When Alexander entered the palace, there was a statue of Nectanebo standing before the door, with an inscription on it, and a crown in its right hand and a sphere in its left. On this was portrayed the creation of the world. On the statue’s breast was inscribed: ‘Whoever enters my house, I will place this crown on his head. You shall all recognize this man as my son. He will travel over the whole earth. His name shall be given to this city.’ And just as Alexander entered the gate, the statue placed the crown on Alexander’s head. Alexander swivelled around in amazement, and stretched out his hand to the crown that had just been placed on his head. And then the statue placed in Alexander’s hand the globe that was in its left hand. Everyone who was there was astonished. Alexander embraced the statue and recognized the features of Nectanebo; then he looked down at the inscription on the statue’s chest and rubbed it out with his own hand. He honoured the statue that had thus prophesied his rule by gilding it all over. Alexander did not want to be considered the son of Nectanebo, but of Philip and the gods. That was the story that became known to everyone.
28. Alexander spent some time there rebuilding the city, adorning it with numerous columns and strengthening the walls with high towers. The highest of all he built at the eastern gate, and placed on top of it a statue of himself, surrounded by Seleucus, Antiochus and Philip the doctor. The statue of Seleucus had horns, and the sculptor made it distinctive by its brave and ferocious expression; Philip’s was distinguished by his military doctor’s attire; and Antiochus was holding a spear. When all this was finished and the city had been made exceedingly beautiful in the eyes of all, Alexander ascended the tower, stood up and condemned all the gods of the country. He proclaimed the one true God, who cannot be known nor seen nor sought out, who is surrounded by the seraphim and glorified with the name of the ‘thrice holy’. Alexander made a prayer: ‘O God of gods, creator of all that is visible and invisible, be my helper now in all that I intend to do.’ Then he came down from the tower and went to his palace.
He made Seleucus ruler of the Persians, and set Philip up over the Egyptians, while he himself was in charge of the Macedonians, who were devoted heart and soul to him.
29. Then he assembled all his army and marched towards the nations of the Interior. All the nations became his servants and paid him tribute. Not one of them resisted, because they were all afraid of him. He crossed all the land beneath the sun – no habitable part was omitted. He ordered his people to wait for six months, deliberating whether to enter the uninhabited regions. When this time expired, they made a ten-day expedition in these level and deserted regions. Suddenly there appeared women of terrifying appearance and ferocious countenance, their whole bodies covered with hair like a wild pig. 132 The hair of their heads reached down to their knees, and their eyes shone like stars. They looked like humans only from their foreheads to their chins; their nails were very long on one hand and their feet were like a wild donkey’s; their bodies were the size of three men. When the soldiers saw them and without thinking charged at them, the women turned about and killed four by tearing them apart with their nails; then they ate them up before the army’s eyes, and even licked up the blood where it had fallen. Alexander’s men were quite at a loss. Then Alexander had the idea of collecting all the dogs from the camp –for all the soldiers had dogs which they took out when they went hunting. When the women saw the dogs they turned and fled en masse. The dogs killed a few, but the rest escaped and disappeared.
After this escape, the soldiers marched on for thirty days until they reached a sandy country. As they crossed, ants came and seized the men and horses and disappeared. They saved themselves from this danger by lighting fires.
Next they reached a very large river, so broad that it took three days to cross it. When they came to it and looked at this immense divide, Alexander was at a loss.
30. Alexander sat down on the bank and ordered the men to build a rampart across it. When this had been done according to Alexander’s plan for crossing the river, the water suddenly dried up and became sand instead. Then Alexander saw how to cross the river. He ordered square containers to be constructed of wooden planks. These were then placed on the river-bed, and when the first one was in place, it was filled with stones so that it would not move. Next, he ordered his men to bring very long planks, 24 to 36 feet long, and to place them on the first box, stretching over to the second. So they put them on top of the wood, and nailed them down. Then he put down in the stream of sand a second box 24 feet from the first, and filled this with stones; and that likewise remained immobile. And so with the third and subsequent ones, until they had bridged the river. It took the army sixty-six days to cross the river. When they had crossed it, Alexander named it the River of Sand; it flowed three days with water and three days with sand.
