unworthily of her rank when she died.”  To this the eunuch answered, “You have no cause to lament the evil fortune of Persia on account of your wife’s burial, or of any want of due respect to her.  Our lady Statira, your children, and your mother, when alive wanted for nothing except the light of your countenance, which our lord Oromasdes will some day restore to them, nor was she treated without honour when she died, for her funeral was even graced by the tears of her enemies.  Alexander is as gracious a conqueror as he is a terrible enemy.”

These words roused other suspicions in the mind of Darius:  and, leading the eunuch into an inner chamber in his tent, he said to him, “If you have not, like the good luck of Persia, gone over to Alexander and the Macedonians, and if I am still your master Darius, tell me, I conjure you by the name of great Mithras our lord, and by the right hand of a king, which I give thee, do I lament over the least of Statira’s misfortunes when I weep for her death, and did she not in her life make us more miserable by her dishonour, than if she had fallen into the hands of a cruel enemy?  For what honest communication can a young conqueror have with the wife of his enemy, and what can be the meaning of his showing such excessive honour to her after her death?” While Darius was yet speaking, Teireus threw himself at his feet, and besought him to be silent, and not to dishonour Alexander and his dead wife and sister by such suspicions, nor yet to take away from himself that thought which ought to be his greatest consolation in his misfortunes, which was that he had been conquered by one who was more than man.  Rather ought he to admire Alexander, whose honourable treatment of the Persian women proved him to be even greater than did his bravery in vanquishing their men.  Those words the eunuch assured him, with many protestations and oaths, were perfectly true.  Darius, when he heard this, came out of his tent to his friends, and, raising his hands to heaven, said, “Ye parent gods, who watch over the Persian throne, grant that I may again restore the fortune of Persia to its former state, in order that I may have an opportunity of repaying Alexander in person the kindness which he has shown to those whom I hold dearest; but if indeed the fated hour has arrived, and the Persian empire is doomed to perish, may no other conqueror than Alexander mount the throne of Cyrus.”  The above is the account given by most historians of what took place on this occasion.

XXXI.  Alexander, after conquering all the country on the higher bank of the Euphrates, marched to attack Darius, who was advancing to meet him with an army of a million fighting men.