In my opinion, the only remedy for wrongdoing is to agree that one has done wrong and to be clearly repentant for it the sufferings of those who have been harmed would not seem so bad, if the man who has harmed them admits that he has not acted well, and for the wrongdoer also there is some reasonable expectation for the future that he will not behave badly in a similar way again, if he has shown remorse for what he has done wrong in the past. The majority of men, even if they acknowledge that they have done wrong, think they can hide their mistake by making out that what they did was well done but in this they are mistaken.

I know that the remorse he showed when he had done wrong because of the nobility of his nature was unparalleled amongst the kings of old.

If Alexander made mistakes through haste or anger, or if he was led on to act in a barbarian and rather arrogant manner, for my part, I do not consider these serious faults, if one considers reasonably Alexander’s youth and his continual success and the nature of such men as associate, and will always associate, with kings to please them, not for the best of motives, but for evil. He made very little use of money for his own pleasure, but never held back when helping anyone else. Arrangements or agreements made with him were absolutely secure, and he was very successful at avoiding the tricks of those who tried to deceive him. When it was clear what needed to be done, he did it with the greatest boldness, and whenever he had to secure an objective before any of the enemy even suspected what would happen, he was very skilful at taking the initiative and acting first. He was very experienced in organising, arming and equipping his troops, and he was outstanding in raising the spirits of his troops, and filling them with confident expectation, and dispelling their terror in dangerous circumstances through his own lack of fear. He was very quick to see what needed to be done in situations that were still uncertain, and he was very successful in judging what was likely to happen from the facts available to him. He showed great self-control over the pleasures of the body, and as for the pleasures of the mind, he was insatiable only for praise. He was a very handsome man, most capable of hard work, very keen in judgement he was outstanding in bravery, and his love of honour and in his capacity for risk, and he was most attentive to religious matters. He was king of Macedonia for twelve years and eight months. By Aristobulus’ reckoning, he was thirty-two years eight months old.

(you may be interested to compare Arrian'sīelow with those of Curtius and/or Diodorus )Īlexander died in the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad, when Hegesias was archon in Athens.

Mouse-over the emboldened words to read theīlue and underlined, there is also a hyperlink to This is your set-text on Arrian's judgement of

The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian