[409] He spent some
time in Phaselis, and while he was there, observing in the
market-place a statue of Theodektes, a philosopher, who had recently
died, he made a procession to it one day after dinner, and crowned it
with flowers, as a sportive recognition of what he owed to Theodektes,
with whose philosophical writings Aristotle had made him familiar.
XVIII. After this he put down a revolt among the Pisidians, and
conquered the whole of Phrygia. On his arrival at Gordium, which is
said to have been the capital of King Midas of old, he was shown the
celebrated chariot there, tied up with a knot of cornel-tree bark.
Here he was told the legend, which all the natives believed, that
whoever untied that knot was destined to become lord of all the world.
Most historians say that as the knot was tied with a strap whose ends
could not be found, and was very complicated and intricate, Alexander,
despairing of untying it, drew his sword and cut through the knot,
thus making many ends appear. But Aristobulus tells us that he easily
undid it by pulling out of the pole the pin to which the strap was
fastened, and then drawing off the yoke itself from the pole.
He now prevailed upon the people of Paphlagonia and Kappadokia to join
him, and also was encouraged in his design of proceeding farther into
the interior by receiving intelligence of the death of Memnon, the
general to whom Darius had entrusted the defence of the sea coast, who
had already caused him much trouble, and had offered a most stubborn
resistance to him.
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