/<5 /6 / w?rt. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 091 208 573 DATE DUE ^^ aai-!^^=^t''' ^^i^^H jI GAYLORD i PniNTEDINUS.A In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2002 yy a Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924091208573 fyxntll mnivmiii piharg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Bcnrg W. Sage 1891 THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS ALEXANDER THE GREAT ^_^..£-'h-'t^o ALEXANDER THE GREAT B C 354-322 (■a ?•/■/ e- ^(rair .en /'/? e t'J?'(ifj/i , r ^'pij ria a t c -y/r.ra }u/ /yr/ THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT BEING A SERIES OF TRANSLATIONS OF THE ETHIOPIC HISTORIES OF ALEXANDER BY THE PSEUDO-CALLISTHENES AND OTHER WRITERS, WITH INTRODUCTION, etc. E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, Litt. D., F. S. A., SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF CHRIST's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND TVRWHITT SCHOLAR, KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM. LONDON; C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE AVE MARIA LANE [Al^ rights reserved. \ ■'' '■-\ ottn anS 6«ef "©eftctouae ^it ie (o het: "3)ef gc wofen at<(« a«ffe, "5uf fcofs g wot gow fdffe." Weissmann, Alexander, Bd. ii. S. 469. "His Body was beautiful, and well proportion'd; his Mind brisk "and active; his Courage wonderful. He was strong enough to undergo "Hardships, and willing to meet Dangers; ever ambitious of Glory, "and a strict observer of Religious Duties. As to those Pleasures "which regarded the Body, he shew'd himself indifferent; as to the "Desires of the Mind, insatiable. In his Counsels, he was sharp-sighted, "and cunning; and pierc'd deep into doubtful Matters, by the Force "of his natural Sagacity. In marshalling, arming, and governing an "Army, he was thoroughly skill'd; and famous for exciting his Soldiers "with Courage, and animating them with Hopes of Success, as also "in dispelling their private fears, by his own Example of Magnanimity. "He always enter'd upon desperate Attempts, with the utmost Resolution "and Vigour, and was ever deligent in taking any Advantage of his "Enemies' Delay, and falling upon them unawares. He was a most "strict Observer of his Treaties; notwithstanding which, he was "never taken at a Disadvantage, by any Craft or Perfidy of his Enemies. "He was sparing in his Expences, for his own private Pleasures, but in "the distribution of his Bounty to his Friends, Liberal and magnificent." Arrian, History of Alexander's Expedition, Rooke's Translation, Vol. ii. p. 196. CONTENTS. PAGE FRONTISPIECE. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. FROM A BUST IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. PREFACE. INTRODUCTION:— THE ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPTS CONTAINING HISTORIES OF ALEXANDER I-IV THE ORIGIN AND TRAVELS OF THE ALEXANDER STORY V-LIV TRANSLATIONS:— THE ETHIOPIC VERSION OF THE PSEUDO-CALLISTHENES . 1-353 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER BY AL-MAKIN SSS'SSS THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER BY ABlS SHAKER .... 387-40I THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER BY JOSEPH BEN-GORION . 403-428 AN ANONYMOUS HISTORY OF THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER 429-435 A CHRISTIAN ROMANCE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT . 437-553 THE HISTORY OF THE BLESSED MEN WHO LIVED IN THE DAYS OF JEREMIAH THE PROPHET 5SS-584 APPENDIX:— THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL CONCERNING ALEXANDER'S KINGDOM 585-588 THE ETHIOPIC VERSION OF I MACCABEES I. I 6 589 EXTRACT FROM THE CHRONICLE OF JOHN MUDABBAR 590, 59I BIBLE PASSAGES 592 INDEX 593-610 PREFACE. The object of this work is to present to students and lovers of the legendary history of Alexander the Great the various histories of this marvellous man which are extant in the Ethiopia language, together with English translations of the same and some necessary notes. Speaking generally, the collection of texts here printed for the first time consists of the Ethiopia version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes; the Ethiopia versions of the Arabic histories of Alexander by Al-Makin and Abu Shaker; the Ethiopia version of the Hebrew history of Alexander by Joseph ben-Gorion; a short account of Alexander's death and of the utterances of the sages thereon; the "Christian Romance", which is probably an original Ethiopian work; and an account of the Vision of Abba Gerasimus. The arrangement of the histories in this book represents, I believe, the order in which they were translated or compiled. With one exception, i. e., the "Christian Ro- X PREFACE. mance", I have been obliged to print each of these histories from a single, and comparatively modern manuscript; every student of MSS. will know how- much harder the labour of the editor and translator is made by the lack of duplicate copies of texts. In printing these histories I have tried to reproduce the text of the MSS. as closely as possible; only some trifling clerical errors have been rectified without comment. Probable emendations and cor- rections of typographical errors are relegated to the notes to the translation. Further study of Arabic legends and histories of Alexander such as those contained in Brit. Mus. MSS. Rich, Nos. 7366, 7367 and 7368, would, no doubt, have added to the list of emendations, but these together with the necessary remarks would have swollen to undue limits an already bulky work. The English translation has been made as literal as possible, and all added words have been enclosed between brackets [ ]. A perusal of the Ethiopic histories of Alexander will shew that they are not mere translations of the Arabic texts which the scribes had before them, but that they reflect largely the Christian Ethiopian idea of what manner of man an all-powerful king and conqueror should be. The historical facts and legends connected with the birth, and life, and PREFACE. The object of this work is to present to students and lovers of the legendary history of Alexander the Great the various histories of this marvellous man which are extant in the Ethiopic language, together with English trarfslations of the same and some necessary notes. Speaking generally, the collection of texts here printed for the first time consists of the Ethiopic version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes; the Ethiopic versions of the Arabic histories of Alexander by Al-Makin and Abu Shaker; the Ethiopic version of the Hebrew history of Alexander by Joseph ben-Gorion; a short account of Alexander's death and of the utterances of the sages thereon; the "Christian Romance", which is probably an original Ethiopian work; and an account of the Vision of Abba Gerasimus. The arrangement of the histories in this book represents, I believe, the order in which they were translated or compiled. With one exception, i. e., the "Christian Ro- X PREFACE. mance", I have been obliged to print each of these histories from a single, and comparatively modern manuscript; every student of MSS. will know how much harder the labour of the editor and translator is made by the lack of duplicate copies of texts. In printing these histories I have tried to reproduce the text of the MSS. as closely as possible; only some trifling clerical errors have been rectified without comment. Probable emendations and cor- rections of typographical errors are relegated to the notes to the translation. Further study of Arabic legends and histories of Alexander such as those contained in Brit. Mus. MSS. Rich, Nos. 7366, 7367 and 7368, would, no doubt, have added to the list of emendations, but these together with the necessary remarks would have swollen to undue limits an already bulky work. The English translation has been made as literal as possible, and all added words have been enclosed between brackets [ ]. A perusal of the Ethiopic histories of Alexander will shew that they are not mere translations of the Arabic texts which the scribes had before them, but that they reflect largely the Christian Ethiopian idea of what manner of man an all-powerful kino- and conqueror should be. The historical facts and legends connected with the birth, and life, and PREFACE. XI death of Alexander were freely drawn upon by the translator and scribe, but in their hands they became a means not only of instruction, but also of edification for the reader. In their works the story of Alexander's victory in the chariot races disappears, for the Oriental never truly appreciated athletics; Greek gods are transformed into Old Testament personages such as Enoch and Elijah; speeches of heathen kings are couched in Biblical language; Philip of Macedon figures as a martyr, and Alexander himself becomes a Christian teacher, having a profound knowledge of Old Testament history, and is eventually described as a saint who was worthy to receive revelations from the Divine Spirit of God Almighty, and to preach the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection. Never was heathen king or profane history so thoroughly transformed. As the various Oriental versions of the legendary history of Alexander become available for general study, it will be possible to separate fact from fiction, to harmonize differences, and also to classify the various legends and trace them to their re- spective sources. Since the publication of the Syriac version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes by myself in 1889, two important works on the Alexander story by Prof. Noeldeke and Dr. Ausfeld have appeared. In Bd- XII PREFACE. trds'e zur Geschichte des Alexander roinans" Prof. Noeldeke discusses in liis characteristic masterly manner the Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, Persian and Arabic versions, and ably shews how each is re- lated to the other, and how certain variations in the narrative have arisen. No writer before him was able to control, by knowledge at first hand, the statements of both the Aryan and Semitic versions; his work is therefore of unique value. Would that he would add to our obligations by publishing a translation of the Armenian version of the Alexander story! Following the same system Dr. Ausfeld made an exhaustive examination of the non-genuine portions of the oldest Greek traditional rendering of the legends of Alexan- der,^ and the results which he obtained from his study of the Greek texts confirm those of Prof Noeldeke. While the pages of this book were passing through the press, on July 4th, 1894, death removed from our midst the veteran Ethiopic scholar Prof ' See De7ikschriften der Kaiserlichen Akadcmic der ]Visscn- schaften in Wien. Philosophisch-Historische Classe, Bd. xxxviii. Wien, 1890. ^ See Zur Kritik des GriccJiiscJien Alexanderromans. Untcr- suchiingen iiber die unechten Teile da- iiltesten Oberlieferuug. Karlsruhe, 1S94. PREFACE. XIII Dr. C. F. August Dillmann, who had, from time to time during the preparation of my work, afforded me with characteristic kindness the benefit of his unique knowledge and judgment in all matters connected with Ethiopic literature. The published works of this remarkable man, who was as learned as he was great, and as modest as he was learned, testify to the depth and breadth of his scholar- ship and knowledge, and no amount of unworthy, carping criticism will diminish aught of his universal reputation, or alter the fact that every student of this ofeneration owes whatever knowledge of Ethiopic he may possess entirely to Dillmann's lexicographical and grammatical labours.