Darius, too, came from Susa, confident in the
numbers of his army, for he was at the head of six hundred thousand
men, and greatly encouraged by a dream upon which the Magi had put
rather a strained interpretation in order to please him. He dreamed
that he saw the Macedonian phalanx begirt with flame, and that
Alexander, dressed in a courier's cloak like that which he himself had
worn before he became king, was acting as his servant. Afterwards,
Alexander went into the temple of Belus, and disappeared. By this
vision the gods probably meant to foretell that the deeds of the
Macedonians would be brilliant and glorious, and that Alexander after
conquering Asia, just as Darius had conquered it when from a mere
courier he rose to be a king, would die young and famous.
XIX. Darius was also much encouraged by the long inaction of Alexander
in Kilikia. This was caused by an illness, which some say arose from
the hardships which he had undergone, and others tell us was the
result of bathing in the icy waters of the Kydnus. No physician dared
to attend him, for they all thought that he was past the reach of
medicine, and dreaded the anger of the Macedonians if they proved
unsuccessful. At last Philip, an Akarnanian, seeing that he was
dangerously ill, determined to run the risk, as he was his true
friend, and thought it his duty to share all his dangers. He
compounded a draught for him, and persuaded him to drink it, by
telling him that it would give him strength and enable him to take the
field.
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