with gentle words not to stain glorious service with seditions. At last, when he made no progress with words, he leapt down unarmed from the tribunal into the armed assembly to seize the authors of the mutiny, and with no one stopping him he led thirteen men, seized by his own hand, to punishment. So much discipline did military order give: either to those men the endurance of dying through fear of the king, or to him the firmness of exacting punishment.

Chapter XII -- Persian Guards, the Veterans Released, and Hephaestion

Then he addressed the Persian auxiliaries separately in assembly. He praised their lasting loyalty both toward himself and toward their former kings; he recalled his own benefits toward them, saying that he had treated them never as conquered men but as partners in victory; finally, that he had passed into their customs, not they into those of his nation, and that by the kinship of marriages he had mixed the conquered with the conquerors.

He said also that he would entrust the guard of his body not only to Macedonians but to them as well. And so he chose a thousand of these young men into the number of his attendants, and mixed with his army a portion of auxiliaries formed in Macedonian discipline. The Macedonians bore this poorly, boasting that their enemies had been placed by the king in their own office. Then all of them came weeping to the king; they begged him to sate himself with their punishments rather than with insults.

By this moderation they obtained from him that he discharge eleven thousand veteran soldiers. From his friends too the old men Polypercon, Clitus, Gorgias, Polydamas, Ammadas, and Antigenes were dismissed. Craterus was placed in command of those dismissed, ordered to take charge of the Macedonians in Antipater's place; Antipater was summoned with replacement recruits to take his place. Pay was given to those returning as though they were still serving.

While these things were happening, Hephaestion, one of his friends, died. He had been very dear to the king, first because of the gifts of beauty and boyhood, then because of his obedience. Alexander mourned him for a long time beyond what was proper for a king, made him a tomb costing twelve thousand talents, and ordered him to be worshipped as a god after death.

Chapter XIII -- Embassies to Babylon and the Warning of the Magi

As he was returning to Babylon from the farthest shores of Ocean, it was reported to him that embassies of the Carthaginians and the other cities of Africa, and also of the Spains, Sicily, Gaul, Sardinia, and even some from Italy, were awaiting his arrival at Babylon. So great a terror of his name had entered the whole world that all nations flattered him as though he had been appointed king over them.

For this reason, as he hurried to Babylon as if he were about to hold an assembly of the world's lands, one of the Magi foretold that he should not enter the city, declaring that this place would be fatal to him. Because of this, Babylon was left aside and he withdrew to Borsippa, a deserted city beyond the Euphrates.

There Anaxarchus the philosopher compelled him again to despise the predictions of the Magi as false and uncertain: if they depended on the fates, they were unknown to mortals; if they were owed to nature, they were unchangeable. Therefore, having returned to Babylon and given many days to leisure, he solemnly renewed a banquet that had long been interrupted. Entirely poured out into delight, and joining a wakeful night to the day, he was already leaving the banquet when Medius the Thessalian, renewing the revel, invited him and his companions.

After receiving the cup, in the middle of drinking he suddenly groaned as if pierced by a weapon. He was carried from the banquet half alive and tortured by such pain that he demanded a sword as a remedy, and the touch of human hands hurt like wounds. His friends spread abroad the causes of the illness as excess in drunkenness, but in truth it was treachery, the infamy of which was suppressed by the power of his successors.

Chapter XIV -- The Poisoning Tradition

The author of the treachery was Antipater. He had seen Alexander's dearest friends killed; Alexander Lyncestes, his son-in-law, had been put to death; after doing great things in Greece, he found himself not so much pleasing to the king as envied by him; and he was also harassed by many accusations from Alexander's mother Olympias. Added to this were the punishments inflicted with cruelty a few days earlier on the prefects of the conquered nations. From these things he judged that he too had been summoned from Macedonia not for partnership in service but for punishment.

Therefore, to seize the king first, he prepared his son Cassander by giving him poison. Cassander, with his brothers Philip and Iollas, was accustomed to serve the king. The force of this poison was so great that it could be contained neither in bronze, nor iron, nor earthenware, and could be carried only in a horse's hoof. Antipater warned his son to trust no one except the Thessalian and his brothers. For this reason the banquet was prepared and repeated at the house of Thessalus. Philip and Iollas, who were accustomed to taste beforehand and mix the king's drink, had the poison in cold water, which they poured into the drink after it had already been tasted.

Chapter XV -- Alexander's Death and Succession Word

On the fourth day Alexander, feeling certain death, said that he recognized the fate of the house of his ancestors, for most of the Aeacids had died before the thirtieth year. Then, when the soldiers were in uproar and suspected that the king was perishing by treachery, he himself quieted them; and after being carried to the highest place in the city, he admitted them all to his sight and extended his right hand to be kissed by them as they wept.