31. When they had crossed the river, they came to another world, where they found very small and insignificant men, of such a size that even a full-grown man was only 3 feet high. When these creatures saw the soldiers, they came and fell at the soldiers’ knees, begging them to be kind. Alexander, seeing their miserable stature, sent them away with promises of peace: ‘Go, you will receive no harm from us.’
From there he travelled again for several days through the uninhabited world: after ten days he reached a wide plain of immeasurable breadth and extent. He decided to halt his army there, and looked around in search of water. He saw a lake: as he approached it, he saw a huge statue set in a pile of stones. The statue was inscribed with Greek letters; the writing on it said that it was of Sesonchosis, ruler of the world. It represented a young man strongly resembling Alexander. It was inscribed: ‘He who has traversed the whole world may reach this far; but beyond this he may not go, just as I was stayed here and could go no further. Here I, Sesonchosis, ruler of the world, turned back and departed this life.’ When Alexander had read this, he immediately covered the inscription with his cloak, pretending to honour the statue; but in fact he did it so that none of the Macedonians would see the writing and become frightened. He claimed instead that he had received an oracle from the statue: ‘If you cross this place, Alexander, you will find another, better world, which you have not yet traversed.’ That is what he said, to make the army more enthusiastic. They stayed three days there, and then continued their journey.
32. (As in main text, p. 115.)
33. After marching for ten days he reached a level place. When the army was exhausted with marching, and the Macedonians were out of breath, suddenly wild men appeared, sitting on the rocks, naked and hairy, terrifying, enormous, black, but not strong. Their hair was like stretched gristle, and they were larger than any man. At once the Macedonians approached them; but the wild men kept their distance. When the Macedonian troops were sleeping, the wild men kept watch. The Macedonians came and told Alexander about it. Alexander left the army and went to the place where the wild men were encamped. They were keeping watch in blithe unconcern.133 Alexander had an attractive young woman brought to him and told her, ‘Go up to that man, so that you can observe the wild man’s nature and see if he is human in all respects.’ The woman went up to him, but when he turned round and saw her, he leapt up, seized her and straightaway began to eat her. Alexander at once ordered some soldiers to go and rescue her from the beast. The soldiers ran up to him; he took no notice of them at all, but had his mouth clamped on her leg and was chewing her like a dog. One of the soldiers struck him with his spear, at which the beast ran off barking like a dog, leaving the girl half-dead. They brought the girl back to Alexander at the camp. Suddenly an enormous number of the wild men appeared, holding branches and stones in their hands, and they went up to the first phalanx and fought fiercely with it. Seeing this, Alexander ordered the hoplites and archers to join the battle. In its course, when one of the wild men was wounded, the others immediately tore him apart and ate him. As long as the battle continued, they kept their numbers up and became stronger and bolder. The Macedonians were overcome with fear and trembling. Alexander s
tood pondering how to rout the enemy. In the whole engagement thirty Macedonian soldiers were killed; but although countless numbers of the enemy perished, as fast as they died more reinforcements arrived, and the more fiercely they fought. Then the clever Alexander ordered fires to be lit and carried towards them at a run. When they saw this strange marvel, they fled at once. The army chased the whole gang but did not capture one of them; they were as swift on their feet as a swallow swooping over the ground. Alexander, mounted on Bucephalus, caught up with one boy with difficulty and brought him back to the camp. He seemed to be about twelve years old, but was larger than a man.
Night fell and the tents were erected within the palisade; the soldiers turned to rest. They were exhausted with fighting, and very badly disposed towards Alexander. They came to him and said, ‘King Alexander, we will go no further. We cannot deal with men like these. We are afraid that the end of our good fortune will come on us when we have subdued the whole world; mat we shall be satiated with human food and will turn to that of beasts; and the evil is compounded, because no one in the world will remember us.’
