Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

632 GENERAL INTERMARRIAGES.This end he mainly sought to accomplish by what proved tobe the impracticable means of introducing Macedonian customsamong peoples unused to them and wedded to their oldways, and in climates to which they were unsuited ; and bythe still less effectual practice of fostering intermarriages ofGreeks and Orientals. This last idea Alexander now proposedto inaugurate on a gigantic scale, and couple it with anequally gigantic bounty to his men. His own present marriagewith Statira, Darius' eldest daughter and widow ofMentor, and with Parysatis, youngest daughter of Ochus, bywhich he might graft his descendants upon the two royalfamilies of Persia, was part of this universal scheme. To Hephaestionhe gave in marriage Drypetis, another daughter ofDarius ; to Craterus, a niece ; and to eighty of his other generals,the most prominent noblewomen of the land. The namesof all soldiers, some ten thousand in number, who had weddedAsiaticwomen were registered, and Alexander made liberalpresents to them all. The marriage feasts were celebratedin the Persian manner, and all the great and distinguishedfrom every satrapy of the empire — the world and his wife ofthat day—came to the banquet. There is no space to devoteto a description of this almost unparalleled feast, which lastedmany days. That must be sought elsewhere. On this occasionAlexander capped his generosity to his soldiers by payingall their debts, — a gift, according to Arrian and Justin, oftwenty thousand talents, or not far from twenty-five milliondollars of our money ; or, according to Plutarch, Diodorus,and Curtius, of ten thousand talents.exceptional service received additional rewards.Those who had doneA few whomAlexander chose to distinguish for bravery and merit werecrowned with golden chaplets. These were the somatophylaxesand the king's chief aides and generals. First of all,Peucestas, who had saved his life among the Mallians ; then