MIGHTY EMPEROR, MIGHTY DRINKER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17, 21 January 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

MIGHTY EMPEROR, MIGHTY DRINKER.

Drink was the bane of the mighty Alexander — conqueror of empires, breaker of the wild horse Bucephalus, most gentle of generals when he was sober—who was born in the year 356 B.C. He got his tutor to search the bedclothes lest his mother had hidden luxurious sweetmeats in them, and he refused to buy female slaves. He treated captured Persian ladies with the_ greatest honour, though he declared their.beauty made men's eyes., sore, and gave- the chief among them, the Queen' of Persia, a magnificent funeral when she died. Yet when he was drunk he fell into uncontrollable fury with one of his oldest friends, and, though they took his dagger, stabbed him to death with a pike snatched from a soldier. He onco offered a crown worth £200 for the nian who could drink most at a dinner. It was won by a certain Promachtis, who drank as much as 161 quarts, but he died three days afterwards. Forty-one other competitors also died. After drinking for a night and a day in 323 8.C., Alexander fell into a fever, went raving mad and died.