Though all were weeping, he himself showed not only no tears but no sign of a saddened mind. He consoled some who were grieving too impatiently, and gave others messages for their parents. So, just as against the enemy, his spirit was unconquered against death too. After the soldiers were dismissed, he asked the friends standing around whether they thought they would find a king like him. When all were silent, he said that as he did not know this, so he did know and foretell, and almost see with his eyes, how much blood Macedonia would pour out in this contest, with how many slaughters and what bloodshed she would pay funeral offerings to him when he was dead.

At the end he ordered his body to be laid in the temple of Ammon. When his friends saw that he was failing, they asked whom he made heir of the empire. He answered, 'the worthiest.' So great was his greatness of mind that, although he was leaving a son Hercules, a brother Arrhidaeus, and a pregnant wife Roxane, he forgot the claims of kinship and named the worthiest as heir: as if it were wholly wrong for a brave man to be succeeded by anyone but a brave man, or for the wealth of so great a kingdom to be left to any but tested men.

With this word, as though he had sounded a war trumpet among his friends or cast among them the evil of Discord, they all rose into rivalry and sought the silent favor of the soldiers through the ambition of the crowd. On the sixth day, with his voice shut off, he drew the ring from his finger and handed it to Perdiccas. This matter quieted the growing disagreement of his friends, for although Perdiccas had not been named heir by voice, he seemed nevertheless to have been chosen by judgment.

Chapter XVI -- Alexander's Character and Omens

Alexander died in the month of June at the age of thirty-three, a man endowed with greatness of spirit beyond human power. On the night when his mother Olympias conceived him, she seemed in a dream to lie with a great serpent; she was not deceived by the dream, for truly she carried in her womb a work greater than human mortality. Though the Aeacid house had been made illustrious from the remotest memory of ages by her father's kingdoms, her brother's, her husband's, and then those of all her ancestors, it was never more famous by any name than by that of her son.

Some portents of his greatness appeared at his very birth. For on the day he was born, two eagles sat all day continuously above the peak of his father's house, presenting an omen of a double empire, Europe and Asia. On the same day his father received news of two victories: one in the Illyrian war, the other in the Olympic contest, to which he had sent a four-horse chariot. This omen foretold victory over all lands for the child.

As a boy he was trained in very keen literary studies. After his childhood, for five years he grew under Aristotle, teacher of all philosophers. Then, after receiving power, he ordered himself to be called king of all lands and of the world, and gave his soldiers such confidence in him that in his presence, though unarmed, they feared the arms of no enemy. And so he never met any enemy whom he did not conquer, besieged no city that he did not storm, and approached no nation that he did not trample down. In the end he was conquered not by enemy courage, but by the plots of his own people and civil deceit.

Translation Notes

The translation follows the Latin chapter sequence and keeps Justin's moralizing epitome visible. It does not treat the Amazon episode, the poisoning tradition, or the speeches around Alexander as transparent documentary report; they are part of the ancient Alexander tradition as Justin transmits it.

Justin's notice of Zopyrion is brief but important: the Pontic prefect attacks the Scythians with thirty thousand men and is destroyed with his whole army for bringing reckless war on an innocent people. That notice belongs beside Curtius' Tanais embassy, Plutarch's Scythian marriage-offer passage, Arrian's Alexander narrative, and the Central Asian source texts.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from the Latin text of Justin, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Book 12, as preserved from The Latin Library in Tulku/Tools/scythian/sources/expansion_bench_2026-05-11/justin_book12_latin_source_large25.txt.

The English translation is independently derived from the Latin source text. The source-language base is appended below for verification.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Justin, Epitome Book 12

Latin source text from Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, Book 12, preserved from The Latin Library. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Chapter I -- Darius Pursued, Antipater's Letters, and Zopyrion in Scythia

Alexander in persequendo Dario amissos milites magnis funerum inpensis extulit, reliquis expeditionis eius sociis tredecim milia talentum divisit. Equorum maior pars aestu amissa, inutiles etiam qui superfuerant facti. Pecunia omnis, CXC milia talentum, Ecbatana congesta eique Parmenio praepositus. Dum haec aguntur, epistulae Antipatri a Macedonia ei redduntur, quibus bellum Agidis, regis Spartanorum, in Graecia, bellum Alexandri, regis Epiri, in Italia, bellum Zopyrionis, praefecti eius in Scythia continebatur. Quibus varie adfectus plus tamen laetitiae cognitis mortibus duorum aemulorum regum quam doloris amissi cum Zopyrione exercitus cepit. Namque post profectionem Alexandri Graecia ferme omnis in occasionem reciperandae libertatis ad arma concurrerat, auctoritatem Lacedaemoniorum secuta, qui Philippi Alexandrique et pacem soli spreverant et leges respuerant; dux huius belli Agis, rex Lacedaemoniorum, fuit. Quem motum Antipater contractis militibus in ipso ortu oppressit. Magna tamen utrimque caedes fuit. Agis rex cum suos terga dantes videret, dimissis satellitibus, ut Alexandro felicitate, non virtute inferior videretur, tantam stragem hostium edidit, ut agmina interdum fugaret. Ad postremum etsi a multitudine victus, gloria tamen omnes vicit.

