sixth or seventh century CE
translated by E. A. Wallis Budge
1889
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NOTE |
The Alexander Romance is often described as Antiquity's most successful novel. The Romance is a collection of legendary narratives about Alexander the Great that blend history, myth, and fantasy into a highly imaginative biography. Probably originating in the Hellenistic period, but certainly before the Latin translation of 334 CE, and later attributed falsely to Callisthenes (hence the “Pseudo-Callisthenes”), the text recounts Alexander’s miraculous birth, his conquests across the known world, and a series of fantastical adventures. This, however, was but one of many myths and legends of Alexander. The Syriac Alexander Legend, is a relatively short by deeply important Alexander text, often paired with the Syriac version of the Romance despite no textual relationship, for it was the first to weave together Christian themes including the apocalypse, the Gates of Alexander in the eastern mountains, and the tribes of Gog and Magog. This account heavily influenced the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius and also contributed to the version of Alexander appearing in the Quran as Dhu-al-Qarnayn. The translation below is taken from E. A. Wallis Budge, The History of Alexander the Great, Being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, published in 1889.
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Preface by the Translator.This composition appears to be an abbreviated form of a legend the most complete form of which known to us is that given in the metrical discourse on Alexander attributed to Jacob of Sérigh; both these works, in turn, are based upon chapters XXXVII.—XXXIX. of the second book of Pseudo-Callisthenes according to Miiller’s Greek MS. C. The Christian legend has been burdened with many additions, evidently the work of the Christian redactor, which have no connexion whatever with the story. On the other hand many passages, as, for example, the account of his descent into the sea in a glass cage, have been entirely omitted. The names of places which are given us freely in this legend seem to indicate that it was drawn up at a very late period; that it is the work of Jacob of Sérigh is improbable. |
A CHRISTIAN LEGEND CONCERNING ALEXANDER.
An exploit of Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, [showing] how he went forth to the ends of the world, and made a gate of iron, and shut it in the face of the north wind that the Hûnâyê [Huns] might not come forth to spoil the countries: from the manuscripts in the house of the archives of the kings of Alexandria.
In the second year, or the seventh, of the reign of Alexander, he set his crown upon his head and arranged himself in his royal apparel, and sent and called those who wore his royal crowns, the generals, and Priskos and..... and all his forces; and he questioned them and said, “Hear, all ye officers of my palace.” They said to him, “Speak, O wise king, king of the Greeks, and whatsoever thou commandest us shall come to pass. He said to thorn: “This thought has arisen in my mind, and I am wondering what is the extent of the earth, and how high the heavens are, and how many are the countries of my fellow kings, and upon what the heavens are fixed; whether perchance thick clouds and winds support them, or whether pillars of fire rise up from the interior of the earth and bear the heavens so that they move not for anything, or whether they depend on the beck of God and fall not. Now this I desire to go and see, upon what the heavens rest, and what surrounds all creation.” The nobles answered and said to the king, “Bid us to speak,” and he commanded them, and they spake and said to him, “As to the thing, my lord, which thy majesty (or thy greatness’) desires to go and see, namely, upon what the heaveans rest, and what surrounds the earth, the terrible seas which surround the world will not give thee a passage; because there are eleven bright seas, on which the ships of men sail, and beyond these there is about ten miles of dry land, and beyond these ten miles there is the foetid sea, Okeyanos (the Ocean), which surrounds all creation. Men are not able to come near to his foetid sea, neither can ships sail thereon, and no bird is able to fly over it, for if a bird should attempt to fly over it, it is caught and falls and is suffocated therein. Its waters are like poison and if men swim therein, they die at once; and the leaves of the trees which are by its side are shriveled up by the smell of these waters as though fire licked them.” So the nobles spake to king Alexander; but he said to them,” Have ye gone on your own feet and seen that the sea is thus?” They made answer to him: Yea, O wise king. This very thing of which thy majesty has thought occurred to us also, and we went to see upon what the heavens rest, but the fetid sea would not give us a passage.” Alexander said to them: “I do not account you as liars; but although ye went and the sea did not give you a passage to cross, yet I too will go and see all the ends of the heavens. If there be a king whose lands are more than mine I will take his lands and slay him, even if it be one of the quarters from whence the spoilers come forth.” Then all the officers of his palace accepted what Alexander said te them and straightway the trumpets sounded in Alexandria, and the troops were numbered that went forth with him, three hundred and twenty thousand men. And king Alexander bowed himself and did reverence, saying, “O God, Lord of kings and judges, thou who settest up kings and destroyest their power, I know my mind that thou hast exalted me above all kings, and thou hast made me horns upon my head, wherewith I might thrust down the kingdoms of the world; give me power from thy holy heavens that I may receive strength greater than [that of] the kingdoms of the world and that I may humble them, and I will magnify thy name, O Lord, for ever, and thy memorial shall be from everlasting to everlasting, and I will write the name of God in the charter of my kingdom, that there may he for Thee a memorial always. And if the Messiah, who is the Son of God comes in my days, I and my troops will worship Him. And if He does not come in my days, when I have gone and conquered kings and seized their lands, I will carry this throne, which is a seat of silver upon which I sit, and will place it in Jerusalem that, when the Messiah comes from heaven, He may sit upon my kingly throne, for His kingdom lasts for ever. And hundred pounds of gold shall be before the Messiah present when He comes; and whether I die in one of the [other] regions of the world, or here in Alexandria, my royal crown shall be taken and hung upon that seat which I have given to the Messiah; and the crown of every king who dies in Alexandria shall he taken and hung upon that silver seat which I give to the Messiah.”
And they went forth and came to mount Sinai, and encamped there and rested. And they put ships to sea and crossed over to Mesren, that is to say, Egypt. And scouts went up and looked [to see] if the seas and their waves were visible or not. And the chiefs of the hosts answered and said, “King Alexander, the host is unable to march without smiths. Give orders that they may go with us from Egypt, for there are no smiths upon all the face of the earth like unto those of Egypt.” So Alexander called Sarnakos(?) the king of Egypt and said to him, “Give me seven thousand smiths, workers in brass and iron, to go with me; and when I come from the countries whither I am going, if they wish [to return] hither, I will send them, and if they wish [to stay in] one of the countries under my sovereign rule, I will grant it them, and they shall not give bate to the king, but they shall give...... to us.” And Sarnakos the king of Egypt chose seven thousand men, workers brass and iron, and gave them to Alexander, nail they ate bread with one another.
