ho had
attempted to cut a road through the rocks upon a part of Mount Athos,
in the invasion of Greece. He did not succeed, but left the unfinished
work a lasting memorial both of the attempt and the failure. Alexander
concluded at length that he would not attempt such a sculpture. "Mount
Athos," said he, "is already the monument of one king's folly; I will
not make it that of another."

As soon as the excitement connected with the funeral obsequies of
Hephaestion were over, Alexander's mind relapsed again into a state of
gloomy melancholy. This depression, caused, as it was, by previous
dissipation and vice, seemed to admit of no remedy or relief but in
new excesses. The traces, however, of his former energy so far
remained that he began to form magnificent plans for the improvement
of Babylon. He commenced the execution of some of these plans. His
time was spent, in short, in strange alternations: resolution and
energy in forming vast plans one day, and utter abandonment to all the
excesses of dissipation and vice the next. It was a mournful spectacle
to see his former greatness of soul still struggling on, though more
and more faintly, as it became gradually overborne by the resistless
inroads of intemperance and sin. The scene was at length suddenly
terminated in the following manner:

On one occasion, after he had spent a whole night in drinking and
carousing, the guests, when the usual time arrived for separating,
proposed that, instead of this, they should begin anew, and commence
a second banquet at the end of the first. Alexander, half intoxicated
already, entered warmly into this proposal. They assembled,
accordingly, in a very short time. There were twenty present at this
new feast. Alexander, to show how far he was from having exhausted
his powers of drinking, began to pledge each one of the company
individually. Then he drank to them all together. There was a very
large cup, called the bowl of Hercules, which he now called for, and,
after having filled it to the brim, he drank it off to the health of
one of the company present, a Macedonian named Proteas. This feat
being received by the company with great applause, he ordered the
great bowl to be filled again, and drank it off as before.

The work was now done. His faculties and his strength soon failed him,
and he sank down to the floor. They bore him away to his palace. A
violent fever intervened, which the physicians did all in their power
to allay.