Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

A SECOND ALEXANDRIA. 171
"seen among warriors under arms." Now when
this had been said to me I commanded my soldiers
to tarry here, and I ordered that they should
receive food and armour. Then I commanded the
builders to build a mighty city for me here, and He bmids a
to ornament it with [scenes of] each and all the"'^'
wonderful things [which I had seen], that there
might be therein a memorial of myself in the days
that were to come. And I built for myself therein
a house [having] a large chamber wherein I could
pray and live by myself,' and I placed therein His house
'"'^^"'
representations ° of all the wonderful things according
as I had seen them in my travels. And I called
the city a second "Maskama," that is to say,
"Alexandria".^ Then 1 commanded my army to
dwell therein until I returned to them, if it pleased
God, the most High, that I should return. Now
the names of these two cities are identical because
the places whereon they are built are" similar;
one was built on the place where the earth has
come to an end, and the other on the confines
of the earth.^
And when I had finished the building [p. 97]
of the city I set up over the gate thereof a large The city
' Read fflA-n/h^flJ-Tl-f =
^ In the Syriac (p. 109) a brazen statue is set up on the
city, and the city itself is called " Alexandria, the queen of
the mountains."
3 I. e., Alexandria the Great was built at the end of a
tongue of land, and Alexandria, the queen of the mountains,
was built on the place where the earth came to an end.
finished.