^ My thanks are due to the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, K. P. etc.. Her Britannic Majesty's Am- bassador at Paris ; and to Sir Thomas H. Sanderson, K. C. B., K. C. M. G., Under Secretary of State; and to Sir E. Maunde Thompson, K. C. B., Prin- cipal Librarian of the British Museum; and to M. Leopold Delisle, Administrator General of the Bibliotheque Nationale, for their kind offices in obtaining for me the loan of the Ethiopic MS. containing Abu Shaker's life of Alexander and the Vision of Abba Gerasimus. To Mr. A. S. Murray, ' See Baudissin's August Dillmann, Leipzig, 1895. XIV PREFACE. LL. D., Keeper of the Greek and Roman Anti- quities of the British Museum, I am indebted for superintending the reproduction on copper of the fine head of Alexander the Great in the British Museum. Thanks are due also to W. Drugulin of Leipzig, and to his manager Dr. Chamizer, for the care which they have taken in printing the book. To Lady Meux of Theobalds Park, Herts, I owe entirely the publication of this work. Several years ago whilst preparing an edition of the Syriac version of the Alexander story, I copied the Ethiopic versions which are preserved in the British Museum, hoping that as, in many par- ticulars, the Syriac and Ethiopic versions agree, I might be able to publish them together. The bulk of the work was, however, found to be so great that the idea had to be abandonned, and I was only able to give a brief resume of the work in the introduction to my History of Alexander. The copies of the texts which I had made had lain in my drawer for ten years when Lady Meux offered to defray the whole cost of publishing them, together with English translations and notes ; this offer was joyfully accepted, and the present work is the result of her munificence. Further, Lady Meux, thinking it possible that there might PREFACE. XV be many who, while wishing to read the trans- lations, would have no need for the Ethiopia texts, also ordered five hundred copies of the translation only to be printed on small paper, in addition to the two hundred and fifty copies of the large paper edition in two volumes, which are intended for private circulation. To her, then, it is my pleasant duty to offer my most grateful thanks. London, December 2, 1895. E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. INTRODUCTION. DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPTS CONTAINING THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. i. The text of the Ethiopic version of the Pseudo- Calllsthenes printed in this volume is edited from a manuscript in the British Museum (Oriental 826), Description which has been very briefly described by the late° Prof Wright in his CatalogiLe of the Ethiopic Mamiscripts in the British .Aluseum acquired since the year 1847, London, 1877, p. 294, No. ccclxxxix. It is of vellum, about \i% in. by 7%, and contains 148 leaves.' Each page contains two columns of from 24 to 26 lines of bold v/riting. Parts of many of the letters of the first few pages are effaced, owing to the leaves having been pressed together before the ink was dry. The first few words of each section and the title are written in red, and certain portions of the MS. seem to have been copied by another hand. The MS. is bound in stout wooden boards covered in leather stamped with a cross and border formed of annules; the ' For an account of the finding of the MS. see the English translation^ pp. i, 2. II INTRODUCTION. inside of the boards is lined with striped bright coloured silk. From the colophon, (see fol. 147^,) we learn that the manuscript was written at the expense of one Abraham, who, through the prayers of Alexander the king and of all the saints and martyrs, hopes to obtain mercy, and to escape hell, and to take up his place at the right hand [of Christ], together with the Twelve Apostles, at His second Advent. The age of the MS. from which this copy was made we have no means of ascertainino-, but iudCTino- from the writinsf there is little doubt that our manuscript is the work of the XlXth century. Of Abraham, for whom the MS. was copied, we know nothing, and it is not quite clear how the volume came to be in king Theodore's Treasury at Makdala; as it is well known, however, that this monarch intended to Dcicription bulld a cliurcli in honour of the Saviour of the World in his city, it is most probable that the "History of Alexander" was one of the many MSS. which he seized upon to form a library for his church when completed. The reader will find the text faulty in many places, and words and names are spelt differently even in the same page; in places, too, there are obviously omissions. Elsewhere it would seem as if the scribe, having copied a sentence, became dissatisfied with it, and then copied it again with the addition of some explanatory words. An ex- cellent idea of the general appearance of the text will be gained from Plate I. DESCRIPTION OF THE ETHIOPIC MANUSCRIPTS. Ill il. The History of Alexander by Jirjis ibn al- Description 'Amid Abu'l-Yasir, more commonly known as Al- ° Makin, is taken from the MS. of his "Universal "History" preserved in the British Museum; see Orient. 813, and Wright, Catalogue of Ethiopic MSS. in the British Museum, p. 293. This manuscript is of vellum, about 13% in. by \\%, and contains 1S8 leaves, and each page contains three columns of 32 lines; it is written in a fine hand of the XVIIth century. This handsome manuscript originally belonged to one Kesada Giyurgis, but it was found with hundreds of other MSS. in the Treasury of King Theodore. iii. The History of Alexander by Abu Shaker Petrus, ibn Abi'l-Karam ibn al-Muhaddib, more commonly known as Ibn al-Rahib or Walda Manakos, is taken from a fine Ethiopic MS. (No. 46) in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris ; this MS. has been fully described by Zotenberg, Catalogue des MSS. £thiopiens, Paris, 1877, p. 243 ff ' The British Museum possesses no copy of this extract, for the MS. formerly numbered Orient. 8 1 9, written in the reign of lyasu I., A. D. 1682 — 1706, was restored by the Trustees of the British Museum to Prince Kasa, subsequently crowned as King John, on the 14th of December, 1872; see Wright, Catalogue, p. 297, No. cccxci. ' For Latin versions of Ibn al-Rahib's History see Abraham Ecchellensis, Ckronico7i Orientale, Paris, 1651; and Asseraani, J. S., Ch7-onicon Orientale Pet7-i Rahebi Egyptii, Venice, 1729. IV INTRODUCTION. Description iv. Thc History of Alexander by Joseph ben- Gorion is taken from a manuscript containing the Ethiopia version of his "History of the Jews", pre- served in the British Museum; see Orient. 822, and Wright, Catalogue, p. 288, No. ccclxxviii. This manuscript is of vellum, about 9)^ in. by S^, and contains 136 leaves, and each page contains two columns of 24 or 25 lines; it was probably written in the XVIIth century. V. The History of the Death of Alexander by an anonymous writer is taken from a manuscript preserved in the British Museum; see Add. 24,990, and Wright, Catalogue, p. 12, No. xiii. vi. The Christian Romance of the Life of Alexander is taken from a manuscript preserved in the British Museum; see Orient. 827, and Wright, Catalogue, p. 294, No. cccxc. The variant readings are taken from the Paris MS. No. 146; see Zotenberg, Catalogue, p. 243 ff vii. The History of the Blessed Men who lived in the days of Jeremiah the prophet, and the account of the Vision of Abba Gerasimus are taken from the Paris MS. No. 146; see Zoten- berg, Catalogue, p. 243. THE ORIGIN AND TRAVELS OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. The Ethiopic histories of Alexander the Great consist of a large mass of historical facts, some of which are, however, much distorted, and of a History and series of legends and traditions which refer to Alexander. several heroes, both historical and mythical, and are the common heritage of the Semitic peoples of the East. Of the legends and traditions a great number concern Alexander alone, but some, as will be noticed later, were current in the Arabian peninsula from a remote antiquity — now their survival is a matter to be marvelled at — and were only grouped round him by his admiring biographers and friends. That this should be so is only natural, for if all history be searched no. character will be found therein whose life and deeds have appealed so strongly to the admiration and sympathy of all nations as that of Alexander the Great. His personal bravery, the hardness which he endured as a soldier, his indefatigable energy, his military skill, his judgment, his magna- nimity, his travels and conquests, and his tragic death, literally made all the world wonder; and that the actual deeds and events of his life should, very soon after his death, become overlaid by a VI INTRODUCTION. mass of fictitious statements of every degree of wildness, is only what was to be expected. Egypt the Though the conquered nations of Western Asia, home of the Persia, and India might view his warlike successes Alexander ^jj]^ wouder, and mio-ht even bless the masfna- story. ' o & nimous warrior, it is hardly likely that their writers and scribes would hasten to record his history, whereby they would also incidentally describe their own national defeat; to these countries, then, we must not look for the original Alexander story. Similarly, we must not look to the states of Greece for it, because at the death of Alexander the memory of their subjugation and the victorious deeds which he wrought for the glory of Macedon would be too fresh in the minds of their peoples. One country only could be the birthplace of the Alexander story, and that country was Egypt. Some hundreds of years before Alexander came to Egypt the influence, and civilization, and language of the Greeks had found their way there, and on his arrival in the country Alexander found the people, at least those living in the Delta, un- willing to meet him in battle; more than this, they welcomed him as one who could help them against their bitter foes the Persians, for, according to Pseudo-Callisthenes (Bk. i. 26) he had under his command a force of about 150,000 men. Further, when after Alexander's death the Egyptians con- sidered that he had founded the city of Alexandria, which had already become a source of wealth for their country, that he had acknowledged the god ORIGIN OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. VII Amen-Ra as his father and had shewn reverence unto the ancient gods of Egypt, and that he had utterly beaten the Persians, the popular feeUng of something Hl-:e sorrow mingled with gratitude would straightway express itself in laudatory biographies of their deliverer adorned with Oriental metaphor unique and hyperbole. Alexander was a conqueror unlike Alexander" any other known to the Egyptians and the nations around. When their own victorious kings set out on their military expeditions they left the countries through which they passed filled with devastation and death; cities were burnt to the ground, and their inhabitants were carried away into slavery, and a successful war in the conqueror's eyes meant in many cases utter ruin for the conquered. And the Egyptian was as ruthless as his less cultured neighbour, for as far back as the Vlth dynasty Una, the officer who led several expeditions in Methods of the remote countries to the south of Egypt, inj^^^^^ describing the deeds of his soldiers said, "The "soldiers marched in peace and ploughed up the "land of those who live upon the sand {z. e., the "dwellers in the desert); the soldiers marched in "peace and laid it waste; the soldiers marched "in peace and overthrew the fenced cities thereof; "the soldiers marched in peace and cut down the "fig trees and vines; the soldiers marched in peace "and cast fire among the tribes ; the soldiers "marched in peace and slaughtered the people "by myriads and myriads; the soldiers marched "in peace and carried away countless multitudes VIII INTRODUCTION. "of living captives."' The terrible state of a country througli which such soldiers had marched "in peace" may be readily imagined. The accounts of the wars carried on in Western Asia by the kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties are full of deeds of mutilation and cruelty, and of records of ruined cities and wasted lands. It was not, Savage however, until the invasion of Egypt by the Per- c^mbyses. slaos uudcr Cambyses that the Egyptians suffered the worst calamities of war, for never before had the ancient shrines of Thebes and Memphis been plundered, and the gods therein turned into ridicule, and their cities burnt, and their nobles slain, and their women sold into slaver)-. The burning of the Serapeum, too, and the wounding, or slaughter, of the Apis bull would add the keenest anguish to their miseries. With such events in their minds the Egyptians could not help comparing the results of the invasions of their country by Cambyses and Progress of Alexander. Where the Persian monarch had passed Alexander i . . . . . . . . and cam-iay destructiou and misery, but m the tram of p^J. """" ^^^•^^'^'^^'' there followed peace and Greek civi- lization. Obstinate opposition, such as that shewn by the inhabitants of Tyre and Gaza, Alexander punished with the greatest severity, but, considering his wars and batdes as a whole, he was a magna- nimous conqueror. The account of his treatment of the high-priest Jaddua and of his behaviour in the Sanctuary in Jerusalem, if only pardy true. ' Inscription of Una, lines 22 to 27. ORIGIN OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. IX displays his religious toleration; similarly, if theReugious * , . , , . ^^ . - , toleration of narrative of the way m which Lambyses shewed Alexander. his hatred for the gods of Egypt and for all that the Egyptians held in reverence be only true in a very small degree, he must appear as an in- tolerant fanatic. The first fabulous history of the life and travels The Egyp- and exploits of Alexander the Great was, I believe, o^theTiel" composed and written in Egypt soon after his ^""^^ ^""^ death by an Egyptian, or by one whose interests were wholly Egyptian; if it was written by a Greek he made use of materials which had been invented by the Egyptians. The chief aim of the writer of the story was to prove that Alexander was an Egyptian and the son of the last native king of Egypt, Nectanebus II. That, in proving his point, he ruined the reputation of Olympias, the wife of Philip of Macedon, was nothing to him; on the contrary, in shewing that she was held to be worthy of continuing the race of the gods by the person of Nectanebus, he probably imagined that he was doing her honour. It is possible, of course, that the story of a fugitive king becoming the father of a future king of the country from which he had fled, by the queen of a foreign land, is borrowed from a still older story — for nothing in the way of legends and stories seems to have The cwef ..... -r^ . . aim of the a beginning in the East — and one day we may^ort,. even find it. In any case, if the writer of the Alexander story succeeded in making his readers believe that the mighty warrior was both an INTRODUCTION. Egyptian and the son of Nectanebus II. who, in common with all Egyptian kings, was God's vicar upon earth, the national spirit would be flattered, and the Egyptians would sit more easily under the yoke of a Greek king. From these considerations it seems clear that the Alexander story is of Egyptian origin. But, besides these, there is a mass of internal evidence in the work which shews that the author was more versed in Egyptian matters than any foreigner could well be, and these must be briefly noticed. According to the oldest versions of the story Nectanebus Nectanebus, the putative father of Alexander, was the magi- . . , . . , cian. a very expert magician; by his magical powers he had kept his enemies at bay and had succeeded in keeping fast hold upon his own kingdom for many years. How he gained his reputation as a magician cannot be said, and there is no historical documents which would account for it; the hierogly- phic texts prove that he repaired and added to many Egyptian temples, and the text on one of his statues shews that he reigned seventeen years at least.' The versions of the story go on to say that he wrought his magic by means of a bowl of water, some waxen figures, and an ebony rod. The Magic waxen figures were made in the forms of the wroug j.