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73-571: Some consider the Legend to be independent of the Alexander Romance , whereas others consider it to be a substantially reshaped form of it. The Legend appears as an appendix in manuscripts of the Syriac Alexander Romance , but this is the work of later redactors and does not reflect an original relationship between the two. The text is preserved in five late manuscripts, the oldest of which

146-539: A defile in the mountains of Tus (or Turs), and were sealed by the wall erected there, to last until the advent of the Antichrist. Branch IV of the poetic cycle tells that the task of guarding Gog and Magog, as well as the rule of Syria and Persia was assigned to Antigonus , one of Alexander's successors. In the late 19th century, Theodor Noldeke proposed that traditions of the Syriac Alexander Legend played

219-509: A commentary of the entire Alexander Romance was published in English by Krzysztof Nawotka. The first modern English translation of the Romance was produced by E.H. Haight in 1955. The major modern English translation of the Romance is that of Richard Stoneman in 1991. Significant French translations include those of Tallet-Bonvalot in 1994, and Bounoure & Serret in 2004. An Italian translation

292-548: A confused manner with respect to the order and location of the campaigns. Once he reaches Egypt, an oracle of the god Amun instructs him where to go to create the city that will become Alexandria . The march into Asia continues and Alexander conquers Tyre . He begins exchanging letters with the Persian emperor Darius III , though the story now delves into more campaigns in Greece. The Persian march resumes and eventually Alexander conquers

365-725: A copy of an earlier work, Paisiy Hilendarski 's Slavic-Bulgarian History (1762). The two most important Spanish versions of the Alexander Romance are: In medieval England , the Alexander Romance experienced remarkable popularity. It is even referred to in Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales , where the monk apologizes to the pilgrimage group for treating a material so well known. There are five major romances in Middle English that survive, though most only in fragments. There are also two versions from Scotland , one sometimes ascribed to

438-682: A few statements that would develop into the fully-fledged myths of episodes in the Land of Darkness , especially in versions of the Romance in Islamicate lands. In a journey that is directed towards Polaris , the Polar constellation, he is to find the Land of the Blessed at the edge of the world which in "a region where the sun does not shine" (2.39). The Land of Darkness becomes a prominent feature in subsequent recensions of

511-454: A fountain. Immediately upon being washed, the fish sprang to life and escaped into the fountain. Realizing the has discovered the Fountain of Life , Andreas tells no one else about it and drinks the water for himself. He also stores away some of the water into a silver vessel, hoping to use some of it to seduce Alexander's daughter. Meanwhile, Alexander eventually reaches the Land of the Blessed but

584-587: A role in the formation of traditions about an enigmatic figure named Dhu al-Qarnayn ("The Two-Horned One") in the Quran . Forgotten, this thesis would be revived in the field of Quranic studies by Kevin van Bladel in a 2008 article. Since then, the thesis has been further developed by publications from Tommaso Tesei. Some of the main combination of motifs that have been related between the two texts involve an apocalyptic incursion, Gog and Magog , and Gates of Alexander . According to Marianna Klar, this thesis overemphasizes

657-524: A single work. Nectanebo II , the last Pharaoh of Egypt , foresees that his kingdom will fall to the Persians and so flees to the Macedonian court under the guise of the identity of a magician. In his time there, he falls in love with the wife of king Philip II of Macedon , Olympias . Olympias becomes pregnant by Nectanebo, but his paternity is kept a secret. Philip develops a suspicion of an affair between

730-550: A variant of β called λ, and the now-lost δ was perhaps the most important in the transmission of the text into the non-Greek world as it was the basis of the 10th-century Latin translation produced by Leo the Archpriest . The Recensio α, also known as the Historia Alexandri Magni , is the oldest and can be dated to the 3rd century AD. It is known from one manuscript, called A. It was subjected to various revisions during

803-512: Is a dialect, or group of dialects, of Eastern Aramaic , originating around Edessa . It is written in the Syriac alphabet and is transliterated into the Latin script in a number of ways, generating different spellings of the name: Peshitta , Peshittâ , Pshitta , Pšittâ , Pshitto , Fshitto . All of these are acceptable, but Peshitta is the most conventional spelling in English. The Peshitta had from