And they put ships to sea and sailed on the sea four months and twelve days, and they arrived at the dry land beyond the eleven bright seas. And Alexander and his troops encamped, and he sent and called to him the governor who was in the camp, and said to him, “Are there any men here guilty of death?” They said to him, “We have thirty and seven men bends who are guilty of death.” And the king said to the governor, “Bring hither those evil doers.” And they brought them, and the king commanded them and said, “Go ye to the shore of the fetid sea, and hammer in stakes that ships may be tied thereto, and prepare everything needful for a force about to cross the sea.” And the men went, and came to the shore of the sea. Now Alexander thought within himself, “If it be tree as they say, that everyone who comes near the fetid sea dies, it is better that these who are guilty of death should die” and when they had gone, and had arrived at the shore of the sea, they died instantly. And Alexander and his troops were looking at them when they died, for he and his nobles had ridden to see what would happen to them, and they saw that they died the moment that they reached the sea. And king Alexander was afraid and retired, and he knew that it was impossible for them to cross over to the place where were the ends of the heavens. So the whole camp mounted, and Alexander and his troops went up between the fetid sea and the bright sea to the place where the son enters the window of heaven; for the sun is the servant of the Lord, and neither by night nor by day does he cease from his travelling. The place of his rising is over the sea, and the people who dwell there, when he is about to rise, flee away and hide themselves in the sea, that they be not burnt by his rays; and he passes through the midst of the heavens to the place where he enters the window of heaven; and wherever he passes there are terrible mountains, and those who dwell there have caves hollowed out in the rocks, and as soon as they see the sun passing [over them], men and birds flee away from before him and hide in the caves for rocks are rent by his blazing heat and fall down, and whether they he men or beasts, as seen as the stones touch them they are consumed. And when the sen enters the window of heaven, he straightway bows down and makes obeisance before God his Greater; and he travels and descends the whole night through the heavens, until at length he finds himself where he rises.
And Alexander looked towards the west, and he found a mountain was Musas [high] and [the troops] descended it and came out upon Mount Klaudia, and ate bread there. Then they went down to the source of the Euphrates, and they found that it came forth from a cave; and they came to Haluras, where the Tigris goes forth like the stream which turns a mill, and they ate bread in Haleras. And they departed from thence and went to the river Kallath; and they ascended the mountain which is called Ramath, where there is a watch-tower. And Alexander and his troops stood upon the top of the mountain and saw the four quarters of the heavens And Alexander said, “Let us go forth by the way to the north”; and they came to the confines of the north, and entered Armenia and Adarbaijan and Inner Armenia. And they crossed over the country of Turnagios, and Beth Pardia, and Beth-Tekil, and Beth-Drubil, and Beth-Katarmen, and Beth-Gebul, and Beth-Zamrat. Alexander passed through all these places; and he went and passed mount Musas and entered a plain which is Bahi-Lebta, and he went and encamped by the gate of the great mountain. Now there was a road across it by which great merchants entered the inner countries, and by it did Alexander encamp. And he sent heralds of peace on horseback, and they rode about and proclaimed through the whole country: “The king of the Greeks is come to this country, neither slaying, nor burning, nor destroying; let every man dwell in peace. Let three hundred men advanced in years be chosen, and let them enter my presence, says king Alexander, that I may learn what I require, and let every man dwell in peace.” When the people of the country heard what the heralds of peace were proclaiming, they were not afraid, and they chose three hundred aged men, who went into Alexander’s presence as soon as he had encamped in the country; and he himself commanded the people not to flee before him. And when the aged men, natives of that land, had come into his presence, he asked them, “Who are ye? and to whom do ye give tribute? and what king rules in this land?” The old men answered and said to the king, “This land belongs to Tubarlak the king of the Persians, who is of the race of the house of Ahshorah, and to him do we give tribute.” Alexander said to them, “How far does this mountain descend in this direction?” They answered him, “This mountain extends without a break, passing by the sea of Beth-Katraye and goes on and comes to an end in outer Persia near India; and from this road and upwards the mountain goes to a great river on this side of the sea. And there are narrow paths there which a man is unable to pass through unless he be on horseback. And people who pass through the mountain and crouch in the path, and if men go to pass through it without bells that ring, they perish immediately.” Alexander said, “This mountain is higher and more terrible than all the mountains which I have seen” The old men, the natives of the country, said to the king: “Yea, by your majesty, my lord the king, neither we nor our fathers have been able to march one step in it, and men do not ascend it either on that side or on this, for it is the boundary which God has set between us nations within this mountain upon which we are looking?.... The natives of the land said, “They are the Huns.” He said to them, “Who are their kings?” The old men said: “Gog and Magog and Nawal the kings of the sons of Japhet; and Gig and Teamron, and Tiyamron, and Beth-Gamli and Yapho bar and Shumardak, and Glusika, and ‘Ekshaphar, and Salgaddo and Nisilk, and Amarphil, and Kaoza, these are the kings of the Huns.” Alexander said, “What is their appearance, and their clothing, and their languages?” The old men answered and said to the king: “Some of them have blue eyes, and their women have but one breast apiece; and the women fight more than the men, for they wound a man with knives. They hang knives upon their thighs and arms and necks, so that, if one of them should get into a fight, wherever she stretches out her hand she can lay hold of a knife. They wear dressed skins; and they eat the raw flesh of everything which dies of their’s; and they drink the blood of men and of animals. They do not besiege or fight against cities and fortresses, but they run to tho paths and gates of fortresses and cities, and they surround the men who come out to meet them outside. They are swifter than the wind that blows, and ore the rumour of their going forth to battle is heard, they outstrip the whole world; for they sorcerers, and they run between heaven and earth, and their chariots and swords and spears flash like fearful lightnings. They carry maces in their hands, and each has two or three horses; between fifty and sixty men, and they go before and after him, and the noise of each one’s outcry is more terrible than the voice of a lion; for it is the will of God that delivers the nations into each other’s hands, and the terror of the Huns is fearful upon all creatures that see them, for they are no lovers of mankind. When they go forth to war, they fetch a pregnant woman, and pile up a fire, and