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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eight of Alexander the Great. This is LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox accordings are in the public domain. For more
information are to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Lizzie Driver. Alexander the Great by Jacob Abbot. Chapter
(00:20):
eight Alexander in Egypt. After completing the subjugation of Tire,
Alexander commenced his march for Egypt. His route led him
through Judea. The time was about three hundred years before
the birth of Christ, and of course this passage of
the Great Conqueror through the land of Israel took place
(00:42):
between the historical periods of the Old Testament and of
the New so that no account of it is given
in the Sacred Volume. There was a Jewish writer named Josephus,
who lived and wrote a few years after Christ, and
of course more than three hundred years after Alexander. He
wrote a history of the Jews, which is a very
(01:05):
entertaining book to read. But he liked so much to
magnify the importance of the events in the history of
his country, and to embellish them with marvelous and supernatural incidents,
that his narratives have not always been received with implicit faith.
Josephus says that as Alexander passed through Palestine, he went
(01:26):
to pay a visit to Jerusalem. The circumstances of this visit,
according to his account, were these. The city of Tire,
before Alexander besieged it, as it lived entirely by commerce
and was surrounded by the sea, had to depend on
the neighboring countries for a supply of food. The people
(01:47):
were accordingly accustomed to purchase grain in Phoenicia, in Judea,
and in Egypt, and transported by their ships to the island. Alexander,
in the same manner, when besieging the sea, found that
he must depend on the neighboring countries for supplies of food,
and he accordingly sent requisitions for such supplies to several places,
(02:11):
and among others, to Judea. The Jews, as Josephus says,
refused to send any such supplies, saying that it would
be inconsistent with fidelity to Darius, under whose government they were.
Alexander took no notice of this reply at the time,
being occupied with the siege of Tire, but as soon
(02:34):
as that city was taken and he was ready to
pass through Judea, he directed his march towards Jerusalem with
the intention of destroying the city. Now, the chief magistrate
at Jerusalem at this time, the one who had the
command of the city, ruling it, of course, under a
general responsibility to the Persian government, was the high Priest.
(02:57):
His name was Jaddas. In the time of Christ, about
three hundred years after this, the name of the high priest,
as the reader will recollect, was Chiophus Jadas. And all
the inhabitants of Jerusalem were very much alarmed. They knew
not what to do. The siege and capture of Tea
(03:18):
had impressed them all with a strong sense of Alexander's
terrible energy and martial power, and they began to anticipate
certain destruction. Jaddus caused great sacrifices to be offered to
a mighty God, and public and solemn prayers were made
to implore his guidance and protection. The next day, after
(03:41):
these services, he told the people that they had nothing
to fear. God had appeared to him in a dream
and directed him what to do. We are not to
resist the conqueror, said he, but to go forth to
meet him and welcome him. We are to strew the
city with flowers and adore it as for a festive celebration.
(04:02):
The priests are to be dressed in their pontifical robes
and go forth, and the inhabitants are to follow them
in a civic procession. In this way, we are to
go out to meet Alexander as he advances, and all
will be well. These directions were followed Alexander's coming on
with a full determination to destroy the city. When, however,
(04:26):
he saw this procession and came near enough to distinguish
the appearance and dress of the high priest, he stopped,
seemed surprised and pleased, and advanced toward him with an
air of the profoundest deference and respect. He seemed to
pay him, almost religious homage and adoration. Every One was astonished.
(04:48):
Parmenio asked him for an explanation. Alexander made the following
extraordinary statement. When I was in Macedon before setting out
on this expedition, while I was revolving the subject in
my mind, musing day after day on the means of
conquering Asia, one night I had a remarkable dream. In
(05:10):
my dream, this very priest appeared before me, dressed just
as he is now. He exhorted me to banish every fear,
to cross the Hellespont boldly, and to push forward into
the heart of Asia. He said that God would march
at the head of my army and give me victory
over all the Persians. I recognize this priest as the
(05:31):
same person that appeared to me. Then he has the
same countenance, the same dress, the same stature, the same air.
It is through his encouragement and aid that I am here,
and I am ready to worship and adore the God
whose service he administers. Alexander joined the high priest in
the procession, and they returned to Jerusalem together. There Alexander
(05:57):
united with them and with the Jews of the city
in the Cell of Religious Rites, by offering sacrifices and
oblations in the Jewish manner. The writings which are now
printed together in our Bibles as the Old Testament, were
in those days written separately on parchment rolls and kept
in the temple. The priests produced from the roles the
(06:20):
one containing the prophecies of Daniel, and they read and
interpreted some of these prophecies to Alexander, which they considered
to have reference to him, though written many hundred years
before Alexander was, as Josephius relates, very much pleased at
the sight of these ancient predictions and the interpretation put
(06:42):
upon them by the priests. He assured the Jews that
they should be protected in the exercise of all their rights,
and especially in their religious worship. And he also promised
them that he would take their brethren who resided in
Madir and Babylon under his specials charge when he should
come into possession of those places. The Jews of Madir
(07:05):
and Babylon were the descendants of captives which had been
carried away from their native land in former wars. Such
is the story which Josephus relates. The Greek historians, on
the other hand, make no mention of this visit to Jerusalem,
and some persons think that it was never made, but
(07:26):
that the story arose and was propagated from generation to
generation among the Jews through the influence of their desire
to magnify the importance and influence of their worship, and
that Josephus incorporated the account into his history without sufficiently
verifying the facts. However, it may be in regard to Jerusalem.
