Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

ALEXANDER AND THE ERAHMANS. I4I
"And she bore herself with patience in the matter
"of her father's death, and she said [unto me],
"'If he had not died at this time he would haveRoxana'sfa-
"died at some other, and if he had not died by
"thy hand he would have perished by that of
"someone else'; thus she consoled herself nobly.
"If, then, it had not been that I had made war
"against other kings, no one of these things would
"ever have happened; and, moreover, because I knew
"that I must leave her for ever I went forth from
"her naked and empty, even as I had gone to her
"naked and empty"/
And it came to pass that when Alexander had
finished talking with the Brahmans he saluted
them, and rose up and departed from them, and
neither'' he nor any of his soldiers asked anything Alexander
from them; then he sat down and meditated what""
to Aristotle.
' This reference to Alexander's victory over the Persians
is peculiar to the Ethiopic version. In the Greek he is made
to say that if all men were of one' mind the world would
be idle, the sea would not be navigated, the earth would not
be built upon, no marriages would be contracted^ and no
children would be born; if some men have suffered by his
wars others have benefited. See Mliller, p. loi, col. 2.
^ In the Greek he offers Dandamis money^ and clothing,
and oil, and wine with his thanks. Dandamis, laughing, said,
"These are unnecessary for us, but to shew you that we
are not proud, we will accept the oil;" then having made
a pile of pieces of wood and set fire to it, he poured the
oil upon it in Alexander's sight.
i In Miiller's Codex A the work of Palladius TTepi tuuv
Tiig 'Ivbiaq ebvujv Kai TUJv ^pax\xavw\ is introduced, and
forms chapters 7 16; see Miillerj pp. 102—120.
adventures