bind her in front of the fire, and cook her child within her, and her belly bursts open and the child comes forth roasted. Then they lay it in a trough and throw water upon its body, and its body melts away in this water; and they take their swords aud bows and arrows and spears, and dip them in this water. And to every one whom this water touches, it appears as if there were a hundred thousand horsemen with him; and by the side of every hundred men there seem to stand one hundred thousand bands of demons, for their sorceries are greater that those of all kingdoms. And of this too, my lord, we inform thy majesty,” said the old men to Alexander, “The Huns go not forth to spoil except where the anger of God goes up that He may slay the fathers and the children and that the Lord may to the earth in His anger, for they are fiercer than all the kings in their wars.” Alexander said to the natives of that country, “Have they come forth to spoil in your days ?” The old men answered and said to the king: “May God establish thy kingdom and thy crown, my lord and king! These fortresses which have been overturned in our lands and in the land of the Romans, have been overthrown by them; by them have these towers been uprooted; when they go forth to spoil, they ravage the land of the Romans and of the Persians, and then they enter their own territory.” Alexander said to them, “Who are the nations that live beyond these? “ The old men replied, “Those of Beth-Amardath and the Dog-men; and beyond the Dog-men is the nation of the Menine; and beyond the nation of the Menine there are no human beings but only terrible mountains and hills and valleys and plains and horrible caves, in which are serpents and adders and vipers, so that men cannot go thither without being immediately devoured by the serpents, for the lands are waste, and there is nothing there save desolation. Within all these mountains the Paradise of God appears afar off. Now Paradise is neither near heaven no earth; like a fair and strong city, so it appears between heave and earth; and the clouds and darkness which surround it are visible afar off, and the horn of the north wind rests upon it.” And Alexander said to them: “How do the four rivers go forth?” The old men replied: “My lord, we will inform thy majesty God made four rivers to go forth from the Paradise of Eden. Because God knew that men would dare to seize the rivers, and would go by means of them to enter Paradise, He drew th rivers within the earth, and brought them through valleys and mountains and plains, and brought them through a number of mountains, and made them issue forth from the mountains, and there is one which He made to flow from a cave. And He surrounded Paradise with seas and rivers and the Ocean, the fetid sea; and men are unable to draw near to Paradise, neither can they see where the rivers go forth, but they see that they go forth either from the mountains or from the valleys.”
When Alexander had heard what the old men said, he marvelled greatly at the great sea which surrounded all creation; and Alexander said to his troops, “Do ye desire that we should do something wonderful in this land?” They said to him, “As thy majesty commands we will do.” The king said, “Let us make a gate of brass and close up this breach.” His troops said, “As thy majesty commands we will do.” And Alexander commanded and fetched three thousand smiths, workers in iron, and three thousand men, workers in brass. And they put down brass and iron, and kneaded it as a man kneads when he works clay. Then they brought it and made a gate, the length of which was twelve cubits and its breadth eight cubits. And he made a lower threshold from mountain to mountain, the length of which was twelve cubits; and he hammered it into the rocks of the mountains, and it was fixed with brass and iron. The height of the lower threshold was three cubits. And he made an upper threshold from mountain to mountain, twelve cubits in length; and he hammered it into the rocks of the mountain, and fixed in it two bolts of each bolt being twelve cubits [long]; and the bolts went into the rock two cubits; and he made two bolts of iron from rock to rock behind the gate, and fixed the heads of the bolts into the rocks. He fixed the gate and the bolts, and he placed nails of iron and beat them down one by the other, so that if the Huns came and dug out the rock which was under the threshold of iron, even if footmen were able to pass through, horse with its rider would be unable to pass, so long as the gate that was hammered down with bolts stood. And he brought and hammered down a lower threshold and hinge for the gate, and he cast therein bolts of iron, and made it swing round on one side like the gates of Shushan the fortress. And the men brought and kneaded iron and brass and covered herewith the gate and its posts one by one, like a man when he moulds clay. And he made a bolt of iron in the rocks, and hammered out an iron key twelve cubits long, and made locks of brass turn therewith. And behold the gate was hung and stood. And king Alexander fetched [an engraver] and inscribed upon the gate: “The Huns shall go forth and conquer the countries of the Romans and of the Persians, and shall arrows cast arrows with.... and shall return and enter their own land Also I have written that, at the conclusion of eight hundred and twenty-six years, the Huns shall go forth by the narrow which goes forth opposite Haloras, whence the Tigris forth like the stream which turns a mill, and they shall take captive the nations, and shall cut off the roads, and shall make the earth tremble by their going forth. And again I have written and made known and prophesied that it shall come to pass, at the conclusion of nine hundred and forty years.... another king, when the world shall come to an end by the command of God the ruler of creation. Created things shall anger God, and sin shall increase, and wrath shall reign and the sins of mankind shall mount up and shall cover the heavens, and the Lord will stir up in His anger the kingdoms that lie within this gate; for when the Lord seeks to slay men he sends men against men, and they destroy one another. And the Lord will gather together the kings and their hosts which are within this mountain, and they shall all be assembled at His back, and shall come with their spears and swords, and shall stand behind the gate, and shall look up to the heavens and call upon the name of the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord open to us this gate.’ And the Lord shall send His sign from heaven and a voice shall call on this gate, and it shall be destroyed and fall at the beck of the Lord, and it shall not be opened by the key which I have made for it. And a troop shall go through this gate which I have made, and a full span shall be worn away from the lower threshold by the hoofs of the horses which with their riders shall go forth to destroy the land by the command of the Lord; and a span shall be worn away from the upper threshold by the points of the spears of those that shall run over it and go forth. And when the Huns have gone forth, as God has commanded, the kingdoms of the Huns and the Persians and the Arabs, the twenty-four kingdoms that are written in this book, shall come from the ends of the heavens and shall fall upon one another, and the earth shall melt through the blood and dung of men. Then the kingdom of the Greeks’ shall move itself, and shall come and take a hammer of iron in its right hand, and a hammer of brass in its left, and the kingdom of Greece shall smite the hammers one upon the other, and as iron which is melted by fire, and brass which boils in the flame, so shall the power of the kingdoms melt away before the might of the kingdom of the Greeks which is that of the Romans. And the kingdoms of the Huns and of the Persians shall be desolated the one by the other; only a few of them shall escape who shall flee to their country; and what remains of them the kingdom of the mans shall destroy. And my kingdom, which is called that of the house of Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, shall go forth and destroy the earth and the ends of the heavens; and there shall not be found any among the nations and tongues who dwell in the world that shall stand before the kingdom of the Romans, Lo, I Alexander have written and made known [these things] in my own handwriting, and verily I have not lied in what I have written; but perhaps the nations and the world will not believe that what I have written will come to pass; but if ye will not receive my word, receive [that of] Jeremiah the prophet who long ago pointed out that kingdom in his prophecy, and spake thus in his book, ‘Evil shall be opened from the north upon all the inhabitants of the land’ And behold I have a sign, which is wrought by God: on the rock which is within the gate on the one side .... and as it from the rock it is narrow; and on the other side there hangs a sponge full of blood, and the blood descends upon the rock, and the Huns come and smear their heads with it, and return. And this testimony is set there by God that men may see and fear; for as that blood descends from that sponge, so shall the blood of man be shed upon the mountains and the hills.” So Alexander and his troops marvelled at the gate which they had made. Then the people of that country went down and said to Tubarlak the king of the Persians, “Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, the king of the Greeks, is come hither and has made a gate of iron in the face of the Huns; but arise, take thy army, and come and slay him, and take whatever he has.” And Tubarlak arose and sent to Meshazberi, the king of Inner India, and to Bar-Sidak, the king of Kadesh, and to Hurazdan, the king of Javan; and he sent to Armenia, and to all the countries that were obedient to him, and hired and brought eighty-two kings and their armies, one million on hundred and thirty thousand men. And they took counsel together before Tubarlak and before all the kings and the hosts, and decided to come. Now it was the time of summer and Alexander’s whole camp was lying down and at rest. And the king himself had scarcely lain down, when lo, the Lord came to Alexander and found him asleep, and He called him and said to him, “Rise up from there.” And the king arose and knelt down and did reverence to the Lord; and the Lord said to him, “Behold, I have magnified thee above all kingdoms and I have made horns of iron to grow on thy head that thou mayest thrust down the kingdoms of the earth with them; and upon me thou didst rely when thou wentest forth to war and to see the countries. But lo, a multitude of kings and their armies are coming against thee to slay thee; call upon me that I may come to aid thee, for I am the Lord, and I help all those that call upon me.” And the Lord departed from Alexander.
And the king aroused his troops and said to them, “Behold, the spoilers are coming against us. Let now the watchmen go up to the top of the mountain, and spy and see, for the Lord has appeared to me in this hour.” And the watchmen went up and saw the troops and their kings, a host without end. And they ran and said to the king, “O king, we perish; but God, who knows their number, will slay them.” And king Alexander straightway commanded the army to be numbered, [to see] how many were dead and how many were alive. And the camp was numbered, and there were found therein three hundred and sixteen thousand, and four thousand had died; for when they went forth from Alexandria, there were three hundred and twenty thousand men. And Alexander commanded every man of his troops over whom he had power, saying, “Let every man who is here offer an incense offering upon shards or upon stones to the Lord, for the Lord will surely come to our assistance, and He will come and find the odour of the camp pleasant with the cease of spices.” Then Alexander took his crown and his purple robes and laid them before the Lord, and said, “Thou, O Lord, hast power over my life and my kingdom, and to thee belongs dominion. be thou deliver thy servant and his camp from his enemies.” And while Alexander was praying, the kings and their armies surrounded them. And Alexander answered and said, “Victory is the Lord’s”; and the camp cried out and said, “O God, come to our aid” And Alexander said, O Lord, who didst appear to me in this land, help us.” Then the Lord appeared, coming upon the chariot of the Seraphim, and the watchers and the angels came before Him with praises. And He led His host upon the camp of Alexander, and the Lord appeared standing on the west. And the whole of Alexander’s camp looked towards the Lord, and the Lord became a helper to the camp, and the people were strengthened, for the Lord had come for their deliverance. Then a terrible fight arose, the people crying out, “This battle is the Lord’s, who has come down and stood in it.” And the Lord again appeared to Alexander and said to him, “Fear neither the kings nor their troops, for behold I am with thee.” And the voice of the Lord went along thundering among them, until the kings and their armies trembled before the camp of God. And Alexander and his troops slew sixty kings and their hosts, and those that fled, fled, and those that were scattered, were scattered; and he took Tubarlak the king of Persia, but slew him not.
Then Alexander and his troops stood up, and Tubarlak the king of Persia, being bound, and the nobles of all Persia; and Tubarlak brought forth gold and silver and beryls and pearls and precious stones of sapphire, and gave them to king Alexander. And Alexander subdued all Persia upon the sea of Darkness. And he was going to slay Tubarlak; and Tubarlak said to him, What wilt thou gain, if thou slayest me? Take the gold that I have, and I will pledge Persia to thee that she shall give thee tribute fifteen years; and then, after the fifteen years, Babylon and Assyria shall be.... And Tubarlak and Alexander sat down, and took Counsel together and said that six thousand men of the Romans, and six thousand men of the Persians, should go and guard that gate of iron and brass which is in the north, and that every man should eat and drink at the expense of the king who sent him And Tubarlak the king of Persia brought sorcerers and enchanters, and the signs of the zodiac, and fire and water, and all his gods, and made divination by them; and they told him that at the final consummation of the world the kingdom of the Romans would go forth and subdue all the kings of the earth; and that whatever king was found in Persia would be slain, and that Babylon and Assyria would be kid waste by the command of God. Thus did king Tubarlak make divination, and he gave [it] in his own handwriting to king Alexander. And he put down in writing with Alexander what should befall Persia, that the king and his nobles prophesied that Persia should be laid waste by the hand of the Romans, and all the kingdoms be laid waste, but that that power should stand and rule to the end of time, and should deliver the kingdom of the earth to the Messiah who is to come.
