t be to be laid to the charge of the young men,
that they gave such an occasion to their father's anger, and led him
to do what he did, and by going on long in the same way put things past
remedy, and brought him to use them so unmercifully; or whether it be to
be laid to the father's charge, that he was so hard-hearted, and so very
tender in the desire of government, and of other things that would tend
to his glory, that tae would take no one into a partnership with him,
that so whatsoever he would have done himself might continue immovable;
or, indeed, whether fortune have not greater power than all prudent
reasonings; whence we are persuaded that human actions are thereby
determined beforehand by an inevitable necessity, and we call her Fate,
because there is nothing which is not done by her; wherefore I suppose
it will be sufficient to compare this notion with that other, which
attribute somewhat to ourselves, and renders men not unaccountable for
the different conducts of their lives, which notion is no other than the
philosophical determination of our ancient law. Accordingly, of the two
other causes of this sad event, any body may lay the blame on the young
men, who acted by youthful vanity, and pride of their royal birth, that
they should bear to hear the calumnies that were raised against their
father, while certainly they were not equitable judges of the actions of
his life, but ill-natured in suspecting, and intemperate in speaking of
it, and on both accounts easily caught by those that observed them, and
revealed them to gain favor; yet cannot their father be thought worthy
excuse, as to that horrid impiety which he was guilty of about them,
while he ventured, without any certain evidence of their treacherous
designs against him, and without any proofs that they had made
preparations for such attempt, to kill his own sons, who were of very
comely bodies, and the great darlings of other men, and no way deficient
in their conduct, whether it were in hunting, or in warlike exercises,
or in speaking upon occasional topics of discourse; for in all these
they were skillful, and especially Alexander, who was the eldest; for
certainly it had been sufficient, even though he had condemned them, to
have kept them alive in bonds, or to let them live at a distance from
his dominions in banishment, while he was surrounded by the Roman
forces, which were a strong security to him, whose help would prevent
his suffering any th