Chapter II -- Alexander of Epirus and Zopyrion's Disaster

Porro Alexander, rex Epiri, in Italiam auxilia Tarentinis adversus Bruttios deprecantibus sollicitatus, ita cupide profectus fuerat, velut in divisione orbis terrarum Alexandro, Olympiadis, sororis suae, filio, Oriens, sibi Occidens sorte contigisset, non minorem rerum materiam in Italia, Africa Siciliaque, quam ille in Asia et in Persis habiturus. Huc accedebat, quod, sicut Alexandro Magno Delphica oracula insidias in Macedonia, ita huic responsum Dodonaei Iovis urbem Pandosiam amnemque Acherusium praedixerat. Quae utraque cum in Epiro essent, ignarus eadem et in Italia esse, ad declinanda fatorum pericula peregrinam militiam cupidius elegerat. Igitur cum in Italiam venisset, primum illi bellum cum Apulis fuit, quorum cognito urbis fato brevi post tempore pacem et amicitiam cum rege eorum fecit. Erat namque tunc temporis urbs Apulis Brundisium, quam Aetoli secuti fama rerum in Troia gestarum clarissimum et nobilissimum ducem Diomeden condiderant; sed pulsi ab Apulis consulentes oracula responsum acceperant, locum qui repetissent perpetuo possessuros. Hac igitur ex causa per legatos cum belli comminatione restitui sibi ab Apulis urbem postulaverant; sed ubi Apulis oraculum innotuit, interfectos legatos in urbe sepelierant, perpetuam ibi sedem habituros. Atque ita defuncti responso diu urbem possederunt. Quod factum cum cognovisset Alexander, antiquitatis fata veneratus bello Apulorum abstinuit. Gessit et cum Bruttiis Lucanisque bellum multasque urbes cepit; cum Metapontinis et Poediculis et Romanis foedus amicitiamque fecit. Sed Bruttii Lucanique cum auxilia a finitimis contraxissent, acrius bellum repetivere. Ibi rex iuxta urbem Pandosiam et flumen Acheronta, non prius fatalis loci cognito nomine quam occideret, interficitur moriensque non in patria fuisse sibi periculosam mortem, propter quam patriam fugerat, intellexit. Corpus eius Thurini publice redemptum sepulturae tradiderunt. Dum haec in Italia aguntur, Zopyrion quoque, praefectus Ponti ab Alexandro Magno relictus, otiosum se ratus, si nihil et ipse gessisset, adunato XXX milium exercitu Scythis bellum intulit caesusque cum omnibus copiis poenas temere inlati belli genti innoxiae luit.

Chapter III -- Hyrcania, the Mards, and the Amazon Queen

Haec cum nuntiata in Parthia Alexandro essent, simulato maerore propter Alexandri cognationem exercitui suo triduo luctum indixit. Omnibus deinde velut perpetrato bello reditum in patriam expectantibus coniugesque ac liberos suos animo iam quodam modo conplectentibus ad contionem exercitum vocat. Ibi nihil actum tot egregiis proeliis ait, si incolumis orientalis barbaria relinquatur; nec se corpus, sed regnum Darii petisse; persequendosque eos esse, qui a regno defecerint. Hac oratione velut ex integro incitatis militum animis Hyrcaniam Mardosque subegit. Ibi ei occurrit Thalestris sive Minythyia, Amazonum regina, cum CCC mulieribus XXXV dierum inter confertissimas gentes itinere confecto ex rege liberos quaesitura; cuius conspectus adventusque admirationi omnibus fuit et propter insolitum feminis habitum et propter expetitum concubitum. Ob hoc tredecim diebus otio a rege datis, ut est visa uterum implesse, discessit. Post haec Alexander habitum regum Persarum et diadema insolitum antea regibus Macedonicis, velut in leges eorum, quos vicerat, transiret, adsumit. Quae ne invidiosius in se uno conspicerentur, amicos quoque suos longam vestem auratam purpureamque sumere iubet. Vt luxum quoque sicut cultum Persarum imitaretur, inter paelicum regiarum greges electae pulchritudinis nobilitatisque noctium vices dividit. His rebus ingentes epularum apparatus adicit, ne ieiuna et destricta luxuria videretur, conviviumque iuxta regiam magnificentiam ludis exornat, inmemor prorsus tantas opes amitti his moribus, non quaeri solere.

