"Around Alexander [the Great's] dying bed were grouped his officers; hard, unrelenting, avaricious, and power-mad men whom he himself had trained in their way, waiting only for his death to begin rending the empire. Perhaps, too, he could already see the glittering armies going forth to tear it apart; to hear the shouts and screams of men locked in deadly battle; and the snarl and howl of the jackal and hyena over the battlefield afterward. He was asked who he wished to succed him. And he knew to whom sovereignty would fall at last. His answering whisper; 'Kratisto'.... to the strongest."