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however, that ſhe brought nothing to eat. As this continued many days, he was surprised that the prisoner lived so long without eating; and suspecting the daughter, upon watching her, he discovered that ſhe nouriſhed her mother with her own milk. Amazed at so pious and at the same time so ingenious an invention, he told the fact to the triumvir and the trumvir to the prætor, who believed the thing merited relating in the aſſembly of the people. The criminal was pardoned; a decree was paſſed that the mother and daughter ſhould be maintained for the reſt of their lives at the publick expence, and that a temple ſacred to piety ſhould be erected near the priſon.
Olympias, Alexander's own mother, was of ſuch an unhappy diſpoſition, that he would never let her have any concern in the affairs of government. She uſed frequently to make very ſevere complaints on that account; but he always ſubmitted to her ill-humour with great mildneſs and patience. Antipater, one of his friends, having one day wrote a long letter againſt her, the king, after reading it, replied. 'Antipater does not know that one ſingle tear ſhed by a mother will obliterate ten thouſand ſuch letters as this.'
