Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When he was about to risk everything at Arbela against a million men arrayed against him, his friends came to him and accused the soldiers of talking together and making agreements in their tents that they would hand over none of the spoil to the royal treasury, but would keep everything for themselves. And he smiling said, You bring good news; for I hear in this the talk of men prepared to conquer and not to flee. And many of the soldiers came to him and said, Be of good cheer, Sire, and do not fear the great numbers of the enemy; for they will not be able to stand the very smell of goat that clings to us.

As the army was being drawn up for battle, he saw one of the soldiers fitting the thong to his javelin, and he shoved him out of the line as a useless man who was making ready at this time when he ought to be using his weapons.

As he was reading a letter from his mother, which contained secret slanders against Antipater, Hephaestion, as usual, was reading it with him. Alexander did not prevent Hephaestion from reading it, but, when he had finished the reading, he took off his ring, and placed the seal on Hephaestion’s lips. [*](Cf. Moralia, 332 F and 240 A, and Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, chap. xxix. (688 A).)

In the shrine of Ammon he was hailed by the prophetic priest as the son of Zeus. That is nothing surprising, said he; for Zeus is by nature the father of all, and he makes the noblest his own. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, chap. xxvii. (680 F).)

When he was hit in the leg by an arrow, and many of those who were oftentimes wont to hail him as a god hurried up to him, he, relaxing his countenance, said, This is blood, as you see, and not

Ichor, like that which flows from the wounds of the blessed Immortals.

When some commended the frugality of Antipater, who, they said, lived a plain and simple life, he remarked, Outwardly Antipater is plain white, but within he is all purple. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Phocion, chap. xxix. (754 E).)