(07:48):
Alexander was delayed at Gaza, which, as may be seen
upon the map, is on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
It was a place of considerable commerce and wealth, and
what at this time under the command of a governor
whom Darius had stationed there. His name was Bettis. Bettis
(08:08):
refused to surrender the place. Alexander stopped to besiege it,
and the siege delayed him two months. He was very
much exasperated at this, both against Betis and against the city.
His unreasonable anger was very much increased by a wound
which he received. He was near a mound which his
(08:30):
soldiers had been constructed near the city to place engines
upon for an attack upon the walls, when an arrow
shot from one of the engines upon the walls struck
him in the breast. It penetrated his armor and wounded
him deeply in the shoulder. The wound was very painful
for some time, and the suffering which he endured from
(08:50):
it only added fuel to the flame of his anger
against the city. At last, breaches were made in the walls,
and the place was taken by storm. Alexander treated the
wretched captives with extreme cruelty, he caught the garrison to
pieces and sold the inhabitants to slavery. As for Bettis,
(09:13):
he dealt with him in a manner almost too horrible
to be described. The reader will recollect that Achille set
the siege of Troy. After killing Hector, dragged his body
round the walls of the city. Alexander, growing more cruel
as he became more accustomed to war and bloodshed, had
been intending to imitate this example so soon as he
(09:35):
could find an enemy worthy of such a fate. He
now determined to carry his plan into execution. With Bettis,
he ordered him into his presence. A few years before
he would have rewarded him for his fidelity in his
master's surface, but now grown selfish, hard hearted, and revengeful,
(09:57):
he looked upon him with a countenance full of vindictive exultation,
and said, you are not going to die the simple
death that you desire. You have got the worst torments
that revenge can invent to suffer. Bettis did not reply,
but looked upon Alexander with a calm and composed and
unsubdued air, which incensed the conqueror more and more observe
(10:22):
his dumb arrogance said Alexander, but I will conquer him.
I will show him that I can draw groans from him,
if nothing else. He then ordered holes to be made
through the heels of his unhappy captive, and, passing a
rope through them, had the body fastened to a chariot
and dragged about the city till no life remained. Alexander
(10:46):
found many rich treasures in Gaza. He sent a lard
part of them to his mother, Olympius, whom he had
left in Macedon. Alexander's affection for his mother seems to
have been more permanent than almost any other good trait
in his character. He found, in addition to other stores
of valuable merchandise, a large quantity of frankincense and muh.
(11:11):
These are gums which were brought from Arabia and were
very costly. They were used chiefly in making offerings and
in burning incense to the gods. When Alexander was a
young man in Macedon before his father's death, he was
one day present at the offering of sacrifices, and one
of his teachers and guardians, named Leonatus, who was standing by,
(11:36):
thought he was rather profuse in his consumption of frankincense
and mrh. He was taking it up by handfuls and
throwing it upon the fire. Leonettus reproved him for this
extravagance and told him that when he became master of
the countries where these costly gums were procured, he might
be as prodigal of them as he pleased, but that
(11:57):
in the meantime it would be proper for him to
be more prudent and economical. Alexander remembered this reproof, and
finding vast doors of these expensive gums and Gaza, he
sent the whole quantity to Leonatus, telling him that he
sent him this abundant supply that he might not have
occasion to be so reserved and sparing for the future
(12:20):
in his sacrifices to the gods. After this conquest and
destruction of Gaza, Alexander continued his march southward to the
frontiers of Egypt. He reached these frontiers at the city
of Pelusium. The Egyptians had been under the Persian dominion,
but they abhorred it and were very ready to submit
(12:42):
to Alexander's sway. They sent ambassadors to meet him upon
the frontiers. The governors of the cities. As he advanced
into the country, finding that it would be use as
to resist, and warned by the terrible example of Thebes,
Tire and Gaza surrendered to him as fast as he
summoned them. He went to Memphis. Memphis was a great
(13:07):
and powerful city situated in what was called Lower Egypt,
on the Nile, just above where the branches which form
the mouth of the Nile separate from the main stream.
All that part of Egypt is flat country, having been
formed by the deposits brought down by the Nile. Such
(13:28):
land is called alluvial. It is always level, and as
it consists of successive deposits from the turbid waters of
the river made in the successive inundations, it forms always
a very rich soil, deep and inexhaustible, and is of
course extremely fertile. Egypt has been celebrated for its unexampled
(13:50):
fertility from the earliest times. It weighs with fields of
corn and grain, and is adorned with groves of the
most luxuriant growth and riches verdure. It is only, however,
so far as the land is formed by the deposits
of the Nile, that this scene of verdure and beauty extends.
