XXIX.  From Egypt he returned to Phoenicia, and there offered magnificent sacrifices to the gods, with grand processions, cyclic choruses, and performances of tragic dramas.  These last were especially remarkable, for the local kings of Cyprus acted as choragi, that is, supplied the chorus and paid all the expenses of putting the drama upon the stage, just as is done every year at Athens by the representatives of the tribes, and they exhibited wonderful emulation, desiring to outdo each other in the splendour of their shows.  The contest between Nikokreon, King of Salamis, and Pasikrates, King of Soli, is especially memorable.  These two had obtained by lot the two most celebrated actors of the day, who were named Athenodorus and Thessalus, to act in their plays.  Of these, Athenodorus was assigned to Nikokreon, and Thessalus, in whose success Alexander himself was personally interested, to Pasikrates.  Alexander, however, never allowed any word to escape him denoting his preference for one over the other until after the votes had been given, and Athenodorus had been proclaimed the winner, when, as he was going home, he said that he would willingly have given up a province of his kingdom to save Thessalus from being vanquished.  As Athenodorus was fined by the Athenians for being absent from their Dionysian festival, in which he ought to have taken part, he begged Alexander to write them a letter to excuse him.  Alexander refused to do this, but paid his fine himself.  And when Lykon, of Skarphia, an excellent actor who had pleased Alexander well, inserted a verse into the comedy which he was acting, in which he begged to be given ten talents, Alexander laughed and gave them to him.

Darius now sent an embassy to Alexander, bearing a letter, in which he offered to pay ten thousand talents as a ransom for his wife and children, and proposed that Alexander should receive all the territory west of the Euphrates, and become his ally and son-in-law.  Alexander laid this proposal before his friends, and when Parmenio said, “I should accept it, if I were Alexander.”  “So would I,” replied Alexander, “if I were Parmenio.”  He wrote, however, a letter in answer to Darius, informing him that if he would come to him, and submit himself, he should be used with courtesy; but that if not, he should presently march against him.

XXX.  Soon after this the wife of Darius died in child-bed, which greatly grieved Alexander, as he thereby lost a great opportunity of displaying his magnanimity:  nevertheless he granted her a magnificent funeral.  We are told that one of the eunuchs attached to the royal harem, named Teireus, who had been captured with the ladies, made his escape shortly after the queen’s death, rode straight to Darius, and informed him of what had happened.  Darius, at this, beat his face and wept aloud, saying, “Alas for the fortune of Persia! that the wife and sister of the king should not only have been taken captive while she lived, but also have been buried