Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

342
THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
at midnight, when there was no one with him,
the king rose up from his couch, and extinguished
Alexander thc lamp, and went to the door which was open,
drown him- and which led out on to the river, and crawling
^^^''
upon his hands and feet, he intended to drag
himself out through it and to throw himself into
the stream. And when he came nigh unto the river
Roxana, his wife, saw him, and she hastened after
him, saying, "Wouldst thou destroy (?) thyself in
He is saved "the Hvcr, O Alexander, and wouldst thou drown
"''"""thyself in the watery waves?" And Alexander
answered and said unto her, "What have I to do
"with thee, O Roxana? Leave me, for my days
"are ended. Let no man know this." Then she
took him and brought him back into his chamber.
And on the morrow the kins: commanded that
Perdiccas, and Simakos (Lysimachus) should come
Alexander's to him by thcmselves, and when they had come
"""
they took him and seated him so that he might
write a testament; now these men were those
who had stood by him and had ministered unto
him, and they reminded him concerning what he
should write, and he remained [p. 199] writing that
day and that night. And on the morrow he again
commanded that Perdiccas, and Kabas, and Ptolemy,
and Lysimachus should come to him, and when
The grief of they had come to him loud outcries burst out, for
donians.'"'"'" the Macedouiaus had gathered together and wished
to slay the doorkeeper of the palace;' now they
' See Pseudo-CallistheneSj Bk.iii. chap. 32 (Miiller, p. 146,
Meusel, p. 789).