layed that he
concluded to enter the city. He advanced, accordingly, with his whole
army, and made his entry under circumstances of the greatest possible
parade and splendor. As soon, however, as the excitement of the first
few days had passed away, his mind relapsed again, and he became
anxious, troubled, and unhappy.

Hephaestion, his great personal friend and companion, had died while
he was on the march toward Babylon. He was brought to the grave by
diseases produced by dissipation and vice. Alexander was very much
moved by his death. It threw him at once into a fit of despondency and
gloom. It was some time before he could at all overcome the melancholy
reflections and forebodings which this event produced. He determined
that, as soon as he arrived in Babylon, he would do all possible honor
to Hephaestion's memory by a magnificent funeral.

He accordingly now sent orders to all the cities and kingdoms around,
and collected a vast sum for this purpose. He had a part of the city
wall pulled down to furnish a site for a monumental edifice. This
edifice was constructed of an enormous size and most elaborate
architecture. It was ornamented with long rows of prows of ships,
taken by Alexander in his victories, and by statues, and columns, and
sculptures, and gilded ornaments of every kind. There were images of
sirens on the entablatures near the roof, which, by means of a
mechanism concealed within, were made to sing dirges and mournful
songs. The expense of this edifice, and of the games, shows, and
spectacles connected with its consecration, is said by the historians
of the day to have been a sum which, on calculation, is found equal to
about ten millions of dollars.

There were, however, some limits still to Alexander's extravagance and
folly. There was a mountain in Greece, Mount Athos, which a certain
projector said could be carved and fashioned into the form of a
man--probably in a recumbent posture. There was a city on one of the
declivities of the mountain, and a small river, issuing from springs
in the ground, came down on the other side. The artist who conceived
of this prodigious piece of sculpture said that he would so shape the
figure that the city should be in one of its hands, and the river
should flow out from the other.

[Illustration: PROPOSED IMPROVEMENT OF MOUNT ATHOS.]

Alexander listened to this proposal. The name Mount Athos recalled
to his mind the attempt of Xerxes, a former Persian king, w