The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, Vol. 2

C H A P. VIII.

Memorable anecdotes of Alexander and Publius Scipio.

APPIAN, a Greek, who was called Pliftonices, was a man of agreeable and prompt elocution. When celebrating the praises of King Alexander, he said that the King forbade the wife of a conquered enemy, who was a woman of extraordinary beauty, to be introduced to his presence1, that he might not touch her, even with his eyes2.

1 To his presence.]—On the contrary, Quintus Curtius and Justin both affirm that the female relations of Darius were all introduced to the presence of Alexander.
2 Might not touch her, even with his eyes.]—Somewhat similar to this is the expression of Lear in our Shakespeare:

"Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
I’d say I’d eyes again."

Plutarch says of Alexander that on seeing the women of Persia, he said they were original: "ἀλγηδονες ὀμματων" (griefs to the eyes). But Herodotus makes the Persians use this expression to Amyntas, the Macedonian king. See my note at this passage of the Greek historian. Consult also the life of the Emperor Julian, by the Abbé Bleterie, pages 405-6. This eccentric character, in his last and fatal expedition against Persia, took some great city by storm. The Persian women have ever been celebrated for their personal charms; and when his officers expressed a wish to present him with some female captives of extraordinary beauty, he refused to see them so that he might not yield to a passion which has often triumphed over conquerors and sometimes over philosophers.