build a temple to the Olympian Zeus on the hill, and to erect an altar in it; but while he was considering which part of the hill was the most suitable site, suddenly a winter storm arose, though it was the summer season, loud claps of thunder were heard, and rain fell on the spot where the palace of the kings of Lydia had stood. From this Alexander thought that the deity had revealed to him where the temple to Zeus ought to be built; and he gave orders accordingly. He left Pausanias, one of the Companions, to be superintendent of the citadel of Sardis, Nicias to supervise the collection of the tribute and taxes, and Asander, son of Philotas, to be superintendent of Lydia and the rest of the dominion of Spithridates, giving him as large a number of cavalry and light-armed infantry as seemed suflBcient for present emergencies. He also sent Galas and Alexander, son of Aëropus, into the country of Memnon,[1] in command of the Peloponnesians and most of the other Grecian allies,, except the Argives, who had been left behind to guard the citadel of Sardis.
Meantime, when the news of the cavalry battle was spread abroad, the Grecian mercenaries who formed the garrison of Ephesus, seized two of the Ephesian. triremes and set off in flight. They were accompanied by Amyntas,[2] son of Antiochus, who had fled from Alexander out of Macedonia, not because he had received any injury from the king, but from ill-will to him, and thinking it not unlikely that he should suffer some illtreatment from him (on account of his disloyalty). On the fourth day Alexander arrived at Ephesus, where he recalled from exile all the men who had been banished
- ↑ Memnon had succeeded his brother Mentor as governor for the Persian king of the territory near the Hellespont. See Diodoras, xvii. 7.
- ↑ This man took refuge with Darius, and distinguished himself at the battle of Issus. See Plutarch (Alex., 20); Curtius, iii. 28. He met with his death soon after in Egypt. See Arrian, ii. 6 and 13; Diod., xvii. 48.
