ring to enter the room. Kleitus fell with a loud
groan, and died on the spot. Alexander, when he came to himself, and
saw his friends all standing round in mute reproach, snatched the
spear out of the corpse, and would have thrust it into his own neck,
but was forcibly witheld by his guards, who laid hold of him and
carried him into his bed-chamber.

LII. Alexander spent the whole night in tears, and on the next day was
so exhausted by his agony of grief as to be speechless, and only able
to sigh heavily. At length his friends, alarmed at his silence, broke
into the room. He took no notice of any of their attempts at
consolation, except that he seemed to make signs of assent when
Aristander the soothsayer told him that all this had been preordained
to take place, and reminded him of his dream about Kleitus. His
friends now brought to him Kallisthenes the philosopher, who was a
nephew of Aristotle, and Anaxarchus of Abdera. Kallisthenes
endeavoured to soothe his grief, by kind and gentle consolation, but
Anaxarchus, a man who had always pursued an original method of his own
in philosophical speculations, and who was thought to be overbearing
and harsh-tempered by his friends, as soon as he entered the room
exclaimed, "This is that Great Alexander, upon whom the eyes of the
world are fixed: there he lies like a slave, fearing what men will say
of him, although he ought rather to dictate to them what they should
think right, as becomes the master of the world, and not to be
influenced by their foolish opinions. Know you not," asked he "that
Law and Justice sit beside the throne of Zeus, and make everything
which is done by those in power to be lawful and right?" By such
discourse as this Anaxarchus assuaged Alexander's sorrow, but
encouraged his savage and lawless disposition. He gained great favour
for himself, and was able to influence Alexander against Kallisthenes,
who was already no favourite with him on account of his upright,
uncompromising spirit. It is related that once at table, when the
conversation turned upon the seasons, and upon the climate of Asia,
Kallisthenes argued that it was colder in the country where they were
than in Greece; and when Anaxarchus vehemently contradicted this, he
said, "Why, you must admit that this country is the colder of the two;
for in Greece you used to wear only one cloak all through the winter,
whereas here you sit down to dinner wrapped in three Persian rugs."
This reply made