(Silence was then proclaimed, and the Emperors thought they had only to wait till the gods decided to whom they would vote the first prize. But the latter agreed that they must bring to light the motives that had governed each, and not judge them by their actions alone, since Fortune had the greatest share in these. That goddess herself was standing near and kept reproaching all of them, with the single exception of Octavian; he, she said, had always been grateful to her. Accordingly the gods decided to entrust this enquiry also to Hermes, and he was told to begin with Alexander and to ask him what he considered the finest of all things, and what had been his object in doing and suffering all that he had done and suffered. “To conquer the world,” he replied. “Well,” asked Hermes, “do you think you accomplished this?” “I do indeed,” said Alexander. Whereupon Silenus with a malicious laugh exclaimed, “But you were often conquered yourself by my daughters!” by which he meant his vines, alluding to Alexander’s love of wine and intemperate habits. But Alexander was well stocked with Peripatetic subterfuges, and retorted, “Inanimate things cannot conquer; nor do we contend with such, but only with the whole race of men and beasts.” “Ah,” said Silenus, “behold the chicanery of logic! But tell me in which class you place yourself, the inanimate or the animate and living?” At this he seemed mortified and said, “Hush! Such my greatness of soul that I was convinced that I should become, or rather that I was already, a god.” “At any rate,” said Silenus, “you were often defeated by yourself.” “Nay,” retorted Alexander, “to conquer oneself or be defeated by oneself amounts to the same thing. I was talking of my victories over other men.” “No more of your logic!” cried Silenus, “how adroitly you detect my sophisms! But when you were wounded in India,(654) and Peucestes(655) lay near you and they carried you out of the town at your last gasp, were you defeated by him who wounded you, or did you conquer him?” “I conquered him, and what is more I sacked the town as well.” “Not you indeed, you immortal,” said Silenus, “for you were lying like Homer’s Hector in a swoon and at your last gasp. It was your soldiers who fought and conquered.” “Well but I led them,” said Alexander. “How so? When you were being carried away almost dead?” And then Silenus recited the passage in Euripides(656) beginning) Οἴμοι, καθ᾽ Ἑλλάδ᾽ ὡς κακῶς νομίζεται, Ὅταν τρόπαιον πολεμίων στήσῃ στρατός. (“Alas how unjust is the custom of the Greeks, when an army triumphs over the enemy—”) καὶ ὁ Διόνυσος, Παῦσαι, εἶπεν, ὦ παππίδιον, τοιαῦτα λέγων, [C] μή σε οὗτος ὁποῖα τὸν Κλεῖτον ἐργάσηται.(657) καὶ ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ἐρυθριάσας τε ἅμα καὶ ὥσπερ συγχυθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν δακρύων τὰ ὄμματα ἐσιώπα. καὶ ὅδε μὲν ὧδε ἔληξεν ὁ λόγος.