Chapter IV -- Camp Marriage and the Epigoni

Inter haec indignatio omnium totis castris erat, a Philippo illum patre tantum degenerasse, ut etiam patriae nomen eiuraret moresque Persarum adsumeret, quos propter tales mores vicerat. Sed ne solus vitiis eorum, quos armis subiecerat, succubuisse videretur, militibus quoque suis permisit, si quarum captivarum consuetudine tenerentur, ducere uxores, existimans minorem in patriam reditus cupiditatem futuram habentibus in castris imaginem quandam larum ac domesticae sedis; simul ex labore militiae molliorem fore dulcedinem uxorum. In supplementa quoque militum minus exhauriri posse Macedoniam, si veteranis patribus tirones filii succederent militaturi in vallo, in quo essent nati, constantioresque futuri, si non solum tirocinia, verum et incunabula in ipsis castris posuissent. Quae consuetudo in successoribus quoque Alexandri mansit. Igitur et alimenta pueris statuta et instrumenta armorum equorumque iuvenibus data, et patribus pro numero filiorum praemia statuta. Si quorum patres occidissent, nihilo minus pupilli stipendia patrum trahebant, quorum pueritia inter varias expeditiones militia erat. Itaque a parvula aetate laboribus periculisque indurati invictus exercitus fuere, neque aliter castra quam patriam neque pugnam aliud umquam quam victoriam duxere. Haec suboles nomen habuit Epigoni. Parthis deinde domitis praefectus his statuitur ex nobilibus Persarum Andragoras; inde postea originem Parthorum reges habuere.

Chapter V -- Parmenio, Bessus, Tanais, Bactria, and Sogdiana

Interea et Alexander non regio, sed hostili odio saevire in suos coepit. Maxime indignabatur carpi se sermonibus suorum Philippi patris patriaeque mores subvertisse. Propter quae crimina Parmenio quoque senex, dignitate regi proximus, cum Philota filio, de utroque prius quaestionibus habitis, interficitur. Fremere itaque omnes universis castris coepere innoxii senis filiique casum miserantes, interdum se quoque non debere melius sperare dicentes. Quae cum nuntiata Alexandro essent, verens, ne haec opinio etiam in Macedoniam divulgaretur et victoriae gloria saevitiae macula infuscaretur, simulat se ex amicis quosdam in patriam victoriae nuntios missurum. Hortatur milites suis scribere, rariorem habituros occasionem propter militiam remotiorem. Datos fasces epistularum tacite ad se deferri iubet; ex quibus cognito de se singulorum iudicio in unam cohortem eos, qui de rege durius opinati fuerant, contribuit, aut consumpturus eos aut in ultimis terris in colonias distributurus. Inde Drancas, Euergetas vel + Arimaspos, Parapamesadas ceterosque populos, qui in radice Caucasi morabantur, subegit. Interea unus ex amicis Darii Bessus vinctus perducitur, qui regem non solum prodiderat, verum et interfecerat. Quem in ultionem perfidiae excruciandum fratri Darii tradidit, reputans non tam hostem suum fuisse Darium quam amicum eius, a quo esset occisus. Et ut his terris nomen relinqueret, urbem Alexandream super amnem Tanaim condidit, intra diem septimum decimum muro sex milium passuum consummato, translatis in eam trium civitatum populis, quas Cyrus condiderat. In Bactrianis quoque Sogdianisque XII urbes condidit, distributis his, quoscumque in exercitu seditiosos habebat.

