That very evening Alexander attended a banquet which his friends had prepared in Ptlomey's house. The room had been prepared spectacularly and painstakingly: the benches and tables were made of inlaid wood decorated with gilded bronze, the lamp holders were beautiful Corinthian sculptures of bronze in the shape of young girls. From the ceilings hung other lamps in the form of vases with lattice-work that projected a curious play of light and shadow onto the walls. The platters were all of the solid silvers, finely worked around the edges. The food had been prepared by cooks from Smyma and Samos, Greek in terms of taste, but also refined conoisseurs of Asian cuisine.
The wines came from Cyprus, Rhodes, Corinth and even far off Sicily, where the colonial farmers were now surpassing their counterparts in the motherland in terms of the quality and excellence of their produce. They were served from a gigantic Attic crater, almost a a hundred years old, decorated with a dance of satyrs chasing semi-naked maenads. Bach table was equipped with a bowl decorated by the same artist with rather suggestive symposium scenes: nude females flute players in the arms of young men drinking and wearing crowns of ivy, almost a sort of foretaste of what the evening had in store.
On making his entrance Alexander was welcomed with an ovation and the host went towards him bearing a beautiful cup with two handles, brimming with Cypriot wine.'Well, Alexander! After three years of fresh water at Mieza you must have todpoles swimming around in your belly. At least we got out of there before you did! Drink some of this and it'll sort you out.'
From the book: Alexander: Child of A Dream. By Valerio Massino Manfredi. Translated by Iain Halliday
