s's sister, who nursed and
reared him--Lanice the daughter of Dropides,--'Fair return I have made
in manhood's years for thy nurture and care--thou who hast seen thy sons
die fighting in my behalf; and now I have slain thy brother with mine
own hand!'"

Another friend of his youth was a lady of noble birth, by name Ada, whom
he dignified with the title of "mother," and later established as Queen
of Caria. Plutarch tells how, as a friendly attention, she used to send
him daily not only all sorts of meats and cakes, but finally went so far
as to send him the cleverest cooks and bakers she could find, though,
owing to the rigid training of his tutor, he was extremely temperate in
eating and drinking and did not avail himself of her indulgence.

Alexander was ever considerate of women, even when these were taken
captive in battle, and Plutarch tells an interesting story of his
treatment of a noble lady of Thebes, when he had captured and was about
to raze that city:

"Among the other calamities that befell the city, it happened that some
Thracian soldiers having broken into the house of a matron of high
character and repute, named Timycha, their captain, after he had used
violence with her, to satisfy his avarice as well as lust, asked her if
she knew of any money concealed, to which she readily answered she did,
and bade him follow her into a garden, where she showed him a well, into
which, she told him, upon the taking of the city she had thrown what she
had of the most value. The greedy Thracian presently stooping down to
view the place where he thought the treasure lay, she came behind him
and pushed him into the well, and then flung great stones in upon him
till she had killed him. After which, when the soldiers led her away
bound to Alexander, her very mien and gait showed her to be a woman of
dignity and of a mind no less elevated. And when the king asked her who
she was, 'I am,' she said, the sister of Theagenes who fought the battle
of Chaeronea with your father Philip, and fell there in command for the
liberty of Greece.' Alexander was so surprised, both at what she had
done and what she said, that he could not choose but give her and her
children their liberty."

In the evil fortunes of the princesses of Macedon the Persian wives of
Alexander shared. Roxana, the daughter of a Bactrian satrap, whose
youthfulness and beauty charmed him at a drinking entertainment, was the
first of his wives. Later, in celebrati