“This king is valued past his worth:
He nothing says that's sage, like Ptolemy,
Or keen-edged, like Craterus. This I grant him:
Sagacity supreme in observation;
He sees with eye inspired. Seeing with him
Is Act and Thought, not sense.”
Arsinoë, the daughter of Darius, thinks that “he neither loves nor hates.” He is royal-faced, “albeit too eager-eyed.” And Hephestion, the strong friend on whom alone of all men Alexander leans, tells her of him:
“He loves not many, and himself the least:
His purposes to him are wife and child.”
“Free him from that conceit,” says Parmenio later on, “that he's a god,”