Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

RETURN OF THE PERSIAN AMBASSADORS. 59
"I seek that which is good and pleasant for your
"souls, and God Almighty is witness between me
"and you; may He make to prosper this [my under-
"taking]." And Alexander sent [this] letter to
all the kings by his messengers.
And it came to pass that when the ambassa- Alexander's
dors' had come to Darius, the king of Persia, and^j""'""^"
he had Alexander's letter read before his whole
army, he sent a letter' to his whole [p. 32] army
and to all his generals concerning the message
which the Two-horned king had sent to him,
saying:
"From Darius, the king of kings to the subjects Danus wri-
"of Tiberius Caesar, the Greek. ^ Behold there hath!'^'"""
' lus Caesar.
"reached us a rumour of this thief, and robber,
"and deformed man Alexander, and also that
"there have crone forth with him a number of
"robbers. Capture him, then, together with his
"band; seize him alive, but send away his men to
"the sea. Send, then, to me this dog bound and
"chained. I know that ye are men of war and of
"the spear, and that ye are skilled in the know-
^ Literally, "And when they had come to Darius;" we
must probably understand the words as referring to the am-
bassadors whom Alexander sent back with the message con-
taining Alexander's interpretation of the golden box filled
with oil-seeds and the pearl (see above p. 35).
^ See Pseudo-Callisthenes, Bk. I. chap. 39 (Miiller, p. 43,
Meusel, p. 734).
J The translator has misunderstood his text here; the
Greek has BacTiXeuq AapeTo? toTi; eTieKeiva toO Taupou
0TpaTriYoTs x^iipeiv.