Superstition
S he was upon
his way to Babylon, Nearchus, who had sailed back out of the ocean up the
mouth of the river Euphrates, came to tell him he had met with some Chaldaean
diviners, who had warned him against Alexander's going thither. Alexander,
however, took no thought of it, and went on, and when he came near the walls
of the place, he saw a great many crows fighting with one another, some of
whom fell down just by him. After this, being privately informed that
Apollodorus, the governor of Babylon, had sacrificed, to know what would
become of him, he sent for Pythagoras, the soothsayer, and on his admitting
the thing, asked him, in what condition he found the victim; and when he told
him the liver was defective in its lobe, "A great presage indeed!" said
Alexander. However, he offered Pythagoras no injury, but was sorry that he had
neglected Nearchus's advice, and stayed for the most part outside the town,
removing his tent from place to place, and sailing up and down the Euphrates.
Besides this, he was disturbed by many other prodigies. A tame ass fell upon
the biggest and handsomest lion that he kept, and killed him by a kick. And
one day after he had undressed himself to be anointed, and was playing at
ball, just as they were going to bring his clothes again, the young men who
played with him perceived a man clad in the king's robes, with a diadem upon
his head, sitting silently upon his throne. They asked him who he was, to
which he gave no answer a good while, till at last coming to himself, he told
them his name was Dionysius, that he was of Messenia, that for some crime of
which he was accused, he was brought thither from the sea-side, and had been
kept long in prison, that Serapis appeared to him, had freed him from his
chains, conducted him to that place, and commanded him to put on the king's
robe and diadem, and to sit where they found him, and to say nothing.
Alexander, when he heard this, by the direction of his soothsayers, put the
fellow to death, but he lost his spirits, and grew diffident of the protection
and assistance of the gods, and suspicious of his friends. His greatest
apprehension was of Antipater and his sons, one of whom, Iolaus, was his chief
cupbearer; and Cassander, who had lately arrived, and had been bred up in
Greek manners, the first time he saw some of the barbarians adore the king,
could not forbear laughing at it aloud, which so incensed Alexander, that he
took him by the hair with both hands, and dashed his head against the wall.
Another time, Cassander would have said something in defense of Antipater to
those who accused him, but Alexander interrupting him said, "What is it you
say? Do you think people, if they had received no injury, would come such a
journey only to calumniate your father?" To which when Cassander replied, that
their coming so far from the evidence was a great proof of the falseness of
their charges, Alexander smiled, and said those were some of Aristotle's
sophisms, which would serve equally on both sides; and added, that both he and
his father should be severely punished, if they were found guilty of the least
injustice towards those who complained. All which made such a deep impression
of terror in Cassander's mind, that long after when he was king of Macedonia,
and master of Greece, as he was walking up and down at Delphi, and looking at
the statues, at the sight of that of Alexander he was suddenly struck with
alarm, and shook all over, his eyes rolled, his head grew dizzy, and it was
long before he recovered himself.
Plutarch: ALEXANDER
