De Regibus

These were nearly all the leaders of the Greek nation who seem worthy of memory, apart from the kings: for these we have been unwilling to touch, because the deeds of all have been related separately. Nor indeed are they very many. The Lacedaemonian Agesilaus, moreover, was a king in name, not in power, like the rest of the Spartans. But of those who held dominion with absolute sway, the most outstanding, in our judgement, were of the Persians, Cyrus and Darius, son of Hystaspes — each of whom, a private man, gained a kingdom by valour. The former of these fell in battle among the Massagetae; Darius met his last day in old age. There are three besides of the same nation: Xerxes and the two Artaxerxes, surnamed Macrochir (Long-Hand) and Mnemon. Of Xerxes it is most illustrious that with the greatest armies within the memory of men he made war upon Greece by land and sea. But Macrochir has the chief praise of the amplest and most beautiful form of body, which he adorned with incredible valour in war: for in that Persian nation no one was stouter of hand than he. Mnemon flourished in the fame of justice. For when, by his mother's crime, he had lost his wife, he so indulged his grief that filial duty overcame him. Of these, two of the same name paid the debt of nature by sickness; the third was slain with the sword by his prefect Artabanus.

Of the Macedonian nation, moreover, two far outstripped the rest in the glory of their exploits: Philip, son of Amyntas, and Alexander the Great. The one of these was carried off by sickness at Babylon; Philip was slain at Aegae by Pausanias, near the theatre, as he was going to watch the games. There was one of Epirus, Pyrrhus, who warred with the Roman people. He, while he was assaulting the town of Argos in the Peloponnese, was struck by a stone and perished. There was likewise one of Sicily, Dionysius the elder. For he was both stout of hand and skilled in war, and — what is not easily found in a tyrant — by no means lustful, not luxurious, not avaricious, in short desirous of nothing except sole and perpetual rule, and for that reason cruel: for while he was eager to make it secure, he spared no man's life whom he thought a plotter against it. He, when he had won the tyranny by valour, kept it with great good fortune: for he died at more than sixty years of age, his kingdom flourishing. Nor in so many years did he see the funeral of any of his own stock, although he had begotten children of three wives and many grandsons had been born to him.

There were besides great kings from among the friends of Alexander the Great, who after his death seized empires, among them Antigonus and his son Demetrius, Lysimachus, Seleucus, Ptolemaeus. Of these, Antigonus was slain in battle, while he was contending against Seleucus and Lysimachus. By a like death Lysimachus was visited by Seleucus: for, their alliance being dissolved, they waged war between themselves. But Demetrius, when he had given his daughter in marriage to Seleucus, and yet no faithful friendship could thereby remain between them, taken captive in war, the father-in-law perished in the custody of his son-in-law of sickness. And not so long after, Seleucus was treacherously slain by Ptolemaeus Ceraunus, whom, driven out by his father from Alexandria and in want of others' resources, he had taken in. Ptolemaeus himself, moreover, when alive he had handed over the kingdom to his son, is said to have been deprived of his life by that same son. Since concerning these we think enough has been said, it does not seem amiss not to pass over Hamilcar and Hannibal, who, it is agreed, surpassed all born in Africa both in greatness of soul and in cunning.