Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Comparison with Cyrus, King of the Persians, and with Alexander of Macedon.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter VII.—Comparison
with Cyrus, King of the Persians, and with Alexander of
Macedon.
Ancient history describes Cyrus, king of the Persians, as by far the most
illustrious of all kings up to his time. And yet if we regard the end
of his days,3065
| 3065 [Such seems to be the probable meaning of this passage, which is
manifestly corrupt, and of which various emendations have been
proposed.—Bag.] Perhaps better paraphrased, “But
since the test of blessedness lies not in this, but in his end, we look
and find that this.” The key to the idea is found in the remark
near the end of chapter 11. Cf. also note. | we find it but little corresponded
with his past prosperity, since he met with an inglorious and
dishonorable death at the hands of a woman.3066
| 3066 This is the account of Diodorus, who says he was taken prisoner
and crucified by the queen of the “Scythians” (3. 11, ed.
1531, f. 80b). Herodotus says that he was slain in battle,
but his head cut off afterwards and dipped in a sack of blood by the
queen Tomyris, who had rejected his suit, the death of whose son he had
caused, and who had sworn to “give him his fill of blood”
(Herod. Bk. I, §§205–214). Xenophon says he died
quietly in bed (Cyrop. 8. 7). |
Again, the sons of Greece
celebrate Alexander the Macedonian as the conqueror of many and diverse
nations; yet we find that he was removed by an early death, before he
had reached maturity, being carried off by the effects of revelry and
drunkenness.3067
| 3067 A
malarial fever, but made fatal by drinking at a banquet (cf. Plut.
chaps. 75 and 76, Arrian, Bk. 7). | His whole life embraced but the
space of thirty-two years, and his reign extended to no more than a
third part of that period. Unsparing as the thunderbolt, he advanced
through streams of blood and reduced entire nations and cities, young
and old, to utter slavery. But when he had scarcely arrived at the
maturity of life, and was lamenting the loss of youthful pleasures,
death fell upon him with terrible stroke, and, that he might not longer
outrage the human race, cut him off in a foreign and hostile land,
childless, without successor, and homeless. His kingdom too was
instantly dismembered, each of his officers taking away and
appropriating a portion for himself. And yet this man is extolled for
such deeds as these.3068
| 3068 Eusebius’ rhetorical purpose makes him unfair to Alexander,
who certainly in comparison with others of his time brought relative
blessing to the conquered (cf. Smith, Dict. I, p.
122). | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
