Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

Antigonus was persistent in his demands for money, and when somebody said, But Alexander was not like this, he replied, Very naturally; for he reaped Asia, and I am picking up the straws.

Seeing some of his soldiers playing ball in their breastplates and helmets, he was much pleased and sent for their officers, wishing to commend them. But when he heard that they were engaged in drinking, he gave their positions to their soldiers.

When all were astonished because, after he had grown old, he handled matters with mildness and gentleness, he said, Time was when I craved power, but now I crave repute and goodwill among men.

To his son Philip, who inquired in the presence

of numerous persons, When are we going to break camp ? he said, What are you afraid of? That you alone may not hear the bugle ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 506 C; Plutarch’s Life of Demetrius, chap. xxviii. (902 C), when the remark is addressed to Demetrius. That same remark is attributed to Crassus by Frontinus, Strategemata, i. 1. 13.)

When the young man was determined to take up his quarters at the house of a widow who had three handsome daughters, he called the quartermaster and said, Will you not get my son out of his crowded quarters ? [*](Repeated by Plutarch in his Life of Demetrius, chap. xxiii. (899 C), and more fully by Frontinus), Strategemata, iv. 1. 10.

He suffered a long illness, and when he had recovered his strength he said, ’twas nothing so very bad; for the illness has reminded us not to feel too proud, since we are but mortal [*](Attributed to Alexander by Stobaeus, Florilegium, xxi. 15.)