2.9
But what greatness did Alexander acquire beyond his just merits, what without sweat, what without blood, what without a price, what without labour? He drank rivers fouled with blood, crossed streams bridged by dead bodies, through hunger ate the first grass that he saw, dug through nations buried in deep snow Cf. Diodorus, xvii. 82; Quintus Curtius, Hist. Alexandri, v. 3. and cities built beneath the earth, sailed over a battling sea Cf. Arrian, Anabasis, vi. 19; Quintus Curtius, Hist. Alexandri, ix. 9.; and as he traversed the parching strands of Gedrosia and Arachosia, Cf.Life of Alexander, chap. lxvi. (702 a); Arrian, Anabasis, vi. 22 ff; Quintus Curtius, Hist. Alexandri, ix. 10. it was in the sea, not on the land, that first he saw a living plant.