And Alexander and his troops arose and went forth from Persia, and they went lip by the wilderness, and he came and encamped in the mount of the Romans. And Alexander brought the smiths whom he had fetched from Egypt, and gave them Beth Dema and Beth-Doshar to cultivate and live in, and they were not to give tribute to the king. And Alexander went up and worshipped in Jerusalem, and put ships to sea and went to Alexandria, and when he died, he gave his royal throne of silver to be in Jerusalem.
Here ends the history of the Achievements and Wars of Alexander the son of Philip, the king of the Greeks.
In the second year, or the seventh, of the reign of Alexander, he set his crown upon his head and arranged himself in his royal apparel, and sent and called those who wore his royal crowns, the generals, and Priskos and..... and all his forces; and he questioned them and said, “Hear, all ye officers of my palace.” They said to him, “Speak, O wise king, king of the Greeks, and whatsoever thou commandest us shall come to pass. He said to thorn: “This thought has arisen in my mind, and I am wondering what is the extent of the earth, and how high the heavens are, and how many are the countries of my fellow kings, and upon what the heavens are fixed; whether perchance thick clouds and winds support them, or whether pillars of fire rise up from the interior of the earth and bear the heavens so that they move not for anything, or whether they depend on the beck of God and fall not. Now this I desire to go and see, upon what the heavens rest, and what surrounds all creation.” The nobles answered and said to the king, “Bid us to speak,” and he commanded them, and they spake and said to him, “As to the thing, my lord, which thy majesty (or thy greatness’) desires to go and see, namely, upon what the heaveans rest, and what surrounds the earth, the terrible seas which surround the world will not give thee a passage; because there are eleven bright seas, on which the ships of men sail, and beyond these there is about ten miles of dry land, and beyond these ten miles there is the foetid sea, Okeyanos (the Ocean), which surrounds all creation. Men are not able to come near to his foetid sea, neither can ships sail thereon, and no bird is able to fly over it, for if a bird should attempt to fly over it, it is caught and falls and is suffocated therein. Its waters are like poison and if men swim therein, they die at once; and the leaves of the trees which are by its side are shriveled up by the smell of these waters as though fire licked them.” So the nobles spake to king Alexander; but he said to them,” Have ye gone on your own feet and seen that the sea is thus?” They made answer to him: Yea, O wise king. This very thing of which thy majesty has thought occurred to us also, and we went to see upon what the heavens rest, but the fetid sea would not give us a passage.” Alexander said to them: “I do not account you as liars; but although ye went and the sea did not give you a passage to cross, yet I too will go and see all the ends of the heavens. If there be a king whose lands are more than mine I will take his lands and slay him, even if it be one of the quarters from whence the spoilers come forth.” Then all the officers of his palace accepted what Alexander said te them and straightway the trumpets sounded in Alexandria, and the troops were numbered that went forth with him, three hundred and twenty thousand men. And king Alexander bowed himself and did reverence, saying, “O God, Lord of kings and judges, thou who settest up kings and destroyest their power, I know my mind that thou hast exalted me above all kings, and thou hast made me horns upon my head, wherewith I might thrust down the kingdoms of the world; give me power from thy holy heavens that I may receive strength greater than [that of] the kingdoms of the world and that I may humble them, and I will magnify thy name, O Lord, for ever, and thy memorial shall be from everlasting to everlasting, and I will write the name of God in the charter of my kingdom, that there may he for Thee a memorial always. And if the Messiah, who is the Son of God comes in my days, I and my troops will worship Him. And if He does not come in my days, when I have gone and conquered kings and seized their lands, I will carry this throne, which is a seat of silver upon which I sit, and will place it in Jerusalem that, when the Messiah comes from heaven, He may sit upon my kingly throne, for His kingdom lasts for ever. And hundred pounds of gold shall be before the Messiah present when He comes; and whether I die in one of the [other] regions of the world, or here in Alexandria, my royal crown shall be taken and hung upon that seat which I have given to the Messiah; and the crown of every king who dies in Alexandria shall he taken and hung upon that silver seat which I give to the Messiah.”
And they went forth and came to mount Sinai, and encamped there and rested. And they put ships to sea and crossed over to Mesren, that is to say, Egypt. And scouts went up and looked [to see] if the seas and their waves were visible or not. And the chiefs of the hosts answered and said, “King Alexander, the host is unable to march without smiths. Give orders that they may go with us from Egypt, for there are no smiths upon all the face of the earth like unto those of Egypt.” So Alexander called Sarnakos(?) the king of Egypt and said to him, “Give me seven thousand smiths, workers in brass and iron, to go with me; and when I come from the countries whither I am going, if they wish [to return] hither, I will send them, and if they wish [to stay in] one of the countries under my sovereign rule, I will grant it them, and they shall not give bate to the king, but they shall give...... to us.” And Sarnakos the king of Egypt chose seven thousand men, workers brass and iron, and gave them to Alexander, nail they ate bread with one another.
