The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-07-20
ALEXANDER AS MURDERER.
The wor'd-CcnQusrOs Passionate Aci and No
Less Passionate Remose.

Alexander in Anger and In Love-"
is the title OF Prof. Wheeler's July ar
ticle i'm his Century series on Alexan-
der the Great. In il he tells OF his kill
ing of Clitus. and his marriage TO Rox-
ane. At Samarkand at a feast i'm hon
or OF Dionysus. the brilliant cavalry
man taunted the king being provoked
thereto by certain courtiers:
Clitus' friends. i'm hope OF preventing
collision, hurried him out OF the room
and Ptolemy led him away out Of the
citadel and beyond the moat: but his
fate and the folly OF wine drew him
back. In moment he had entered at
another side OF the banqueting hall and
raising the portiere that hung before
the door. stood defiantly there, chant
ing i'm tone OF reckless challenge Euri-
pides' verses of discomfort from the
"Andromache."
ALAS. in Greece how in things ordered
are,
When trophies rise for victories in war.
Men count the praise not theirs who
did the deed,
But give alone TO him who led the
need"
A few words brought the import of
the well known passage. The appari-
tion at the doorway was sudden as the
challenge was Insulting. Quick as a
flash the impetuous king snatched
spear from the hands OF a guard and
hurled it at the figure by the raised
curtain. The deed was done. The
friend OF his childhood. his life-com-
panion and rescurer lay gasping out
his life.
Quick came the rebound from the
fury of anger in a passion of remorse.
Alexander bent by the side of the pros
trate body, drew out the fatal spear,
and would have turned il against him
self, but his companions seized him
and led him away by force to his cham
ber There he lay through the night
and through the day, writhlng i'm the
torment or remorse and self-reproach.
Now he would call Clitus by name as
If To awake him from death. now inn
plore his forgiveness. now chide HIM
self as murderer or his friends. now
call the name OF his nurse Lanice. eli
tus' sister, and as If she were present.
abuse himself i'm self-accusation be-
fore her: How i'll have / repaid thee.
kindly foster-mother. for all thy care
I'm rearing me, Thy sons thou hast
gwen TO die fighting I'm my behalf: thy
brother | have slain with mine own
hand When the first storm of grief
had spent itself. he lay still upon his
Deu, HellneF eating nor drinking, nor
uttering a word
SO for three days. until the fear
spread through the camp that ne might
become demented. Men came u plead
with him that he should face his work
and put his grief behind him: but he
listened 10 none OF them till finally
'specious patitudes or kismet and
began to soothe. and a
sophistic Greek infused a baleful balm.
the successor NJ Darius that
emperors stand above obligation and
above law still the deed remained n
burden upon his soul. and the memory
)f it seems 10 have emblttered the re-
of his life. Perhaps IL added
something of the hardness we can not
Tail to note creeping I'm upon his tenn
per during the latter years. Contiau-
)us life in the hard experience OF war.
coupled with the unnatural eNcftements
" risk and enormous success might !
nave been expected to show their ef- !
'ects I'm his character; but this incident |
alone can not be made. prominent as il |
has been in the accounts of his life, to |
AIRY the whole argument