acts of injustice in Egypt.[1] For my own part I do not blame him for his friendship to Hephaestion and for his recollection of him even when dead; but I do blame him for many other acts. For the letter commanded Cleomenes to prepare chapels for the hero Hephaestion in the Egyptian Alexandria, one in the city itself and another in the island of Pharos, where the tower is situated.[2] The chapels were to be exceedingly large and to be built at lavish expense. The letter also directed that Cleomenes should take care that Hephaestion's name should be attached to them; and moreover that his name should be engraved on all the legal documents with which the merchants entered into bargains with each other.[3] These things I cannot blame, except that he made so much ado about matters of trifling moment. But the following I must blame severely: "If I find," said the letter, "the temples and chapels of the hero Hephaestion in Egypt well completed, I will not only pardon, you any crimes you may have committed in the past, but in the future you shall suffer no unpleasant treatment from me, however great may be the crimes you have committed." I cannot commend this message sent, from a great king to a man who was ruling a large country and many people, especially as the man was a wicked one.[4]
- ↑ We read in the speech of Demosthenes against Dionysiodorus (1285), that Cleomenes and his partisans enriched themselves by monopolizing the exportation of com from Egypt. Cf. Arrian, iii. 5 supra.
- ↑ This island is mentioned by Homer (Odyssey, iv. 355). Alexander constructed a mole seven stades long from the coast to the island, thus forming the two harbours of Alexandria. See Strabo, xvii. 1. The island is chiefly famous for the lofty tower built upon it by Ptolemy Philadelphus, for a lighthouse. Cf. Caesar (De Bella Civili, iii. 112); Ammianus, xxii. 16,
- ↑ Consult Lucian (Calumniae non temere credendum, 17).
- ↑ After Alexander's death Cleomenes was executed by Ptolemy, who received Egypt as his share of the great king's dominions.