And they put ships to sea and sailed on the sea four months and twelve days, and they arrived at the dry land beyond the eleven bright seas. And Alexander and his troops encamped, and he sent and called to him the governor who was in the camp, and said to him, “Are there any men here guilty of death?” They said to him, “We have thirty and seven men bends who are guilty of death.” And the king said to the governor, “Bring hither those evil doers.” And they brought them, and the king commanded them and said, “Go ye to the shore of the fetid sea, and hammer in stakes that ships may be tied thereto, and prepare everything needful for a force about to cross the sea.” And the men went, and came to the shore of the sea. Now Alexander thought within himself, “If it be tree as they say, that everyone who comes near the fetid sea dies, it is better that these who are guilty of death should die” and when they had gone, and had arrived at the shore of the sea, they died instantly. And Alexander and his troops were looking at them when they died, for he and his nobles had ridden to see what would happen to them, and they saw that they died the moment that they reached the sea. And king Alexander was afraid and retired, and he knew that it was impossible for them to cross over to the place where were the ends of the heavens. So the whole camp mounted, and Alexander and his troops went up between the fetid sea and the bright sea to the place where the son enters the window of heaven; for the sun is the servant of the Lord, and neither by night nor by day does he cease from his travelling. The place of his rising is over the sea, and the people who dwell there, when he is about to rise, flee away and hide themselves in the sea, that they be not burnt by his rays; and he passes through the midst of the heavens to the place where he enters the window of heaven; and wherever he passes there are terrible mountains, and those who dwell there have caves hollowed out in the rocks, and as soon as they see the sun passing [over them], men and birds flee away from before him and hide in the caves for rocks are rent by his blazing heat and fall down, and whether they he men or beasts, as seen as the stones touch them they are consumed. And when the sen enters the window of heaven, he straightway bows down and makes obeisance before God his Greater; and he travels and descends the whole night through the heavens, until at length he finds himself where he rises.
And Alexander looked towards the west, and he found a mountain was Musas [high] and [the troops] descended it and came out upon Mount Klaudia, and ate bread there. Then they went down to the source of the Euphrates, and they found that it came forth from a cave; and they came to Haluras, where the Tigris goes forth like the stream which turns a mill, and they ate bread in Haleras. And they departed from thence and went to the river Kallath; and they ascended the mountain which is called Ramath, where there is a watch-tower. And Alexander and his troops stood upon the top of the mountain and saw the four quarters of the heavens And Alexander said, “Let us go forth by the way to the north”; and they came to the confines of the north, and entered Armenia and Adarbaijan and Inner Armenia. And they crossed over the country of Turnagios, and Beth Pardia, and Beth-Tekil, and Beth-Drubil, and Beth-Katarmen, and Beth-Gebul, and Beth-Zamrat. Alexander passed through all these places; and he went and passed mount Musas and entered a plain which is Bahi-Lebta, and he went and encamped by the gate of the great mountain. Now there was a road across it by which great merchants entered the inner countries, and by it did Alexander encamp. And he sent heralds of peace on horseback, and they rode about and proclaimed through the whole country: “The king of the Greeks is come to this country, neither slaying, nor burning, nor destroying; let every man dwell in peace. Let three hundred men advanced in years be chosen, and let them enter my presence, says king Alexander, that I may learn what I require, and let every man dwell in peace.” When the people of the country heard what the heralds of peace were proclaiming, they were not afraid, and they chose three hundred aged men, who went into Alexander’s presence as soon as he had encamped in the country; and he himself commanded the people not to flee before him. And when the aged men, natives of that land, had come into his presence, he asked them, “Who are ye? and to whom do ye give tribute? and what king rules in this land?” The old men answered and said to the king, “This land belongs to Tubarlak the king of the Persians, who is of the race of the house of Ahshorah, and to him do we give tribute.” Alexander said to them, “How far does this mountain descend in this direction?” They answered him, “This mountain extends without a break, passing by the sea of Beth-Katraye and goes on and comes to an end in outer Persia near India; and from this road and upwards the mountain goes to a great river on this side of the sea. And there are narrow paths there which a man is unable to pass through unless he be on horseback. And people who pass through the mountain and crouch in the path, and if men go to pass through it without bells that ring, they perish immediately.” Alexander said, “This mountain is higher and more terrible than all the mountains which I have seen” The old men, the natives of the country, said to the king: “Yea, by your majesty, my lord the king, neither we nor our fathers have been able to march one step in it, and men do not ascend it either on that side or on this, for it is the boundary which God has set between us nations within this mountain upon which we are looking?.... The natives of the land said, “They are the Huns.” He said to them, “Who are their kings?” The old men said: “Gog and Magog and Nawal the kings of the sons of Japhet; and Gig and Teamron, and Tiyamron, and Beth-Gamli and Yapho bar and Shumardak, and Glusika, and ‘Ekshaphar, and Salgaddo and Nisilk, and Amarphil, and Kaoza, these are the kings of the Huns.” Alexander said, “What is their appearance, and their clothing, and their languages?” The old men answered and said to the king: “Some of them have blue eyes, and their women have but one breast apiece; and the women fight more than the men, for they wound a man with knives. They hang knives upon their thighs and arms and necks, so that, if one of them should get into a fight, wherever she stretches out her hand she can lay hold of a knife. They wear dressed skins; and they eat the raw flesh of everything which dies of their’s; and they drink the blood of men and of animals. They do not besiege or fight against cities and fortresses, but they run to tho paths and gates of fortresses and cities, and they surround the men who come out to meet them outside. They are swifter than the wind that blows, and ore the rumour of their going forth to battle is heard, they outstrip the whole world; for they sorcerers, and they run between heaven and earth, and their chariots and swords and spears flash like fearful lightnings. They carry maces in their hands, and each has two or three horses; between fifty and sixty men, and they go before and after him, and the noise of each one’s outcry is more terrible than the voice of a lion; for it is the will of God that delivers the nations into each other’s hands, and the terror of the Huns is fearful upon all creatures that see them, for they are no lovers of mankind. When they go forth to war, they fetch a pregnant woman, and pile up a fire, and bind her in front of the fire, and cook her child within her, and her belly bursts open and the child comes forth roasted. Then they lay it in a trough and throw water upon its body, and its body melts away in this water; and they take their swords aud bows and arrows and spears, and dip them in this water. And to every one whom this water touches, it appears as if there were a hundred thousand horsemen with him; and by the side of every hundred men there seem to stand one hundred thousand bands of demons, for their sorceries are greater that those of all kingdoms. And of this too, my lord, we inform thy majesty,” said the old men to Alexander, “The Huns go not forth to spoil except where the anger of God goes up that He may slay the fathers and the children and that the Lord may to the earth in His anger, for they are fiercer than all the kings in their wars.” Alexander said to the natives of that country, “Have they come forth to spoil in your days ?” The old men answered and said to the king: “May God establish thy kingdom and thy crown, my lord and king! These fortresses which have been overturned in our lands and in the land of the Romans, have been overthrown by them; by them have these towers been uprooted; when they go forth to spoil, they ravage the land of the Romans and of the Persians, and then they enter their own territory.” Alexander said to them, “Who are the nations that live beyond these? “ The old men replied, “Those of Beth-Amardath and the Dog-men; and beyond the Dog-men is the nation of the Menine; and beyond the nation of the Menine there are no human beings but only terrible mountains and hills and valleys and plains and horrible caves, in which are serpents and adders and vipers, so that men cannot go thither without being immediately devoured by the serpents, for the lands are waste, and there is nothing there save desolation. Within all these mountains the Paradise of God appears afar off. Now Paradise is neither near heaven no earth; like a fair and strong city, so it appears between heave and earth; and the clouds and darkness which surround it are visible afar off, and the horn of the north wind rests upon it.” And Alexander said to them: “How do the four rivers go forth?” The old men replied: “My lord, we will inform thy majesty God made four rivers to go forth from the Paradise of Eden. Because God knew that men would dare to seize the rivers, and would go by means of them to enter Paradise, He drew th rivers within the earth, and brought them through valleys and mountains and plains, and brought them through a number of mountains, and made them issue forth from the mountains, and there is one which He made to flow from a cave. And He surrounded Paradise with seas and rivers and the Ocean, the fetid sea; and men are unable to draw near to Paradise, neither can they see where the rivers go forth, but they see that they go forth either from the mountains or from the valleys.”
