Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When Perillus, one of his friends, asked him for dowry for his girls, Alexander bade him accept ten thousand pounds. He said that two thousand would be enough; but Alexander said, Enough for you to accept, but not enough for me to give. [*](Stories of this type about kings have long been popular and often repeated.)

He bade his manager give to Anaxarchus, the philosopher, as much as he asked for; and when the manager said that he asked for twenty thousand pounds, Alexander said, He does well, for he knows that he has a friend who is both able and willing to make such presents. [*](Xencrates seems to have been the lucky recipient, while Anaxarchus received high esteem, according to Moralia, 331 E, and Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, chap. viii. (668 E).)

When he saw in Miletus many statues of athletes who had won victories in the Olympic and the Pythian games, he said, Where were the men with bodies like these when the barbarians were besieging your city? [*](Cf. in Aristophanes, Plutus, 1003, and Athenaeus, 523 F, the proverb, Once were the Milesians stout and strong. )

Ada, queen of the Carians, made it a point of honour to be always sending to him fancy dishes and sweetmeats prepared in unusual ways by the hands of artists and chefs, but he said he had better fancy cooks--his night marches for his breakfast, and for his dinner his frugal breakfast. [*](The story with slight variations is found also in Moralia, 127 B, 1099 C, and the Life of Alexander, chap. xxii. (677 B).)

Once, when all preparations had been made for battle, his generals asked him whether there was anything else in addition to what they had done. Nothing, said he, except to shave the Macedonians’ beards. And as Parmenio expressed his surprise, Alexander said, Don’t you know that in battles there is nothing handier to grasp than a beard? [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Theseus, chap. iii. (3 A); Athenaeus, 565 A.)

When Darius offered him two million pounds, and also offered to share Asia equally with him, Parmenio said, I would take it if I were Alexander. And so indeed would I, said Alexander, if I were Parmenio. But he made answer to Darius that the earth could not tolerate two suns, nor Asia two kings. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, chap. xxix. (681 F): Arrian, Anabasis, ii. 25; Diodorus, xvii. 54: Longinus, De sublimitate, ix. 4; Valerius Maximus, vi. 4, ext. 3.)