(14:12):
On the east, it is bounded by ranges of barren
and rocky hills, and on the west by vast deserts,
consisting of moving sands from which no animal or vegetable
life can derive the means of existence. The reason of
this sterility seems to be the absence of water. The
geological formation of the land is such that it furnishes
(14:34):
few springs of water and no streams, and in that
climate it seldom or never rains. If there is water,
the most barren sands will clothe themselves as some species
of vegetation, which, in its decay, will form a soil
that will nourish more and more fully each exceeding generation
(14:55):
of plants. But in the absence of water, any service
of earth will soon become a barren sand. The wind
will drive away everything imponderable, leaving only the heavy sands
to drift in storms like fields of snow. Among these
African deserts, however, there are some fertile spots. They are
(15:18):
occasioned by springs which arrive in little dells, and which
saturate the ground with moisture for some distance around them.
The water from these springs flows for some distance, in
many cases in a little stream, before it is finally
lost and absorbed in the sands. The whole tract, under
(15:39):
the influence of this irrigation, clothes itself with verdure. Trees
go up to shade it. It forms a spot whose beauty,
absolutely great, is heightened by the contrast which it presents
to the gloomy and desolate desert by which it is surrounded.
Such a green spot in the day as it is
(16:00):
called an oasis. They are the resort and the refuge
of the traveler and the pilgrim, who seek shelter and
repose upon them in their weary journeys over the trackless wilds.
Nor must it be supposed that these islands of fertility
and vagure are always small. Some of them are very
(16:20):
extensive and contain a considerable population. There is one called
the Great Oasis, which consists of a chain of fertile
tracts of about one hundred miles in length. Another, called
to the Oasis of Siwa, has in modern times a
population of eight thousand souls. This last is situated not
(16:44):
far from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, at least
not very far, perhaps two or three hundred miles, and
it was a very celebrated spot in Alexander's day. The
cause of its celebrity was that it was the seat
and center of the world worship of a famous deity
called Jupiter Amon. This god was said to be the
(17:06):
son of Jupiter, though there were all sorts of stories
about his origin and early history. He heard the form
of Aram, and was worshiped by the people of Egypt,
and also by the Carthaginians, and by the people of
northern Africa. Generally, his temple was in this oasis, and
(17:26):
it was surrounded by a considerable population, which was supported
in a great degree by the expenditures of the worshippers
who came as pilgrims or otherwise to sacrifice at his shrine.
It is said that Alexander, finding that of various objects
of human ambition, which he had been so rapidly attaining
(17:47):
by his victories and conquests for the past few years,
were insufficient to satisfy him, began now to aspire for
some supernatural honors, and he accordingly conceived the design of
having himself declared to be the son of a god.
The heroes of Homer were sons of the gods. Alexander
(18:07):
envied them the fame and honor which this distinction gave
them in the opinion of mankind. He determined to visit
the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the oasis of Siwa,
and to have the declaration of his divine origin made
by the priest there. He proceeded accordingly to the mouth
of the Nile, where he found a very eligible place,
(18:31):
as he believed, for the foundation of a commercial city,
and he determined to build it on his return. Thence
he marched along the shores of the Mediterranean toward the west,
until he reached a place called Paraitoronium, which will be
found upon the map. He then left the sea shore
and marched south, striking at once into the desert. When
(18:55):
he left the sea, he was accompanied by a small
detachment of his army as an escort, and they journeyed
eleven days before they reached the oasis, the head a
variety of perilous adventures, and crossing the desert for the
first two days. The soldiers were excited and pleased with
the novelty and romantic grandeur of the scene. The desert
(19:18):
has in some degree the sublimity of the ocean. There
is the same boundless expanse, the same vast, unbroken curve
of the horizon, the same tracklessness, the same solitude. There
is an addition, a certain profound and awful stillness and repose,
which imparts to it a new element of impressiveness and grandeur.
(19:43):
Its dread and solemn silence is far more imposing and
sublime than the loudest thunders of the seas. The third day,
the soldiers began to be weary of such a march.
They seemed afraid to penetrate any further into such boundlessness
terrible solitudes. They had been obliged to bring water with
(20:04):
them in goat skins, which are carried by camels. The
camel is the only beast of burden which can be
employed upon the deserts. There is a peculiarity in the
anatomical structure of this animal, by which he can take
in at one time a supply of water for many days.
(20:25):
He is formed, in fact for the desert. In his
native state, he lives in the oasis and in the valleys.
