part of the ``Testament of Alexander,'' variations due to
Egyptian patriotic sentiment, like that which made Alexander
the son of the last Pharaoh, Nectanebus. As the story was
reproduced, variations were freely introduced according
to the bent of different times and peoples; in the Persian
version Alexander (Iskander) became a son of Darius; among
the Mahommedans he turned into a prophet, hot against
idols; the pen of Christian monks made him an ascetic saint.
The Alexander romance found its way into Europe through the
medium of Latin, but originated mainly from the versions of
the pseudo-Callisthenes, not from the more sober narrative
of Quintus Curtius. The pseudo-Callisthenes, in a recension
which has not been preserved, was translated into Latin by
Julius Valerius about the end of the 3rd century, and an
epitome of this translation, also in Latin, was made some
time before the 9th century, and is introduced by Vincent
de Beauvais into his Speculum historiale. Much of the
legend is a running travesty of the true history of the
conqueror. The first book deals with his birth and early
exploits. The trace of Alexandrian influence is to be found
in the pretence that his actual father was Nectanebus, a
fugitive king of Egypt. The latter was a great magician,
able, by operating upon waxen figures of the armies and ships
of his enemies, to obtain complete power over their real
actions. Obliged, however, to flee to Pella in Macedonia, he
established himself as an astrologer, and as such was consulted
by the childless Olympias. Having promised that Zeus Ammon
would visit her in the form of a dragon, he himself assumed the
disguise. In due course Alexander was born, and Philip's
suspicions were overcome by a second appearance of the dragon,
which was held to prove the divine fatherhood. The child
was small and somewhat deformed, but of great courage and
intelligence. When he was twelve years old he was instructed
in starcraft by Nectanebus, who was killed by a fall into a
pit, into which he had been playfully pushed by Alexander. The
first book also relates his conquests in Italy, Africa, Syria
and Asia Minor; his return to Macedonia and the submission of
Greece. The second book continues the history of his
conquests, and the third contains the victory over Porus,
the relations with the Brahmins, the letter to Aristotle
on the wonders of India, the histories of Candace and the
Amazons, the letter to Olympias on the marvels of Farther
Asia, and lastly the account of Alexander's death in Babylon.
The most wide-spread Latin version of the story, however, was
the Historia de proeliis,1 printed at Strassburg in 1486,
which began to supersede the Epitome of Julius Valerius
in general favour about the end of the 13th century. It is
said to have been written by the Neapolitan arch-presbyter
Leo, who was sent by Johannes and Marinus, dukes of Campania
(941-965) to Constantinople, where he found his Greek
original. Auxiliary sources for the medieval romance-writers
were:--the opuscule (4th century) known as Alexandri magni
iter ad Paradisum, a fable of Eastern origin directed
against ambition; the Itinerarium Alexandri (340),
based partly on Julius Valerius and dedicated to Constans,
son of the emperor Constantine; the letter of Alexander
to Aristotle (Epist. de situ et mirabilibus Indiae), and
the correspondence between Alexander and the king of the
Brahmins, Dindimus, both of which are often contained in
MSS. of the Epitome; and the treatise (based on a lost
history of Alexander by Onesicritus), De gentibus Indiae et
Bragmanibus, ascribed without certainty to Palladius (d.
c. 430), successively bishop of Helenopolis and Aspona.
The Ethiopic versions are of great interest as a striking
example of literary ``accommodation.'' Not only is the
whole atmosphere Christian in colouring, but we actually
find the Greek gods in the guise of Enoch, Elijah, &c.,
while Philip is a Christian martyr, and Alexander himself a
great apostle, even a saint; quotations from the Bible are
frequent. Syriac and Armenian versions were made in the 5th
century. Persians and Arabs told the deeds of Iskander; and
Firdousi made use of the story in the Shahnama. Another
early Persian poet, Nizami, made the story specially his
own. The crusaders brought back fresh developments; Gog
and Magog (partly Arab and partly Greek) and some Jewish
stories were then added. In the 11th century Simeon
Seth, protovestiarius at the Byzantine court, translated
the fabulous history from the Persian back into Greek.
The Alexander legend was the theme of poetry in all
European languages; six or seven German poets dealt
with the subject, and it may be read in French, English,
Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Flemish and Bohemian.
