The Washington times., 1920-04-18

shat nave grown up III EurOpe anu
established this nation.
Professor Benjamin Ide Wheeler
says truly, mo single personality,
excepting the carpenters son OF
Nazareth, has done so much to
make the world of civilization We
live in what it is as Alexander OF
Macedon."
You see Alexander, at the court
Of his father, King Philip, spend
ing the first six years of his life
in care of Lenice, a nurse whom he
loved. The care she gave him was
not well requited Afterwards
even one of her sons was killed
in battle fighting under him. He
murdered her only brother, Clitus
with his own hand, when both
were drunk, although Clitus had
saved his life, at the battle OF
Granicus. Arrian describes 1T
thus, showing Alexander as usual
In the thick of the fight:
"And, just then, as Spithridates
had swung his scimitar aloft to
bring it down upon the head of the
king, Clitus, the very one whom
Alexander six years later in his
anger slew, anticipating the blow,
smote him through the shoulder,
cutting of arm, scimitar, and all"
For the murder Of Clitus, the
friend who saved his life, Alex
ander's excuse was drunkenness.
He could not have been very drunk.
For as Clitus taunted the king
from a distant doorway, reciting
insulting verse from Euripides,
the king, getting up from the
table, threw q javelin, killing him
on the spot. It was one of the
best shots in history, too good for
a really drunken man.
Three days and three nights
Alexander mourned, without eat
ing or sleeping, calling on the
name Of his nurse, Lenice, saying
chow i'll have repaid thee, kindly
;-foster-mother, for all thy care
Thy sons thou hadst given TO die
fighting in my behalf; thy brother
have slain with mine own hand" "
His soldiers feared Alexander
would die of grief, very unusual
among kings who killed anybody
they wanted to, in those days
Alexander's mother, Olympias.
was more interesting than, Philip
his father, but she had little to do
with her sons babyhood-she was
too busy. with jealousy OF Philip
and the strange religion. strange
dances Of Epirus. the country OF
her father, the King Neoptolemus.
When Abraham Lincoln read
''Plutarch's LIVES" he came across
this paragraph:
s@Olympias, in her abnormal zeal
to surround these states Of franco
and inspiration with more barbar1c
dread, was won't In sacred dances
to have about her great tame ser
pents, which, sometimes creeping
ont Of the ivy and the mystic fans,
sometimes winding themselves
about the staffs and the chaplets
which the women bore, presented
q sight Of horror to the men who
beheld!"
She was not what you might call
a model mother for the nursery.
But she gave to Alexander the
power that conquered the world
and made our civilization safe.
We should be grateful to her for
that
Alexander came to the world at
the right time. Old, learned, mag
nificent Greece that looked with
scorn on Macedonians and their
rough language was about ready
to fall into his hand. Asia, under
Darius, had piled up huge wealth,
luxury, and arrogance that go be-
fore defeat.
Most important Of all, Aristotle,
born near the birthplace Of Alex
ander, was in Athens, twenty eight
years old, studying under Plato,
who had nine years of life left.
Aristotle, whom Philip chose to
teach his son, put love of knowl-
edge and power of consecutive
thought into the wonderful brain
that Olympias had created.
Napoleon at the grave of Rous-
seau said there could have been
no Napoleon had there been no
Rousseau. Many things were
necessary to produce Alexander,
and his mother, the barbarous
snake dancer, first of all. Philip,
the level-headed born soldier and
fighter, prepared a disciplined
army for Alexander, as the father
OF Frederick the Great prepared a
similar army for him.
Aristotle the teacner, greatest
that ever lived on earth, was in
tellectual father to the extraordi-