He eats the herbit which grows among the rocks and
hills that alternate with the great sandy plains in all
these countries. In passing from one of his scanty pasturages
to another, he has long journeys to make across the sands,
(20:47):
where though we can find food here and there, there
is no water. Providence has formed him with a structure
adapted to this excegency, and by means of it he
becomes extremely useful to man. The soldiers of Alexander did
not take a sufficient supply of water, and were reduced
(21:08):
at one time to great distress. They were relieved, the
story say, by a rain. Though rain is extremely unusual
in the deserts. Alexander attributed this supply to the miraculous
interposition of heaven. They catched the rain in such cases
with cloths, and afterwards wring out the water. Though in
(21:31):
this instance, as the historians of that day say, the
soldiers did not wait for this tardy method to supply,
but the whole detachment held back their heads and opened
their mouths to catch the drops of rain as they fell.
There was another danger to which they were exposed in
their march, more terrible even than the scarcity of water.
(21:54):
It was that of being overwhelmed in the clouds of
sand and dust, which sometimes swept over the desert in
gales of wind. These were called sandstorms. The fine sand
flew in some cases and driving clouds, which filled the
eyes and stopped the breath of the traveler, and finally
buried his body under its drifts when he laid down
(22:16):
to die. A large army of fifty thousand men under
a former Persian king had been overwhelmed and destroyed in
this way some years before in some of the Egyptian deserts.
Alexander's soldiers had heard of this calamity, and they were
threatened sometimes with the same fate. They, however, at length
(22:39):
escaped all the dangers of the desert and began to
approach the green and fertile land of the oasis. The
chain from the barren and dismal loneliness of the sandy
plains to the groves and the villages, and the beauty
in the vigure of the oasis was delightful both to
Alexander himself and to all his menas the priests at
(23:03):
the Great Temple of Jupiter Amon received them all with
marks of great distinction and honor. The most solemn and
magnificent ceremonies were performed with offerings, oblations and sacrifices. The priests,
after conferring in secret with the God in the temple,
came out with the annunciation that Alexander was indeed his son,
(23:27):
and they paid him accordingly almost divine honors. He is
supposed to have bribed them to do this by presence and pay.
Alexander returned at length to Memphis, and in all his
subsequent orders and decrees he styled himself Alexander, King, son
(23:47):
of Jupiter Amon. But though Alexander was thus willing to
impress his ignorant soldiers with a mysterious veneration for his
vextitious divinity, he was not deceived himself on the same subject.
He sometimes even made his pretensions to the divine character
(24:07):
a subject of joke. For instance, they one day brought
him in too little fire in the focus, the focus
or fireplace used in Alexander's day, was a small metallic
stand on which the fire was built. It was placed
wherever convenient in the tent, and the smoke escaped above.
(24:29):
They had put upon the focus too little fuel. One day,
when they brought it in, Alexander asked the officer to
let him have either some wood or some frankincense. They
might consider him, he said, as a god or as
a man, whichever they pleased, but he wished to be
treated either like one or the other. On his return
(24:51):
from the oasis, Alexander carried forward his plan of building
a city at the mouth of the nile. He drew
the plan in his said with his own hands. He
superintended the constructions and invited artisans and mechanics from all
nations to come and reside in it. They accepted the
invitation in great numbers, and the city soon became large
(25:15):
and wealthy and powerful. It was intended as a commercial post,
and the wisdom and sagacity which Alexander manifested in the
selection of the site is shown by the fact that
the city rose immediately to the rank of the great
seat of trade and commerce for all those shores, and
has continued to hold that rank now for twenty centuries.
(25:39):
There was an island near the coast opposite the city,
called the Island of Pharos. They built a most magnificent
lighthouse upon one extremity of this island, which was considered
in those days one of the wonders of the world.
It was said to be five hundred feet high. This
may have been an exaggeration. At any rate, it was
(26:02):
celebrated throughout the world in its day, and its existence
and its greatness made an impression on the human mind
which has not yet been effaced. Farros is the name
for lighthouse in many languages to the present day. In
building the city of Alexandria, Alexander laid aside for a
(26:24):
time his natural and proper character and assumed a mode
of action in strong contest with the ordinary course of
his life. He was, throughout most of his career a destroyer.
He roamed over the world to interrupt commerce, to break
in upon and disturb the peaceful pursuits of industry, to
(26:45):
batter down city walls and burned dwellings, and kill men.
This is the true vocation of a hero and a conqueror.
But at the mouth of the Nile, Alexander laid aside
this character. He turned his energies to the work work
of planning means to do good. He constructed a port,
he built warehouses. He provided accommodations and protections for merchants
(27:09):
and artisans. The nations exchanged their commodities far more easily
and extensively in consequence of these facilities, and the means
of comfort and enjoyment were multiplied and increased in thousands
and thousands of huts in the great cities of Egypt
and in the rural districts along the banks of the Nile.
(27:32):
The good, too, which he thus commenced, had perpetrated itself.
Alexandria has continued to fulfill its beneficent function for two
thousand years. It is the only monument of his greatness
which remains. Everything else which he accomplished perished when he died.
