ose who had employed them against himself; rightly
judging, that by making such men his friends, he should draw praises
from the same fountain from which he had been aspersed. His capital
passions were ambition and love of pleasure, which he indulged in their
turns to the greatest excess; yet the first was always predominant--to
which he could easily sacrifice all the charms of the second, and draw
pleasure even from toils and dangers, when they ministered to his glory.
For he thought Tyranny, as Cicero says, the greatest of goddesses; and
had frequently in his mouth a verse of Euripides, which expressed the
image of his soul, that if right and justice were ever to be violated,
they were to be violated for the sake of reigning. This was the chief
end and purpose of his life--the scheme that he had formed from his
early youth; so that, as Cato truly declared of him, he came with
sobriety and meditation to the subversion of the republic. He used to
say, that there were two things necessary to acquire and to support
power--soldiers and money; which yet depended mutually upon each other:
with money, therefore, he provided soldiers, and with soldiers extorted
money, and was, of all men, the most rapacious in plundering both
friends and foes; sparing neither prince, nor state, nor temple, nor
even private persons who were known to possess any share of treasure.
His great abilities would necessarily have made him one of the first
citizens of Rome; but, disdaining the condition of a subject, he could
never rest till he made himself a Monarch. In acting this last part, his
usual prudence seemed to fail him; as if the height to which he was
mounted had turned his head and made him giddy; for, by a vain
ostentation of his power, he destroyed the stability of it; and, as men
shorten life by living too fast, so by an intemperance of reigning he
brought his reign to a violent end.

MIDDLETON.

[Illustration: COIN OF CAESAR AUGUSTUS.]

[Illustration: COIN OF THE EMPEROR TIBERIUS.]

* * * * *

SIEGE OF TYRE.

It appeared to Alexander a matter of great importance, before he went
further, to gain the maritime powers. Upon application, the Kings of
Cyprus and Phoenicea made their submission; only Tyre held out. He
besieged that city seven months, during which time he erected vast
mounds of earth, plied it with his engines, and invested it on the side
next the sea with two hundred gallies. He h