n excellent actor who had
pleased Alexander well, inserted a verse into the comedy which he was
acting, in which he begged to be given ten talents, Alexander laughed
and gave them to him.

Darius now sent an embassy to Alexander, bearing a letter, in which he
offered to pay ten thousand talents as a ransom for his wife and
children, and proposed that Alexander should receive all the territory
west of the Euphrates, and become his ally and son-in-law. Alexander
laid this proposal before his friends, and when Parmenio said, "I
should accept it, if I were Alexander." "So would I," replied
Alexander, "if I were Parmenio." He wrote, however, a letter in answer
to Darius, informing him that if he would come to him, and submit
himself, he should be used with courtesy; but that if not, he should
presently march against him.

XXX. Soon after this the wife of Darius died in child-bed, which
greatly grieved Alexander, as he thereby lost a great opportunity of
displaying his magnanimity: nevertheless he granted her a magnificent
funeral. We are told that one of the eunuchs attached to the royal
harem, named Teireus, who had been captured with the ladies, made his
escape shortly after the queen's death, rode straight to Darius, and
informed him of what had happened. Darius, at this, beat his face and
wept aloud, saying, "Alas for the fortune of Persia! that the wife and
sister of the king should not only have been taken captive while she
lived, but also have been buried unworthily of her rank when she
died." To this the eunuch answered, "You have no cause to lament the
evil fortune of Persia on account of your wife's burial, or of any
want of due respect to her. Our lady Statira, your children, and your
mother, when alive wanted for nothing except the light of your
countenance, which our lord Oromasdes will some day restore to them,
nor was she treated without honour when she died, for her funeral was
even graced by the tears of her enemies. Alexander is as gracious a
conqueror as he is a terrible enemy."

These words roused other suspicions in the mind of Darius: and,
leading the eunuch into an inner chamber in his tent, he said to him,
"If you have not, like the good luck of Persia, gone over to Alexander
and the Macedonians, and if I am still your master Darius, tell me, I
conjure you by the name of great Mithras our lord, and by the right
hand of a king, which I give thee, do I lament over the least of
Statira's misfortunes