Chares of Mytilene on the “Mass Marriages” at Susa, quoted by Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 538b. The translation here is adapted from the Loeb edition of  C.B. Gulick, 1969.

Chares in the tenth book of his Histories of Alexander says: “When he overcame Darius, he concluded marriages of himself and of his friends besides, constructing ninety-two bridal chambers in the same place. The structure was large enough for a hundred couches, and in it every couch was adorned with nuptial coverings, and was made of silver worth twenty minae; but his own couch had supports of gold. He also included in his invitation to the banquet all his personal friends and placed them on couches opposite himself and the other bridegrooms, while the rest of his forces, both land and naval, he entertained in the courtyard with the foreign embassies and tourists. Moreover, the structure was decorated sumptuously and magnificently with expensive draperies and fine linens, and underfoot with purple and crimson rugs interwoven with gold. To keep the pavilion firmly in place there were columns thirty feet high, gilded and silvered and studded with jewels. The entire enclosure was surrounded with rich curtains having animal patterns interwoven in gold, their rods being overlaid with gold and silver. The perimeter of the courtyard measured four stadia. The call to dinner was sounded on the trumpet, not only at the time of the nuptial banquets, but always when on other occasions he chanced to be making libation, so that the entire army knew what was going on. The nuptials lasted for five days, and very many persons, foreigners as well as Greeks, contributed their services; for example, the jugglers from India were especially noteworthy; also Scymnus of Tarentum, Philistides of Syracuse, and Heracleitus of Mitylene; after them the rhapsode Alexis of Tarentum gave a recital. There appeared also the harp-virtuosi Cratinus of Methymna, Aristonymus of Athens, Athenodorus of Teos; there were songs with harp-accompaniment by Heraleitus of Tarentum and Aristocrates of Thebes. The singers to flute- accompaniment who appeared were Dionysius of Heracleia and Hyperbolus of Cyzicus; there came on also flute-virtuosi, who first played the Pythian melody and after than accompaniments for the bands of singers and dancers; they were Timotheus, Phrynichus, Caphisias, Diphantus, and Evius of Chalcis. And from that day forth the people who had previously been called ‘Dionysus-flatterers’ were called ‘Alexander-flatterers’ because of the extravagant presents in which Alexander took such delight. Plays were acted by the tragedians Thessalus, Athenodorus, and Aristocritus, and by the comedians Lycon, Phormion, and Ariston. There was present also the harper Phasimelus. The crowns (Chares says) brought by the ambassadors and others were worth 15,000 talents.