The Greek Alexander Romance

by Richard Stoneman

  While the army was resting, little men came out of the bushes growing near by. They had one foot rather like a sheep’s, but the other foot, as well as their hands and head, were like a man’s. They went very lightly on their feet as they approached. The soldiers ran and surrounded them, and with some difficulty captured a few and brought them to Alexander. Alexander told his men to go and fetch some more. When these creatures were brought near to him, they addressed him plaintively: ‘Have mercy on us, lord, because we are men like you. It is because of our timidity that we live in this lonely place.’ At this, Alexander relented and ordered them to be released. When this was done, they went up on to some high cliffs and began to mock Alexander. ‘Silly fool,’ they cried. ‘How inept you are. See how we have escaped. You cannot even touch us in judgement. Because your wits are inferior to ours, you were unable to capture us.’ So they jumped about and danced and made sport of Alexander. But when he heard and saw them, he laid aside his anger and began to laugh. And since he received the oracle, we have not seen him laugh again up to this present moment. Yet what they said deserved a good laugh, γ-text]

  BOOK III

  1. Alexander then took his army and continued the march against Porus, the king of the Indians. After they had been marching for a long time through barren and waterless country, full of ravines, the officers addressed the men of the army: ‘We did enough when we brought the war as far as Persia and subdued Darius for demanding tribute from the Greeks. Why are we wearing ourselves out with this expedition to India, a land full of wild beasts and having nothing to do with Greece? If Alexander’s great ambition leads him to go on making war and subduing barbarian peoples, why should we go along with him? Let him go on alone and fight his own wars.’ When Alexander heard this, he addressed the Greeks and Macedonians, having separated the Persian troops from their number.

  ‘Fellow-soldiers and allies, Macedonians and all you leaders of the Greeks (after all, these Persians are enemies of yours and of mine), why are you grumbling now? You demand that I go alone and make war on my own against the barbarians. But let me remind you that I won those former wars on my own, and I shall win more if I take with me only the Persians I require. My will alone spurred you on to fight when you were quaking before the forces of Darius. Was I not in the forefront of the army with my sword? Did I not go as my own emissary to Darius? Did I not despise every danger? Well, make up your minds and go back to Macedon on your own; save yourselves and try not to quarrel with one another. Then you will learn that an army can do nothing without a king’s intelligence.’

  After this speech of Alexander, they begged him to calm his anger, and to keep them with him to the bitter end.96

  2. Soon he and his whole army arrived at the border of India.97 Here messengers met him with a letter from Porus, the king of the Indians. Alexander took it and read it out to the army. It ran as follows:

  ‘King Porus of the Indians to Alexander the looter of cities. I command you to retreat. What can you, a man, do against a god? Why do you concoct such misfortune for those who are with you? You think that you are stronger than me, but in fact your forces are inferior. I am invincible. I am king not only over men but over gods: Dionysus is here on my side, whom you call a god. Therefore, I do not merely advise you, I command you to depart as swiftly as possible for Greece. Your battles against Darius and the other peoples do not frighten me, because your success was the result of their weakness. Your strength is only a matter of appearance. Depart for Greece! If we had wanted Greece, we would have conquered it long before Xerxes did, but because it is a worthless country and does not deserve to be looked at by a king of ours, we have not troubled it. Every man desires only what is better than his own.’

  When Alexander had read to the army this letter from Porus he said, ‘Fellow-soldiers, do not be disturbed by Porus’ letter which I have just read out to you. Remember how Darius used to write. Truly the only sense one can get out of barbarians is their own insensibility. Just as animals – tigers, lions, elephants, which pride themselves on their own strength – are easily brought to heel by human nature – even among barbarians – so the kings of barbarians who exult in the size of their armies are easily worsted by the intelligence of Greeks.’

  Alexander heartened his men with this speech, and then he wrote to Porus, as follows:

  ‘King Alexander greets King Porus. By saying that Greece is not worth a king’s looking at it, while you have all the cities and regions of India, you have made us even more eager for battle with you. I know that every man desires what is better than his own, not what is less. Well, since we Greeks do not have these things, and you barbarians have got them, we are eager for the better and would like to wrest them from you.

