THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL. 



239 



sobered by the result, he urged his soldiers to the rescue, it burned 

 to the ground. 



His most famous exploit in this line took place, during the 

 last year of his life, at the tomb of Cyrus, near Pasargadse in 

 Persia. He attended here the immolation of a famous Hindu 

 philosopher, Calanus, who had followed him from India, and now, 

 falling sick, burned himself alive on a great funeral pile. On his 

 return from the ceremony Alexander asked many of his friends 

 and chief officers to supper, and that night organized a great 

 drinking contest, offering a gold crown to the victor. A young 

 nobleman called Promachus took the first prize, with the respect- 

 able measure of some fourteen quarts of wine, and others fol- 

 lowed close behind him. But a cold wind came up that night, 

 chilling the revelers to the bone, and Promachus and some forty 



MONADS IN A DIONYSIAC FRENZY. A great figure of this sort, with splashes of blood on the 

 garments, was one of the chief ornaments in the Dionysiac Theater. (From the Campana 

 Collection.) 



of his competitors died from the effects of cold and drunkenness 

 combined. 



This course of life could not last long. -His soldiers mur- 

 mured, his officers grew unruly, his own strength failed ; and, in 

 his thirty-second year, after a drinking bout that lasted for two 

 days and nights, a sudden attack of fever ended his career. 



