Accordingly, just as painters get the likenesses in their portraits from
 the face and the expression of the eyes, wherein the character shows
 itself, but make very little account of the other parts of the body, so
 I must be permitted to devote myself rather to the signs of the soul in
 men, and by means of these to portray the life of each, leaving to
 others the description of their great contests. As for the lineage of Alexander, on his father’s side he was a descendant
 of Heracles through Caranus, and on his mother’s side a descendant of
 Aeacus through Neoptolemus; this is accepted without any question. And
 we are told that Philip, after being initiated into the mysteries of
 Samothrace at the same time with Olympias, he himself being still a
 youth and she an orphan child, fell in love with her and betrothed
 himself to her at once with the consent of her brother, Arymbas.