  ‘You write to me that you are king over gods as well as all men, and that you are more powerful than a god. I, however, am going to make war against a boastful man and a barbarian, not a god. The whole world cannot withstand the weapons of a god, the rumble of thunder, the flash of lightning and the anger of the thunderbolt. The nations I have already defeated did not overawe me, and your boastful words do not frighten me either.’

  3. When Porus read this letter from Alexander he was very angry, and at once assembled the barbarian hordes, as well as the elephants and other beasts that fought alongside the Indians. When the Macedonians and Persians approached, Alexander saw the Indian forces and was frightened, not by the men but by the beasts. The strange sight filled him with amazement; he was used to fighting men, not wild animals.

  So Alexander once again became his own messenger and went to the city where Porus was, dressed as a soldier, as if he was going to buy provisions. When the Indians saw him, they brought him before King Porus, who said to him, ‘How is Alexander?’

  ‘He is alive and well,’ came the reply, ‘and eager to see such a great king as Porus.’

  Then the king went out with Alexander and showed him the troops of elephants. ‘Go to Alexander,’ he said, ‘and tell him that I am bringing wild beasts like himself to fight against him.’

  ‘King Porus,’ Alexander replied, ‘before I return to Alexander he will himself have heard what you have said about him.’

  ‘From whom?’ asked Porus.

  ‘From Porus,’ was the reply. ‘As son of a god, he is ignorant of nothing that is said.’

  Then Porus gave him gifts and sent him away.

  As Alexander was leaving, he saw the regiment of Porus’ animals. He racked his brains and thought hard, and what do you think the cunning fellow did? He had all the bronze statues he possessed and all the armour he had taken as booty from the soldiers heated up thoroughly until they were red-hot, and then set up in front of the army like a wall. The trumpets sounded the battle-cry. Porus ordered his beasts to be released. As the beasts rushed forward, they leapt on to the statues and clung to them; at once their muzzles were badly burnt and they let go immediately. That is how the resourceful Alexander put an end to the attack of the beasts. The Persian mounted archers were superior to the Indians, and drove them back. There was a fierce mêlée, soldiers both killing and being killed.

  [Supplement H]

  In the course of the battle Alexander’s horse, Bucephalus, collapsed from exhaustion. At once Alexander lost interest in the battle; the armies went on fighting for twenty days, but at the end of that time Alexander’s men began to lose heart and give ground.

  4. When Alexander realized that they were on the point of defeat, he ordered a cessation of the fighting and sent a message to Porus, as follows:

  ‘It does not befit the power of a king to allow one or other of us to gain the victory only by the destruction of our armies; but it will be a mark of our personal bravery if each of us puts a stop to the general fighting and comes forward to decide the victory by single combat.’

  Porus was delighted – he had noticed that Alexander was no match for himself in physical size – and promised to fight him single-handed. Porus was 8 feet tall and Alexander less than 5. Both si
des stood around to watch the fight. Suddenly there was a tremendous noise in Porus’ camp. Porus was startled, and turned round to see what the cause of the noise was. At once Alexander knocked his legs from under him, jumped on to him and drove his sword through his ribs. That was the end of Porus, king of the Indians.98

  Then both the armies began to fight again. Alexander called out to the Indians, ‘Wretched Indians, why do you go on fighting when your king is dead?’ But they replied, ‘We fight so as not to be made prisoners of war.’ Then Alexander said, ‘Stop fighting, turn round and return to your city as free men. It was not you who made this audacious attack on my army, but Porus.’ He said this because he knew that his army was no match for that of the Indians.

