chief thing of all, that is, we give you freely in addition our
mothers and our sisters, in order that ye may perceive fully that ye
are honoured by us with that treatment which ye deserve, and also in
order that ye may report to the king who sent you that a man of
Hellas, ruler under him of the Macedonians, entertained you well at
board and bed." Having thus said Alexander caused a Macedonian man in
the guise of a woman to sit by each Persian, and they, when the
Persians attempted to lay hands on them, slew them. 21. So these
perished by this fate, both they themselves and their company of
servants; for there came with them carriages and servants and all the
usual pomp of equipage, and this was all made away with at the same
time as they. Afterwards in no long time a great search was made by
the Persians for these men, and Alexander stopped them with cunning by
giving large sums of money and his own sister, whose name was Gygaia;
--by giving, I say, these things to Bubares a Persian, commander of
those who were searching for the men who had been killed, Alexander
stopped their search. 22. Thus the death of these Persians was kept
concealed. And that these descendants of Perdiccas are Hellenes, as
they themselves say, I happen to know myself, and not only so, but I
will prove in the succeeding history that they are Hellenes.[10]
Moreover the Hellanodicai, who manage the games at Olympia, decided
that they were so: for when Alexander wished to contend in the games
and had descended for this purpose into the arena, the Hellenes who
were to run against him tried to exclude him, saying that the contest
was not for Barbarians to contend in but for Hellenes: since however
Alexander proved that he was of Argos, he was judged to be a Hellene,
and when he entered the contest of the foot-race his lot came out with
that of the first.[11]

23. Thus then it happened with regard to these things: and at the same