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[6] The king removed the golden chains and fetters from Apollo and gave orders that the god should be called "Apollo Philalexander."1 He carried out magnificent sacrifices to Heracles, rewarded those of his men who had distinguished themselves, and gave a lavish funeral for his own dead. He installed as king of Tyre a man named Ballonymus,2 the story of whose career I cannot omit because it is an example of a quite astonishing reversal of fortune.

1 Another version of the same story is given by Plut. Alexander 24.4. The Tyrians suspected that Apollo intended to desert them (chap. 41.8), and tied him to his base, calling him an Ἀλεξανδριστής.

2 Presumably the correct form of the name, Abdalonymus, is preserved in Curtius 4.1.15-26 and Justin 11.10.8, and it is a proper Phoenician nomenclature, with the meaning "Servant of the gods." Some have wished to see this king as the owner of the Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon, now in Istanbul; cp., e.g., I. Kleemann, Der Satrapen-Sarkophag aus Sidon (1958), pp. 28 f. In any case, the mention of King Straton shows that the incident occurred in Sidon, not in Tyre. Plut. De Fortuna aut Virtute Alexandri 2.8.340c-e, locates it in Paphos (rendering the name Aralynomus).

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