Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/196

 188 ALEXANDER. otherwise no prince's conversation was ever so agree- able, he would fall into a temper of ostentation and soldierly boasting, which gave his flatterers a great ad- vantage to ride him, and made his better friends very uneasy. For though they thought it too base to strive who should flatter him most, yet they found it haz- ardous not to do it ; so that between the shame and the danger, they were in a great strait how to behave them- selves. After such an entertainment, he was wont to bathe, and then perhaps he would sleep till noon, and sometimes all day long. He was so very temperate in his eating, that when any rare fish or fruits were sent him, he would distribute them among his friends, and often reserve nothing for himself. His table, however, was always magnificent, the expense of it still increasing with his good fortune, till it amounted to ten thousand drachmas a day, to which sum he limited it, and beyond this he would suffer none to lay out in any entertain- ment where he himself was the guest. After the battle of Issus, he sent to Damascus to seize upon the money and baggage, the wives and children of the Persians, of which spoil the Thessalian borsemen had the greatest share ; for he had ' taken particular notice of their gallantry in the fight, and sent them thither on pur- pose to make their reward suitable to their courage. Not but that the rest of the army had so considerable a part of the booty as was sufficient to enrich tbem all. This first gave the Macedonians such a taste of the Persian wealth and women and barbaric splendor of living, that they were ready to pursue and follow upon it with all the eager- ness of hounds upon a scent. But Alexander, before he proceeded any further, thought it necessary to assure him- self of the sea-coast.* Those who governed in Cyprus, reduced, the Persian fleet would with Greece and Macedonia, and continue to be superior at sea, and make every thing unsafe in his rear.
 * Until the Phoenician cities were to interrupt his communications