Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

XX INTRODUCTION.
Latin ver- From Grcck the story passed into Latin, and
the oldest version in this language is that of
Julerius Valerius,' who lived in the third or fourth
century of our era ; another important Latin version
is that of Leo the Archpresbyter, which appeared
in the Xlth century.^
TheArmen- Next in point of age is the Armenian version,
version,
^^j^j^].^ jg thought to havc been made by Moses
of Khorene;^ it represents the oldest form of the
Alexander story, and is believed to have been
made in the Vth century of our era. Prof Noeldeke
believes that the Armenian version has little im-
portance for the Oriental forms of the story, but
that it is of the highest importance for the Greek
text, because the translator rendered what he had
before him with great accuracy.*
The syriac An important ancient version of the Alexander
version.
story is the Syriac,^ which was probably made
about the Vllth or Vlllth century. I thought origi-
nally that the Syriac translation was made from
the Arabic, but Prof Noeldeke has proved con-
clusively that the source of this version was Persian,
' It accompanies the Greek text in Miiller, op. at.
^ Historia Alexandri Magni regis Macedoniae, de proeliis.
3 The text was pubHshed by the Mechitarist Fathers, at
Venice in 1842.
+ Beitrdge zur Gcschichte des Alexanderromans, Vienna,
1890, p. 2.
5 The text, with an English translation, was published by
me under the title. The History of Alexander the Great, Cam-
bridge, 1889.