When Alexander had heard what the old men said, he marvelled greatly at the great sea which surrounded all creation; and Alexander said to his troops, “Do ye desire that we should do something wonderful in this land?” They said to him, “As thy majesty commands we will do.” The king said, “Let us make a gate of brass and close up this breach.” His troops said, “As thy majesty commands we will do.” And Alexander commanded and fetched three thousand smiths, workers in iron, and three thousand men, workers in brass. And they put down brass and iron, and kneaded it as a man kneads when he works clay. Then they brought it and made a gate, the length of which was twelve cubits and its breadth eight cubits. And he made a lower threshold from mountain to mountain, the length of which was twelve cubits; and he hammered it into the rocks of the mountains, and it was fixed with brass and iron. The height of the lower threshold was three cubits. And he made an upper threshold from mountain to mountain, twelve cubits in length; and he hammered it into the rocks of the mountain, and fixed in it two bolts of each bolt being twelve cubits [long]; and the bolts went into the rock two cubits; and he made two bolts of iron from rock to rock behind the gate, and fixed the heads of the bolts into the rocks. He fixed the gate and the bolts, and he placed nails of iron and beat them down one by the other, so that if the Huns came and dug out the rock which was under the threshold of iron, even if footmen were able to pass through, horse with its rider would be unable to pass, so long as the gate that was hammered down with bolts stood. And he brought and hammered down a lower threshold and hinge for the gate, and he cast therein bolts of iron, and made it swing round on one side like the gates of Shushan the fortress. And the men brought and kneaded iron and brass and covered herewith the gate and its posts one by one, like a man when he moulds clay. And he made a bolt of iron in the rocks, and hammered out an iron key twelve cubits long, and made locks of brass turn therewith. And behold the gate was hung and stood. And king Alexander fetched [an engraver] and inscribed upon the gate: “The Huns shall go forth and conquer the countries of the Romans and of the Persians, and shall arrows cast arrows with.... and shall return and enter their own land Also I have written that, at the conclusion of eight hundred and twenty-six years, the Huns shall go forth by the narrow which goes forth opposite Haloras, whence the Tigris forth like the stream which turns a mill, and they shall take captive the nations, and shall cut off the roads, and shall make the earth tremble by their going forth. And again I have written and made known and prophesied that it shall come to pass, at the conclusion of nine hundred and forty years.... another king, when the world shall come to an end by the command of God the ruler of creation. Created things shall anger God, and sin shall increase, and wrath shall reign and the sins of mankind shall mount up and shall cover the heavens, and the Lord will stir up in His anger the kingdoms that lie within this gate; for when the Lord seeks to slay men he sends men against men, and they destroy one another. And the Lord will gather together the kings and their hosts which are within this mountain, and they shall all be assembled at His back, and shall come with their spears and swords, and shall stand behind the gate, and shall look up to the heavens and call upon the name of the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord open to us this gate.’ And the Lord shall send His sign from heaven and a voice shall call on this gate, and it shall be destroyed and fall at the beck of the Lord, and it shall not be opened by the key which I have made for it. And a troop shall go through this gate which I have made, and a full span shall be worn away from the lower threshold by the hoofs of the horses which with their riders shall go forth to destroy the land by the command of the Lord; and a span shall be worn away from the upper threshold by the points of the spears of those that shall run over it and go forth. And when the Huns have gone forth, as God has commanded, the kingdoms of the Huns and the Persians and the Arabs, the twenty-four kingdoms that are written in this book, shall come from the ends of the heavens and shall fall upon one another, and the earth shall melt through the blood and dung of men. Then the kingdom of the Greeks’ shall move itself, and shall come and take a hammer of iron in its right hand, and a hammer of brass in its left, and the kingdom of Greece shall smite the hammers one upon the other, and as iron which is melted by fire, and brass which boils in the flame, so shall the power of the kingdoms melt away before the might of the kingdom of the Greeks which is that of the Romans. And the kingdoms of the Huns and of the Persians shall be desolated the one by the other; only a few of them shall escape who shall flee to their country; and what remains of them the kingdom of the mans shall destroy. And my kingdom, which is called that of the house of Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, shall go forth and destroy the earth and the ends of the heavens; and there shall not be found any among the nations and tongues who dwell in the world that shall stand before the kingdom of the Romans, Lo, I Alexander have written and made known [these things] in my own handwriting, and verily I have not lied in what I have written; but perhaps the nations and the world will not believe that what I have written will come to pass; but if ye will not receive my word, receive [that of] Jeremiah the prophet who long ago pointed out that kingdom in his prophecy, and spake thus in his book, ‘Evil shall be opened from the north upon all the inhabitants of the land’ And behold I have a sign, which is wrought by God: on the rock which is within the gate on the one side .... and as it from the rock it is narrow; and on the other side there hangs a sponge full of blood, and the blood descends upon the rock, and the Huns come and smear their heads with it, and return. And this testimony is set there by God that men may see and fear; for as that blood descends from that sponge, so shall the blood of man be shed upon the mountains and the hills.” So Alexander and his troops marvelled at the gate which they