  Immediately he ordered that Porus be given a royal burial. He took all the treasure from the royal palace and marched on to the Brahmans, or Oxydorkai. These were not for the most part warriors, but naked philosophers who lived in huts and caves.99

  5. When the Brahmans learned that King Alexander was on his way to them, they sent their best philosophers to him, bearing a letter. Alexander took and read the letter, and this is what was in it:

  ‘We the naked philosophers address the man Alexander. If you have come to fight us, it will do you no good. There is nothing that you can take from us. To obtain from us what we do have, you must not fight, but ask humbly, and ask it not of us but of Providence above. If you wish to know who we are – we are naked and we have devoted ourselves to the pursuit of wisdom. This we have done, not by our own decision but through the agency of Providence above. Your business is war, ours is wisdom.’

  When Alexander had read this, he approached them in a peaceable manner. He saw great forests and tall trees, beautiful to look at and bearing all kinds of fruit. A river ran round the land, with clear water as bright as milk. There were innumerable palm trees, heavy with fruit, and the vine stock bore a thousand beautiful and tempting grapes. Here Alexander saw the philosophers themselves, entirely without clothing and living in huts and caves. A long way off from them he saw their wives and children, looking after the flocks.

  6. Alexander asked them some questions. ‘Do you have no graves?’ was the first.

  ‘This ground where we dwell is also our grave,’ came the reply. ‘Here we lie down and, as it were, bury ourselves when we sleep. The earth gives us birth, the earth feeds us, and under the earth when we die we spend our eternal sleep.’

  ‘Who are the greater in number?’ he asked next. ‘The living or the dead?’

  ‘The dead are more numerous,’ they replied, ‘but because they no longer exist they cannot be counted. The visible are more numerous than the invisible.’

  Next he asked, ‘Which is stronger, death or life?’

  ‘Life,’ they replied, ‘because the sun as it rises has strong, bright rays, but when it sets, appears to be weaker.’

  ‘Which is greater, the earth or the sea?’

  ‘The earth. The sea is itself surrounded by the earth.’

  ‘Which is the wickedest of all creatures?’

  ‘Man,’ they replied.

  And he, ‘Why?’

  ‘Learn from yourself the answer to that. You are a wild beast, and see how many other wild beasts you have with you, to help you tear away the lives of other beasts.’

  Alexander was not angry, but smiled. Then he asked, ‘What is kingship?’

  ‘Unjust power used to the disadvantage of others; insolence supported by opportunity; a golden burden.’

  ‘Which came first, day or night?’

  ‘Night. What is born grows first in the darkness of the mother’s womb, and at birth it encounters the light of day.’

  ‘Which side is better, the left or the right?’

  ‘The right. The sun rises on the right and then makes its way to the left-hand side of the sky. And a woman gives suck first with her right breast.’

  Then Alexander asked them about themselves. ‘Do you have a king?’

  ‘Yes, we have a leader,’ they replied.

  ‘I should like to meet him.’

  So they showed him Dandamis, who was lying on the ground on a thick couch of leaves. Beside him lay some melons and other fruit. Alexander greeted him at once, and he replied, ‘Greetings.’ He did not stand up, and made no attempt to treat him like a king.

  Then Alexander asked him if they had any property.

  ‘Our possessions,’ Dandamis replied, ‘are the earth, the fruit trees, the daylight, the sun, the moon, the chorus of the stars, and water. When we are hungry, we go to the trees whose branches hang down here and eat the fruit they produce. The trees produce fruit every time the moon begins to wax. Then we have the great river Euphrates, and whenever we are thirsty we go to it, drink its water, and are contented. Each of us has his own wife. At every new moon each goes to mate with his wife, until she has borne two children. We reckon one of these to replace the father, and one to replace the mother.’

  Then Alexander said to them all, ‘Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.’ At once they all burst out, ‘Give us immortality.’ But Alexander replied, ‘That is a power I do not have. I too am a mortal.’

  Then they asked him, ‘Since you are a mortal, why do you make so many wars? When you have seized everything, where will you take it? Surely you will only have to leave it behind for others?’

