But one of them made excuse that he must tie his
shoes, another that he must water his horse, another that he must get
himself a drink, and so they gradually fell off from him and left him,
not fearing the rage of the enemy so much as his cruelty: for,
exasperated by his defeat, he tried to fasten the blame of it upon
others instead of himself. When he came to Pella, his treasurers Euktus
and Eulaeus met him and blamed him for what had happened, and in an
outspoken and unseasonable way gave him advice: at which he was so much
enraged that he stabbed them both dead with his dagger. After this no
one stayed with him except Evander a Cretan, Archedamus an Aetolian, and
Neon a Boeotian. Of the common soldiers the Cretans followed him, not
from any love they bore him, but being as eager for his riches as bees
are for honey. For he carried great store of wealth with him, and out of
it distributed among the Cretans cups and bowls and other gold and
silver plate to the amount of fifty talents. But when he reached first
Amphipolis, and then Galepsus, and had got a little the better of his
fears, his old malady of meanness attacked him, and he would complain to
his friends that he had flung some of the drinking cups of Alexander the
Great to the Cretans by mistake, and entreated with tears those who had
them to give back and take the value in money. Those who understood his
character were not taken in by this attempt to play the Cretan with men
of Crete, but some believed him and lost their cups for nothing.
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