2.3
When Crates Cf.Moralia, 401 a; Athenaeus, 591 b; Stobaeus, Florilegium, vi. 39 (vol. iii. p. 296 Hense). saw a golden statue of Phrynê the courtesan standing at Delphi, he cried out that it stood there as a monument to Greek licentiousness; and thus if one examine either the life or the tomb of Sardanapalus (for I think there is no difference between them), one would say that they are a monument to the bounty of Fortune. But if this be so, shall we allow Fortune to lay hold upon Alexander after Sardanapalus, and to lay claim to Alexander’s greatness and power? For what greater gift did she bestow on him than those which other monarchs received at her hands: arms, horses, missiles, money, guardsmen? Let Fortune endeavour to make an Aridaeus Cf. 337 d, supra. great by these, if she can, or an Ochus or Oarses Cf. 337 e, supra. or Tigranes the Armenian, or the Bithynian Nicomedes. Of these Tigranes Cf. Life of Pompey, chap. xxxiii. (637 a); Comp. of Cimon and Lucullus, iii. (522 e); Velleius Paterculus, ii. 37; Valerius Maximus, v. 1. 10. cast down his crown before the feet of Pompey and ignominiously received back his kingdom, which had become the spoil of war. But NicomedesPlutarch has confused Nicomedes with his father Prusias; Cf. Polybius, xxx. 19; Livy, xlv. 44; Diodorus, xxxi. 15; Appian, Mithridatica, 2. shaved his head and put on the freedman’s cap and proclaimed himself an emancipated slave of the Roman people.
