ct, and, as Bacchus was the special god of Thebes, he
thought himself punished by the fits of rage that seized him after any
excess in wine. The other Greeks, all but the Spartans, again sent
envoys to meet Alexander at Corinth, and granted him all the men, stores,
and money he asked for. The only person who did not bow down to him was
Diogenes, a philosopher who so exaggerated Stoicism that he was called
the "Mad Socrates." His sect were called Cynics, from Cyon, a dog,
because they lived like dogs, seldom washing, and sleeping in any hole.
Diogenes' lair was a huge earthenware tub, that belonged to the temple of
the mother of the gods, Cybele; and here Alexander went to see him, and
found him basking in the sun before it, but not choosing to take any
notice of the princely youth who addressed him--"I am Alexander the
King."

"And I am Diogenes the Cynic," was the answer, in a tone as if he thought
himself quite as good as the king. Alexander, however, talked much with
him, and ended by asking if he could do anything for him.

"Only stand out of my sunshine," was the answer; and as the young king
went away he said, "If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes;"
meaning, perhaps, that if he were not to master all earthly things, he
would rather despise them. Twelve years later, Diogenes, then past
ninety, was found dead in his tub, having supped the night before upon
the raw leg of an ox; and, strangely enough, it was the very night that
Alexander died.

[Picture: Alexander] Alexander was going on with his preparations for
conquering the East. He had 12,000 foot soldiers from Macedon, trained
to fight in the terrible phalanx, and 5000 horsemen; also his own
bodyguard of young nobles, bred up with him at Pella; 7000 men from the
Greek states, and 5000 who had been used, like the 10,000 of Xenophon, to
hire themselves out to the Persians, and thus knew the languages,
manners, roads, and ways of fighting in the East; but altogether he had
only 34,500 men with which to attack the empire which stretched from the
AEgean to Scythia, from the Euxine to the African deserts. Such was his
liberality in gifts before he went away, that when he was asked what he
had left for himself, he answered, "My hopes;" and his hope was not
merely to conquer that great world, but to tame it, bring it into order,
and teach the men there the wisdom and free spirit of the Greek world;
for he had learnt from Aristotle that to make men true