Chapter VI -- Clitus, Repentance, Chorasmians, and Dahae

His ita gestis sollemni die amicos in convivium convocat, ubi orta inter ebrios rerum a Philippo gestarum mentione praeferre se patri ipse rerumque suarum magnitudinem extollere caelo tenus coepit adsentante maiore convivarum parte. Itaque cum unus e senibus, Clitos, fiducia amicitiae regiae, cuius palmam tenebat, memoriam Philippi tueretur laudaretque eius res gestas, adeo regem offendit, ut telo a satellite rapto eundem in convivio trucidaverit. Qua caede exultans mortuo patrocinium Philippi laudemque paternae militiae obiectabat. Postquam satiatus caede animus conquievit et in irae locum successit aestimatio, modo personam occisi, modo causam occidendi considerans, pigere eum facti coepit; quippe paternas laudes tam iracunde accepisse se quam nec convicia debuisset, amicumque senem et innoxium a se occisum inter epulas et pocula dolebat. Eodem igitur furore in paenitentiam quo pridem in iram versus mori voluit. Primum in fletus progressus amplecti mortuum, vulnera tractare, quasi audienti confiteri dementiam, adreptumque telum in se vertit peregissetque facinus, nisi amici intervenissent. Mansit haec voluntas moriendi etiam sequentibus diebus. Accesserat enim paenitentiae nutricis suae et sororis Cliti recordatio, cuius absentis eum maxime pudebat: tam foedam illi alimentorum suorum mercedem redditam, ut, in cuius manibus pueritiam egerat, huic iuvenis et victor pro beneficiis funera remitteret. Reputabat deinde, quantum in exercitu suo, quantum apud devictas gentes fabularum atque invidiae, quantum apud ceteros amicos metum et odium sui fecerit, quam amarum et triste reddiderit convivium suum, non armatus in acie quam in convivio terribilior. Tunc Parmenion et Philotas, tunc Amyntas consobrinus, tunc noverca fratresque interfecti, tunc Attalus, Eurylochus, Pausanias aliique Macedoniae extincti principes occurrerunt. Ob haec illi quadriduo perseverata inedia est, donec exercitus universi precibus exoratus est, precantis, ne ita morte unius doleat, ut universos perdat, quos in ultimam deductos barbariam inter infestas et inritatas bello gentes destituat. Multum profuere Callisthenis philosophi preces; condiscipulatu apud Aristotelem familiaris illi et tunc ab ipso rege ad prodenda memoriae acta eius accitus. Revocato igitur ad bella animo Chorasmos et Dahas in deditionem accepit.

Chapter VII -- Proskynesis, India, Nysa, Cleophis, and the Rock

Dein, quod primo ex Persico superbiae regiae more distulerat ne omnia pariter invidiosiora essent, non salutari, sed adorari se iubet. Acerrimus inter recusantes Callisthenes fuit. Quae res et illi et multis principibus Macedonum exitio fuit, siquidem sub specie insidiarum omnes interfecti. Retentus tamen est a Macedonibus modus salutandi regis explosa adoratione. Post haec Indiam petit, ut Oceano ultimoque Oriente finiret imperium. Cui gloriae ut etiam exercitus ornamenta convenirent, phaleras equorum et arma militum argento inducit exercitumque suum ab argenteis clipeis Argyraspidas appellavit. Cum ad Nysam urbem venisset, oppidanis non repugnantibus fiducia religionis Liberi patris, a quo condita urbs erat, parci iussit, laetus non militiam tantum, verum et vestigia se dei secutum. Tunc ad spectaculum sacri montis duxit exercitum, naturalibus bonis, vite hederaque, non aliter vestiti, quam si manu cultus colentiumque industria exornatus esset. Sed exercitus eius, ubi ad montem accessit, repentino impetu mentis in sacros dei ululatus instinctus cum stupore regis sine noxa discurrit, ut intellegeret non tam oppidanis se parcendo quam exercitui suo consuluisse. Inde montes Daedalos regnaque Cleophidis reginae petit. Quae cum se dedidisset ei, concubitu redemptum regnum ab Alexandro recepit, inlecebris consecuta, quod armis non poterat; filiumque ab eo genitum Alexandrum nominavit, qui postea regno Indorum potitus est. Cleophis regina propter prostratam pudicitiam scortum regium ab Indis exinde appellata est. Peragrata India cum ad saxum mirae asperitatis et altitudinis, in quod multi populi confugerant, pervenisset, cognoscit Herculem ab expugnatione eiusdem saxi terrae motu prohibitum. Captus itaque cupidine Herculis acta superare cum summo labore ac periculo potitus saxo omnes eius loci gentes in deditionem accepit.