Alexander was angry and said, ‘It is not up to me to turn back, but is in the hands of fate. I often wanted to, but could not. We must yield to fate and not delay.’ At this they were all silent and surrendered themselves to fate.
34. At dawn they rose and continued their march. Crossing the land of the wild men, they came after five days to another land, where two golden statues had been erected, the one of a man, the other of a woman. When he came upon these, Alexander said: ‘These are statues of Heracles and Semiramis.’ After going on for a bit they found the palace of Semiramis, but it was deserted. Alexander entered it with only the Macedonian army; the Persians and Egyptians stayed outside and waited three days.
From there they journeyed for ten days and found men with six hands and six feet, countless in number and all naked, who seemed to gather together when they saw the size of the phalanx. When Alexander saw them, he ordered fires to be lit and carried against them. At once they all fled and hid in caves below the ground. The soldiers caught one of the men, and he was a wonderful sight to see. They kept him with them for one day’s journey, but because he had none of his fellows to accompany him, suddenly he shivered, gave a great cry and expired.
After three days’ journey they reached the land of the Dog-heads. They were men except that their heads were those of dogs; their voices were partly human and partly canine. They drew themselves up ready for battle, but Alexander drove them back with fire. It took them a full ten days to traverse the country of the Dog-heads.
Then they reached a place by the sea. They built a camp and decided to rest there. They piled their weapons up around the palisade, and he ordered them to keep guard with their shields above the ditch. One of the horses chanced to die, and was thrown into the sea. A crab came out of the sea, seized the dead horse in its claws and dived back into the sea. This was told to Alexander, and he ordered fires to be lit all around the palisade. In this way they were saved from the attacks of the sea-creatures.
35. They continued on their journey and came to a marshy but beautiful place, where there were fruits of all kinds; it was close to the sea. When Alexander saw it, he ordered the army to halt there. When a palisade had been built, Alexander went out along the shore.134 He saw an island in the sea, about a mile from the shore. He ordered wood to be brought and a ship built. He wanted to get into it and sail over to the island, but Philo his friend prevented him with the words, ‘Do not do that; I will go first and look at the island. If I return safely, then you can embark and do as you see fit.’
‘I do not want you, my friend, to go first,’ Alexander replied, ‘in case something happens to you. What other friend do I have in the world, and who will console me in my grief for you?’
‘If Philo, the friend of the king, were to die,’ said Philo, ‘the king would find another Philo for a friend; but if something untoward were to happen to Alexander, all the world would be plunged into grief.’
With these words Philo entered the ship and sailed to the island. There he found men resembling us in all respects, and speaking to one another in Greek. When Philo had looked, he sailed back at once to Alexander and described the island. When Alexander heard about it he took fifty men and entered the ship, leaving Antiochus to lead the army in his stead until his return. He told him to remain where they were because it was convenient for obtaining supplies for the people.
35A. When Alexander reached the island, he saw men like himself, but naked. When they saw him on the island, they came up to him.
‘Why have you come to us, Alexander? What did you wish to obtain from us? We are naked and entirely without possessions, except the faculty of reason. If this is what you want, you do not need to fight for it.’
Alexander was startled at being called by his name.
‘Nothing is stronger than reason,’ he said, ‘by Providence. Reason is of more value than thousands of gold pieces and precious stones.’
At this point γ inserts a substantial portion of the work by Palladius, On the Brahmans, which includes a dialogue of Alexander with the Brahmans, differing from the account given in the main text (III.6, p. 131). Thereafter, γ continues with the story of the trees which grow all morning and decline all afternoon, as in the main text (II.36, p. 116).