^ soldiers of the enemy who were coming against him by sea or by land, and were placed upon the water in the basin by him. Nectanebus then ' Wiedemann, Aegyptische Gcschichte, p. 717. waxen gures. ORIGIN OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. XI arrayed himself in suitable apparel, and, having taken the rod in his hand, began to recite certain formulae and the names of divine pow^s known unto him, whereupon the waxen figures became animated and straightway sank to the bottom of the bowl; at the same moment the hosts of the enemy were destroyed. If the foe was coming by sea he placed the waxen soldiers in waxen ships, and at the sound of the words of power both ships and men sank into the waves as the waxen models sank to the bottom of the basin. This he was in the habit of doing for some time, but there came a day when he appealed to the supernatural powers in vain, and the waxen figures moved not; then he knew that the gods had decreed the end of his reign, and having shaved his head and beard and disguised himself, he fled from Egypt. Now we know that the Egyptians employed The antiqui- fi. . IT f. , f. ty of the use gures m workmg deeds ot magic from of waxen the earliest times, and it is clear that certain ''^"'''^' undefined properties were attributed to the material of which they were made. It is well known that the Egyptians believed that the qualities, and much else, of a living original could be trans- ferred to an image thereof by means of the re- petition over it of certain formulae, and it seems as if, when the object was to do harm, wax was the material most commonly used for making the image. It is true that figures of the gods of the four cardinal points, which were buried with the b2 XII INTRODUCTION. dead to protect the intestines, were sometimes made of wax,' but the cases Icnown are rare and are not sufficiently numerous to outweigh the evidence Waxen fi- On the other side. Thus in the Westcar Papyrus' mrdVyn'^'s''- ^e have the story of the wife of a high Egyptian '^' official called Aba-aner who fell in love with one of the king's followers, and she sent to him and told him of her desire; subsequently the pair met in the woman's garden, and they passed the day in drinking and in pleasure. On the morrow the husband was told of his wife's conduct, and he determined to punish both with death. Sending for his ebony box bound with fine metal he made a waxen crocodile a few inches lono-, and havine recited magfical formulae over it, he eave it to his chief servant and told him to throw it into the water when he saw his wife's paramour going to bathe in the evening. When the guilty pair had passed another day together and the young man went down to the river in the evening, the chief servant cast the waxen crocodile into the water; and as it was falling it turned into a huge living crocodile about twelve feet long, and swallowed the young man. Seven days later Aba- aner and the king Neb-ka went to the water where the crocodile was, and Aba-aner ordered it to give up the young man, and it came out of the • See Nos. 15,563, 15,564, i5>S73, iS;578 in the British Museum. ^ Ed. Erman, pp. 7 and 8. ORIGIN OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. XIII water and straightway brought up the young man.' When the king had made some remark, Aba-aner picked up the crocodile, which at once turned into the small waxen crocodile which it was originally, and again when he ordered it to devour the young man, it once more became a living reptile, and, seizing the young man, made its way to the water, and disappeared with him. The faithless wife was burnt. The principal actors in this story are said to have flourished during the rule of the Ilird dynasty of Egypt, nearly four thousand years before Christ, and it is a noteworthy fact that the narrative mentions the ebony and metal box and the making of a waxen crocodile in a way which seems to shew that their owner was in the habit of usinsf the box and the wax frequently. The custom of trying to do harm to people by waxen n- means of waxen images is proved to have existed in MWdyEm- later days by a papyrus, first described by Chabas," p"'^' which records that a man was prosecuted in an Egyptian court of law for having made figures of men and women in wax, by which he caused sundry and divers pains and sicknesses to the living beings whom they represented. An example of the use of waxen figures for causing^ dreams is griven in Pseudo-Callisthenes o o ' Here we are forcibly reminded of Jonah's miraculous escape from the whale. ^ He Papyrus Magique Harris, p. 170. XIV INTRODUCTION. Bk. I. chap. 5, and although I have not been able to find any similar example in Egyptian papyri, there are certain things mentioned which shew that the Egyptians held the same views. When Nectanebus wished Olympias to believe that the god Ammon had visited her during the night, he decided to send her a dream in which she should Waxen fi- havc this vision. To effect this he went out from o"ympias.° her preseuce and gathered a number of herbs which had the power of causing dreams, and pressed out the juice from them. He then fash- ioned a female figure in the form of Olympias, and inscribed upon it the name of Olympias, and having made the model of a bed he laid the figure thereon.' Nectanebus next lit a lamp and, pouring out the juice of the herbs over the waxen figure, he recited the words of power which would compel the demons to send Olympias a dream; and at the moment of the performance of these acts Olympias dreamed that she was in the arms of the orod Ammon. The idea of inscribing the fio-ure with a name finds its parallel in a rubric to a papyrus which orders that the waxen figure of Apepi, the demon of mist and rain, which had been burnt in a grass fire was to have "his accursed name cut and inscribed upon it in green colour."^ ' Eique nomen reginae adscribens lectulum ei fabricatur, cui ilia effigies supra ponitur; see Miiller, Pseudo- Callisthenes, p. 6. (S D D ji .Mir/www AMI IX Iff^D (S c "(](j° J (col. xxiii. I. 6). ORIGIN OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. XV The two following examples of the use of waxen waxen n- figures will shew what means were provided byoraeco-Ro- the magician to secure for a lover the favours of '"^" ^^"°'^' the beloved one. In the one case he is directed to make a fisfure of a dogf in wax mixed with pitch, gum, &c., and the model is to be eight fingers long; certain magical words are to be written on the dog-'s ribs. Next a tablet is taken, and on it certain magical words or names also are to be written; the dog is then to be placed on the tablet, and the tablet on a tripod. The lover must recite the words written on the dog waxen dog. and on the tablet, and the creature will either snarl and shew his teeth or bark; if he snarls the beloved one will not come to him that loves her, and if he barks she will. In the other case the lover is told to make two waxen figures: the one is to be in the form of Ares, and the other in the form of a woman. The female figfure is to be in the posture of kneeling on her knees with her hands tied behind her, and the male figure is to stand over her with his sword at her throat. On the limbs of the female figure a large number of names of fiends are to be written, and when this has been done the lover must take thirteen bronze needles and stick them in her limbs, saying as he does so, "I pierce [here he mentions the name of the limb] waxen man "that she may think of me." The lover must then' write certain words of power on a leaden plate, which must be tied to the waxen figures with a string containing three hundred and sixty-five knots, and woman. XVI INTRODUCTION. and both figures and plate are to be buried in the grave of some one who has died young or who has been slain by violence. He must then recite a long incantation to the infernal gods, and if all these things be done in a proper manner the lover will obtain the woman's affection.^ Passing on to later times, we have a tradition Aristotle's that Aristotle gave to Alexander a number of waxen gures. figures nailed down in a box, which was fastened by a chain, and which he ordered him never to let go out of his own hand, or at least out of that of one of his confidential servants. The box was to go wherever Alexander went, and Aristotle taught him to recite certain formulae over it whenever he took it up or put it down. The figures in the box were intended to represent the various kinds of armed forces that Alexander was likely to find opposed to him. Some of the models held in their hands leaden swords which were curved backwards, and some had spears in their hands pointed head downwards, and some had bows with cut strings; all these were laid face downwards in the box. Viewed by what we ' I owe the information in this paragraph to my colleague Mr. F. G. Kenyon, of the Department of MSS; British Museum. The Greek texts are published from two papyri in the Bi- bliothcque Nationale; see Wessely, Gricchische Zauberpapyriis, Wien, iS88, 1. 296 flf., and lines 1S77 — ^1908 (p. 67). For lists of magical words used for purposes of incantation see Kenyon, Greek Papyri in the British Museum, London 1S93, PP- 255 — 267. THE MAGIC OF THE EGYPTIANS. XVII know of the ideas which underlay the use of waxen figures by the Egyptians and Greeks, it is clear that, in providing Alexander with these models and the formulae to use with them, Aristotle be- lieved that he was giving him the means of making his enemies to become powerless to attack him. But the power of the magic of Nectanebus wasA hawk be- not exhausted when he had sent to Olympias the Nectanebus. dream which has been described above. When the queen discovered that she was with child she was greatly afraid, and to quiet her fears Necta- nebus sent a dream to Philip also, in which he made known to him what had happened to his wife. To do this he took a sea-hawk and having bewitched it, he made it to fly through the night to the place where Philip was, and that which Nectanebus had told it to say to Philip in a dream the hawk said. In his dream Philip saw his wife united to the god Ammon, and when he had left her Philip saw him tie her up with a papyrus string and seal her with a gold ring having a bezel inscribed with the sun, and below it were the head of a lion and a spear. That Nectanebus could be- witch the hawk is only what we should expect, and the story of the hawk being able to talk is not to be wondered at as the product of a country where a cow warned a younger brother that his elder brother was standing behind the door of the stable with his dagger in his hand, waiting to slay him.' In another Egyptian story a crocodile makes ' D'Orbiney Papyrus, p. v. 1. 8. XVIII INTRODUCTION. Beasts and a spccch to a pfiiice whom he intends to make poCers™'ofhis victim/ and in yet another story a certain speech. island contained a serpent nearly fifty feet long which held converse with an unfortunate mariner who was wrecked there ;^ for birds and beasts to talk was to the Egyptian no uncommon event. The string of papyrus and the seal proclaim at once the origin of this part of the story, and the gold ring with a bezel inscribed in hieroglyphics was a common sight in Egypt. The arrangement of the signs almost suggests that the inscription was the prenomen or nomen of a king. In passing we may note that the name "Two-horned", by which Alexander was known in later days, is the literal translation of the two Egyptian words sept dbui "provided with two horns", which formed one of the titles of Amen-Ra, whose son he was said to be. The travels The abovc consideratious will probably be ander story' thought Sufficient to prove the Egyptian origin of the Alexander story, and it is now necessary to indicate briefly how the story travelled and grew. Within a very short time after the appearance of the historical biographies of Alexander in Egypt, whether written in Egyptian or Greek, a number of apocryphal stories about him and fabulous ' Goodwin, Translation of a Fabulous Tale {Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., vol. iii. p. 356). " Golenischeff, Ermitage Imperial. Inventairc de la Col- lection Egyftienne, p. 178. THE TRAVELS OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. XIX leg-ends of his deeds and travels sprang up; it is most natural to assume that these were written down for popular use in Greek. During the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt literature flourished in an extraordinary manner, and the pursuit of know- ledge of all kinds was carried on with an almost feverish haste. Professional scribes could have had no lack of occupation, and the works of every author or„^mpiler, who was a master in his pro- fession, and had anything new to say, found ready purchasers. The oldest version of the Alexander °"'^'' ^er- story known to us was written in Greek and it professes to have been the Avork of Callisthenes : this, however, is impossible, and the version is now called that of Pseudo-Callisthenes. Of the date at which it was written nothing is known, but it was probably not later than A. D. 200. Several MSS. of the version are known, and they may be roughly divided into three groups: i. One MS. which represents the oldest form of the Alexander story; 2. MSS. wherein an attempt has been made to harmonize the true and the fabulous accounts of the life of Alexander, and wherein the work is attributed to Alexander; 3. those wherein the histo- rical facts have been well nigh buried in legends.