solemnities, spectacles, or any other diversion whatsoever; a
convincing argument of which is, that in the short time he lived,
he accomplished so many and so great actions. When he was free from
employment, after he was up, and had sacrificed to the gods, he used to
sit down to breakfast, and then spend the rest of the day in hunting,
or writing memoirs, giving decisions on some military questions, or
reading. In marches that required no great haste, he would practice
shooting as he went along, or to mount a chariot, and alight from it
in full speed. Sometimes, for sport's sake, as his journals tell us, he
would hunt foxes and go fowling. When he came in for the evening, after
he had bathed and was anointed, he would call for his bakers and chief
cooks, to know if they had his dinner ready. He never cared to dine
till it was pretty late and beginning to be dark, and as wonderfully
circumspect at meals that every one who sat with him should be served
alike and with proper attention; and his love of talking, as was said
before, made him delight to sit long at his wine. And no prince's
conversation was ever so agreeable, yet he would at times fall into a
temper of ostentation and soldierly boasting, which gave his flatterers
a great advantage to ride him, and made his better friends very uneasy.
After such an entertainment, he was wont to bathe, and then perhaps
he would sleep till noon, and sometimes all day long. He was so very
temperate in his eating, that when any rare fish or fruits were sent
him, he would distribute them among his friends, and often reserve
nothing for himself. His table, however, was always magnificent, the
expense of it still increasing with his good fortune, till it amounted
to ten thousand drachmas a day, to which sum he limited it, and beyond
this he would suffer none to lay out in any entertainment where he
himself was the guest.

Among the treasures and other booty that was taken from Darius, there
was a very precious casket, which being brought to Alexander for a great
rarity, he asked those about him what they thought fittest to be laid up
in it; and when they had delivered their various opinions, he told them
he should keep Homer's Iliad in it. Nor did Homer prove an unprofitable
companion to him in his expeditions. For, after he had become master of
Egypt he determined to found a great and populous city, and give to it
his own name. And when he had measured and staked out the ground with