French.--The earliest known French romance of Alexander,
by Alberic of Besancon (or more properly Briancon), was,
until the discovery of a fragment of 100 lines at Florence in
1852, known only through the German adaptation by Lamprecht
the preacher, who wrote towards the end of the 12th century,
and by the version made by a Poitevin poet named Simon in
decasyllabic lines. Alberic followed the epitome of Julius
Valerius. He had some knowledge of authentic history, and
rejected the more marvellous elements of the story. The
French feudal romance, Li Romans d'Alexandre, was written
in the 12th century by Lambert li Tors of Chateaudun,
Alexandre de Bernai, surnamed de Paris, and others. It
contained 20,000 lines, and was written in twelve-syllabled
lines, whence the term ``alexandrine'' verse. The authors
endowed Alexander with the fashionable virtues of the
chivalric hero, making him especially the type of lavish
generosity. They used as their sources Valerius, the letter
to Aristotle and the Iter ad Paradisum, adding much of their
own. Pierre de Saint Cloud, the writer of the fourth section
of the romance, was evidently acquainted with the Historia de
proeliis. The incident of the Fuerre de Gadres (Foray of
Gaza), interpolated in the second section, is assigned to a
certain Eustache. The redaction of the whole work is due to
Alexandre de Bernai, who replaced the original assonance by
rhyme. According to all the traditions of romance it was
necessary to avenge the death of Alexander. At the end of the
12th century Gui de Cambrai and Jean le Nevelon (or Nevelaux
or Venelais), each wrote a Vengeance d'Alexandre. Jean le
Nevelon relates how Alior, the son of Alexander and Candace,
avenged his father's death on Antipater and others. Between
1310 and 1315 Jacques de Longuyon (or Langhion) introduced
into the account of the Indian war Les Voeux du paon, a
romanesque and fantastic episode very loosely connected with
Alexander. It is interesting for its connexion with the
15th-century romance of Perceforest, since in it Alexander
visits Britain, where he bestows Scotland on Gadifer and
England on Betis (otherwise Perceforest). Les Voeux du
paon enjoyed great popularity, and had two sequels, Le
Restor du paon, written before 1338 by Jean Brisebarre de
Douai, and Le Parfait du paon, written in 1340 by Jean
de la Mote. Florimont, a 12th-century poem by Aimon de
Varenne, relates to a fictitious personage said to have
been the grandfather of Alexander. This poem gave rise
to two prose romances--La Conqueste de Grece faicte par
Philippe de Madien, by Perrinet du Pin, first printed in
1527, and Histoire du roi Florimond (1528). Quintus
Curtius was largely used for the Alexandreis (c. 1180) of
Gaultier de Lille or de Chatillon (Galtherus ab Insulis or de
Castellione). It is a Latin poem in ten books of hexameters,
and contains a curious admixture of Biblical history. It
was translated at the end of the next century into Flemish
by J. van Maerlant and into German by Ulrich von Eschenbach.
Of the French prose versions of the Historia de proeliis
may be noticed the late romance, L'Histoire du noble et
vaillant roy Alixandre le Grant (1506). After an account
of the ancient history of Macedonia and of the intrigue of
Nectanebus we are told how Philip dies, and how Alexander
subdues Rome and receives tribute from all European
nations. He then makes his Persian expedition; the Indian
campaign gives occasion for descriptions of all kinds of
wonders. The conqueror visits a cannibal kingdom and finds
many marvels in the palace of Porus, among them a vine with
golden branches, emerald leaves and fruit of other precious
stones. In one country he meets with women who, after the
burial in the winter, become alive again in the spring full
of youth and beauty. Having reached the ends of the earth
and conquered all nations, he aspires to the dominion of the
air. He obtains a magic glass cage, yoked with eight
griffins, flies through the clouds, and, thanks to enchanters
who know the language of birds, gets information as to
their manners and customs, and ultimately receives their
submission. The excessive heat of the upper regions compels
him to descend, and he next visits the bottom of the sea
in a kind of diving-bell. The fish crowd round him and pay
homage. Alexander returns to Babylon, is crowned with much
pomp and mass is celebrated. He dies by poison soon afterwards.
English Versions.--The Alexander cycle was no less
popular in Great Britain. The letter from Alexander to
Aristotle and his correspondence with Dindimus are found
in Early English versions dating from the 11th century.
These are printed by O. Cockayne in his Narratiunculae
Anglice conscriptae (1861). The Monk (De Cas. ill. vir.)
in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales prefaces his account of
Alexander with the statement that his story is so common
That every wight that hath discrecioun
Hath herd somewhat or all of his fortune.
There are two considerable fragments of an English
alliterative romance on the subject written in the west
midland dialect, and dating from the second half of the 14th
century. The first, The Gestes of the Worthy King and
Emperor Alisaunder of Macedoine (ed. W. W. Skeat, E.E.T.S.,
1877, with William of Palermo) contains an account of
the wars of Philip, of Nectanebus and of the education of
Alexander. A second fragment (ed. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1878)
contains Alexander's visit to the Gymnosophists and his
correspondence with Dindimus. Another alliterative poem in
the northern dialect, of 15th-century origin, is based on
the Historia de proeliis, and was edited by Skeat for the
E.E.T.S. (1886) as The Wars of Alexander. Earlier than
any of these is the rhyming Lyfe of Alisaunder (c. 1330)
which is printed in H. Weber's Metrical Romances (vol. i.,
1810). It is written in unusually picturesque and vigorous
language, and is based on the Roman de toute chevalerie,
a French compilation made about 1250 by a certain Eustace or
Thomas of Kent. Fragments of another rhyming poem (pr. c.
1550) are preserved in the British Museum. The Scots Buik
of the most noble and vailyzeand Conqueror Alexander the
Great, printed by Alexander Arbuthnot (d. 1585) about 1580,
reprinted in 1831 for the Bannatyne Club, is not really a
life. It contains three episodes of the cycle, the ``Forray
of Gadderis'' (not taken from the Fuerre de Gadres but
from the Assaut de Tyr in the Romans d'Alixandre),
``The Avowes of Alexander,'' and ``The Great Battel of
Effesoun,'' taken from the Voeux du paon. Many passages
in John Barbour's Bruce are almost identical with this
book, and it is suggested by G. Neilson (John Barbour, Poet
and Translator, London, 1900) that Barbour was the author,
although the colophon states that it was written in 1438.