^ None of these MSS. represents the oldest form of all of the Alexander story. ' For the Greek text see Miiller, Pseudo- Callisthenes, Paris, 1846; Meusel, Pseudo-Callisthenes nack der Leidener Hand- schrift herausgegeben, Leipzig 1871. XX INTRODUCTION. Latin ver- From Grcck the story passed into Latin, and the oldest version in this language is that of Julerius Valerius,' who lived in the third or fourth century of our era ; another important Latin version is that of Leo the Archpresbyter, which appeared in the Xlth century.^ TheArmen- Next in point of age is the Armenian version, version, ^^j^j^].^ jg thought to havc been made by Moses of Khorene;^ it represents the oldest form of the Alexander story, and is believed to have been made in the Vth century of our era. Prof Noeldeke believes that the Armenian version has little im- portance for the Oriental forms of the story, but that it is of the highest importance for the Greek text, because the translator rendered what he had before him with great accuracy.* The syriac An important ancient version of the Alexander version. story is the Syriac,^ which was probably made about the Vllth or Vlllth century. I thought origi- nally that the Syriac translation was made from the Arabic, but Prof Noeldeke has proved con- clusively that the source of this version was Persian, ' It accompanies the Greek text in Miiller, op. at. ^ Historia Alexandri Magni regis Macedoniae, de proeliis. ■3 The text was pubHshed by the Mechitarist Fathers, at Venice in 1842. + Beitrdge zur Gcschichte des Alexanderromans , Vienna, 1890, p. 2. 5 The text, with an English translation, was published by me under the title. The History of Alexander the Great, Cam- bridge, 1889. THE TRAVELS OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. XXI and that the story passed into Syriac through the Pehlevi. The Pehlevi text he would place not later than the Vllth century, and the Syriac version cannot be very much later, for it is most unlikely that a knowledge of Pehlevi sufficient to translate such a work would lone survive the downfall of the Sasanides among the Syrians. Prof Noeldeke would go a step further and say that the trans- lator was an Eastern Syrian and a Nestorian, and that he was not necessarily a priest. The Syriac version was much read by the Nestorians, and it was used by later historians in their works; there is, moreover, little doubt that several portions of it found their way into Ethiopic through the Arabic' For a discussion on the value of the ' "Gelehrte Perser haben im VIII. Jahrhundert verschiedene "Werke aus dem Pehlewi ins Arabische iibersetzt: es lag "ihnen viel daran, die siegreichen Araber mit ihrer nationalen "Litteratur bekannt zu machen. Aber fiir syrische Christen, "die unter den Grosskonigen^ wie unter den Chalifen eine "gleich bescheidene Stellung einnahmen, in ahnlicher Weise "zu arbeiten, konnte einem Perser nicht in den Sinn kommen. "Nestorianische Geistliche persischer Nationalitat mussten "wohl etwas syrisch lernen, aber eine litterarische Thatigkeit, "wie die Ubersetzung eines solchen profanen oder vielmehr ''heidnischen Buchs ist bei ihnen nicht vorauszusetzen. Also "haben wir anzunehmen, dass der Ubersetzer ein Syrer war. "Und zwar ein Ostsyrer^ denn nur auf dem Gebiete^ wo die "Sasaniden herrschten oder vor kurzem geherrscht hatten, "kann man bei einem Syrer die Kenntniss des Persischen "annehmen, welche zu einem solchen Werke notwendig war." Noeldeke, Beitrage, p. 17. These remarks are fully confirmed by the "Historia Monastica" of Thomas of Marga, from XXII INTRODUCTION. Syriac "Christian Legend", and the "Brief Life of "Alexander", and the metrical homily on Alexan- der attributed to Jacob of Serugh (died A. D. 521), see Noeldeke, Beitrage, p. 24ff. Hebrew I^ Hcbrcw literaturc many stories are extant legends °f concerning Alexander the Great and his travels, Alexander. o but it is quite certain that they have nothing whatever to do with the early forms of the Alexan- der story as given by Pseudo-Callisthenes, and that the Jews influenced the development of the legends therein in no way whatever.' Arabic ver- In Arabic the earliest mention of Alexander is found in the Kuran; here we find the Arabic form of his title "Two-horned", and the account of the brass and iron rampart which he made to shut in the nations of Gog and Magog, and the story of the dried fish which came to life in the fountain of the water of life, although the principal actors in this last story are made to be Moses and Joshua, the son of Nun (see Sura XVIII, and Sale's trans- persian ver- lation, pp. 222 — 226).^ A kuowledgc of the legends of Alexander is shewn by several Arabic writers of later dates, and at a tolerably early period the Persian historians "knew somewhat or all of his history"; as the best description of the general whose work it is quite clear how much the Nestorians were indebted to the Persian nobility; several of the most distin- guished men whose lives are recorded by him had Persian blood in their veins. ' See Noeldeke, op. at., pp. 25 — 27. ^ Noeldeke, op. cit., p. 32. THE VERSIONS OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. XXHI contents of the most important narratives by Arabs and Persians is given by Noeldeke in his BeitrUge, so often quoted here, to this the reader is referred. Before passing on, however, it must be noted that the Persians made Alexander to be the son of a Persian king! The Alexander story having found its way into Siamese and Arabic and Persian, it is only natural that it should sions. be translated into the languages of still more re- mote Eastern countries, and according to the late Col. Yule' versions in Malay and Siamese were made. Returning once again to the land of Egypt we The copuc now know that the Egyptian Christians, or Copts, who lived in Upper Egypt, possessed a Coptic version of the Alexander story, and fragments of this version have been found and published.^ Of the translator nothing is known, and of the period when the translation was made all that can be said is that it was probably before the Xth century. Towards the end of the XlVth century a Turkish The Turkish • 1 . /- 1 A 1 1 • versions, poetical version of the Alexander story was written by Taj al-Din Ahmed ibn Ibrahim el-Ahmedi, who based his work on the Iskender Nameh of Nizami.^ ■ Ser Marco Polo, 2nd. edit., vol. i. p. iii. ^ See Bouriant, Fragments cPun Roman (^Alexandre en dialecte Thebain (see/. S. A., Ser. 8. torn. ix. 1887; and Crum, Froc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. vol. xiv. p. 473 ff.). ■5 See Rieu^ Catalogue of Turkish MSS., p. 162^. XXIV INTRODUCTION. other Euro- But if Eastcm nations were delighted to read s/on". ""'the legends of Alexander, no less readiness to do so was shewn by the Western nations of Europe, and as a result we have a version in German by Lamprecht, versions in French by Alberic de Be- sangon, Lambert li Tors, Alexandre de Bernay, Thomas of Kent, and many others, besides trans- lations into Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Slavonian, Scotch and Eno-lish." Thus we see that the history and legends of Alexander became known from Malay on the East to the British Isles on the West, and from Sweden on the north to Abyssinia on the south; few books have travelled so far and still fewer have been so thoroughly welcomed and adopted into the literature of the various nations of the world. Ethiopichis- Xhe Ethiopic histories of Alexander published tories of . Alexander, m this book fall naturally into four groups: — i. The Version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes. ii. The Extracts from larger historical works, i. e., from Al-Makin, Abii Shaker, and Joseph ben- Gorion. iii. A brief Life by an anonymous author. iv. A Christian Romance. The Ethio- i. Of all these the most interesting and most caiiisthen-"' Valuable historically is the Version of the Pseudo- "■ Callisthenes. When and by whom this translation or version was made we know nothing, but that it was made from the Arabic there is little doubt, ' For the editions see my Alexander, pp. ex, cxi. CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF THE NARRATIVE. XXV and the similarity of its contents with those of the Syriac version is striking. Between it, however, and the Syriac, there is one remarkable difference. In the Syriac version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes there are a few passages which seemed to me to indicate the hand of the Christian priest,' but it is not until we come to the "Christian Legend" that the whole narrative becomes imbued with Christian ideas and traditions, and has compara- tively little connexion with the work of the Pseudo- Callisthenes.^ In the Ethiopic version, however, Alexander Alexander has become a Christian king, and his King. '^'^° words and acts are represented as those of a convert to the Christian religion. It is not easy to decide whether the Ethiopian translator invented these things, or whether he found them in the Arabic work from which he translated, or whether he found this idea suggested therein and enlarged upon it; many statements certainly seem to be additions by the Christian translator, for they cannot possibly be of Muslim origin. In matters ' Prof. Noeldeke thinks not. "Dass. der Uebersetzer gerade ein Geistlicher war^ wie Budge meint, ist nicht not- wendig; die sehr wenigen biblischen Anklange, die sich im Syr. zeigen, wiirden auch bei einem Laien nicht auffallen." Beit rage, p. 17. ^ "Diese Erzahlung ware zwar ohne Pseudocallisthenes kaum denkbar, denn erst aus der Umbildung des geschicht- Hchen Helden in den des Romans konnte der Konig der Legende werden, aber im Einzelnen hangt sie nur durch wenige Ziige mit ihm zusammen." Beitrdge, p. 30. XXVI INTRODUCTION. of traditions concerning the Patriarchs of the Old Testament, or of Bible history, he may have borrowed freely, but when Alexander is made to Alexander a say, "It is meet that we should not serve any the\rinity" "god besides Himself and that we should worship "Him in His Word and in His mercy, by which "every thing existeth. His Persons being three, and "His Godhead one," no doubt can be held as to the origin of this addition. Already in the ac- count of Alexander's expedition into Palestine, as given in Muller's Greek codex C', the king is made to ask one of the priests, "What god do you "worship?" and the wily priest answers, "We serve "the one God Who made heaven and earth, and "all that therein is, and Whom no man hath been Alexander a "able to find out." To this Alexander replies, '"^' "As worshippers of the true God, go in peace, "for your God shall be my God. And let there "be peace between me and you, and I will not "pass through your land as I have through the "countries of other peoples, because ye are the "servants of the living God." Again, in the same Codex, when Alexander has finished the buildino- of his city Alexandria, he is made to go up to the tower and to declare all the gods of the earth vanity, and to acknowledge only one God to be the true, and invisible, and inscrutable God, Who rideth upon the wings of the Seraphim, and Who is praised by cries of "Holy, Holy, Holy." ' If the ' See Muller, p. 83, col. i (Bk. ii. chap. 24). ' See MuUer, p. 85, col. i. dveicTiv 'A\e£av6poq iv Tiij ALEXANDERS CHARACTER. XXVII Greek version made Alexander accept the God of the" Hebrews there is little wonder that the Ethiopian made him a servant of Jesus Christ; but there is, perhaps, another explanation of the matter. Serious historians of Alexander testify to the Alexander's habits of moderation which he practised in hishlbte"'' early life. Ouintus Curtius speaks of his simple dress, his affability to his attendants, his avoidance of intoxication, and adds that "he appeared to "have extinguished voluptuous wishes rather than "to have regulated them; and from his indifference "to the charming half of society, it was apprehended "that the house of Macedonia would be left without "an heir."' He cared little about his lodging and food, and joined in the gymnastic exercises with his soldiers with such spirit that he endeared himself to them all.^ He was brave even to reck- lessness and as magnanimous as he was brave; His contin- death he despised. Among all the good qualities^""' which Arrian^ attributes to him are those of con- tinence and moderation in the use of wine, which he enjoyed more for the pleasure of the conver- sation which accompanied it than for the desire to drink. According to Plutarch'* his continence TTupTHJ '^'^' TrdvTa? eSouBeviicre tou^ Qeoiiq xfji; yhS ^ai |u6vov eva 9e6v dXn^ivov dveKripuSev dGetupriTov, dveSix- viacTTOV, Tov erri xiJuv Zepacpi|n eTTOxou|uevov Kai xpicraTiuj qjLuvri &oSaZ:6|uevov. / ' Bagster's translation, Bk. i. 4. ^ See Bk. iii. 17. 