(27:53):
How much better would it have been for the happiness
of mankind as well as for his own true fame
and glory doing good had been the rule of his
life instead of the exception end of Chapter eight
Chapter eight of Alexander the Great. This is LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox accordings are in the public domain. For more
information are to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Lizzie Driver. Alexander the Great by Jacob Abbot. Chapter
(00:20):
eight Alexander in Egypt. After completing the subjugation of Tire,
Alexander commenced his march for Egypt. His route led him
through Judea. The time was about three hundred years before
the birth of Christ, and of course this passage of
the Great Conqueror through the land of Israel took place
(00:42):
between the historical periods of the Old Testament and of
the New so that no account of it is given
in the Sacred Volume. There was a Jewish writer named Josephus,
who lived and wrote a few years after Christ, and
of course more than three hundred years after Alexander. He
wrote a history of the Jews, which is a very
(01:05):
entertaining book to read. But he liked so much to
magnify the importance of the events in the history of
his country, and to embellish them with marvelous and supernatural incidents,
that his narratives have not always been received with implicit faith.
Josephus says that as Alexander passed through Palestine, he went
(01:26):
to pay a visit to Jerusalem. The circumstances of this visit,
according to his account, were these. The city of Tire,
before Alexander besieged it, as it lived entirely by commerce
and was surrounded by the sea, had to depend on
the neighboring countries for a supply of food. The people
(01:47):
were accordingly accustomed to purchase grain in Phoenicia, in Judea,
and in Egypt, and transported by their ships to the island. Alexander,
in the same manner, when besieging the sea, found that
he must depend on the neighboring countries for supplies of food,
and he accordingly sent requisitions for such supplies to several places,
(02:11):
and among others, to Judea. The Jews, as Josephus says,
refused to send any such supplies, saying that it would
be inconsistent with fidelity to Darius, under whose government they were.
Alexander took no notice of this reply at the time,
being occupied with the siege of Tire, but as soon
(02:34):
as that city was taken and he was ready to
pass through Judea, he directed his march towards Jerusalem with
the intention of destroying the city. Now, the chief magistrate
at Jerusalem at this time, the one who had the
command of the city, ruling it, of course, under a
general responsibility to the Persian government, was the high Priest.
(02:57):
His name was Jaddas. In the time of Christ, about
three hundred years after this, the name of the high priest,
as the reader will recollect, was Chiophus Jadas. And all
the inhabitants of Jerusalem were very much alarmed. They knew
not what to do. The siege and capture of Tea
(03:18):
had impressed them all with a strong sense of Alexander's
terrible energy and martial power, and they began to anticipate
certain destruction. Jaddus caused great sacrifices to be offered to
a mighty God, and public and solemn prayers were made
to implore his guidance and protection. The next day, after
(03:41):
these services, he told the people that they had nothing
to fear. God had appeared to him in a dream
and directed him what to do. We are not to
resist the conqueror, said he, but to go forth to
meet him and welcome him. We are to strew the
city with flowers and adore it as for a festive celebration.
(04:02):
The priests are to be dressed in their pontifical robes
and go forth, and the inhabitants are to follow them
in a civic procession. In this way, we are to
go out to meet Alexander as he advances, and all
will be well. These directions were followed Alexander's coming on
with a full determination to destroy the city. When, however,
(04:26):
he saw this procession and came near enough to distinguish
the appearance and dress of the high priest, he stopped,
seemed surprised and pleased, and advanced toward him with an
air of the profoundest deference and respect. He seemed to
pay him, almost religious homage and adoration. Every One was astonished.
(04:48):
Parmenio asked him for an explanation. Alexander made the following
extraordinary statement. When I was in Macedon before setting out
on this expedition, while I was revolving the subject in
my mind, musing day after day on the means of
conquering Asia, one night I had a remarkable dream. In
(05:10):
my dream, this very priest appeared before me, dressed just
as he is now. He exhorted me to banish every fear,
to cross the Hellespont boldly, and to push forward into
the heart of Asia. He said that God would march
at the head of my army and give me victory
over all the Persians. I recognize this priest as the
(05:31):
same person that appeared to me. Then he has the
same countenance, the same dress, the same stature, the same air.
It is through his encouragement and aid that I am here,
and I am ready to worship and adore the God
whose service he administers. Alexander joined the high priest in
the procession, and they returned to Jerusalem together. There Alexander
(05:57):
united with them and with the Jews of the city
in the Cell of Religious Rites, by offering sacrifices and
oblations in the Jewish manner. The writings which are now
printed together in our Bibles as the Old Testament, were
in those days written separately on parchment rolls and kept
in the temple. The priests produced from the roles the
(06:20):
one containing the prophecies of Daniel, and they read and
interpreted some of these prophecies to Alexander, which they considered
to have reference to him, though written many hundred years
before Alexander was, as Josephius relates, very much pleased at
the sight of these ancient predictions and the interpretation put
(06:42):
upon them by the priests. He assured the Jews that
they should be protected in the exercise of all their rights,
and especially in their religious worship. And he also promised
them that he would take their brethren who resided in
Madir and Babylon under his specials charge when he should
come into possession of those places. The Jews of Madir
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and Babylon were the descendants of captives which had been
carried away from their native land in former wars. Such
is the story which Josephus relates. The Greek historians, on
the other hand, make no mention of this visit to Jerusalem,
and some persons think that it was never made, but
(07:26):
that the story arose and was propagated from generation to
generation among the Jews through the influence of their desire
to magnify the importance and influence of their worship, and
that Josephus incorporated the account into his history without sufficiently
verifying the facts. However, it may be in regard to Jerusalem.
