174 ALEXANDER.

he could not choose but give her and her children their freedom to go whither they pleased. After this he received the Athenians into favor, although they had shown themselves so much con- cerned at the calamity of Thebes that out of sorrow they omitted the celebration of the Mysteries, and enter- tained those who escaped with all possible humanity. Whether it were, like the lion, that his passion was now satisfied, or that after an example of extreme cruelty, he had a mind to appear merciful, it happened well for the Athenians ; for he not only forgave them all past offences, but bade them to look to their affairs with vigi- lance, remembering that if he should miscarry, they were likely to be the arbiters of Greece. Certain it is, too, that in after-time he often repented of his severity to the Thebans, and his remorse had such influence on his temper as to make him ever after less rigorous to all others. He imputed also the murder of Clitus, which he committed in his wine, and the unwillingness of the Mac- edonians to follow him against the Indians, by which his enterprise and glory was left imperfect, to the wrath and vengeance of Bacchus, the protector of Thebes. And it was observed that whatsoever any Theban, who had the good fortune to survive this victory, asked of him, he was sure to grant without the least difficulty. Soon after, the Grecians, being assembled at the Isth- mus, declared their resolution of joining with Alexander in the war against the Persians, and proclaimed him their general. While he stayed here, many public ministers and philosophers came from all parts to visit him, and congrat- ulated him on his election, but contrary to his expecta- tion, Diogenes of Sinope, who then was living at Corinth, thought so little of him, that instead of coming to com- pliment him, he never so much as stirred out of the sub-

urb called the Cranium, where Alexander found him