All things being ready for their fetting out, he thought proper to reveal the defign he had fo long meditated, viz. to have divine honours paid him; and was folely intent on the means for putting that defign in execution. He was refolved, not only to be called, but to be believed, the son of Jupiter; as if it had been poffible for him to command as abfolutely over the mind as over the tongue, and that the. Macedonians, would condefcend to fall proftrate, and adore him after the Perfian manner.

To footh and cherish thefe ridiculous pretenfions, there were not wanting flatterers, thofe common pets of courts, who are more dangerous to princes than the arms of their enemies. The Macedonians, indeed, would not stoop to this base adulation; all of them, to a man, refufing to vary, in any manner, from the cuftoms of their country. The whole evil was, owing to fome Greeks, whofe depraved manners were a scandal to their profeffion of teaching virtue and the fciences. These, though the mean refuse of Greece, were nevertheless in greater credit with the king, than either the princes of his blood, or the generals of his army it was fuch creatures as these that placed him in the fkies; and publifhed, wherever they came, that Hercules, Bacchus, Caftor and Pollux, would refign their feats to this new deity.

He therefore appointed a festival, and made an incredibly pompous banquet, to which he invited the greatest lords of his court, both Macedonians and Greeks, and moft of the highest quality among the Perfians. With these he fat down at table for fome time, after which he withdrew. Upon this Cleon, one of his flatterers, began to fpeak, and expatiated very much on the praises of the king, as had before been agreed upon. He made a long detail of the high obligations they had to him, all which (he obferved) they might acknowledge and repay at a very eafy expence, merely with two grains of incenfe, which they should offer him as to a god, without

the

* Non deerat talia concupifcenti perniciofa adulatio, perpetuum malum regum, quorum opes fæpius affentatio, quàm hoftis, evertit, Q. CURT,

the leaft scruple, fince they believed him fuch. To this purpose he cited the example of the Perfians. He took notice, that Hercules himself, and Bacchus, were not ranked among the deities, till after they had furmounted the envy of their contemporaries. That in cafe the reft fhould not care to pay this juftice to Alexander's merit, he himself was refolved to fhow them the way, and to worship him if he should come into the hall. But that all of them muft do their duty, efpecially thofe that profeffed wisdom, who ought to ferve to the reft as an example of the veneration due to fo great a monarch.

It appeared plainly that this fpeech was directed to Callifthenes. He was related to Ariftotle, who had prefented him to Alexander his pupil, that he might attend upon that monarch in the war of Perfia. He was confidered, upon account of his wisdom and gravity, as the fittest perfon to give him fuch wholesome counsel, as was most capable of preferving him from those exceffes, into which his youth and fiery temper might hurry him: but he was accused of not poffeffing the gentle, infinuating behaviour of courts; and of * not knowing a certain medium, between grovelling complacency, and inflexible obftinacy. Ariftotle had attempted, but to no purpose, to foften the feverity of his temper; and foreseeing the ill confequences, with which his difagreeable liberty of fpeaking his mind might be attended, he used often to repeat the following verfe of Homer to him:

My fon thy freedom will abridge thy days.

And his prediction was but too true.

This philofopher, feeing that every one, on this occafion, continued in a deep filence, and that the eyes

n Diog. Laert. in Ariftet. lib. v. p. 303.

of

* Inter abrupiam contumaciam & deforme obfequium pergere iter ambitione

ac periculis vacuum. TACIT. Annal. lib. iv. cap. 20.

+ Ωκυμος δημοι τελ@ εσσεαι, δὲν αγορευεις. II. xvii. v. 95.

of the whole affembly were fixed on him, made a speech, which appears to me juft enough. However, it often happens, when a subject is bound in duty to oppose the inclinations of his fovereign, that the moft cautious and most respectful zeal is confidered as infolence and rebellion. "Had the king (faid he) been present when. "thou madeft thy speech, none among us would then "have attempted to anfwer thee, for he himself would. "have interrupted thee, and not have fuffered thee to "prompt him to affume the cuftoms of Barbarians, in "cafting an odium on his perfon and glory, by fo fervile "an adulation. But fince he is abfent, I will anfwer "thee in his name. I confider Alexander as worthy of "all the honours that can be paid a mortal; but there is "a difference between the worship of the gods and that "of men. The former includes temples, altars, prayers, "and facrifices; the latter is confined to praises only, "and awful respect. We falute the latter, and look "upon it as glorious to pay them fubmiffion, obedience, "and fidelity; but we adore the former, we inftitute "feftivals to their honour, and fing hymns and fpiritual fongs to their glory. The worship of the gods does "itself vary, according to their rank; and the homage we pay to Caftor and Pollux, is not like that with "which we adore Mercury and Jupiter. We must not "therefore confound all things, either by bringing down "the gods to the condition of mortals, or by railing a "mortal to the ftate of a ged. Alexander would be justly offended fhould we pay to another perfon the "homage due to his facred perfon only; ought we not "to dread the indignation of the gods as much, fhould "we bestow upon mortals, the honours due to them "alone? I am fenfible that our monarch is vaftly fu "perior to the reft; he is the greatest of kings, and the "moft glorious of all conquerors; but then he is a man, "not a god. To obtain this title, he must first be di"vefted of his mortal frame; but this is greatly our in"tereft to wifh may not happen, but as late as poffible.. "The Greeks did not worship Hercules till after his death;

