LXIX.  While Alexander was in Persis[429] he first renewed the old custom that whenever the king came there he should give every woman a gold piece.  On account of this custom we are told that many of the Persian kings came but seldom to Persis, and that Ochus never came at all, but exiled himself from his native country through his niggardliness.  Shortly afterwards Alexander discovered that the sepulchre of Cyrus had been broken into, and put the criminal to death, although he was a citizen of Pella[430] of some distinction, named Polemarchus.  When he had read the inscription upon the tomb, he ordered it to be cut in Greek letters also.  The inscription ran as follows:  “O man, whosoever thou art, and whencesoever thou comest—­for I know that thou shalt come—­I am Cyrus, who won the empire for the Persians.  I pray thee, do not grudge me this little earth that covereth my body.”  These words made a deep impression upon Alexander, and caused him to meditate upon the uncertainty and changefulness of human affairs.  About this time, Kalanus, who had for some days been suffering from some internal disorder, begged that a funeral pile might be erected for him.  He rode up to it on horseback, said a prayer, poured a libation for himself and cut off a lock of his own hair, as is usual at a sacrifice, and then, mounting the pile, shook hands with those Macedonians who were present, bidding them be of good cheer that day, and drink deep at the king’s table.  He added, that he himself should shortly see the king at Babylon.  Having spoken thus he lay down and covered himself over.  He did not move when the fire reached him, but remained in the same posture until he was consumed, thus sacrificing himself to the gods after the manner of the Indian philosophers.  Many years afterwards another Indian, a friend of Caesar, did the like in the city of Athens; and at the present day his sepulchre is shown under the name of “the Indian’s tomb.”

LXX.  After Alexander left the funeral pyre, he invited many of his friends and chief officers to dinner, and offered a prize to the man who could drink most unmixed wine.  Promachus, who won it, drank as much as four choes.[431] He was presented with a golden crown worth a talent, and lived only three days afterwards.  Of the others, Chares, the historian, tells us that forty-one died of an extreme cold that came upon them in their drunkenness.

Alexander now celebrated the marriage of many of his companions at Susa.  He himself married Statira, the daughter of Darius, and bestowed the noblest of the Persian ladies upon the bravest of his men.  He gave a splendid banquet on the occasion of his marriage, inviting to it not only all the newly married couples, but all those Macedonians who were already married to Persian wives.  It is said that nine thousand guests were present at this feast, and that each of them was presented with a golden cup to drink his wine in.  Alexander entertained them in all