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Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

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178 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.<br />

The king "I hearken and submit myself unto God and unto<br />

submits. uj]^gg_ Now do not come to our country and do<br />

"not make war with us, for we will give unto<br />

"thee service and tribute; moreover, we have<br />

"never surrendered to our foes, no man hath ever<br />

"vanquished us, and we have never been subject<br />

"unto any; and this I say because there existeth<br />

"none who is able to meet us in battle. And as<br />

"concerning thy desire [p. loi] to come to us,<br />

"behold, if our days have passed, and our time<br />

The Chinese "is ended, thou wilt do unto us even as thou hast<br />

"done to Darius, the king of Persia, and to Porus,<br />

"the king of India, but we should choose death<br />

"rather than life if we were to become men who<br />

"were disgraced in our own country. Know,<br />

"however, that if thy days and thy time have<br />

"drawn to an end thou thyself wilt die by our hands.<br />

"Now this world is fleeting, and it abideth not<br />

"long for any, especially for us who are the children<br />

"of men. Yet we weary ourselves everywhere<br />

"in the world, and our transgressions, and the<br />

"slaughter of our neighbour committed by us for<br />

"the sake of the goods of this world, are manifold,<br />

"and [finally] we must leave them [all] against our<br />

"will, and no one thing remaineth [unto us], ex-<br />

"cept the victory wherewith God Almighty, the<br />

The vanity "conqueror, hath made us victors. And since we<br />

of all things. ^ -<br />

• 1<br />

i<br />

"leave that which we have grathered toeether to<br />

"others, we give up the world to men".' And thus<br />

The <strong>Ethiopic</strong> text contains no mention of the cloak which

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