Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

SPEECH OF PARMENION. 87
"as for thee, O king, may God Almighty grant
"thee life to pursue Darius, for he is a rebel against
"the glorious God, and thou shalt lay waste' his
"country, and thou shalt take no pleasure in any-
"thing whatsoever until God Almighty shall have
"brought him into thy power. But thou art a
"king, and whatsoever thou desirest and seest fit
"[to do] unto him shall be good in our sight." ^
Then Alexander answered and said, "O man,
"thy words are right, and what thou sayest is true,
"and if God, the most High, pleaseth, I will do this."^
And it came to pass that Alexander straightway
commanded the friends of Darius to be brought
out, and he slew them and buried them;* and again Alexander
he commanded the gods of Darius to be burnt ptrs^r
and his graven images to be destroyed. Now"*"'^'
Darius had escaped and fled, and Alexander went
forth to seek him, and he prepared himself for flight.
And' it came to pass that Darius wrote to Porus, Letter
Darius
of
' Read flJ^ffDH-flC =
^ There is no authority in the Greek for this; see Miiller,
p. 74, col. I, Meusel, p. 753.
3 In the Greek Alexander's speech is much longer, and
in it occurs the famous passage, the sense of which has
appealed so strongly to the Oriental admiration for him ttXi'iv
aiffxpov ecTTi xai Xiav aiffxpov, dvbpaq tov d'vbpa dvbpeiuji;
viKiqcravTa utto YuvaiKOJV d9Xiujq f]TTn9iivai.
* In the Greek Alexander causes the wounded soldiers
to be nursed and the dead to be buried in a fitting manner;
see Miiller, p. 74, col. 2.
5 See Pseudo-CaUisthenes, Bk. II. chap. 19 (Miiller, p. 75,
Meusel, p. 754).
Porus.