[563] Cf. Curtius (viii. 21); Aelian (Varia Historia, xiv. 49). After the battle of Pydna, where the Romans conquered the Macedonians, the pueri regii followed the defeated king Perseus to the sanctuary at Samothrace, and never quitted him till he surrendered to the Romans. See Livy, xlv. 6.
[564] For this use of διαπίπτειν, cf. Aristophanes (Knights, 695); Polybius (v. 26, 16); διαπεσούσης αὐτῷ τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς.
[565] Alexander wrote to Craterus, Attalus, and Alcetas, that the pages, though put to the torture, asserted that no one but themselves was privy to the conspiracy. In another letter, written to Antipater the regent of Macedonia, he says that the pages had been stoned to death by the Macedonians, but that he himself would punish the Sophist, and those who sent him out, and those who harboured in their cities conspirators against him. Aristotle had sent Callisthenes out. Alexander refers to him and the Athenians. See Plutarch (Alex., 55).
[566] Cf. Arrian (vii. 29).
[567] Curtius (viii. 29) says that Alexander afterwards repented of his guilt in murdering the philosopher. His tragical death excited great indignation among the ancient philosophers. See Seneca (Naturales Quaestiones, vi. 23); Cicero (Tusc. Disput., iii. 10), speaking of Theophrastus, the friend of Callisthenes.
[568] We find from chapter xxii. that these events occurred at Bactra.
[569] The Chorasmians were a people who inhabited the country near the lower part of the river Oxus, between the Caspian and Aral Seas.
[570] This mythical race of warlike females is said to have come from the Caucasus and to have settled near the modern Trebizond, their original abode being in Colchis. Cf. Arrian (vii. 13); Strabo (xi. 5); Diod. (xvii. 77); Curt. (vi. 19); Justin (xii. 3); Homer (Iliad, iii. 189); Aeschўlus (Eumenides, 655); Herod. (iv. 110-116; ix. 27).
[571] See iii. 29 supra.
[572] Propontis means the sea before the Pontus. Compare Ovid (Tristia, i. 10, 31):—“Quaque tenent Ponti Byzantia littora fauces.”