e guides lost their way, and all were wandering helplessly, birds
appeared who guided them on the right path, flying before them and
encouraging them to march, and waiting for those of them who fell
behind wearied. "We are even assured by Kallisthones that, at night,
the birds by their cries recalled stragglers, and kept all on the
direct road.

When Alexander had crossed the desert, and arrived at the temple, the
priest of Ammon greeted him as the son of the god. He inquired whether
anyone of his father's murderers had escaped, to which the priest
answered that he must not ask such questions, for his father was more
than man. Alexander now altered the form of his inquiry and asked
whether he had punished all the murderers of Philip: and then he asked
another question, about his empire, whether he was fated to conquer
all mankind. On receiving as an answer that this would be granted to
him and that Philip had been amply avenged, he made splendid presents
to the god, and amply rewarded the priests.

This is the account which most historians give about the response of
the oracle; but in a letter to his mother, Alexander says that he
received certain secret prophecies, which upon his return he would
communicate to her alone. Some narrate that the priest, wishing to
give him a friendly greeting in the Greek language, said "My son,"
but being a foreigner, mispronounced the words so as to say "Son of
Zeus," a mistake which delighted Alexander and caused men to say that
the god himself had addressed him as "Son of Zeus." We are told that
while in Egypt, he attended the lectures of the philosopher Psammon,
and was especially pleased when he pointed out that God is King over
all men, because that which rules and conquers must be king. He
himself thought that he had improved upon this by saying that although
God is the common father of all men, yet that he makes the best men
more peculiarly his own.

XXVIII. In his dealings with Asiatics, he always acted and spoke with
the greatest arrogance, and seemed firmly convinced of his own divine
parentage, but he was careful not to make the same boast when among
Greeks. On one occasion, indeed, he wrote to the Athenians the
following letter about their possession of Samos. "I," he said,
"should not have presented you with that free and glorious city; but
it was presented to you by its former master, my reputed father
Philip."

Yet afterwards when he was wounded by an arrow and in gr