3 iv. 19; vii. 29. * Life of Alexander, iv. XXVIII INTRODUCTION. shewed itself at an early period, for, though he was vigorous, or rather, violent in his other pursuits, he was not easily moved by the pleasures of the He took body; and if he tasted them it was with great wine spar- j , • t T • • ingiy. moderation. He was very temperate in eating, and not so much addicted to the use of wine as he was thought to be;' when business called he was not to be detained by wine, or sleep, or pleasure, or honourable love, or the most enter- taining spectacle. Soon after rising he sacrificed to the gods and then took a meal sitting down; the rest of the day he read and wrote and passed in hunting or in athletic exercises, and he took His teift-his last meal late in the evening. As concerning naturally ths vlrtuc of his contiuence there seems to have "'''• been some doubt among ancient writers,'' and there are not wanting those who accuse him of abomin- able practices.^ Some say that he was, in regard ' Life of Alexander, xxii. ^ Compare 'Iepdjvu|u6s re, ev TaTs; 'ETriCTToXaTc;, 0e6cppa- (JTOV (pr|(Ti Xeyeiv, on 'AXeSavbpo? ouk eu bieKeiTO npb(; ctcppobiaia. 'OXuiaTtia&o? foOv Kai TrapaKXivdcrric; auTUj KaXXigeivav Tr)V QexiaXriv eiaipav, TrepiKaXXeatdTriv oucrav, Gweiboroq toOto Kai toO OiXittttou, (euXapoOvio ydp |uri -fuvviq eiri) TToXXccKi? i^'xei auir) tov 'AXegavbpov cruyTevea- Oai. Athenaeus, Deipnosoj>histae (ed. Schweighaeuser, torn, i''- P- 93)) lib. X. 45- The word Tuvviq = Yivoq, Lat. ginnus, i. e., hinnus. The form yTvos occurs in an inscription from Rhodes; see Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, part 2, p. 123. J ct>iX6TTaii; h' r\v iK\xaMwq Kai 'AXeSavbpoq 6 BaaiXeuq. Athenaeus, xiii. 80. On the other hand we have the indig- ALEXANDERS CHARACTER. XXIX to women, cold by temperament, the opposite of his father Philip, and others that he was far too much absorbed in ambition and engaged in bodily labours to find the necessary time to dally in an Oriental harem. The former view is supported by the passage in Plutarch' where he is made to say that sleep and the commerce with the sex were the thing-s that made him most sensible of his mortality, and that he considered both weariness and pleasure as the natural effects of our weakness; but the latter view is probably the more correct. That Alexander could be fascinated by female beauty is evident from his affection for Barsime, The prm- the widow of his rival Memnon and daughter of"mI Artabazus, who is said to have been not only a most beautiful woman, but one who was educated after the manner of the Greeks.^ The incident which has most laid hold of the Oriental imagi- nation, and caused Oriental peoples to proclaim Alexander's chastity is that which happened in connexion with the mother, wife and daughter of Darius. When Parmenion suggested to him that the Persian royal women should share the usual fate Alexander's treatment of of female captives, he replied that it would be a the Persian Queen. nant remark of Alexander to his friends (Plutarch, xxii.)^ when Theodore the Tarentine wrote and told Alexander that he had two beautiful boys to sell. Mr. Grote {History of Greece, vol. iv. p. 1 go), relying on the passage in Athenaeus quoted in the preceding note, believes that his development was tardy. ' Life of Alexander, % xxii. ^ Plutarch, g xxi. XXX INTRODUCTION. disgraceful thing for the Greeks having fought and overcome men to allow themselves to be vanquished by women.' Elsewhere' Alexander says that he has neither seen nor does he desire to see the wife of Darius, who was said to be a most beautiful woman, and that he has not allowed any man to speak of her beauty in his presence. These facts, in whole or in part, must have found their way all over the East, and they no doubt, greatly impressed the Oriental imagination; with only the historical account of Alexander's youthful virtues before him the Christian translator would have no difficulty whatsoever in transforming the hero into a Christian king. Having become a Christian king in the hands of his Ethiopian biographer, Alexander must necessarily issue procla- mations full of Christian ideas and sentiments, and he must improve every occasion of imparting Christian doctrine, otherwise his history would become a means of amusement only and not of edification; and this is what has happened. When Alexander has taken his army and set out for the east, his first act is to found Alexandria, and having made due acknowledgements to "God, the Most ' ttXi'iv aicrxpov ecrriv tiiua? toui; avbpaq viKiicraviaq UTTO TuvaiKLuv iiTTr|9fivai; see Miiller, p. 78 (Bk. ii. chap. 17). This incident forms one of the ''amusing" stories of Bar- Hebraeus, who gives it thus: — T20r<'A\r<' Qooi.TlQa^Ar^A ' Plutarch, Life of Alexander, xxii. ALEXANDER AND THE BRAHMANS. XXXI High" (see p. 38),' he appoints Aristotle to be his master and counsellor. This Aristotle is described Aristoue as belonging to the philosophers who say, "ThescripLes/ "Heavens declare the glory of the Creator, Who "killeth and Who maketh alive, Who promoteth "to honour and Who bringeth down into the dust;" here then we have almost word for word quo- tations from books of the Bible (see p. 39). When Alexander becomes king he makes five procla- mations: two to his household, one to his gover- nors, one to his soldiers, and one to the kings and governors of the world in general (see pp. 40 — 59), The subject matter in each is practically the same^ that is, exhortations to forsake idolatry and to Alexander's worship God Almighty; in places they remind fions. "^ the reader of passages in the Kur'an, but the general tone of the compositions is against their being of Arabic origin. In his epistles to Darius and others Alexander always calls himself the "Servant of God Almighty" (see p. 67), and when he is in Jerusalem he reads the Book of Daniel, — that Alexander knew neither Hebrew nor Chaldee troubled not the translator — and prays towards the east, and does homage unto the Holy Scriptures and to the words of the prophets (see pp. 73 — 75). When Alexander joined battle with Darius he cries out in true Muhammadan fashion, "There is no The Brah- "strength for us save in God Almighty" (see p. 7g).TJbL(]Z- The Brahmans are described as "fearers of God",'^*' °"^'"- ' These numbers refer to the English translation. XXXII INTRODUCTION. and are boldly identified with the Israelites who lived in the time of Elijah, and who had not bowed the knee to Baal; still more remarkable is it that I Kings xix. lo is quoted (p. 127). In the letter which the Brahmans write to him they describe themselves as "the children" ofSeth, the son of Adam, whom God covered over in the hidden place of His treasures (the famous "Cave of Treasures"?) when He sent "the Flood upon "the earth" (p. 129); a similar view is given in the "Book of Adam and Eve."' When Alexander is in India he visits a certain temple, and sees therein a number of curious and beautiful things, and among others a figure of a god reclining on Dionysos a couch i in the Greek text we are told that the intrE™ch. God was Dionysos, but in the Ethiopic text he is said to be Enoch (p. 159). In the account of Alexander's visit to China disguised as one of his own generals, we are told that the king of China gave him "one thousand loads of the finest gold "and silver, for in this country are situated the "mountains wherefrom they dig gold" (p. 179). This statement set the mind of the translator thinking about Ophir, and he adds, "and from this "place Solomon the son of David brouo-ht the "gold wherewith he built the sanctuary, and he "made the vessels and the shields of the gold of China iden- "the land of China". In the city of Samarkand tined with -^ Ophir. (p. 185) Alexander built "a place for prayer," but ' Ed. Malan, p. 118 GOG AND MAGOG. XXXIII the equivalent passage in the Syriac version' states that he built a "temple to Rhea, whom they call "Nani." The boats of the bridge which he built to cross the "crystal" river were made in the shape of Noah's ark (p. i86), and Alexander is made to say, "Now I saw the ark of Noah on the island "where it lay"! Once, however, the Ethiopian translator condones an irregularity in the life of his hero, I mean in the matter of the love-passages between Alexander and Candace (p. 201), and he is so much carried away by the story of the beauty of the Ethiopian queen, the praise of whose Alexander beauty, he says, "no living man could sing suffi-Lce. "ciently," that he adds, "Glory be to God Almighty, "the King, the Maker, the Mighty One, the Great, "the Creator of such a race of women who have "brought forth children to the mighty." Whatever else the translator might be, he was certainly a patriot. After the episode of the Amazons and the ac- count of the letter which Aristotle sent to him, advisine him to return thanks to God for all that He had done for him, we find inserted in the text a version of the "Christian Legend"^, which pur- ports to describe the events which happened in his seventh year (pp. 216 — 242). Herein we have The Legend a curious account of the origin of the Dead Sea, sea. ^ which is said to "stink horribly" because of the ' See p. 115. ^ See the Syriac version, p. 144 ff. XXXIV INTRODUCTION. dead bodies of men and women and the carcases of beasts and birds whicli lie in the depths thereof whither they were brought by the waters of the Flood. In the prayer which Alexander makes be- fore he sets out he speaks of the "God Who dwelleth above the Cherubim and Seraphim", and Whose throne is surrounded by "ten thousand times ten thousand angels" (p. 221), and the famous gate which he builds to shut in the wicked nations of Gog and Magog is set up by him with God's Paradise conscnt. The four rivers flow from Paradise "like Xers. ' the form of the Cross, towards the East, West, South, and North" (p. 236), and in the prophecy which he makes after the building: of the Iron Gate he refers to the prophet Jeremiah; similarly, with reference to the mountain which surrounds the world, the Book of Job is quoted (p. 242). In the Land of Darkness Alexander meets the angel who holds the earth in its proper place, and who refers to the expulsion of Adam from Paradise (p. 246), and describes heaven according to ideas which are expressed in the Old Testament. The river of the Water of Life floweth from beneath God's throne, which is supported by four angels, one of whom has an ox's face, another a lion's face, an- other an eagle's face, and another a man's face The Throne (p. 24/); and the angels sing hymns by day and by night. Next comes an account of the creation of man and of his dwelling in Paradise (p. 250), and when Alexander returns to his troops and they eat of the bunch of grapes which the Angel ALEXANDER S COMMENTS ON THE PATRIARCHS. XXXV of the Mountain had given him, he says to them, "Behold, ye have eaten of the bread of "angels, even as the prophet David saith in the "LXXVIIth Psalm, 'Man did eat the bread of His "angels'" (p. 263). The, idea of the Macedonian king possessing such an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures is quaint, and shews how little re- gard the translator had either for probability or fact; on the other hand we find that when Alexan- der comes to Babylon he wilfully destroys a number The eight of wonderful things which were supposed to have erbyion de- been the property of Solomon, the son of David ''*''°^'"'- (p. 291). After the banquet which Olympias makes by Alexander's wish, when she has realized that sorrow comes to all alike, she makes a speech wherein she says, "It is good for a man to say, "'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts'" (p. 307), an evident reflection of a Christian conception. We have seen that the translator has inserted into his version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes a series of addresses by Alexander and a Christian Legend, for which there is but scanty authority in the Greek, and now we come to a long interpolated passage which records his address to his scribe Rahaman, The scribe and his "Precepts" for his disciples (pp. 293 — 331). "'""''"■ In the address to his scribe Alexander makes a series of remarks which any believer in our own times might have made, and his description of the throne of the Deity (p. 300) reflects the visions of Ezekiel the prophet. In his "Precepts" for his disciples he reviews at some length God's dealings XXXVI INTRODUCTION. Job and Pharaoh, with the Hebrew patriarchs, beginning with Adam and ending with Solomon. In the case of Enoch he describes how sinful men had become and with what abominable practices they had corrupted themselves, and a curious statement is made to the effect that the children of Cain settled in the land of Alexandria. Another curious legend, also, is preserved in his account of Job, for this pa- triarch is said to have been consulted by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about the slaughter of the children of Israel, and all the evils which came upon him are described as punishments laid upon him be- cause he did not "wax furious" with Pharaoh at the suggestion. To Solomon, the son of David, miraculous powers are attributed, for he could hear the worm crawling on the tiles of the floor, and he could see in the air the bird which was beyond the ken of ordinary mortals; for himself he built a glass house which contained ten thousand rooms! Further, the translator having represented Alexander as leading the life of a Christian kino- during his travels, very consistently makes him bequeath ten thousand dinaiiir to the churches of Egypt after his death (p. 345). We cannot here Alexander coutiuue the Hst of the evidences of the hand of Christian thc Christian translator, for they will be further ' churches, j^gntloned In the account of the "Christian Ro- mance" (pp. 437—584); we may, therefore, pass on to other peculiarities of the version. In the Ethlopic version Alexander's famous steed Bucephalus Is said to have been a mare (p. 19), Solomon's wisdom. ALEXANDER AND ETANNA. XXXVII and, curiously enough, she is said to have been of the seed of Nectanebus and also to have been conceived at "the exact time when the queen, the "wife of Philip, conceived"; elsewhere (p. 121) she is said to have been born "by sorcery at the same Bucephalus. "time as himself". That Bucephalus should be described as a mare is not to be wondered at, for the estiniation in which mares are held among the Semites is proverbial, and the translator may be excused for assummg that such a wonderful steed as that of Alexander must be a mare.