BOOK I.] Alexander's learning shown in his sayings. 63 



Antipater," replied Alexander, "is all j^urple within." °^ Con- 

 sider also that other excellent metaphor which he used to 

 Parmenio, when that general showed him, from the plains of 

 Arbella, the innumerable multitude of his enemies, which, 

 viewed as they lay encamped in the night, represented a host 

 of stars; and thereupon advised Alexander to assail them at 

 once. The hero rejected the proposition, saying, " I will not 

 steal a victory." As concerns policy, weigh that grave and 

 wise distinction, which all ages have accepted, Avhich he 

 made between his two chief friends, Hephsestion and Craterus, 

 saying, " That the one loved Alexander, and the other the 

 king." Also observe how he rebuked the error ordinary 

 with counsellors of princes, which leads them to give advice 

 according to the necessity of their own interest and fortune, 

 and not of their master's. When Darius had made certain 

 proposals to Alexander, Parmenio said, "I would accept these 

 conditions if I were Alexander." Alexander replied, " So 

 surely would I were I Parmenio." Lastly, consider his reply 

 to his friends, who asked him what he would reserve for 

 himself, since he lavished so many valuable gifts upon others. 

 " Hope," said Alexander, who well knew that, all accounts 

 being cleared — "hope is the true inheritance of all that resolve 

 upon great enterprises." This was Julius Caesar's portion 

 when he went into Gaul, all his estate being exhausted ])y 

 profuse largess. And it was also the portion of that noble 

 prince, howsoever transported with ambition, Henry, duke 

 of Guise; for he was pronounced the greatest usurer in all 

 France, because all his wealth was in names, and he had 

 turned his whole estate into obligations. But perhaps the 

 admiration of this prince in the light, not of a great king, 

 but as Aristotle's scholar, has carried me too far. 



As regards Julius Caesar, his learning is not only evinced 

 in his education, company, and speeches, but in a greater 

 degree shines forth in such of his works as have descended to 

 us. In the Commentary, that excellent history which he has 

 left us, of his own wars, succeeding ages have admired the 

 solidity of the matter, the vivid passages and the lively 

 images of actions and persons, expressed in the greatest 

 propriety of diction and perspicuity of narration. That this 



• 6\o7r6p<l,vpoi;, Apop Tlftg. et Imp. 