Chapter VIII -- Porus, the Indian Campaign, and the Army's Limit

Vnus ex regibus Indorum fuit, Porus nomine, viribus corporis et animi magnitudine pariter insignis, qui bellum iam pridem audita Alexandri opinione in adventum eius parabat. Commisso itaque proelio exercitum suum Macedonas invadere iubet, sibi regem eorum privatum hostem deposcit. Nec Alexander pugnae moram fecit; sed prima congressione vulnerato equo cum praeceps ad terram decidisset, concursu satellitum servatur. Porus multis vulneribus obrutus capitur. Qui victum se adeo doluit, ut, cum veniam ab hoste accepisset, neque cibum sumere voluerit neque vulnera curari passus sit aegreque sit ab eo obtentum, ut vellet vivere. Quem Alexander ob honorem virtutis incolumem in regnum remisit. Duas ibi urbes condidit; unam Nicaeam, alteram ex nomine equi Bucephalen vocavit. Inde Adrestas, t Catheanos, Praesidas, Gangaridas caesis eorum exercitibus expugnat. Cum ad Sophitis [regnum] venisset, ubi eum hostium CC milia [peditum et XX milia] equitum opperiebantur, exercitus omnis non minus victoriarum numero quam laboribus fessus lacrimis eum deprecatur, finem tandem bellis faceret; aliquando patriae reditusque meminisset, respiceret militum annos, quibus vix aetas ad reditum sufficeret. Ostendere alius canitiem, alius vulnera, alius aetate consumpta corpora, alius cicatricibus exhausta; solos se esse, qui duorum regum, Philippi Alexandrique, continuam militiam pertulerint. Tantum orare, ut reliquias saltim suas paternis sepulcris reddat, quorum non studiis deficiatur quam annis, ac, si non militibus, vel ipsi sibi parcat, ne fortunam suam nimis onerando fatiget. Motus his tam iustis precibus velut in finem victoriae castra solito magnificentiora fieri iussit, quorum molitionibus et hostis terreretur et posteris admiratio sui relinqueretur. Nullum opus laetius milites fecere. Itaque caesis hostibus cum gratulatione in eadem reverterunt.

Chapter IX -- The Acesines, Ocean, and Alexander Wounded

Inde Alexander ad amnem Acesinem pergit; per hunc in Oceanum devehitur. Ibi Agensonas Sibosque, quos Hercules condidit, in deditionem accepit. Hinc in Mandros et Sudracas navigat, quae gentes eum armatis LXXX milibus peditum et LX milibus equitum excipiunt. Cum proelio victor esset, exercitum ad urbem eorum ducit. Quam desertam a defensoribus cum de muro, quem primus ceperat, animadvertisset, in urbis planitiem sine ullo satellite desiliit. Itaque cum eum hostes solum conspexissent, clamore edito undique concurrunt, si possint in uno capite orbis bella finire et ultionem tot gentibus dare. Nec minus Alexander constanter restitit et unus adversus tot milia proeliatur. Incredibile dictu est, ut eum non multitudo hostium, non vis magna telorum, non tantus lacessentium clamor terruerit, solus tot milia ceciderit ac fugaverit. Vbi vero obrui multitudine se vidit, trunco se, qui tum propter murum stabat, adplicuit, cuius auxilio tutus cum diu agmen sustinuisset, tandem cognito periculo eius amici ad eum desiliunt, ex quibus multi caesi proeliumque tam diu anceps fuit, quoad omnis exercitus muris deiectis in auxilium veniret. In eo proelio sagitta sub mamma traiectus cum sanguinis fluxu deficeret, genu posito tam diu proeliatus est, donec eum, a quo vulneratus fuerat, occideret. Curatio vulneris gravior ipso vulnere fuit.

Chapter X -- The Ocean Circuit and Return to Babylon

Itaque ex magna desperatione tandem saluti redditus Polyperconta cum exercitu Babyloniam mittit, ipse cum lectissima manu navibus conscensis Oceani litora peragrat. Cum venisset ad urbem Ambi regis, oppidani invictum ferro audientes sagittas veneno armant atque ita gemino mortis vulnere hostem a muris submoventes plurimos interficiunt. Cum inter multos vulneratus etiam Ptolomeus esset moriturusque iam iamque videretur, per quietem regi monstrata in remedia veneni herba est, qua in potu accepta statim periculo liberatus est maiorque pars exercitus hoc remedio servata. Expugnata deinde urbe reversus in navem Oceano libamenta dedit, prosperum in patriam reditum precatus; ac veluti curru circa metam acto, positis imperii terminis, quatenus aut terrarum solitudines prodire passae sunt aut mare navigabile fuit, secundo aestu ostio fluminis Indi invehitur. Ibi in monumenta a se rerum gestarum urbem Barcem condidit arasque statuit relicto ex numero amicorum litoralibus Indis praefecto. Inde iter terrestre facturus, cum arida loca medii itineris dicerentur, puteos opportunis locis fieri praecepit, quibus ingenti dulci aqua inventa Babyloniam redit. Ibi multae devictae gentes praefectos suos accusaverunt, quos sine respectu amicitiae Alexander in conspectu legatorum necari ius sit. Filiam post haec Darii regis Statiram in matrimonium recepit; sed et optimatibus Macedonum lectas ex omnibus gentibus nobilissimas virgines tradidit, ut communi facto crimen regis levaretur.

