Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/186

 154 HISTORY OF GREECE. essential that he should treat them with the full dttference due to their rank, if he desired to keep up their price as hostages in tlio eyes of Darius as well as of his own army. He carried them along with his army, from the coast of Syria, over the bridge of the Euphrates, and even through the waters of the Tigris. To them, this must have proved a severe toil ; and in fact, the queen Statira became so worn out that she died shortly after crossing the Tigris ; ' to him also, it must have been an onerous obliga tion, since he not only sought to ensure to them all their accus tomed pomp, but must have assigned a considerable guard to watch them, at a moment when he was marching into an un- known country, and required all his military resources to be dis- posable. Simply for safe detention, the hostages would have been better guarded and might have been treated with still greater ceremony, in a city or a fortress. But Alexander prob- ably wished to have them near him, in case of the possible con- tingency of serious reverses to his army on the eastern side of the Tigris. Assuming such a misfortune to happen, the surren- der of them might ensure a safe retreat under circumstances oth- erwise fatal to its accomplishment. Being at length convinced that Alexander would not be satis- fied with any prize short of the entire Persian empire, Darius summoned all his forces to defend what he still retained. He brought together a host said to be superior in number to that mistress, Alexander may probably have had present to his imagination the example of his legendary ancestor Neoptolemus, whose tender relations with Andromache, widow of his enemy Hektor, would not be forgotten by any reader of Euripides. Alexander had by Barsine a son called Herakles. Lastly, Alexander was so absorbed by ambition, — so overcharged with the duties and difficulties of command, which he always performed himself — and so continually engaged in fatiguing bodily effort, — that lie had lit- tle leisure left for indulgences ; such leisure as he had, he preferred devot- ing to wine-p.irties with the society and conversation of his officers. ' Curtius, iv. 10, 19. " Itineris continai labore animique regritudina fatigata," etc. Curtius and Justin mention a third embassy sent by Darius (imme diately after having heard of the death and honorable obsequies of Statira) to Alexander, asking for peace. The other authors allude only to tw i tentatives of this kind ; and the third seems by no means probable.