had made. Then the people of that country went down and said to Tubarlak the king of the Persians, “Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, the king of the Greeks, is come hither and has made a gate of iron in the face of the Huns; but arise, take thy army, and come and slay him, and take whatever he has.” And Tubarlak arose and sent to Meshazberi, the king of Inner India, and to Bar-Sidak, the king of Kadesh, and to Hurazdan, the king of Javan; and he sent to Armenia, and to all the countries that were obedient to him, and hired and brought eighty-two kings and their armies, one million on hundred and thirty thousand men. And they took counsel together before Tubarlak and before all the kings and the hosts, and decided to come. Now it was the time of summer and Alexander’s whole camp was lying down and at rest. And the king himself had scarcely lain down, when lo, the Lord came to Alexander and found him asleep, and He called him and said to him, “Rise up from there.” And the king arose and knelt down and did reverence to the Lord; and the Lord said to him, “Behold, I have magnified thee above all kingdoms and I have made horns of iron to grow on thy head that thou mayest thrust down the kingdoms of the earth with them; and upon me thou didst rely when thou wentest forth to war and to see the countries. But lo, a multitude of kings and their armies are coming against thee to slay thee; call upon me that I may come to aid thee, for I am the Lord, and I help all those that call upon me.” And the Lord departed from Alexander.
And the king aroused his troops and said to them, “Behold, the spoilers are coming against us. Let now the watchmen go up to the top of the mountain, and spy and see, for the Lord has appeared to me in this hour.” And the watchmen went up and saw the troops and their kings, a host without end. And they ran and said to the king, “O king, we perish; but God, who knows their number, will slay them.” And king Alexander straightway commanded the army to be numbered, [to see] how many were dead and how many were alive. And the camp was numbered, and there were found therein three hundred and sixteen thousand, and four thousand had died; for when they went forth from Alexandria, there were three hundred and twenty thousand men. And Alexander commanded every man of his troops over whom he had power, saying, “Let every man who is here offer an incense offering upon shards or upon stones to the Lord, for the Lord will surely come to our assistance, and He will come and find the odour of the camp pleasant with the cease of spices.” Then Alexander took his crown and his purple robes and laid them before the Lord, and said, “Thou, O Lord, hast power over my life and my kingdom, and to thee belongs dominion. be thou deliver thy servant and his camp from his enemies.” And while Alexander was praying, the kings and their armies surrounded them. And Alexander answered and said, “Victory is the Lord’s”; and the camp cried out and said, “O God, come to our aid” And Alexander said, O Lord, who didst appear to me in this land, help us.” Then the Lord appeared, coming upon the chariot of the Seraphim, and the watchers and the angels came before Him with praises. And He led His host upon the camp of Alexander, and the Lord appeared standing on the west. And the whole of Alexander’s camp looked towards the Lord, and the Lord became a helper to the camp, and the people were strengthened, for the Lord had come for their deliverance. Then a terrible fight arose, the people crying out, “This battle is the Lord’s, who has come down and stood in it.” And the Lord again appeared to Alexander and said to him, “Fear neither the kings nor their troops, for behold I am with thee.” And the voice of the Lord went along thundering among them, until the kings and their armies trembled before the camp of God. And Alexander and his troops slew sixty kings and their hosts, and those that fled, fled, and those that were scattered, were scattered; and he took Tubarlak the king of Persia, but slew him not.
Then Alexander and his troops stood up, and Tubarlak the king of Persia, being bound, and the nobles of all Persia; and Tubarlak brought forth gold and silver and beryls and pearls and precious stones of sapphire, and gave them to king Alexander. And Alexander subdued all Persia upon the sea of Darkness. And he was going to slay Tubarlak; and Tubarlak said to him, What wilt thou gain, if thou slayest me? Take the gold that I have, and I will pledge Persia to thee that she shall give thee tribute fifteen years; and then, after the fifteen years, Babylon and Assyria shall be.... And Tubarlak and Alexander sat down, and took Counsel together and said that six thousand men of the Romans, and six thousand men of the Persians, should go and guard that gate of iron and brass which is in the north, and that every man should eat and drink at the expense of the king who sent him And Tubarlak the king of Persia brought sorcerers and enchanters, and the signs of the zodiac, and fire and water, and all his gods, and made divination by them; and they told him that at the final consummation of the world the kingdom of the Romans would go forth and subdue all the kings of the earth; and that whatever king was found in Persia would be slain, and that Babylon and Assyria would be kid waste by the command of God. Thus did king Tubarlak make divination, and he gave [it] in his own handwriting to king Alexander. And he put down in writing with Alexander what should befall Persia, that the king and his nobles prophesied that Persia should be laid waste by the hand of the Romans, and all the kingdoms be laid waste, but that that power should stand and rule to the end of time, and should deliver the kingdom of the earth to the Messiah who is to come.
And Alexander and his troops arose and went forth from Persia, and they went lip by the wilderness, and he came and encamped in the mount of the Romans. And Alexander brought the smiths whom he had fetched from Egypt, and gave them Beth Dema and Beth-Doshar to cultivate and live in, and they were not to give tribute to the king. And Alexander went up and worshipped in Jerusalem, and put ships to sea and went to Alexandria, and when he died, he gave his royal throne of silver to be in Jerusalem.
Here ends the history of the Achievements and Wars of Alexander the son of Philip, the king of the Greeks.
