HISTORY OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE |
Arrian, Anabasis
of Alexander, 3.4.5.
There
(at Siwah) Alexander surveyed the site with wonder and also made his inquiry to
the god; he received the answer his heart/soul (thumos), as he said, and
turned back towards Egypt.
Arrian, Anabasis
of Alexander, 4.9.9.
For
the tale goes that Alexander even desired that people make proskynesis to
him, from the idea that Ammon was his father rather than Philip, and since he
now emulated the ways of the Persians and Medes, both by the change of his
clothes and the altered arrangements of his general way of life. It is said that
he had no lack of zealous flatterers who yielded to him in this
Plutarch, Alexander,
54.
Chares
of Mitylene says that on one occasion at a banquet Alexander, after he had drunk
passed the cup to one of his friends, who took it and rose so as to face the
shrine of the household; next he drank in his turn, then made proskynesis
to Alexander kissed him and then resumed his place on the couch. All the guests
did the same in succession until the cup came to Callisthenes. The king was
talking to Hephaeston and paying no attention to Callisthenes, and the
philosopher, after he had drunk came forward to kiss him. At this Demetrius
whose surname was Pheido called out, "Sire, do not kiss him: he is the only
one who has not made proskynesis to you." Alexander therefore
refused to kiss him, and Callisthenes exclaimed in a loud voice, "Very
well, then, I shall go off the poorer by a kiss!"
Arrian, Anabasis
of Alexander, 7.8.1-11.
When
he arrived at Opis, he collected the Macedonians and announced that he intended
to discharge from the army those who were useless for military service either
from age or from being maimed in the limbs; and he said he would send them back
to their own abodes. He also promised to give those who went back as much extra
reward as would make them special objects of envy to those at home and arouse in
the other Macedonians the wish to share similar dangers and labours. Alexander
said this, no doubt, for the purpose of pleasing the Macedonians; but on the
contrary they were, not without reason, offended by the speech which he
delivered, thinking that now they were despised by him and deemed to be quite
useless for military service. Indeed, throughout the whole of this expedition
they had been offended at many other things; for his adoption of the Persian
dress, thereby exhibiting his contempt for their culture and his ignoring their
opinion often caused them grief, as did also his dressing the foreign soldiers
called Epigoni in the Macedonian style, and the mixing of the alien
horsemen among the ranks of the Companions. Therefore they could not remain
silent and control themselves, but urged him to dismiss all of them from his
army; and they advised him to prosecute the war in company with his father,
deriding Ammon by this remark.
Arrian, Anabasis
of Alexander, 7.11.9.
(Once
the mutiny had been suppressed) He prayed for other blessings, and especially
that harmony and community of rule might exist between the Macedonians and
Persians. The common account is, that those who took part in this banquet were
9,000 in number, that all of them poured out one libation, and after it sang a
song of thanksgiving.