Being with many more invited to sup with the king, he was called upon when the
cup came to him, to make an oration extempore in praise of the Macedonians;
and he did it with such a flow of eloquence, that all who heard it rose from
their seats to clap and applaud him, and threw their garland upon him; only
Alexander told him out of Euripides,
I wonder not that you have spoke so well,
'Tis easy on good subjects to excel.
"Therefore," said he, "if you will show the force of your eloquence, tell my
Macedonians their faults, and dispraise them, that by hearing their errors
they may learn to he better for the future." Callisthenes presently obeyed
him, retracting all he had said before, and, inveighing against the
Macedonians with great freedom, added, that Philip thrived and grew powerful,
chiefly by the discord of the Greeks, applying this verse to him:--
In civil strife e'en villains rise to fame;
which so offended the Macedonians, that he was odious to them ever after. And
Alexander said, that instead of his eloquence, he had only made his ill-will
appear in what he had spoken.
Plutarch: ALEXANDER
