Note 523 — Chapter XCIV · MILITARY OPERATIONS AND CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER, AFTER HIS WINTER-QUARTERS IN PERSIS, DOWN TO HIS DEATH AT BABYLON.

There was no sentiment more deeply rooted in the free Grecian mind, prior to Alexander’s conquests, than the repugnance to arrogant aspirations on the part of the fortunate man, swelling himself above the limits of humanity—and the belief that such aspirations were followed by the Nemesis of the gods. In the dying speech which Xenophon puts into the mouth of Cyrus the Great, we find—“Ye gods, I thank you much, that I have been sensible of your care for me, and that I have never in my successes raised my thoughts above the measure of man” (Cyropæd. viii. 7, 3). Among the most striking illustrations of this sentiment is, the story of Solon and Crœsus (Herodot. i. 32-34).

I shall recount in the next chapter examples of monstrous flattery on the part of the Athenians, proving how this sentiment expired with their freedom.