248 mSTOKY OF GREECE. Alexander staved at Ekbatana until winter was at hand, sefcKr ing di-straction from his grief in exaggerated splendor of festivalg and ostentation of life. His temper became so much moi-e iras- cible and furious, that no one approached him without fear, and he was propitiated by the most extravagant flatteries.' At length he roused himself and found his true consolation, in gratifying the primary passions of his nature — fighting and man-hunting.^ Between Media and Persis, dwelt the tribes called Kosstei, amidst a region of lofty, trackless, inaccessible mountains. Brave and predatory, they had defied the attacks of the Persian kings. Alexander now conducted against them a powerful force, and in spite of increased difficulties arising from the wintry season, pushed them from point to point, following them into the loftiest and most impenetrable recesses of their mountains. These ef- forts were continued for forty days, under himtelf and Ptolemy, until the entire male population was slain ; which passed for an acceptable ofiering to the manes of Hephaestion.^ Not long afterwards, Alexander commenced his progress to Babylon ; but in slow marches, farther retarded by various foreign embassies which met him on the road. So widely had the terror of his name and achievements been spread, that several of these envoys came from the most distant regions. There were some from the various tribes of Lybia — from Carthage — from Sicily and Sardinia — from the Ulyrians and Thracians — from the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Tuscans, in Italy — nay, even (some afllrmed) from the Romans, as yet a people of moderate power,* But there were other names yet more surprising — ' See the curious extracts from Ephippus the Chalkidian, — seemingly a contemporary, if not an eye-witness (ap. Athen£e. xii. p. 537, 538 J — ei<<pTi- Ilia. iVe /cat atyi] Karelxe Tuiraf v~b t5t'oi;f Tovg nap6i>Tag' u<p6pr]Tog yitp ijv (Alexander) Kal (poviKoc kduKei yap elvai fieTiayxoTiiKoc, etc.
- I translate here, literally, Plutarch's expression — Tov 6e Trevdovg Traprj-
yopia Tu) TToTiEfiC) xp<^fJ-evog, uartep iivX ^rjpav Kal KVVTjyeaiov av-d pu- nuv i^f/A^e, Kal to Koaaaluv sdvog Karearpiiparo, nuvrag i)(3ij6dv u7iO(T(^uTTuv. TovTo 6f. 'HfaioTLuvoc ivayicrubg tKa/.eiro (Plutarch, Al- exand. 72: compare Polyaenus, iv. 3, 31). ^ Arrian, vii. 1« ; Plutarch, Alex. 72; Diodor. xvii. 111. This general slaughter, however, can only be true of portions of the Koss-xan name ; for Kossaeans occar in after years (Diodor. xix. 19).
- Pliny, H. N. iii. 9. The story in Strabo, v. p. 232, can hardly apply to
