ingly to restrain himself than
to conquer the enemy, and never touched any of them, nor did he know
any other before his marriage, except Barsine. This lady, after the
death of her husband Memnon, remained at Damascus. She had received a
Greek education, was naturally attractive, and was of royal descent,
as her father was Artabazus, who married one of the king's daughters;
which, added to the solicitations of Parmenio, as we are told by
Aristobulus, made Alexander the more willing to attach himself to so
beautiful and well-born a lady. When Alexander saw the beauty of the
other captives, he said in jest, that the Persian ladies make men's
eyes sore to behold them. Yet, in spite of their attractions, he was
determined that his self-restraint should be as much admired as their
beauty, and passed by them as if they had been images cut out of
stone.

XXII. Indeed, when Philoxenus, the commander of his fleet, wrote to
inform him that a slave merchant of Tarentum, named Theodorus, had two
beautiful slaves for sale, and desired to know whether he would buy
them, Alexander was greatly incensed, and angrily demanded of his
friends what signs of baseness Philoxenus could have observed in him
that he should venture to make such disgraceful proposals to him. He
sent a severe reprimand to Philoxenus, and ordered him to send
Theodorus and his merchandise to the devil. He also severely rebuked a
young man named Hagnon for a similar offence.

On another occasion, when he heard that two Macedonians of Parmenio's
regiment, named Damon and Timotheus, had violently outraged the wives
of some of the mercenary soldiers, he wrote to Parmenio, ordering him,
if the charge were proved, to put them to death like mere brute beasts
that prey upon mankind. And in that letter he wrote thus of himself.
"I have never seen, or desired to see the wife of Darius, and have not
even allowed her beauty to be spoken of in my presence."

He was wont to say that he was chiefly reminded that he was mortal by
these two weaknesses, sleep and lust; thinking weariness and
sensuality alike to be bodily weaknesses. He was also most temperate
in eating, as was signally proved by his answer to the princess Ada,
whom he adopted as his mother, and made Queen of Karia. She, in order
to show her fondness for him, sent him every day many dainty dishes
and sweetmeats, and at last presented him with her best cooks. He
answered her that he needed them not, since he had been