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Rh the money sent with Menes. At this time also arrived Asander and Nearchus at the head of an army of Grecian mercenaries. Asclepiodorus, viceroy of Syria, and Menes the dqputy also arrived from the sea, at the head of another ariily. Then Alexander gathered a conference of those who were then at hand, and led Bessus in before them. Having accused hitn of the betrayal of Darius, he ordered his nose and ears to be cut off, and that he should be taken to Ecbatana to be put to death there in the council of the Medes and Persians. I do not commend this excessive punishment; on the contrary, I consider that the mutilation of the prominent features of the body is a barbaric custom, and I agree with those who say that Alexander was induced to indulge his desire of emulating the Median and Persian wealth and to treat his subjects as inferior beings according to the custoni of the foreign kings. Nor do I by any means commend him for changing the Macedonian style of dress which his fathers had adopted, for the Median one, being as he was a descendant of Heracles. Besides, he was not