And lest anyone should perhaps suppose that at that time either the East alone was subdued by Alexander’s forces or Italy alone was wearied by Roman restlessness: at that very time war was also being waged by Agis, king of the Spartans, in Greece, by Alexander, king of Epirus, in Lucania, and by the governor Zopyrion in Scythia.
1 Et ne forte tunc quisquam opinetur uel Orientem solum Alexandri uiribus subactum uel Italiam tantummodo Romana inquietudine fatigatam: tunc etiam bellum Hagidis Spartanorum regis in Graecia, Alexandri regis Epiri in Lucania, Zopyrionis praefecti in Scythia gerebatur.
Of these, Agis the Lacedaemonian, having roused all Greece and brought it into rebellion with him, engaged the very strong forces of Antipater, and amid great slaughter on both sides fell himself.
2 quorum Hagidis Lacedaemonius excitata et rebellante secum uniuersa Graecia cum Antipatri fortissimis copiis congressus inter magnas utrorumque strages et ipse procubuit.
Alexander, for his part, aiming in Italy at the empire of the West in rivalry with Alexander the Great, after numerous and grievous wars waged there, was overcome by the Bruttii and the Lucanians, and his body was sold for burial.
3 Alexander autem in Italia adfectans occidentis imperium aemulans Alexandrum Magnum, post numerosa et grauia bella ibidem gesta a Bruttiis Lucanisque superatus est corpusque eius ad sepulturam uenditum.
Zopyrion, governor of Pontus, having assembled an army of thirty thousand, dared to make war on the Scythians, and was cut down to the point of extermination and wiped out utterly with all his forces.
4 Zopyrion uero praefectus Ponti adunato triginta milium exercitu Scythis bellum inferre ausus et usque ad internecionem caesus funditus cum omnibus copiis suis abrasus est.
So Alexander the Great, after the death of Darius, subdued the Hyrcanians and the Mardi: there too, while he was still intent on war, Thalestris, also called Minothea, a brazen Amazon, came to find him with three hundred women, roused by the desire to conceive offspring by him.1
5 Igitur Alexander Magnus post Darii mortem Hyrcanos et Mandos subegit: ubi etiam illum adhuc bello intentum Halestris siue Minothea, excita suscipiendae ab eo subolis gratia cum trecentis mulieribus procax Amazon inuenit.
1Thalestris, the Amazon queen of the Alexander legend; Orosius writes Halestris.
After this he attacked the Parthians in battle, who resisted long, and whom he all but destroyed before he conquered them;
6 post haec Parthorum pugnam adgressus, quos diu obnitentes deleuit propemodum antequam uicit,
then he subdued the Drangae, the Euergetae, the Parimae, the Paropamisadae, the Adaspii and the other peoples who dwelt at the foot of the Caucasus, founding there a city, Alexandria, on the river Tanais.2
7 inde Drangas Euergetas Parimas Parapamenos Adaspios ceterosque populos qui in radice Caucasi morabantur subegit, urbe ibi Alexandria super amnem Tanaim constituta.
2The Caucasus here is the Hindu Kush, and the river is the Jaxartes (Syr Darya), which ancient writers confused with the Tanais (Don); the city is Alexandria Eschate.
But his cruelty towards his own people was no less than his fury against the enemy. This is shown by his cousin Amyntas, killed; by his stepmother and his brothers, put to death; by Parmenion and Philotas, butchered; by Attalus, Eurylochus, Pausanias and many leading men of Macedonia, done away with; and by Clitus too, heavy with years and an old friend, wickedly murdered:
8 sed nec minor eius in suos crudelitas quam in hostem rabies fuit. docent hoc Amyntas consobrinus occisus, nouerca fratresque eius necati, Parmenio et Philotas trucidati, Attalus Eurylochus Pausanias multique Macedoniae principes exstincti, Clitus quoque annis grauis, amicitia uetus nefarie interfectus:
for when at a banquet, trusting in the king’s friendship, he defended the memory of Philip against the king, who was setting his own achievements above his father’s, the king, taking offence for no just cause, ran him through with a hunting spear, and in dying he stained the common banquet with blood.
9 qui cum in conuiuio fiducia amicitiae regiae aduersus regem, sua opera patri Philippo praeponentem, memoriam patris tueretur, ab offenso frustra rege uenabulo transfossus, commune conuiuium moriens cruentauit.
But Alexander, insatiable of human blood, whether of enemies or even of allies, nevertheless always thirsted for fresh gore.
10 sed Alexander, humani sanguinis inexsaturabilis siue hostium siue etiam sociorum, recentem tamen semper sitiebat cruorem.
And so, rushing into wars with persistent impetus, he received the surrender of the Chorasmi and the Dahae, an untamed people; and he killed Callisthenes the philosopher, his fellow pupil under Aristotle, together with very many other leading men, because, abandoning the customary form of salutation, he would not worship him as a god.
11 itaque pertinaci impetu in bella procurrens Chorasmos et Dahas indomitam gentem in deditionem accepit; Callisthenen philosophum sibique apud Aristotelen condiscipulum cum plurimis aliis principibus, cur eum deposita salutandi more ut deum non adoraret, occidit.