He presented Parmenio with the house of Bagoas, in which it is said that property worth a thousand talents was found which had belonged to the people of Susa.  He also sent word to Antipater, warning him to keep a guard always about his person, as a plot had been formed against his life.  He sent many presents to his mother, but forbade her to interfere with the management of the kingdom.  When she stormed at this decision of his, he patiently endured her anger; and once when Antipater wrote a long letter to him full of abuse of Olympias, he observed, after reading it, that Antipater did not know that one tear of his mother’s eye would outweigh ten thousand such letters.

XL.  Alexander now observed that his friends were living in great luxury and extravagance; as for instance, Hagnon of Teos had his shoes fastened with silver nails; Leonnatus took about with him many camels, laden with dust,[415] from Egypt, to sprinkle his body with when he wrestled; Philotas had more than twelve miles of nets for hunting; and that all of them used richly perfumed unguents to anoint themselves with instead of plain oil, and were attended by a host of bathmen and chamberlains.  He gently reproved them for this, saying that he was surprised that men who had fought so often and in such great battles, did not remember that the victors always sleep more sweetly than the vanquished, and that they did not perceive, when they imitated the luxury of the Persians, that indulgence is for slaves, but labour for princes.  “How,” he asked, “can a man attend to his horse, or clean his own lance and helmet, if he disdains to rub his own precious body with his hands?  And do you not know, that our career of conquest will come to an end on the day when we learn to live like those whom we have vanquished?” He himself, by way of setting an example, now exposed himself to greater fatigues and hardships than ever in his campaigns and hunting expeditions, so that old Lakon, who was with him when he slew a great lion, said, “Alexander, you fought well with the lion for his kingdom.”  This hunting scene was afterwards represented by Kraterus at Delphi.  He had figures made in bronze of Alexander and the hounds fighting with the lion, and of himself running to help him.  Some of the figures were executed by the sculptor Lysippus, and some by Leochares.

XLI.  Thus did Alexander risk his life in the vain endeavour to teach his friends to live with simplicity and hardihood; but they, now that they had become rich and important personages, desired to enjoy themselves, and no longer cared for long marches and hard campaigns, so that at last they began to murmur against him, and speak ill of him.  He bore this with great gentleness at first, saying that it was the part of a king to do his subjects good and to be ill-spoken of by them in return.  Indeed, he used to take advantage of the most trifling incidents to show the esteem he had for his intimate friends, of which I will now give a few examples.