  ‘It is ordained by Providence above,’ replied Alexander, ‘that we shall all be slaves and servants of the divine will. The sea does not move unless the wind blows it, and the trees do not tremble unless the breezes disturb them; and likewise man does nothing except by the motions of divine Providence. For my part I would like to stop making war, but the master of my soul does not allow me. If we were all of like mind, the world would be devoid of activity: the sea would not be filled, the land would not be farmed, marriages would not be consummated, there would be no begetting of children. How many have become miserable and lost all their possessions as a result of my wars? But others have profited from the property of others. Everyone takes from everyone, and leaves what he has taken to others: no possession is permanent.’

  After this speech, Alexander gave Dandamis gold, bread, wine and olive oil: ‘Take these things, old man, in remembrance of me.’ Dandamis laughed and said, ‘These things are useless to us. But in order not to appear proud, we will accept the oil.’ Then, building a great pile of wood, he set it alight and poured the oil into the fire before Alexander’s eyes.100

  [Supplement I]

  17. After these events, Alexander departed from the naked philosophers and returned to the proper road towards Prasiake, which is regarded as the capital city of the land of India and was the site of Porus’ palace. Here Porus’ men received Alexander. He organized all Prasiake’s affairs properly, and the Indians enthusi-astically committed themselves to him. Some of them said to Alexander, ‘Great king, you will capture wonderful cities and kingdoms, and mountains on which no king of the living has ever set foot.’

  Some of the wise men of the kingdom came to Alexander and said, ‘Your majesty, we have something to show you which deserves your special attention. We will take you to the trees that speak with a human voice.’ So they brought Alexander to a place where there was a sanctuary of the Sun and the Moon. There was a guardpost here, and two trees closely resembling cypresses. Around these stood trees that resembled what in Egypt is called the myrrh-nut, and their fruits were also similar. The two trees in the middle of the garden spoke, the one with a man’s voice, the other with a woman’s. The name of the male one was Sun, and of the female one Moon, or in their own language, Moutheamatous.101 The trees were surrounded with the skins of all kinds of wild animals, male ones around the male tree, and female ones around the female tree. In their neighbourhood there was no iron, bronze or tin, not even potter’s clay. When Alexander asked them what sort of animals the skins came from, his companions told him that they were those of lions and panthers.

  Alexander wanted to learn more ab
out these trees. They told him, ‘In the morning, when the sun rises, a voice issues from the tree of the sun, and again when the sun is in the middle of the sky, and a third time when it is about to set. And the same applies to the tree of the moon.’ The priests, as they evidently were, of the place came up and told Alexander, ‘Enter if you are pure, make obeisance and receive an oracle. And, Alexander,’ they went on, ‘no iron may be brought into the sanctuary.’ So Alexander ordered his men to leave their swords outside the perimeter wall. A number of men went in with Alexander, and he ordered them to explore the enclosure in all directions. He kept some of his Indian companions with him as interpreters, swearing solemnly to them that if the sun set and no oracle was heard, he would have them burnt alive.

  Just then the sun set; at once an Indian voice was heard in the tree. The Indians who were with him were afraid and did not want to translate its words. Alexander became anxious and took them aside one by one. They whispered in his ear, ‘King Alexander, soon you must die by the hand of one of your companions.’ All those who stood around were extremely disturbed, but Alexander wanted to question the oracle again. As he had heard what was going to happen to him, he went in and requested that he might once more embrace his mother, Olympias. When the moon rose, its tree spoke in Greek: ‘King Alexander, you are to die in Babylon, by the hand of one of your companions, and you will not be able to return to your mother, Olympias.’

  Alexander was amazed, and wanted to bedeck the trees with the finest garlands, but the priests stopped him, saying, ‘This may not be. If you insist, do as you will; a king can make every law unwritten.’ Then Alexander was very melancholy.

  At dawn he rose with the priests, his friends and the Indians, and went back to the sanctuary. After praying, he approached with one of the priests and laid his hand on the tree of the sun, and asked it if the full span of his life would be completed. That is what he really wanted to know. As the sun rose and the first rays fell on the top of the tree, a resonant voice came forth: ‘The span of your life is completed now, you will not be able to return to your mother, Olympias, but must die in Babylon. A short time afterwards, your mother and your wife will be horribly murdered by your own people. Ask no more about these matters, for you will be told no more.’