When the Macedonians saw him attended by these men, and
found themselves shut out from his presence, they were greatly
humbled, and after discussing the matter together they became nearly
mad with rage and jealousy. At last they agreed to go to his tent
without their arms, dressed only in their tunics, and there with
weeping and lamentation offered themselves to him and bade him deal
with them as with ungrateful and wicked men. Alexander, although he
was now inclined to leniency, refused to receive them, but they would
not go away, and remained for two days and nights at the door of his
tent lamenting and calling him their sovereign. On the third day he
came out, and when he saw them in such a pitiable state of abasement,
he wept for some time. He then gently blamed them for their conduct,
and spoke kindly to them. He gave splendid presents to all the
invalids, and dismissed them, writing at the same time to Antipater
with orders, that in every public spectacle these men should sit in
the best places in the theatre or the circus with garlands on their
heads. The orphan children of those who had fallen he took into his
own service.
LXXII. After Alexander was come to the city of Ekbatana in Media, and
had despatched the most weighty part of his business there, he gave
himself up entirely to devising magnificent spectacles and
entertainments, with the aid of three thousand workmen, whom he had
sent for from Greece.
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