17.4
And Menander, in one of his comedies,Kook, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 240. evidently refers jestingly to this marvel:— How Alexander-like, indeed, this is; and if I seek some one, Spontaneous he’ll present himself; and if I clearly must Pass through some place by sea, this will lie open to my steps. Alexander himself; however, made no such prodigy out of it in his letters, but says that he marched by way of the so-called Ladder, and passed through it, setting out from Phaselis.
17.5
This was the reason for his spending several days in that city, during which he noticed that a statue of Theodectas, a deceased citizen of Phaselis, had been erected in the marketplace. Once, therefore, after supper and in his cups, he led a band of revellers to the statue and crowned it with many of their garlands, thus in pleasantry returning no ungraceful honour for the past association with the man which he owed to Aristotle and philosophy.
18.1
After this, he overpowered such of the Pisidians as had offered him resistance, and subdued Phrygia; and after he had taken the city of Gordium,Early in 333 B.C. reputed to have been the home of the ancient Midas, he saw the much-talked-of waggon bound fast to its yoke with bark of the cornel-tree, and heard a story confidently told about it by the Barbarians, to the effect that whosoever loosed the fastening was destined to become king of the whole world.
18.2
Well, then, most writers say that since the fastenings had their ends concealed, and were intertwined many times in crooked coils, Alexander was at a loss how to proceed, and finally loosened the knot by cutting it through with his sword, and that when it was thus smitten many ends were to be seen. But Aristobulus says that he undid it very easily, by simply taking out the so-called hestor, or pin, of the waggon-pole, by which the yoke-fastening was held together, and then drawing away the yoke.Cf. Arrian, Anab. ii. 3.