^ In the Ethiopic histories of Alexander we find Alexander's two forms of a very ancient story of the man whOf^"'",*^^ ' For the modern ideas of the Arab about mares^ see Tweedie, The Arabian Horse, p. 231; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 220; and Yule, Marco Polo, vol. i. pp. \66, 291 (2nd. ed.). "There is no difficulty in buying Arab stallions "except the price .... it is different with mares, whicli are "almost always the joint property of several owners. The "people too dislike to see a hat on a thorough-bred mare: "'What hast thou done that thou art ridden by that ill-omen- "'ed Kafir'? the Badawin used to mutter when they saw "a highly respectable missionary at Damascus mounting a "fine Ruwala mare. The feeling easily explains the many "wars about horses occuring in Arab annals" Burton, Thou- sand Nights and a Night, vol. v. p. 247. A curious story is extant to the effect that Nectanebus sent to Lycerus, king of Babylon, and to his 7pazir Aesop, telling them that he had mares which would become with foal if they only heard the neighing of the stallions which were in Babylon (see Meissner, Qiiellennntersuchungen zur Haikargeschichte, in Z. D. M. G., Bd. xlviii. p. 180). For the story of mares being impregnated by the wind see Burton, op. cit., vol. vi. p. 9. XXXVIII INTRODUCTION. succeeded in fl)'Ing through the air on an eagle's pinions up to heaven. In the version of the Pseudo- Callisthenes (p. 277), it is said that "he flew through "the air on an eagle, and he arrived in the heights "of the heavens, and he explored them, and he "saw the east and the west thereof . . . and the "stations of the birth and going forth of the "stars", &c. In the "Christian Romance" (p. 474), a detailed account is given of how he tamed certain large birds by feeding them, and of how he and some of his mighty men leaped upon their backs and were borne away by them into the darkness, and of how after three days and three nights they arrived in the Country of the Living. Arabic tradition affirms (p. 33)' that Nimrod also tried to ascend into heaven by means of a chest drawn by four huge birds, and that after wandering about in the air for some time he fell down to the earth with great violence; but all these stories Etanna the arc based upon the legend of an ancient Bab)'- byion.°a. "Ionian hero called Etanna.^ What the oldest form of the story was like cannot be said, but the fragments of an Assyrian copy, made for the Royal Library at Nineveh by order of Assur-bani-pal, king of Assyria about B. C. 668 — 626, have come down to us.^ In this version of the legend it seems ^ In the note to the translation on p. 278, for p. 277 read p. 33. 3 For the cuneiform text and a German translation see E. T. Harper in Beitrlige zur Assyriologie, Leipzig^ 1S92, Bd. ALEXANDER AND ETANNA. XXXIX that Etanna wished to ascend to the highest heaven, and an eagle said to him, "Rejoice, my friend, "and let me carry thee to heaven. Lay thy breast "on my breast, thy hands on my pinions, and letjoumey of "my side be as thy side.'' When the eagle had and" aa"na soared upwards for two hours with Etanna clasping '^°™''^'''"'' him, he shewed the hero the great Ocean which surrounded the world, and the earth's surface which appeared like a mountain projecting from it. After another two hours the eagle shewed him that the Ocean clasped the land like a girdle, and after a third two hours they saw that the sea had become like a little pool of water.' At this moment they reached the door of the gods Anu, Ea, and Bel, and bird and man rested together. A gap in the text comes here, but when the story begins again the eagle is carrying Etanna to the goddess Ishtar, and he flies upwards for three periods of two hours each, drawing the hero's attention three times in much the same words as before to the rapidly diminishing earth. Presently the eagle's strength seems to fail, and he falls down and down, carrying the hero with him, and at length Etanna falls on the earth and is dashed to pieces. Theongm of Ethiopian translator received the story through the ' ^ '^^™ ' Arabic from the Greek,^ and the Greek must, in ii. Heft 2, p. 39off; and Meissner, Alexander und Gilgamos, p. 17. ' See Lidzbarski in Bezold's Zeitschrift, Bd. viii. p. 266 f. ^ See Pseudo-Callisthenes, Bk. ii. chap. 41. XL INTRODUCTION. its turn, have acquired it through some Semitic language. There is Httle doubt that the story was also fastened on to Gilgamish, a famous Accadian and Assyrian hero, even as it was fastened on to Alexander, and probably, if we had all the evidence we should find that it was told of some other hero who lived long before Etanna;' in fact it seems as if we had here one of the stories with Avhich men amused themselves in a primitive period. Its existence in the legends of Alexander is an- other proof of the marvellous manner in which history and stories are preserved in the East where none of these things ever seems to have had a beginning. Travels of Wc havc mentioned above the name of the anr^GHga- hero Gilgamish, whose travels and fabulous history mish com- ^j.g recorded on the clay tablets of Assur-bani-pal's pared. -^ JT library,'' and it can be shewn that the legends which had clustered round him were laid under contribution for the history of Alexander. Gilgamish fell sick and sought out the saofe Atrahasis to ask The water him liow he might obtain eternal life,^ and Alexan- der's constant quest was the well of the "Water "of Life" (p. 261). The mountain through which ' Whom Aelian (JVa/. Animal., xii. zi), identifies with Gilgamish. " For the cuneiform texts see Haupt, Das Babylonisch^ Nimrodepos, Leipzig, 1S84; and for translations see Smith, Chaldean Genesis, London, 1S76 (German translation by De- litzsch, Leipzig, 1876). 3 Meissner, Alexander tend Gilgamos, p. 13. ALEXANDER AND GILGAMISH. XLI Gilgamish travelled was called Mashi,' and the identical name is preserved by the Greek'' geo- graphers, and in the Syriac and Arabic versions of the Alexander story (p. 228), In his. journey over the ocean on which no man had before sailed Alexander took with him eagles which he set free, one after the other, to see if he was near land; the first two eagles found resting-places and, there- fore, returned not, but the third returned to the ship after three days, "for the earth had appeared "unto it" (p. 282). Here it is quite clear that we have a reminiscence of the story of the Hebrew Alexander patriarch Noah, or of his Assyrian counterpart''" Sit-napishtim,^ and of the three birds which were sent forth from the ark. Alexander's journey by sea occupied several months, even as did that of Noah when the waters of the Flood covered the earth. The "foetid sea", which forms such a striking subject in Alexander's travels, is thought The sunk- by Meissner'' to have its equivalent in the "waters '"^ ^'^^ "of death" of the Gilgamish legends; and Alexan- der's guide, who is called both "Matun" and "El- khidr", is most probably identical with Atrahasis ^ "^TT ^^T ^y It ^]*~ s/ia-afMa-a-s/ii; see Ra.upi, op. df., plate 60, ]. 2. ' TO Mdffiov opoq; see Strabo xi. 5. 6. 3 The most recent and best translation of the Assyrian account of the Deluge is by Zimmern; see in Gunkel, Sc/io- pfung und Chaos, p. 423 ff. ♦ Alexander und Gilgamos, p. 1 5 ; Smith, Chaldean Genesis, P- 255- XLII INTRODUCTION. of the Assyrian legends, as Lidzbarski has already suggested. In the Alexander story we are told that the hero slays a mighty dragon that has laid waste the country for a long time (p. 167), and his abode seems to have been partly on a mountain The Dragon, and partly on a river bank; he is of course slain by Alexander, and he dies a terrible death caused by red-hot stones setting fire to pitch and sulphur which he had been begfuiled into swallowinsf. Here clearly we have a reminiscence of the fearful monster Tiamat' which was slain by Marduk; in this case Alexander becomes identified with the Sun-god — Marduk in Babj'lonia, and Ra in Egypt — who scatters and destroys the hosts of darkness. In his travels by sea it will be remembered that Alexander once made a descent therein in a glass gace (p. 285), and that while he was there the Angel of the Sea shewed him some of the monsters of the deep. One creature came and bit the cage with his teeth, and his length was such that two days passed before Alexander saw his tail; another Sea mon- monster appeared, and it took two days and two nights for him to pass before the cage. Presentl)' a still more huge sea monster appeared, for al- though, according to the Angel's instructions, he rushed past the cage with the speed of lightning, it was three whole days and nights before Alexan- der saw the end of him. We might think that this was the parent of all the "sea-serpent" stories ' See Zimmern, in ScJwpfimg wid Chaos, p. 411. BABYLONIAN SOURCES OF THE ALEXANDER STORY. XLIII which appear in the narratives of "eye witnesses" at sea, but the genuine ancestor seems to have existed in Babylonia, long before Alexander march- ed through the country, under the name of The dragon Tiamat. According to a cuneiform text this '^"^ ' monster was nearly two hundred and fifty miles long, and about five miles wide, and her jaws were more than a mile long; her windings occu- pied a length of nearly seventy miles;' although no measurements are given of the sea monster which Alexander saw, there is little doubt that the fame of Tiamat had reached the early writers of the Alexander story. In it too we may see the Leviathan of the Hebrew Scriptures.^ From the above facts it will be seen that many Babylonian parallels may be drawn between the legends of^e'l^e^an- Alexander and those of early Babylonian and'''"' ^^°''^^ Assyrian heroes, and there is little doubt that if we had in our hands the whole of the ancient legendary literature of Mesopotamia we should be able to prove this statement more fully. Given a brave, fearless soldier marching with an army through a certain country for conquest and pleasure, it seems that the same stories must be told of his progress and exploits, whether he be Etanna, Gilgamish, Nimrod, or Alexander. With the ad- vance of time the first tolerably accurate descrip- tions of his life will be first distorted and then ' Zimmern, op. at, p. 418. ' Job. iii. 8; xl. 25; Psalm civ. 26; Isaiah xxvii. i. XLIV INTRODUCTION. enlarged, and when he has become a mere memory his name will be made a peg on which to hang stories, legends, and myths. The details of the Modifica- fabulous history of such an one will be modified tions of the . ■, i • i r i l story. to suit the country and ideas ot the people among whom the writers live, and eventually it will be- come the popular expression of the national views of each country through which the history passes of what a hero should be. This is exactly what has happened to the Alexander story in the hands of Semitic and other writers. The Egyptians made Alexander the son of an Egytian king and a worshipper of Amen; the Greeks made him the type of the victorious Greek conqueror; the Per- Aiexander's sians made him a Persian; the Arabs made him from a servant of Allah; the Syrians made him a Christian; and the Ethiopians depicted him as a believer in "y- the Trinity and in the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. In one respecu, however, the Arabs and Ethiopians have modified the legendary history of Alexander considerably, I mean, that they have omitted a great many facts which the Greeks and others considered to be the most important events in his life. Alexander's victory in the chariot races at Pisa, his conquest of Thebes, his sovereignty over the Athenians, etc., find no equivalents in the Ethiopic versions, and seemingly none in the Arabic texts from which the Ethiopian translated his work. Taken as a whole, however, the Ethiopic legendary histories of Alexander are most valuable from many points tion heathenism to Christian- ALEXANDER AND ARISTOTLE. XLV of view, but chiefly because we may assume that the genius of the language is better preserved in importance them than in the translations of the Bible, and ^stories ''of because the translator has given all the accounts ^'™™'''"'' of Alexander which he could gather together. ii. Of the Extracts from large historical works, Extracts ?'