Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/188

 ALEXANDER. him with fears of joy, faying, " O, my fon, thou muft feek One more infrance of this very high fpirit ihall fuffice. When Philip had repudiated Olympias for infidelity to his bed, the young prince felt a moft lively refentment on the occafion ; yet, being invited by his father to the nuptials with his new wife, he did not refufe to go. In the midft of the entertainment, Attalus, a favourite of Philip, had the impru- dence to fay, that the Macedonians muft implore the gods to grant the king a lawful fucceffor. " What, you fcoundrel ! " do you then take me for a baftard ?" fays Alexander j and threw a cup that inftant at his head. Philip, intoxicated with wine, and believing his fon to be the author of the quarrel, rufhed violently towards him with his fword ; bur, flipping with his foot, fell proftrate upon the floor. Upon which, faid Alexander infulting, "See, Macedonians, what a <: take a fingle ftep without falling ;" for Philip had juft be- fore been named for this expedition in a common aflembly of the Greeks, and was preparing for it, when he was murdered b y Paufanias at a feaft. Alexander, now twenty years of age, fucceeded his father as king of Macedon : he was alfo chofen, in room of his father, geriefaliffimo in the projected expedition againft the Perfians ; but the Greeks, agreeably to their ufualficklenefs, deferted from him, taking the advantage of his abfence in Thrace and Illy- ricum, where he began his military enterprifes. He haftened immediately to Greece, when the Athenians and other ftates returned to him at once ; but, the Thebans {landing out, he directed his arms againft them, flew a prodigious number of them, and deftroyed their city; fparing nothing but the de- fcendants and the houfe of Pindar, out of refpeft to the me- mory of that poet. This happened in the fecond year of the 3d Olympiad. It was about this time that he went to con- fult the oracle at Delphi ; when, the prieftefs pretending that it was not on fome account lawful for her to enter the temple then, he being impatient, hauled her along, and occafioned her to cry out, "Ah, my fon, there is no refitting you:" upon which Alexander, feizing the words as ominous, re- p'ied, " I defire nothing farther : this oracle fuffices." It was alfo probably at this time that the remarkable interview pa (Ted between our hero and Diogenes the cynic. Alexander had the curioiity to vifit this philofopher in his tub, and com- plimented him with afking, " if he could do any thing to fct fcrvehim ?" " Nothing" faid the brute, " but toftand from
 * ' elfewhere a kingdom, for Macedonia cannot contain thee."
 * ' general you have for the conqueft of Afia, who cannot
 * ! betwixt