Translation:Lives of the Eminent Commanders/Kings

I. These were basically all the generals of the Greek race who seem worthy of memory, except for the ings: for we did not want to deal with them because the deeds of all of them have been related separately. But there are not all that many of them. Moreover, the Lacedaemonian named Agesilaus was not a king in authority, just like the other Spartans. Truly, of those who achieved control by command, the most excellent were, as we judge it, the Persians Cyrus and Darius the son of Hystaspus, both of whom were regular individuals who gained a kingdom through their capability. The former fell in battle among the Massagetae; Darius reached his final day in old age. There are three more of this race: Xerxes and two Artaxerxae, nicknamed Macrochir and Mnemon. Xerxes is extremely famous because with the largest army in human memory he brought war on land and sea to Greece. But Macrochir had the pinnacle of praise for his exceptional and beautiful bodily form, which he decorated with incredible capability in war: for indeed, no Persian had a stronger hand than him. But Mnemon flourished through his reputation for justice. For although he lost his wife through his mother's wickedness, he indulged his grief only as far as piety allowed him. Of these, the two with the same name returned their debt to nature by disease, the third was slain with iron by Artabanus his prefect.

II. But from the race of the Macedonians, two far exceeded the others in the glory of their deeds: Philippus, son of Amyntas and Alexander the Great. The latter wasted away from sickness in Babylon; Philippus was killed by Pausanias near the theatre at Aegiae when he was going to watch the games. There was one Epirote, Pyrrhus, who waged war against the Roman people. When he was besieging the town of Argos in the Peloponnesus, he was struck by a rock and died. There was also one Sicilian, Dionysius the Elder. For he had a strong hand and was skilled at war, and (unlike most tyrants) he was barely interested in pleasure, not interested in luxury, not greedy - he desired nothing except sole and perpetual command and to achieve that he was cruel: for while he devoting himself to fortifying it, he spared the life of no one who he thought was setting an ambush against him. After he had created his tyranny through his own capability, he held onto it with great good fortune: for he was over sixty years old when he died and left a flourishing kingdom. And in all those years, he saw no death in his family, although he had had children by three wives and many grandsons were born to him.

III. There were, moreover, great kings from the friends of Alexander the Great, who took commands after his death, among whom were Antigonus and his son Demetrius, Lysimachus, Seleucus and Ptolemaeus. Of these, Antigonus was killed in battle when he bore arms agains Seleucus and Lysimachus. The same end was inflicted on Lysimachus by Seleucus: for when their alliance collapsed they waged war against each other. And Demetrius, when he had gave his daughter to Seleucus in marriage but had been no more able by this means to maintain a loyal frendship between them, was captured in battle and died as a father-in-law imprisoned by his son-in-law, from sickness. Not much later, Seleucus was assassinated by Ptolemaeus Ceraunus, whom he had taken in after he was expelled from Alexandrea by his father and was in need of the help of strangers. But Ptolemaeus himself, handed his kingdom over to his son while still living and is said to have been deprived of life by that same son. Since we think that enough has been said about these men, it seems convenient not to pass over Hamilcar and Hannibal who are established to have exceeded all others born in Africa in greatness and shrewdness of mind.