He also severely rebuked a
young man named Hagnon for a similar offence.
On another occasion, when he heard that two Macedonians of Parmenio's
regiment, named Damon and Timotheus, had violently outraged the wives
of some of the mercenary soldiers, he wrote to Parmenio, ordering him,
if the charge were proved, to put them to death like mere brute beasts
that prey upon mankind. And in that letter he wrote thus of himself.
"I have never seen, or desired to see the wife of Darius, and have not
even allowed her beauty to be spoken of in my presence."
He was wont to say that he was chiefly reminded that he was mortal by
these two weaknesses, sleep and lust; thinking weariness and
sensuality alike to be bodily weaknesses. He was also most temperate
in eating, as was signally proved by his answer to the princess Ada,
whom he adopted as his mother, and made Queen of Karia. She, in order
to show her fondness for him, sent him every day many dainty dishes
and sweetmeats, and at last presented him with her best cooks. He
answered her that he needed them not, since he had been provided with
much better relishes for his food by his tutor Leonidas, who had
taught him to earn his breakfast by a night-march, and to obtain an
appetite for his dinner by eating sparingly at breakfast. "My tutor,"
he said, "would often look into my chests of clothes, and of bedding,
to make sure that my mother had not hidden any delicacies for me in
them.
Pages:
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497