cers who had to answer for the king's safety;
perhaps in modern language a colonel in the body-guards or household
troops; but as, in unmixed monarchies, the faithful officer who was
nearest the king's person, to whose watchfulness he trusted in the hour
of danger, often found himself the adviser in matters of state, so,
in the time of Alexander, the title of somatophylax was given to those
generals on whose wisdom the king chiefly leaned, and by whose advice
he was usually guided. Among these, and foremost in Alexander's love and
esteem, was Ptolemy, the son of Lagus. Philip, the father of Alexander,
had given Arsinoe, one of his relations, in marriage to Lagus; and her
eldest son Ptolemy, born soon after the marriage, was always thought to
be the king's son, though never so acknowledged. As he grew up, he was
put into the highest offices by Philip, without raising in the young
Alexander's mind the distrust which might have been felt if Ptolemy
could have boasted that he was the elder brother. He earned the good
opinion of Alexander by his military successes in Asia, and gained his
gratitude by saving his life when he was in danger among the Oxydracae,
near the river Indus; and moreover, Alexander looked up to him as the
historian whose literary powers and knowledge of military tactics were
to hand down to the wonder of future ages those conquests which he
witnessed.

Alexander's victories over Darius, and march to the river Indus, are no
part of this history: it is enough to say that he died at Babylon eight
years after he had entered Egypt; and his half-brother Philip Arridaeus,
a weak-minded, unambitious young man, was declared by the generals
assembled at Babylon to be his successor. His royal blood united more
voices in the army in his favour than the warlike and statesmanlike
character of any one of the rival generals. They were forced to be
content with sharing the provinces between them as his lieutenants;
some hoping to govern by their power over the weak mind of Arridaeus, and
others secretly meaning to make themselves independent.

In this weighty matter, Ptolemy showed the wisdom and judgment which
had already gained him his high character. Though his military rank and
skill were equal to those of any one of Alexander's generals, and his
claim by birth perhaps equal to that of Arridaeous, he was not one of
those who aimed at the throne; nor did he even aim at the second place,
but left to Perdiccas the reg