Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

NECTANEBUS THE EGYPTIAN.
Now ' there lived in the land of Egypt a king Nectanebus
who was called Bekfanis'' (Nectanebus), and he was cian thTiast
°'
^'
a famous magician and a sage, and he was deeply ^"\
learned in [all] the wisdom of the Egyptians. And
he had more knowledge than all the wise men who
knew what was in the depths [p. 2] of the Nile
and in the abysses [thereof], and who were skilled
in the knowledge of the stars and of their seasons,
and in the knowledge of the astrolabe, and in the
casting of nativities, and in foretelling what would
happen unto him that had been born—for some'"i^ ''"°^-
are born to a kingdom and others are brought power,
into the world to [lead] a life of poverty and misery
—and by his learning and by his observations
of the stars Nectanebus was able to predict what
was a wretched place, without pictures or even whitewashed
walls, with no proper furniture and no clump of trees in
the compound (See Markham, C. R., A History of the Abyssinian
Expedition, London, i86g, p. 355); it was burnt down by
the order of Sir Robert Napier on April 17th. 1868. King
Theodore was buried in the cloisters. The Histories of
Alexander were found in the treasury, together with chalices,
silver and bronze crosses, silk, velvets and carpets, besides
"tons of Geez and Amharic manuscript books'".
'^ For Greek texts see Miiller, Pseiido-Callisthenes, Paris,
1877; Meusel, Pseudo-Callisthenes, Leipzig, 1871.
' Bektanis, Nectanebus, Nectanabis, NectanebeS; Necta-
nebo, Nectabo, and other forms of the name are all corrup-
AAAAAA _^;^
tions of the Egyptian ^^='-^ ^^ o Nekht-neb-f. The king
referred to in the Alexander legends is Nectanebus II. who,
about B. C. 358, was conquered by the Persians. John of
Nikiu (ed. Zotenberg, p. 53) gives the form Kn"\1i'h '•
3 Read Jift^wjl :