(07:48):
Alexander was delayed at Gaza, which, as may be seen
upon the map, is on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
It was a place of considerable commerce and wealth, and
what at this time under the command of a governor
whom Darius had stationed there. His name was Bettis. Bettis
(08:08):
refused to surrender the place. Alexander stopped to besiege it,
and the siege delayed him two months. He was very
much exasperated at this, both against Betis and against the city.
His unreasonable anger was very much increased by a wound
which he received. He was near a mound which his
(08:30):
soldiers had been constructed near the city to place engines
upon for an attack upon the walls, when an arrow
shot from one of the engines upon the walls struck
him in the breast. It penetrated his armor and wounded
him deeply in the shoulder. The wound was very painful
for some time, and the suffering which he endured from
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it only added fuel to the flame of his anger
against the city. At last, breaches were made in the walls,
and the place was taken by storm. Alexander treated the
wretched captives with extreme cruelty, he caught the garrison to
pieces and sold the inhabitants to slavery. As for Bettis,
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he dealt with him in a manner almost too horrible
to be described. The reader will recollect that Achille set
the siege of Troy. After killing Hector, dragged his body
round the walls of the city. Alexander, growing more cruel
as he became more accustomed to war and bloodshed, had
been intending to imitate this example so soon as he
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could find an enemy worthy of such a fate. He
now determined to carry his plan into execution. With Bettis,
he ordered him into his presence. A few years before
he would have rewarded him for his fidelity in his
master's surface, but now grown selfish, hard hearted, and revengeful,
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he looked upon him with a countenance full of vindictive exultation,
and said, you are not going to die the simple
death that you desire. You have got the worst torments
that revenge can invent to suffer. Bettis did not reply,
but looked upon Alexander with a calm and composed and
unsubdued air, which incensed the conqueror more and more observe
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his dumb arrogance said Alexander, but I will conquer him.
I will show him that I can draw groans from him,
if nothing else. He then ordered holes to be made
through the heels of his unhappy captive, and, passing a
rope through them, had the body fastened to a chariot
and dragged about the city till no life remained. Alexander
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found many rich treasures in Gaza. He sent a lard
part of them to his mother, Olympius, whom he had
left in Macedon. Alexander's affection for his mother seems to
have been more permanent than almost any other good trait
in his character. He found, in addition to other stores
of valuable merchandise, a large quantity of frankincense and muh.
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These are gums which were brought from Arabia and were
very costly. They were used chiefly in making offerings and
in burning incense to the gods. When Alexander was a
young man in Macedon before his father's death, he was
one day present at the offering of sacrifices, and one
of his teachers and guardians, named Leonatus, who was standing by,
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thought he was rather profuse in his consumption of frankincense
and mrh. He was taking it up by handfuls and
throwing it upon the fire. Leonettus reproved him for this
extravagance and told him that when he became master of
the countries where these costly gums were procured, he might
be as prodigal of them as he pleased, but that
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in the meantime it would be proper for him to
be more prudent and economical. Alexander remembered this reproof, and
finding vast doors of these expensive gums and Gaza, he
sent the whole quantity to Leonatus, telling him that he
sent him this abundant supply that he might not have
occasion to be so reserved and sparing for the future
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in his sacrifices to the gods. After this conquest and
destruction of Gaza, Alexander continued his march southward to the
frontiers of Egypt. He reached these frontiers at the city
of Pelusium. The Egyptians had been under the Persian dominion,
but they abhorred it and were very ready to submit
(12:42):
to Alexander's sway. They sent ambassadors to meet him upon
the frontiers. The governors of the cities. As he advanced
into the country, finding that it would be use as
to resist, and warned by the terrible example of Thebes,
Tire and Gaza surrendered to him as fast as he
summoned them. He went to Memphis. Memphis was a great
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and powerful city situated in what was called Lower Egypt,
on the Nile, just above where the branches which form
the mouth of the Nile separate from the main stream.
