nor leading the army advancing in that direction; bat rather go right round towards' the east." But this did not turn out to be easy for him, on account of the difficulty of the ground; for the deity was leading him to the place where entering he was doomed soon to die. And perhaps it was better for him to be taken off in the very acme of his glory as well as of the affection entertained for him by men, before any of the vicissitudes natural to man befell him. Probably this was the reason Solon a.dvised Croesus to look at the end of a long life, and not before pronounce any man happy.[1] Tea indeed, Hephaestion's death had been no small misfortune to Alexander; and I think he would rather have departed before it occurred than have been alive to experience it; no less than Achilles, as it seems to me, would rather have died before Patroclus than have been the avenger of his death.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Advice of the Chaldees Rejected.
But he had a suspicion that the Chaldaeans were trying to prevent his entrance into Babylon at that time with reference rather to their own advantage than to the declaration of the oracle. For in the middle of the city of the Babylonians was the temple of Belus,[2] an edifice very great in size, constructed of baked bricks which
- ↑ See Herodotus (i. 32); Plutarch (Solon, 27).
- ↑ See p. 171, note 3. Herodotus (i. 181) gives a description of this temple, which he says existed in his time. Strabo (xvi. 1) agrees with Arrian that it was said to have been destroyed by Xerxes. He also says that Alexander employed 10,000 men in clearing away the rubbish of the ruins. Professor Sayoe and others adduce this passage of Arrian to prove that Herodotus is not to be trusted e'^en when he says he had seen the places and things which he describes. The words of Herodotus are is
also quoted by Cicero (De Divin., ii. 5): Est quidam Graecus vulgaris in hauc sententiam versus; bene qui oonjiciet, vatem huno perhibebo optimum."