G: ALEXANDER’S ARCH (II.37, p. 117)
The γ-text adds here:
From there they advanced to a flat plain; the plain was divided in the middle by a ravine, whose depth was immeasurable. There Alexander erected an arch to bridge the ravine; and on the arch he inscribed in Greek, Persian and Egyptian the following words: ‘Alexander came here and erected an arch over which the whole army crossed; his intention was to reach the end of the earth, if Providence approved his plan.’
γ continues with an abbreviated version of the story of the cook and the Water of Life (II.39, p. 121).
H: THE BATTLE WITH PORUS (III.3, p. 130)
The chapter has a different ending in the γ-text:
As they joined battle, the Persians and Macedonians fought bravely against the Indian army: they chased them back with volleys of arrows and cavalry charges. Alexander’s experience defeated their strength of numbers. When they joined battle on the following day, elephants came to join the Indian ranks, carrying wooden castles on their backs, in which stood armed men holding spears in their hands. When the Macedonians saw these, they were alarmed and fell into a panic. But night put an end to the battle.
When they regained their tents, they were thoroughly downhearted. They decided to. betray Alexander into the hands of Porus, and beg the latter for their lives and a safe return to Macedonia. Philo, the king’s friend, realized this and informed Alexander. Alexander summoned the whole multitude, and stood in their midst with a scowl on his face and tears pouring down his cheeks; but even his tears added beauty to his appearance. He begged them, ‘Men of Macedon, if you hate me, take my life from me. Split my limbs with your broadswords, I beg you; I would rather die at your hands, my friends, than submit my neck to the enemy yoke. Yes, yes, kill me, I beseech you all, if you are thinking of betraying me to the Indians.’
When the Macedonians saw Alexander, they made a tremendous noise. ‘Lord,’ they cried, ‘all of us will die at once tomorrow; we should value the loss no more than that of a single hair. Be brave and strong and do as you wish; we should easily prefer to die on your behalf.’
Then he greeted them all, and they all embraced him cordially. Tears can turn the heart and change the soul of the most unbending, they can encourage the cowardly and turn their spirits to courageousness. Where there is a spirit of friendship, there is no stronger weapon with which to oppose the enemy.
When dawn arrived, the Indian army marched out to battle. On their elephants, as I said before, were structures like walking walled cities. When Alexander saw these and realized their strength, he was struck with amazement and admiration. He ordered his hoplites, as so
on as the elephants approached, to spear a number of tiny piglets in front of them. When the elephants saw the creatures squealing before their feet, they reared up, shaking the little castles off their backs, and then bolted precipitately.
The Indians were very frightened as a result of this. ‘What are we to do against this young man?’ they said. ‘He puts lions to flight and chases away elephants. What hope is left for us?’
After these events, they joined battle again, the Indians being superior in strength to Alexander’s army. Alexander fought magnificently, and almost succeeded in turning the Indian line; but then he was surrounded by the Indians and it was only because he was mounted on the horse Bucephalus that Providence was able to save him. The battle went on unremittingly all day, but when evening came the darkness separated the two sides. Alexander spent the whole night encouraging his men and urging them to bravery in the battle; he recommended them neither to be shamed by unfounded imaginings, nor to be easily turned to flight.
I: THE LETTER TO ARISTOTLE ABOUT INDIA (III.7–16, p. 133)
The A-text inserts at this point a letter of Alexander to Aristotle about India. The Greek text is somewhat corrupt and very lacunose; the version given here is substantially supplemented from the Armenian version (marked by angle brackets).135
Then Alexander wrote a letter to Aristotle about the affairs he had been engaged in.
‘King Alexander greets Aristotle. I must describe to you the remarkable things that happened to us in India. When we reached the city of Prasiake, which is, as it were, the capital of India, we occupied a conspicuous promontory in the sea. I went off with a few men to the places mentioned above. We discovered people living there who looked like women and fed on fish. When I called some of them to me, I discovered that they were barbarian in speech. I asked them about the region, and they pointed out an island that was visible to all of us in the middle of the sea; they said it was the grave of an ancient king, and that much gold had been dedicated there.
The Greek Alexander Romance Page 20