All that part of Egypt is flat country, having been
formed by the deposits brought down by the Nile. Such
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land is called alluvial. It is always level, and as
it consists of successive deposits from the turbid waters of
the river made in the successive inundations, it forms always
a very rich soil, deep and inexhaustible, and is of
course extremely fertile. Egypt has been celebrated for its unexampled
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fertility from the earliest times. It weighs with fields of
corn and grain, and is adorned with groves of the
most luxuriant growth and riches verdure. It is only, however,
so far as the land is formed by the deposits
of the Nile, that this scene of verdure and beauty extends.
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On the east, it is bounded by ranges of barren
and rocky hills, and on the west by vast deserts,
consisting of moving sands from which no animal or vegetable
life can derive the means of existence. The reason of
this sterility seems to be the absence of water. The
geological formation of the land is such that it furnishes
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few springs of water and no streams, and in that
climate it seldom or never rains. If there is water,
the most barren sands will clothe themselves as some species
of vegetation, which, in its decay, will form a soil
that will nourish more and more fully each exceeding generation
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of plants. But in the absence of water, any service
of earth will soon become a barren sand. The wind
will drive away everything imponderable, leaving only the heavy sands
to drift in storms like fields of snow. Among these
African deserts, however, there are some fertile spots. They are
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occasioned by springs which arrive in little dells, and which
saturate the ground with moisture for some distance around them.
The water from these springs flows for some distance, in
many cases in a little stream, before it is finally
lost and absorbed in the sands. The whole tract, under
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the influence of this irrigation, clothes itself with verdure. Trees
go up to shade it. It forms a spot whose beauty,
absolutely great, is heightened by the contrast which it presents
to the gloomy and desolate desert by which it is surrounded.
Such a green spot in the day as it is
(16:00):
called an oasis. They are the resort and the refuge
of the traveler and the pilgrim, who seek shelter and
repose upon them in their weary journeys over the trackless wilds.
Nor must it be supposed that these islands of fertility
and vagure are always small. Some of them are very
(16:20):
extensive and contain a considerable population. There is one called
the Great Oasis, which consists of a chain of fertile
tracts of about one hundred miles in length. Another, called
to the Oasis of Siwa, has in modern times a
population of eight thousand souls. This last is situated not
(16:44):
far from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, at least
not very far, perhaps two or three hundred miles, and
it was a very celebrated spot in Alexander's day. The
cause of its celebrity was that it was the seat
and center of the world worship of a famous deity
called Jupiter Amon. This god was said to be the
(17:06):
son of Jupiter, though there were all sorts of stories
about his origin and early history. He heard the form
of Aram, and was worshiped by the people of Egypt,
and also by the Carthaginians, and by the people of
northern Africa. Generally, his temple was in this oasis, and
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it was surrounded by a considerable population, which was supported
in a great degree by the expenditures of the worshippers
who came as pilgrims or otherwise to sacrifice at his shrine.
It is said that Alexander, finding that of various objects
of human ambition, which he had been so rapidly attaining
(17:47):
by his victories and conquests for the past few years,
were insufficient to satisfy him, began now to aspire for
some supernatural honors, and he accordingly conceived the design of
having himself declared to be the son of a god.
The heroes of Homer were sons of the gods. Alexander
(18:07):
envied them the fame and honor which this distinction gave
them in the opinion of mankind. He determined to visit
the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the oasis of Siwa,
and to have the declaration of his divine origin made
by the priest there. He proceeded accordingly to the mouth
of the Nile, where he found a very eligible place,
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as he believed, for the foundation of a commercial city,
and he determined to build it on his return. Thence
he marched along the shores of the Mediterranean toward the west,
until he reached a place called Paraitoronium, which will be
found upon the map. He then left the sea shore
and marched south, striking at once into the desert. When
(18:55):
he left the sea, he was accompanied by a small
detachment of his army as an escort, and they journeyed
eleven days before they reached the oasis, the head a
variety of perilous adventures, and crossing the desert for the
first two days. The soldiers were excited and pleased with
the novelty and romantic grandeur of the scene. The desert
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has in some degree the sublimity of the ocean. There
is the same boundless expanse, the same vast, unbroken curve
of the horizon, the same tracklessness, the same solitude. There
is an addition, a certain profound and awful stillness and repose,
which imparts to it a new element of impressiveness and grandeur.
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Its dread and solemn silence is far more imposing and
sublime than the loudest thunders of the seas. The third day,
the soldiers began to be weary of such a march.
They seemed afraid to penetrate any further into such boundlessness
terrible solitudes. They had been obliged to bring water with
(20:04):
them in goat skins, which are carried by camels. The
camel is the only beast of burden which can be
employed upon the deserts. There is a peculiarity in the
anatomical structure of this animal, by which he can take
in at one time a supply of water for many days.
(20:25):
He is formed, in fact for the desert. In his
native state, he lives in the oasis and in the valleys.
