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92<br />

THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.<br />

"and sit again on thy royal throne [and rule] over<br />

"thy country and thy people. And the Lord my<br />

"God knoweth that my words are true, and that<br />

"I will neither lie unto thee nor act deceitfully<br />

"towards thee, for I will restore unto thee, inas-<br />

"much as I lie not unto thee, everything which I<br />

"have taken from thee; and I will restore thy wives<br />

•'unto thee, and I will help thee against thine ene-<br />

"mies whensoever they shall attack thee. I myself<br />

"have eaten of thy bread in the days when thou<br />

"wert well and happy, that is to say, [I have eaten<br />

"of] the oil-seed.' Rise up, then, and be not afraid<br />

"because of that which thou hast done in times<br />

"past, for it is not meet for great kings to be<br />

"overwhelmed with grief because affliction hath<br />

"come upon them, lest their enemies have them in<br />

"derision both by reason of the way in which they<br />

"receive such things, and by reason of that which<br />

Men's fate "hath happcucd to them. For the children of men<br />

unknown lo 111 1 1 i il<br />

them. "are so created that they may not know what shall<br />

"come upon them; we are unable to hold in check<br />

"that which is harmful unto us, and we cannot<br />

"bringf to ourselves that which is favourable unto<br />

"us. Now [all] this happeneth by the decree of<br />

' The words "that is to say, the oil-seed" seem to be<br />

an explanation by the scribe, who apparently did not under-<br />

stand to what the author alluded. The allusion is to the<br />

meal which <strong>Alexander</strong> ate with Darius in his palace when<br />

he had gone to the Persian king disguised as a Greek am-<br />

bassador; the incident is recorded in Pseudo-Callisthenes,<br />

Bk. ii. chap. 15, and see the <strong>Ethiopic</strong> text, vol. i. p. 245.

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