. .xiI,A^Am^ .T^.T r<'ii»3f<'A\S»3 ^ Saying No. ix seems to be preserved by Bar-Hebraeus in his "Laughable Stories" in these words: — .T^ »<'.a1so t-"^\^^;^ ■5 Other aphorisms of Aristotle are quoted by Bar-Hebrae- us in his "Laughable Stories" as, for instance: — Aristotle commanded Alexander saying, "Reveal not thy secret unto "two men, lest if it be revealed, thou be not able to de- "cide which of the two hath made it public. If thou pun- ALEXANDER AT JERUSALEM. XLVII Other things we are told that he translated the books of Hermes from the Egyptian into the Greek lan^uaee, and a further reference is made to magical figures, each of which had a drum and a trumpet (p. 382). "ishest both of them thou wilt certainly inflict an injury on "him that hath not revealed it, and if thou forgivest both "of them thou wilt not do even an act of grace in the case ■'of him that revealed it not". Aristotle wrote to Alexander and commanded him, saying: "Take good heed that thy "soldiers think no evil concerning thee, for to him v^fho can "think easily it is easy to speak, and to him who can speak "easily it is easy to act" ; and this he said that Alexander might do good unto every man. The following stories are told of Alexander: — i. Alexander saw among the ranks of his army a man called Alexander who constantly took to flight in the time of war, and he said to him, "Either be strong "in battle or change thy name, lest listeners be deceived by "the similarity of our names" 2. Gifts of certain glass vessels were given to Alexander, and although he admired them gready he ordered them to be broken. And when he was asked why he did so he replied, "I know that they would "be broken one after another by the hands of the servants, "and that I should be moved to anger continually; therefore "by indulging in one [great] burst of wrath I have driven "away many [lesser] rages". 3. It was reported to Alexander that the women of Darius were exceedingly beautiful, and he replied, "It would be a most shameful thing for us to "be conquered by men of any nation whatsoever, and shall "we allow their women to conquer us?" 4. When Alexander was about to wage war with the Amazons he said, "If we "conquer these people it will not be a matter of boasting "for us, but if they vanquish me it will be a great disgrace "[for us]". XLVIII INTRODUCTION. Alexander ill. Ill thc Extract from the "History of tiie Jews" j^ws ' ^ by Joseph ben-Gorion the writer's chief object is, of course, to describe Alexander's dealings with the Jews. His narrative begins with an account of the murder of Philip, and a description of the personal appearance of Alexander. Next comes the story of Alexander's visit to the sanctuary, told much as we have it in Josephus; the episode of his visit to Nablus and of his reception by Sanballat the Samaritan was of more interest to the writer than it is to us.' The account of Alexander's war with Darius is fairly full, and he Alexander's descrlbes hls visit to the court of Darius dis- visit to the • ^ ^ ^ ■ t i • i • court ofguised as an ambassador, an episode which is °''""^' omitted in the Ethiopic version of the Pseudo- Callisthenes. Alexander's victory over Porus and his journey to the Brahmans in the "City of the "Blessed" are recorded, and a modified statement of his questions and of their answers to them are given. A brief reference to his travels and to his death by poison concludes Joseph ben-Gorion's history of Alexander. An Ethiopic iv. The History of the Death of Alexander the AiexandTr°s Maccdonlan by an anonymous writer consists of ^''^- a brief summary of his life and death, and of twenty of the Sayings declaimed by the sages of Alexandria over his body. His army consisted of 600,000 horsemen, he founded two hundred cities, he conquered forty-four kings, and he died by ' See Zonaras (ed. Pinder), Amialium, iv. 15 (vol. i. p. 355). THE CHRISTIAN ROMANCE. XLIX poison at Babylon. These are the chief facts of the little work. V. The "Christian Romance" is, perhaps, one of importance the most curious works that has ever been written °J,. . '''^ "Christian about Alexander the Great, and from many points ^''™°""- .^^ of view it is of very high interest. Of its author ''' we know nothing, and the period of Its compo- sition is also unknown; but we may assume that it is, relatively, a modern work, and that it is not a translation from an older work in another language. Historically it is of no value, for the few facts which underlie this composition are so garbled as to be almost unrecognisable. It is quite certain that the writer has drawn upon sources other than his own imagination for many details, and though many of them are evident others are not so clear. The uppermost idea in his mind seems to have Alexander's been Alexander's chastity, which is no doubt based upon an exaggerated view of the famous passage in Arrian,' where Alexander's conduct towards the wife of Darius is thus described: — 'And as to "the wife of Darius, whose charms surpass'd all "the Asiaticks, he either had no desires towards "her, or he took care to curb his desires, notwith- "standing he was in the very heat of youth, and "at the height of glory, which are commonly great "debauchers of the mind, and often cause men to "make a bad use of those advantages which fortune "has put into their hands. But he, out of a certain ' Bk. iv. 19, 8. INTRODUCTION. "awe or reverence, forbore to touch her; and "herein shevv'd himself no less a pattern of true "continency, than he had before done, of heroic "fortitude."^ The next idea in the mind of the writer, who was probably a monk, was to Christianize every act of Alexander's life. The "Christian Ro- mance" consists of thirty-three chapters and an introduction, in which, after a fitting prayer to the Deity, we are told that he "removed from himself "the lust of the flesh, that is to say, the thought "of fornication, and by cleanness of mind he over- Aiexander "came the lust of the flesh" (p. 438); next he is ^"''"g^'gti'c compared unto Elijah the Tishbite, and John the Baptist, and the Emperor Honorius. Because of his asceticism and continuance in fasting and prayer he was able to shut in the nations of Gog and Magog, to penetrate the mountains of the Land ofDarkness, and to obtain dominion over a thousand kingdoms. The contents of the chapters of the work may be thus described: — summaryof Chap. 1. Address to wives and warnings to women Ro- unfaithful to their husbands. Philio of Macedon tian mance discovers what is to happen by means of the astrolabe,^ and learns from it that if his son, who ' Rooke's Translation^, vol. i. p. 259. " For a full description of the astrolabe see W. H. Mor- ley, Description of a Planispheric astrolabe constructed for Shah Sultan Husain Safawi, King of Pa-sia, and norc preserved in the British Museum : Comprising an account of the astrolabe generally, London, 1S56, fol. The names of the Arabic and Persian treatises consulted by the writer are given on p. 23 of his work. THE CHRISTIAN ROMANCE. LI is to be called Alexander, be born in a certain hour he will be king over fourteen kings and will summary of 1 . -, , . - , . , the "Chris- be pure in body; m consequence oi this know-ua„ rq. ledge he arranges for his son to be born therein.™'""'^"' Chap. ii. Alexander is adopted by a neighbouring king and becomes king of Media, Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt, and Cyprus. The Red Sea expedition and destruction of impure nations, Alexandria is founded, conquest of Philistia, description of the Viper and Serpent nations and of their manners and customs, the building of the Iron Gate to shut in the nations of Gocf and Masfosf, &c. Chap. iii. Alexander's prayer. The children of Japhet and their skill in making mechanical con- trivances in brass, musical instruments, &c. Chap. iv. The citadel of adamant is scaled and entered by Alexander, the musical instruments therein, the inscription inside the citadel. Chap. v. Capture and loot of the citadel by Alexander and his army, the automatic organ, the prayer of Alexander, the organ taken to pieces and reconstructed. Chap. vi. The Spirit of the Almighty reveals to Alexander the future Incarnation of Christ, Alexan- der chosen to be a prophet. Chap. vii. The founding of the city of Alex- andria. Chap. viii. Alexander determines to visit the "Country of the Living" and prepares to set out. After one year he arrives in the "Country of Darkness'' and, carried on the back of an eagle. LII INTRODUCTION. he arrives in the "Country of the Living" in three days and three nights more. Chap. ix. Alexander puts forth to sea and eagles summaryofdrag hls ships along; at length he comes to the tian ^^^'ro- city of the Saints. The water thereof is sweeter mance". ^^lan sugar, the stones are of sard, chalcedony, sapphire, etc., from the herb of the iield manna is obtained, there is there neither cold nor heat, summer nor winter, every cistern is filled with honey, and every beast with milk. It is quite clear that this description is based upon the account of the Makrobioi and their island Taprobane {z. e., Ceylon), by Palladius, which is found in Pseudo- Callisthenes, iii. 7 ff. Chap. X. Alexander and his horse are seized by the Spirit and carried into the desert where live Enoch and Elijah, and they hold converse with him and describe the manner of the Life which they lead; in this country is the water of Life, and there is no death therein.' While they are talking the two saints are snatched away, and Alexander returns to his army. Chap. xi. A fisherman catches fish in the water of Life and is unable to kill them even thoueh he beats them to pieces with a stick, these fish live after they have been cut up and also when they are being cooked on the fire. On hearing ' Compare ZiJJai ^oip e'S Triv vrjffov eKeivriv Koi eai? ^Karov TTevtriKOVTa eruiv oi YepovTe? hi uTteppoXriv Tf\c, tojv depujv euKpaffiai;; see Pseudo-Callisthenes, iii. 7. (Miiller, p. 103, col. i). THE CHRISTIAN ROMANCE. LIII of this Alexander orders the fisherman to lead him to the stream where they were caught, and hesummaryof promises to do so, but disappears during the,ian ro- night; when found the man curses Alexander and '"^"''''"' God, and though Alexander cuts his head off and mutilates him in various ways, the man cannot die because he has drunk of the water of life. Prayer of Alexander. Chapp. xii — xvii. The six doors of the heart are the senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch, and the power of movement. Chapp. xviii, xix. The Spirit holds converse with Alexander. Chap. XX. Alexander is grieved about the fate of his father Philip, who committed suicide by casting himself into the sea because of an observation in the astrolabe which shewed him that the Creator should be crucified, and pierced, and slain, and should die. The Spirit assures him, however, that he is reckoned among the martyrs, because he died for the sake of God; had he seen the Ascension and Resurrection he would not have thrown himself into the sea. The Spirit shews Alexander a sign where- by he may know when the hour of his death cometh. Chap. xxi. Alexander gives all his possessions to the poor, and becomes like Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha, and lives upon green herbs, and fasts, and prays continually. Chapp. xxii — xxiv. Alexander's counsels to women, to virgins, to parents, to wives, to princes and governors, to kings, and general exhortations. LIV INTRODUCTION. Chap. XXV. Alexander's preparation of Christ's way upon earth. Chap. xxvi. Philo's testimony to Alexander. Chap, xxvii. Efforts of Alexander to please God. Chap, xxviii. The Spirit warns Alexander of his approaching end, and he writes a letter to his mother Olympias to console her. The Lament of Olympias. Chapp. xxix — xxxiii. Alexander and his friend Komsat discuss the Resurrection. Komsat dis- believes and demands proofs, and Alexander de- scribes confidently in what manner the dead shall rise, quoting the XXXVIIth chapter of Ezekiel; finally a voice like thunder is heard inviting Alexander to come, in peace, to heaven, and the form of a hand, which shone more brightly than the sun, appeared and took his soul to glory. vi. In the curious document which records the history of the "Blessed Men" who lived in the days of Jeremiah the Prophet, we have another Alexander attempt to accouut for the origin of the sages scarlet whom Alexander visited, in India or Taprobane (see above, p. li), and the episode of Alexander and the scarlet cloak, which occurs nowhere else in the other Ethiopic legends of Alexander. The story of Gerasimas and his travels is interesting as shewing the alleged effect of the Alexander story upon the mind of this eminent monk; but the attempt which he made to corrupt the mind of his host in the Country of the Blessed is not creditable to him. THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER, BELONGING TO THE HOLY SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. IN THE NAME OF GOD, [THE MERCIFUL], THE GRACIOUS.i The utle of WITH THE HELP OF GOD ALMIGHTY, AND WITH HIS GRACIOUS ""^ '""*' GIFT, WE BEGIN TO WRITE THE TRAVELS OF ALEXANDER WHO IS FAMOUS IN STORY. IT IS HE OF WHOSE HISTORY CERTAIN LEARNED MEN HAVE WRITTEN PORTIONS AND BEHOLD, WE WRITE ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE SAGES WHO HAVE RECORD- ED HIS JOURNEYINGS AND RULE IN THE SEVEN^ CLIMES OF THE WORLD, AND HIS TRAVELS FROM THE EAST TO THE WEST, AND HIS REIGN OVER [ALL] THE EARTH AND HIS MAR- CHES UNTO THE VERY LIMITS THEREOF, AND HIS VOYAGES ON THE SEA3 WHICH HAD NEVER [BEFORE] BEEN CROSSED [BY ANY MAN], AND HIS TRAVELS THROUGH THE AIR, AND HIS ARRIVAL IN THE [LAND OF] DARKNESS, AND HIS JOURNEYINGS INTO PLACES WHITHER GOD GAVE HIM KNOWLEDGE TO GO, AND HIS CHIEF ACTS AND DEEDS.4 ' /. e., the Arabic formula |0-:^3^l o-»-^P^ '*^^ ^"^ with which every work begins. 