He eats the herbit which grows among the rocks and
hills that alternate with the great sandy plains in all
these countries. In passing from one of his scanty pasturages
to another, he has long journeys to make across the sands,
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where though we can find food here and there, there
is no water. Providence has formed him with a structure
adapted to this excegency, and by means of it he
becomes extremely useful to man. The soldiers of Alexander did
not take a sufficient supply of water, and were reduced
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at one time to great distress. They were relieved, the
story say, by a rain. Though rain is extremely unusual
in the deserts. Alexander attributed this supply to the miraculous
interposition of heaven. They catched the rain in such cases
with cloths, and afterwards wring out the water. Though in
(21:31):
this instance, as the historians of that day say, the
soldiers did not wait for this tardy method to supply,
but the whole detachment held back their heads and opened
their mouths to catch the drops of rain as they fell.
There was another danger to which they were exposed in
their march, more terrible even than the scarcity of water.
(21:54):
It was that of being overwhelmed in the clouds of
sand and dust, which sometimes swept over the desert in
gales of wind. These were called sandstorms. The fine sand
flew in some cases and driving clouds, which filled the
eyes and stopped the breath of the traveler, and finally
buried his body under its drifts when he laid down
(22:16):
to die. A large army of fifty thousand men under
a former Persian king had been overwhelmed and destroyed in
this way some years before in some of the Egyptian deserts.
Alexander's soldiers had heard of this calamity, and they were
threatened sometimes with the same fate. They, however, at length
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escaped all the dangers of the desert and began to
approach the green and fertile land of the oasis. The
chain from the barren and dismal loneliness of the sandy
plains to the groves and the villages, and the beauty
in the vigure of the oasis was delightful both to
Alexander himself and to all his menas the priests at
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the Great Temple of Jupiter Amon received them all with
marks of great distinction and honor. The most solemn and
magnificent ceremonies were performed with offerings, oblations and sacrifices. The priests,
after conferring in secret with the God in the temple,
came out with the annunciation that Alexander was indeed his son,
(23:27):
and they paid him accordingly almost divine honors. He is
supposed to have bribed them to do this by presence and pay.
Alexander returned at length to Memphis, and in all his
subsequent orders and decrees he styled himself Alexander, King, son
(23:47):
of Jupiter Amon. But though Alexander was thus willing to
impress his ignorant soldiers with a mysterious veneration for his
vextitious divinity, he was not deceived himself on the same subject.
He sometimes even made his pretensions to the divine character
(24:07):
a subject of joke. For instance, they one day brought
him in too little fire in the focus, the focus
or fireplace used in Alexander's day, was a small metallic
stand on which the fire was built. It was placed
wherever convenient in the tent, and the smoke escaped above.
(24:29):
They had put upon the focus too little fuel. One day,
when they brought it in, Alexander asked the officer to
let him have either some wood or some frankincense. They
might consider him, he said, as a god or as
a man, whichever they pleased, but he wished to be
treated either like one or the other. On his return
(24:51):
from the oasis, Alexander carried forward his plan of building
a city at the mouth of the nile. He drew
the plan in his said with his own hands. He
superintended the constructions and invited artisans and mechanics from all
nations to come and reside in it. They accepted the
invitation in great numbers, and the city soon became large
(25:15):
and wealthy and powerful. It was intended as a commercial post,
and the wisdom and sagacity which Alexander manifested in the
selection of the site is shown by the fact that
the city rose immediately to the rank of the great
seat of trade and commerce for all those shores, and
has continued to hold that rank now for twenty centuries.
(25:39):
There was an island near the coast opposite the city,
called the Island of Pharos. They built a most magnificent
lighthouse upon one extremity of this island, which was considered
in those days one of the wonders of the world.
It was said to be five hundred feet high. This
may have been an exaggeration. At any rate, it was
(26:02):
celebrated throughout the world in its day, and its existence
and its greatness made an impression on the human mind
which has not yet been effaced. Farros is the name
for lighthouse in many languages to the present day. In
building the city of Alexandria, Alexander laid aside for a
(26:24):
time his natural and proper character and assumed a mode
of action in strong contest with the ordinary course of
his life. He was, throughout most of his career a destroyer.
He roamed over the world to interrupt commerce, to break
in upon and disturb the peaceful pursuits of industry, to
(26:45):
batter down city walls and burned dwellings, and kill men.
This is the true vocation of a hero and a conqueror.
But at the mouth of the Nile, Alexander laid aside
this character. He turned his energies to the work work
of planning means to do good. He constructed a port,
he built warehouses. He provided accommodations and protections for merchants
(27:09):
and artisans. The nations exchanged their commodities far more easily
and extensively in consequence of these facilities, and the means
of comfort and enjoyment were multiplied and increased in thousands
and thousands of huts in the great cities of Egypt
and in the rural districts along the banks of the Nile.
(27:32):
The good, too, which he thus commenced, had perpetrated itself.
Alexandria has continued to fulfill its beneficent function for two
thousand years. It is the only monument of his greatness
which remains. Everything else which he accomplished perished when he died.
(27:53):
How much better would it have been for the happiness
of mankind as well as for his own true fame
and glory doing good had been the rule of his
life instead of the exception end of Chapter eight
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