Chapter XI -- Debt Remission and the Veterans

Hinc ad contionem exercitus vocat et promittit se aes alienum omnium propria inpensa soluturum, ut praedam praemiaque integra domos ferant. Insignis haec munificentia non summa tantum, verum etiam titulo muneris fuit nec a debitoribus magis quam creditoribus gratius excepta, quoniam utrisque exactio pariter ac solutio difficilis erat. XX milia talentum in hos sumptus expensa. Dimissis veteranis exercitum iunioribus supplet. Sed retenti veteranorum discessum aegre ferentes missionem et ipsi flagitabant nec annos, sed stipendia sua numerari iubebant, pariter in militiam lectos pariter sacramento solvi aequum censentes. Nec iam precibus, sed convicio agebant, iubentes eum solum cum patre suo Hammone inire bella, quatenus milites suos fastidiat. Contra ille nunc castigare milites, nunc lenibus verbis monere, ne gloriosam militiam seditionibus infuscarent. Ad postremum cum verbis nihil proficeret, ad corripiendos seditionis auctores e tribunali in contionem armatam inermis ipse desiluit et nemine prohibente tredecim correptos manu sua ipse ad supplicium duxit. Tantam vel illis moriendi patientiam metus regis vel huic exigendi supplicii constantiam disciplina militaris dabat.

Chapter XII -- Persian Guards, the Veterans Released, and Hephaestion

Inde separatim auxilia Persarum in contione adloquitur. Laudat perpetuam illorum cum in se tum in pristinos reges fidem; sua in illos beneficia commemorat, ut numquam quasi victos, sed veluti victoriae socios habuerit, denique se in illorum, non illos in gentis suae morem transisse, adfinitatibus conubiorum victos victoribus miscuisse. Hinc quoque ait custodiam corporis sui non Macedonibus tantum se, verum et illis crediturum. Atque ita mille ex his iuvenes in numerum satellitum legit auxiliorumque portionem formatam in disciplinam Macedonum exercitui suo miscet. Quam rem aegre Macedones tulerunt, iactantes hostes suos in officium suum a rege subiectos. Tunc universi flentes regem adeunt; orant, suppliciis suis potius saturaret se quam contumeliis. Qua modestia obtinuerunt, ut undecim milia militum veteranorum exauctoraret. Sed et ex amicis dimissi senes Polypercon, Clitos, Gorgias, Polydamas, [Ammadas,] Antigenes. Dimissis Crateros praeponitur, iussus praeesse Macedonibus in Antipatri locum, Antipatrumque cum supplemento tironum in locum eius evocat. Stipendia revertentibus veluti militantibus data. Dum haec aguntur, unus ex amicis eius Hephaestion decedit, dotibus primo formae pueritiaeque, mox obsequiis regi percarus. Quem contra decus regium Alexander diu luxit tumulumque ei duodecim milium talentum fecit eumque post mortem coli ut deum iussit.

Chapter XIII -- Embassies to Babylon and the Warning of the Magi

Ab ultimis litoribus Oceani Babyloniam revertenti nuntiatur legationes Karthaginiensium ceterarumque Africae civitatium, sed et Hispaniarum, Siciliae, Galliae, Sardiniae, nonnullas quoque ex Italia adventum eius Babyloniae opperiri. Adeo universum terrarum orbem nominis eius terror invaserat, ut cunctae gentes veluti destinato sibi regi adularentur. Hac igitur ex causa Babyloniam festinanti, velut conventum terrarum orbis acturo, quidam ex magis praedixit, ne urbem introiret, testatus hunc locum ei fatalem fore. Ob haec omissa Babylonia in Borsipam urbem trans Euphraten, desertam olim, concessit. Ibi ab Anaxarcho philosopho conpulsus est rursus magorum praedicta contemnere ut falsa et incerta et, si fatis constent, ignota mortalibus ac, si naturae debeantur, inmutabilia. Reversus igitur Babyloniam multis diebus otio datis intermissum olim convivium sollemniter instituit; totusque in laetitiam effusus cum diei noctem pervigilem iunxisset, recedentem iam e convivio Medius Thessalus instaurata comisatione et ipsum et sodales eius invitat. Accepto poculo media potione repente velut telo confixus ingemuit elatusque convivio semianimis tanto dolore cruciatus est, ut ferrum in remedia posceret tactumque hominum velut vulnera indolesceret. Amici causas morbi intemperiem ebrietatis disseminaverunt, re autem vera insidiae fuerunt, quarum infamiam successorum potentia oppressit.

