You plan to marry my eldest daughter while the other will be united with this second Alexander. You've achieved so much for me since making this choice. Even when I was held captive, you treated me like a queen and called me "mother". You were always there to comfort me in my moments of pain. I saw your sadness during your own victories, I've noticed your suffering at the loss of Darius. You've taken care of his funerals and his tomb. You risked your life to avenge his death, punishing traitor Bessus who had killed him. You've also rewarded those who were faithful to Darius. Even today, you restore him to the throne by putting his blood and mine through Stateira. But what's even more remarkable in everything you've done for Darius is that I've seen this Alexander, a conqueror of so many kingdoms, showing enough morality to resist temptations and avoid looking at Darius' wife, for fear of being seduced by her beauty. After all this, it must be admitted that whatever can be said of you is far beneath what you deserve. You embody both the chastity and courage of the heroes that preceded you. Every quality is in you in an exceptional way. In your love, the abilities perfect and acquire a new glow. What would be considered rash in others is but a simple effect of your courage. The excess of goodness cannot be vicious in you. You give generously, without excess, because you measure not only the gifts you give but also those you give to yourself. Thus, cities, provinces, gold riches, sceptres, and crowns are things Alexander can give without being greedy. As he has received more favours from heaven than anyone else, he can also give more than anyone else. This truth is well known to you and you practice it perfectly. After conquering the entire world and offering it to various people, when asked what you reserved for yourself, you replied, "Hope."
       Truly, I am often amazed to see that as soon as you have something in your power, you entrust it to someone else, while continuing to give unceasingly. This reflection made me think that one could say Alexander is like the sea: scarcely has it received in its vast expanse the contributions brought by all the fountains, all the rivers, and all the rivers that it generously redistributes them to other parts of the world. What it takes from the Persians, it gives back to the Greeks. On the other hand, the shipwrecks it causes do not enrich it; they impoverish someone else to increase the well-being of another without benefit to the world. And without keeping anything of what it is given or what it acquires, it constantly rolls its waves with equal movement. In the same way, the things you receive from your subjects, the tributes that are paid to you or the conquests you make, you receive with one hand and give with the other. Even the spoils you take from your enemies only enrich your soldiers. Thus, whether in times of peace or war, during the storm or calm, you equally do good to all, without doing it for yourself. However, there is this difference between the sea and you: everything that comes from the sea returns to it, while everything that -

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