Vitruvius does not explain why it was that Dinocrates singled out the curious costume, or rather lack of costume, which he did to attract the attention of Alexander. It was, in fact, the garb of an athlete. Among the early Greeks a professional athlete was regarded as a person of social distinction, and if a particularly successful one, a personage to whom a statue might be erected, or upon whom other honors might be conferred. In fact, the uniform of an athlete was, as a rule, a passport to the best society. Dinocrates undoubtedly knew this, and as he was seeking an _entré_ into the very highest court circles, he took not an extraordinary method of gaining it. Mount Athos, which the architect proposed to take as a basis for what was really to be a gigantic statue of Alexander himself, was a pyramidal mountain, at the extreme end of the Acte peninsula, having an altitude of 6780 feet, and crowned with a cap of white marble, which Dinocrates undoubtedly had in mind to utilize for a helmet. The country surrounding the mountain was remarkable for its rural beauty, its woods and ravines, and its people for their longevity. No wonder that Alexander did not wish to disturb this peaceful neighborhood. Alexander Pope, who has given us an admirable rhymed translation of the songs of Homer, seems to have been greatly impressed with the practicability of this remarkable idea of Dinocrates. Spence, the author of “Polymetis,” was once discussing the incident which Vitruvius relates with Pope, remarking that he could not see how the Macedonian architect could ever have carried his proposal into execution, when Pope at once replied: “For my part, I have long since had an idea how the thing might be done; and if anybody would make me a present of a Welsh mountain and pay the workmen, I would undertake to see it executed. I have quite formed it sometimes in my imagination: the figure must be in a reclining posture, because of the hollowing that would be necessary, and for the city’s being in one hand. It should be a rude, unequal hill, and might be helped with groves of trees for the eyebrows, and a wood for the hair. The natural green turf should be left wherever it would be necessary to represent the ground he reclines on. It should be contrived so that the true point of view should be at a considerable distance. When you are near it, it should still have the appearance of a rough mountain, but at a proper distance such a rising should be the leg, and such another an arm. It would be best if there were a river, or rather a lake, at the bottom of it, for the rivulet that came through his other hand to tumble down the hill and discharge itself into the sea.”