Chapter XIV -- The Poisoning Tradition

Auctor insidiarum Antipater fuit, qui cum carissimos amicos eius interfectos videret, Alexandrum Lyncestam, generum suum, occisum, se magnis rebus in Graecia gestis non tam gratum apud regem quam invidiosum esse, a matre quoque eius Olympiade variis se criminationibus vexatum. Huc accedebant ante paucos dies supplicia in praefectos devictarum nationum crudeliter habita. Ex quibus rebus se quoque a Macedonia non ad societatem militiae, sed ad poenam vocatum arbitrabatur. Igitur ad occupandum regem Cassandrum filium dato veneno subornat, qui cum fratribus Philippo et Iolla ministrare regi solebat, cuius veneni tanta vis fuit, ut non aere, non ferro, non testa contineretur, nec aliter ferri nisi in ungula equi potuerit; praemonito filio, ne alii quam Thessalo et fratribus crederet. Hac igitur causa apud Thessalum paratum repetitumque convivium est. Philippus et Iollas praegustare ac temperare potum regis soliti in aqua frigida venenum habuerunt, quam praegustatae iam potioni supermiserunt.

Chapter XV -- Alexander's Death and Succession Word

Quarto die Alexander indubitatam mortem sentiens agnoscere se fatum domus maiorum suorum ait, nam plerosque Aeacidarum intra XXX annum defunctos. Tumultuantes deinde milites insidiisque perire regem suspicantes ipse sedavit eosque omnes, cum prolatus in editissimum urbis locum esset, ad conspectum suum admisit osculandamque dexteram suam flentibus porrexit. Cum lacrimarent omnes, ipse non sine lacrimis tantum, verum sine ullo tristioris mentis argumento fuit, ut quosdam inpatientius dolentes consolatus sit, quibusdam mandata ad parentes eorum dederit: adeo sicuti in hostem, ita et in mortem invictus animus fuit. Dimissis militibus circumstantes amicos percontatur, videanturne similem sibi reperturi regem. Tacentibus cunctis tum ipse, ut hoc nesciat, ita illud scire vaticinarique se ac paene oculis videre dixit, quantum sit in hoc certamine sanguinis fusura Macedonia, quantis caedibus, quo cruore mortuo sibi parentatura. Ad postremum corpus suum in Hammonis templum condi iubet. Cum deficere eum amici viderent, quaerunt, quem imperii faciat heredem. Respondit dignissimum. Tanta illi magnitudo animi fuit, ut, cum Herculem filium, cum fratrem Arridaeum, cum Roxanen uxorem praegnantem relinqueret, oblitus necessitudinum dignissimum nuncuparit heredem: prorsus quasi nefas esset viro forti alium quam virum fortem succedere, aut tanti regni opes aliis quam probatis relinqui. Hac voce veluti bellicum inter amicos cecinisset aut malum Discordiae misisset, ita omnes in aemulationem consurgunt et ambitione vulgi tacitum favorem militum quaerunt. Sexta die praeclusa voce exemptum digito anulum Perdiccae tradidit, quae res gliscentem amicorum dissensionem sedavit. Nam etsi non voce nuncupatus heres, iudicio tamen electus videbatur.

Chapter XVI -- Alexander's Character and Omens

Decessit Alexander mense Iunio, annos tres et XXX natus, vir supra humanam potentiam magnitudine animi praeditus. Qua nocte eum mater Olympias concepit, visa per quietem est cum ingenti serpente volutari, nec decepta somnio est, nam profecto maius humana mortalitate opus utero tulit; quam cum Aeacidarum gens ab ultima saeculorum memoria et regna patris, fratris, mariti ac deinceps maiorum omnium inlustraverint, nullius tamen nomine quam filii clarior fuit. Prodigia magnitudinis eius ipso ortu nonnulla apparuere. Nam ea die, qua natus est, duae aquilae tota die perpetes supra culmen domus patris eius sederunt, omen duplicis imperii, Europae Asiaeque, praeferentes. Eadem quoque die nuntium pater eius duarum victoriarum accepit, altera belli Illyrici, altera certaminis Olympici, in quod quadrigarum currus miserat, quod omen universarum terrarum victoriam infanti portendebat. Puer acerrimis litterarum studiis eruditus fuit. Exacta pueritia per quinquennium sub Aristotele doctore, inclito omnium philosophorum, crevit. Accepto deinde imperio regem se terrarum omnium ac mundi appellari iussit tantamque fiduciam sui militibus fecit, ut illo praesente nullius hostis arma nec inermes timuerint. Itaque cum nullo hostium umquam congressus est, quem non vicerit, nullam urbem obsedit, quam non expugnaverit, nullam gentem adiit, quam non calcaverit. Victus denique ad postremum est non virtute hostili, sed insidiis suorum et fraude civili.

Source Colophon

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