2 'La^~^\ a^^'ii\ of the Arabic geographers. The first cHme includes the country of Babelj Khorasan, Persia, Ahwaz, Mosul and the mountainous territory round about: its Zodiacal signs are the Ram J..0.33JI and Sagittarius ^ysy\, and its planet 2 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. is Jupiter ^^XJ^\. The second clime includes Sind^ India, and the Sudan: its Zodiacal sign is Capricornus ^_^J■^\i\, and its planet Saturn J-^J. The third clime includes Mecca, Medina, Yaman, Taif, Hijaz, and the country between: its Zodiacal sign is the Scorpion ( ijisJI, and its planet Venus is'yt^l. The fourth clime includes Egypt, Africa, Berber, Spain, and the countries lying between: its Zodiacal sign is Gemini 1j_js.tJI, and its planet is Mercury >j\L.i. The fifth clime includes Syria, Rum, and Mesopotamia: its Zodiacal sign is Aquarius yioJ\, and its planet the Moon j-»Xll. The sixth clime includes the country of the Turks, Khazars, Delemites, and the Slavs : its Zodiacal sign is Cancer ,^LL -.^l, and its planet Mars ^.j^\. The seventh clime includes the countries of Del and China: its Zodiacal sign is the Scales c:,\j^\ and its planet the Sun ^_;r^M^^Jl. See Mas'irdi, ed. Barbier de Meynard, tom. i. pp. i8i, 182; Geographic d'Aboulfeda, ed. Reinaud tind MacGuckin de Slane, Paris, 1840, pp. 7, 8. 3 hAA^mA •■ (read h^kltnti :) = ttovto? + the Arabic article a/: the Ethiopic translator considers it to be a proper name. * /. e., the volume containing the History of Alexander which belonged to the Church of the Holy Saviour of the World at Makdala. A very large number of the MSS. brought by the British Army from Ethiopia in 1868 have scrawled upon their fly-leaves H^-.^.A : an^^i. : "ihT "' "belonging to the Holy Saviour of the World", and the style of writing shows that these words were added some time after the MSS. were written. For years before the English expedition into Abyssinia, Theodore had been carefully collecting MSS. from churches all over his country to form the library of the church which he intended to build in honour of the Redeemer of the World; this church was, however, never built. The old Church of the Redeemer of the World at Makdala stood, with the treasury and granaries, on one side of the open square which lay almost halfway between Kaffir-bir gate and Koket-bir gate, but nearer the former than the latter. It NECTANEBUS THE EGYPTIAN. Now ' there lived in the land of Egypt a king Nectanebus who was called Bekfanis'' (Nectanebus), and he was cian thTiast a famous magician and a sage, and he was deeply ^"\ °' ^' learned in [all] the wisdom of the Egyptians. And he had more knowledge than all the wise men who knew what was in the depths [p. 2] of the Nile and in the abysses [thereof], and who were skilled in the knowledge of the stars and of their seasons, and in the knowledge of the astrolabe, and in the casting of nativities, and in foretelling what would happen unto him that had been born — for some'"i^ ''"°^- are born to a kingdom and others are brought power, into the world to [lead] a life of poverty and misery — and by his learning and by his observations of the stars Nectanebus was able to predict what was a wretched place, without pictures or even whitewashed walls, with no proper furniture and no clump of trees in the compound (See Markham, C. R., A History of the Abyssinian Expedition, London, i86g, p. 355); it was burnt down by the order of Sir Robert Napier on April 17th. 1868. King Theodore was buried in the cloisters. The Histories of Alexander were found in the treasury, together with chalices, silver and bronze crosses, silk, velvets and carpets, besides "tons of Geez and Amharic manuscript books'". '^ For Greek texts see Miiller, Pseiido-Callisthenes, Paris, 1877; Meusel, Pseudo-Callisthenes, Leipzig, 1871. ' Bektanis, Nectanebus, Nectanabis, NectanebeS; Necta- nebo, Nectabo, and other forms of the name are all corrup- AAAAAA _^;^ tions of the Egyptian ^^='-^ ^^ o Nekht-neb-f. The king referred to in the Alexander legends is Nectanebus II. who, about B. C. 358, was conquered by the Persians. John of Nikiu (ed. Zotenberg, p. 53) gives the form Kn"\1i'h '• 3 Read Jift^wjl : 4 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. would befall any one who was about to be born. And by his knowledge' he reigned over all the kings of the earth, and all kings submitted unto him by reason of the mightiness of his powers of working" maeic. Now as concerning this man, whenever [his] ene- mies lifted themselves up against him to-do battle with him, he did not march out against them with soldiers, and armies, and an array of spears, but it was his His method wont to go into his palace, and to shut the door magk:°' '"^ upon Iiimself He then took a brazen vessel, and having filled it with water to resemble the sea, he muttered over it certain words which he knew. If the enemy came against him [by sea] he used to make models of ships out of wax [melted] over a fire, and to place upon the water " these waxen ships, that were [intended] to represent the ships [of the enemy] which were on the sea. Then he muttered Conquers Qvcr thcm the names of the eods of the country,^ and armies and *-* -' navies by othcr awful and terrible names, and then he set the his sorce- . , - .,.,.. Ties. waxen ships on the water m his basin,'' in resem- blance of the ships which were on the sea. If the ' In the MS. flTfl-n •■ altered into flTfln- •■ ' Read '^JK. -■ i Literally "terrestrial gods"; that the gods of Egypt, however, are meant is clear from the Leyden MS. which reads Kai ETTeKaXeiTO tous a-^-^ekovc, Kai Geov Aipui-ig "k\i\xw\a (Meusel, p. 706). Muller's chief Ms. has Kai axdq ETreKaXeiTO ujffavei xoij; Qeous tiIjv eiTLjjbuJv, Kai rd depia Trveu|uaTa Ktti TOU5 KaTaxeovi'oui; 5ai)uova? (p. 2, col. i). 4 Read »»4'A-^ : compare »n^A,^' ■■ H'tlC'l' ■• p. 4, 1 7. NECTANEBUS AND HIS MAGIC. enemy rose up against him on the sea he made the waxen ships to sink, and .he thereby also sub- merged the ships of the enemy who wished to come to do battle with him. And if it happened' [that the enemy came against him] by land he was wont to make models of the horse [men] in wax like unto the soldiers of the army who were coming to do battle with him, and having muttered over them the awful and terrible names [which he knew] the soldiers of the enemy were suddenly overcome before his face [p. 3], and the enemy went down before him, and submitted unto him. And these and such like things he was" wont to do unto whosoever wished to fight against him, and he never went out against an enemy who was march- ing against him with armies and fighting men, ^ waxen soi- but he made models of the soldiers of both armies in wax, one set [represented] his own army, and the other the army of the enemy, and he made a division between them; and having invoked by their names the gods of the country to help his army,* the two armies joined in battle, and the enemy was suddenly overcome before them. ^ ' The MS. has hV •■ but read lli ■" = Read ffllnl : 3 Read (Dh^ttootli'^'^-iy'i : 4 MS. has 'I'd^l'l' •■ altered into 'td^'i't: '■ 5 The custom of performing acts of sorcery by means of wax figures was a very old one among the Egyptians, and the papyri prove that ceremonies connected with the use of figures formed part of religious services. A certain overseer of cattle was prosecuted in a court of law for having made figures 6 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. And by doing these and such like things he reigned for many days, and he destroyed many [armies] by the power of his magic. The end of And' it Came to pass that when the days of draws nigh, his rule over Egypt were coming to an end, one of the scouts of his army came to him, and said, "O great king, help us to deliver thy kingdom, "and sit thou not silent in respect of the enemy. of people in wax and for having caused paralysis to come upon them by these means. Whatever was done to the figure of a man^ or whatever injury was inflicted upon it would^ it was believed^ also come upon the actual man^ provided that the doing of the act was accompanied by the recitation of the names of certain fiends and demons and of certain for- mulae. From the earliest times in Egypt during funereal ceremonies certain religious acts were performed upon the statue of a man whereby the dead was believed to benefit, but the necessary formulae had to be recited by the priests before they were efficacious. The dead man enjoyed the offerings made to his statue provided all the words proper for the occasion were said, and all the accompanying cere- monies were duly performed. The eyes of the dead enjoyed relief when the eyes of his statue were smeared with stibium, and his mouth was opened and he gained the power of speech when the priest had touched the mouth of the statue with the instrument for "opening the mouth". From doing good to the dead to working evil upon the living by means of things done to figures of individuals was but a step, and in the last days of the Egyptian Empire under the Greeks and Romans the working of sorcery by means of figures became exceedingly common. ' .See Miiller, Pseiido- Callisiheiics, Bk. i . chap. 2, and Meusel, Pseudo- Callisthenes, p. 706. A LEAGUE FORMED AGAINST EGYPT. J "For behold, nine' kings with their nine armies Nectanetus "have come forth against us, and' with them are^ou^o/a ["gathered together] nations and peoples which |^^j'_.^!J^ °^_ "cannot be counted by reason of their number, the«°"s- "Madanawiyan, the Sargiyawiyan, the Elkimana- "wiyan which are in Tarses, the Antawiyan, the "Halabawiyan, the Sakagafwiyan, the Emahnawiyan, "the Agmawiyan which are in Kades, the Guergue, "and the Sarakawiyan%- behold these mighty nations "have come against us, and let not thyself be sud- "denly overcome before them. We know not "whence our deliverance from them can come when "once we have joined battle with such multitudinous "nations as they and, moreover, the captain of their "host is a mighty man^ in counsel, and we entreat thy "mightiness to help us [against] them." And when he had spoken these words Nectanebus the king laugh- Nectanebus ed, and said, "Thou hast well spoken as concerning'"'" °' "what it is right for me to do , but I will not over- o ' There is some mistake in the number here. ^ It seems hopeless to attempt to identify these nations. Miiller (p. 2, col. 2) gives them as Indians, Euonymites, Oxy- draci, Iberians, Kaukoni, Aellophodi, Bosphorai, Bastarni, Azani, and Chalybi, and Meusel calls them ZKuGai, KevcTipeg, KotuKLuvei;, ipnpoi. ffTobioi, KUKXujcrdvioi, khI XaTTdrei;, Kai aTTopoi, Kai dpftioi, kui MX^oi, kki xaX&txToi, kui laeTUJiro- ijjopeg, Kai dxpiocpdYOi, Kai eiiiuvu)iiTai (p. 707). The Syriac version (Budge, Alexander, p. 2) has a different set of names again. The scout who addressed Nectanebus probably enumera- ted the chief barbarian tribes which lived in the countries between Persia and Egypt. 3 Read "^^^ • 6 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. "come these nations, neither will I conquer them with "warriors' and soldiers, but by the strength [p. 4] "of will and by keeping silence. I, however, tell "thee that one lion is able to vanquish a herd of "deer,^ and that one wolf can put to flight a multitude "of sheep. Do thou, however, go to thy station "with thy soldiers, and I will put to rout the nations "which are [coming] against me — whether they "come by sea, or whether they come^ by land — "with one single word". And it came to pass after these things thaf Nectanebus rose up and went into his palace and entered into the chamber where he worked magic, Final appeal having left hls soldiers behind. And it came to bus 'to^thepass that when he looked on the water which was ^°'^^' in the brazen basin, after having muttered [over it] the words with which he was wont to conjure (?), the gods of Egypt appeared unto him and he asked them to help him, and he perceived that they were leading 5 the armies which had come against him, and that they would not hearken unto him. Now hitherto it had happened by reason of the great skill in magic which Nectanebus possessed that he had been in the habit of holding converse with the gods whensoever he desired. And it came to They refuse pass that wheu he perceived that what he had ™'done would not help him in any way whatsoever, ' Read ttootl-l-^^fi-i : ^ :>?fi'l' : for f;pA'> J Read m^lTJ^ : ♦ See Miiller, Bk. i, chap. 3. 5 Literally, "they were before them". NECTANEBUS FORSAKEN BY THE GODS. 9 and [knew] thereby that the days of his rule over Egypt had come to an end, he was exceedingly sorry. Then he rose up, and having taken with him as much gold and silver as ever he could carry, he carefully shaved his head and his beard, and havine disguised himself he went forth, and^'s ^'e^* <=" => . from Egypt set out^ on his way, and took a passage m a to Mace- ship of Lonya (Lybia)^; and he arrived at the country of Macedonia* and sat in the gate [of the city] dress- ed as an astrologer ^ and as one of the prophets of Egypt. Now the men of Egypt asked their god to tell them what had befallen their king, and their god "^ The Egyp- tians consult ■ their oracle ' Literally^ "he changed his appearance". about Nec- ^ Read ti^d '• In the MS. rh and r>» are often not to be ^"^ "^' distinguished. 3 Literally, "in a ship of the ships of Lonya"; the Greek has (Miiller, p. 3, col. 2) dtTTOTTXeucTa? simply. The name A"'J^ ! occurs also in the following extract from Brit. Mus. Orient. Ms. No. 678^ fol. ii6a, col. i. cdViv : ^n : -linLii- ■ hvi'd ■■ "i^r •■ nxvhd? ■ a* nd ■ n-t : ffl'j^A'e • a^r'd-t: • Ah^iuK-nrh-c = om-i- Hrtnh • (D-ti-t ■■ \v-ti- • hv-hd ■• r?:d ' '^-Mi ■ A""}^ : (o OVCt^ : fflrtnh ■ A-