Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

THE CITY OF SAMER. 1 87
country, and with them there were five hundred
horsemen.
So we departed from that place, and marching
on we arrived at a country filled with trees, and
we encamped there for five days.'
And'' we departed from that place and directed
our march towards the land of Persia, for I wished
to see the city of Samer,^ the stones of which
were black; and the palace of the city was seven
hundred cubits long and seven hundred cubits
wide. And I saw that the length of the city was The city of
four hundred stadia, and its width three
^^^
hundred^ '
stadia, and it had three hundred and sixty-seven
gates, according to the number of the days of the
year, and the doors were made of polished brass
and iron.* And the houses of these people were
' The attack of Paryog (see the Syriac version^ p. 117)
is omitted in the Ethiopia version. Paryog made a raid upon
Alexander's horses and cattle, and carried them off. The Greeks
pursued, and finally came up to the wood wherein he had driven
the animals, and set fire to it; Paryog, together with fifteen
hundred and seventy men, perished, and the Greeks recov-
ered their horses and cattle. At this place Alexander dwelt
four months, and there founded the city of Merv.
^ See Pseudo-Callisthenes, Bk. iii. chap. 18 (Miiller, p. 125,
Meusel, p. 776).
3 /. e., the kingdom of Semiramis. The Greek has Ktti
eireiTeTO eiri rd Ceiuipdiueiug paffiXeia GedffacrOai.
* The Syriac says (p. 118) that the walls of the city were
of whole stones, the length of each being three stadia, which
make a mile; it had also one hundred and twenty gates all
bound with iron and brass outside.
AA2