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"death; and that not till the oracle had exprefsly "commanded it. The Perfians are cited as an example for our imitation; but how long is it that the vanquifhed have given law to the victor? Can we forget "that Alexander crofled the Hellefpont, not to fubject "Greece to Afia, but Afia to Greece!"

The deep filence which all the company obferved whilft Callifthenes fpoke, was an indication, in fome meafure, of their thoughts. The king, who flood behind the tapestry all the time, heard whatever had paffed. He thereupon ordered Cleon to be told, That without infifting any farther, he would only require the Perfians to fall proftrate, according to their ufual cuftom; a little after which he came in, pretending he had been bufied in fome affair of importance. Immediately the Perfians fell proftrate to adore him. Polyfperchon, who stood near him, obferving that one of them bowed fo low that' his chin touched the ground, bid him, in a rallying tone of voice, to ftrike harder. The king, offended at this joke, threw Polyfperchon into prifon, and broke up the affembly. However, he afterwards pardoned him, but Callifthenes was not fo fortunate.

To rid himself of him, he laid to his charge a crime of which he was no ways guilty. Hermolaus, one of the young officers who attended upon the king in all places, had, upon account of fome private pique, formed a confpiracy against him; but it was very happily dif covered, the inftant it was to be put in execution. The ̇criminals were feifed, put to the torture, and executed. Not one among them had accufed Callifthenes; but having been very intimate with Hermolaus, that alone was fufficient. Accordingly he was thrown into a dungeon, loaded with irons, and the moft grievous torments were inflicted on him, in order to extort a confeffion of guilt. But he infifted upon his innocence to the last, and expired in the midft of his tortures.

Nothing has reflected fo much difhonour on Alexander's memory, as this unjust and cruel death of Callifthenes. He truly merited the name of Philofopher, from the

folidity

folidity of his understanding, the extent of his knowledge, the aufterity of his life, the regularity of his conduct, and above all, from the hatred he fo evidently manifefted for diffimulation and flattery of every kind. He was not born for courts, the frequenters of which must have a fupple, pliable, flexible turn of mind; fometimes it must be of a knavifh and treacherous, at leaft, of an hypocritical, flattering caft. He very feldom was feen at the king's table though frequently invited to it; and whenever he prevailed fo far upon himself as to go thither, his melancholy filent air was a manifeft indication, that he difapproved of every thing that was faid and done at it. With this humour, which was a little too fevere, he would have been an inestiinable treafure, had he been poffeffed by a prince who hated falfehood; for among the many thoufands who furrounded Alexander, and paid court to him, Callifthenes only had courage enough to tell him the truth. But where do we meet with princes who know the value of fuch a virtue, and the ufe which ought to be made of it? Truth feldom pierces thofe clouds which are raised by the authority of the great, and the flattery of their courtiers. And indeed Alexander, by this dreadful example, deprived all virtuous men of the opportunity of exhorting him to those things which were for his true interest. From that inftant no one spoke with freedom in the council; even thofe, who had the greateft love for the public, and a perfonal affection for Alexander, thought themselves not obliged to undeceive him. After this, nothing was liftened to but flattery, which gained fuch an afcendant over that prince, as entirely depraved him, and justly punished him, for having fa crificed, to the wild ambition of having adoration paid him, the most virtuous man about his perfon.

I obferve, after Seneca, that the death of Callifthenes is an eternal reproach to Alexander, and fo horrid a crime,

*Hoc eft Alexandri crimen æternum, quòd nulla virtus, nulla bellorum felicitas redimet. Nam quotiens quis dixerit, occidit Perfarum multa millia, opponetur,& Callifthenem. Quotiens dictum erit, occidit Darium, penes