was any impediment either to hitn or to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who led a part of the army in the campaign against them. Thus no military enterprise which Alexander undertook was ever unsuccessful. As he was marching back to Babylon, he was met by embassies from the Libyans, who congratulated him and crowned him as conqueror of the kingdom of Asia.[1] From Italy also came Bruttians, Lucanians, and Tyrrhenians[2] as envoys, for the same purpose. The Carthaginians are said to have sent an embassy to him at this time[3]; and it is also asserted that envoys came to request his friendship from the Ethiopians, the Scythians of Europe, the Gauls, and Iberians—nations whose names were heard and their accoutrements seen then for the first time by Greeks and Macedonians. They are also said to have entrusted to Alexander the duty of settling their disputes with each other. Then indeed it was especially evident both to himself and to those about him that he was lord of all the land and sea.[4] Of the men who have written the history of Alexander, Aristus and Asclepiades[5] alone say that the Romans also sent an embassy to him, and that when he met their embassy, he predicted something of the future power of Rome, observing both the attire of the men, their love of labour, and their devotion to freedom. At the same time he made urgent inquiries about their political constitution. This incident I have recorded neither as certainly authentic nor as altogether incredible; but none of the Roman writers have made
- ↑ Cf. Livy, Tii. 37, 38; Pliny, xxii. 4; Justin, xii. 13.
- ↑ The Romans called these people Etruscans.
- ↑ Justin (xxi. 6) says that the Carthaginians sent Hamiloar to learn Alexander's real designs against them, under the pretence of being an exile ofiering his services.
- ↑ Cf. Diodorus, xvii. 113.
- ↑ Aristus was a man of Salamis in Cyprus. Neither his work nor that of Asclepiades is extant. Aristus is mentioned by Athenaeus (x. 10) and Strabo (lib. xv.).