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876-644: Is an account of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great . Of uncertain authorship, it has been described as "antiquity's most successful novel". The Romance describes Alexander the Great from his birth, to his succession of the throne of Macedon, his conquests including that of the Persian Empire , and finally his death. Although constructed around an historical core, the romance is mostly fantastical, including many miraculous tales and encounters with mythical creatures such as sirens or centaurs . In this context,

949-457: Is based on a collation of more than seventy Peshitta and a few other Aramaic manuscripts. All 27 books of the common Western Canon of the New Testament are included in this British & Foreign Bible Society's 1905 Peshitta edition, as is the adultery pericope (John 7:53–8:11). The 1979 Syriac Bible, United Bible Society, uses the same text for its New Testament. The Online Bible reproduces

1022-551: Is enticed by the opportunity to drink from it, which she does and becomes immortal. Alexander learns of the miracle and punishes both Andreas and his daughter greatly: for Andreas is turned into a daimōn of the sea and his daughter into a daimōn of the desert. This story was elaborated on in subsequent versions of the Romance , such as in the Syriac Song of Alexander and in the Talmud . The original Alexander Romance contains

1095-628: Is gone before ultimately succumbing to the poison. Ptolemy I Soter receives his body in the Egyptian city of Memphis where the priests order it to be sent to Alexandria, the greatest city he had built during his march. The work concludes by providing a list of all the cities that Alexander founded. The Romance locates the Gates of Alexander between two mountains called the "Breasts of the North" ( Greek : Μαζοί Βορρά ). The mountains are initially 18 feet apart and

1168-721: Is still quoted under the symbol "Syrschaaf", or "SyrSch". In a detailed examination of Matthew 1–14, Gwilliam found that the Peshitta agrees with the Textus Receptus only 108 times and with the Codex Vaticanus 65 times. Meanwhile, in 137 instances it differs from both, usually with the support of the Old Syriac and the Old Latin, and in 31 instances it stands alone. A statement by Eusebius that Hegesippus "made some quotations from

1241-561: Is taken from the one provided by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox 2002. Italian versions of the Alexander Romance include: The Romanian Alexander Romance , entitled the Alexandria , was derived from a Greek and Serbian variant and became the most widely-read literary text in Romania between the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. In 1833, the Romanian legend was translated into Bulgarian in

1314-562: Is that the Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from Biblical Hebrew , probably in the 2nd century CE, and that the New Testament of the Peshitta was translated from Koine Greek , probably in the early 5th century. This New Testament, originally excluding certain disputed books ( 2 Peter , 2 John , 3 John , Jude , Revelation ), had become a standard by the early 5th century. The five excluded books were added in

1387-1162: Is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition , including the Maronite Church , the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Syriac Catholic Church , the Syriac Orthodox Church , the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church , the Malabar Independent Syrian Church (Thozhiyur Church), the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church , the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syro-Malabar Church . The consensus within biblical scholarship, although not universal,

1460-404: Is unable to enter it. At the same time, he learns of Andreas losing the fish and questions him over it. Andreas confesses about what happened with the fish, and he is whipped for it, but he denies that he drank any and does not mention that he stored some, and asks Alexander over why he should worry about the past. At a later point, Andreas manages to use the water to seduce Alexander's daughter, who

1533-659: The Historia de Proeliis , which went through three recensions between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and made Alexander a household name throughout the Middle Ages , being translated more times in the next three centuries than any other text except for the Gospels . Another very popular Latin version was the Alexandreis of Walter of Châtillon . Before Leo, versions of the Romance were still known: an abridged 9th-century version of

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1606-650: The Syriac Alexander Legend . Traditions about Alexander's search for the Fountain of Life were influenced by earlier legends about the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh and his search for immortality, such as in the Epic of Gilgamesh . Alexander is travelling along with his company in search of the Land of the Blessed . On the way to the Land, Alexander becomes hungry and asks one of his cooks, Andreas, to get him some meat. Andreas gets some fish and begins to wash it in

1679-473: The Alexander Romance have not survived, that they existed is known; it is thought that two versions existed. The earlier came into existence between the fourth and seventh centuries and its influence is detectable in extant Georgian texts such as The Conversion of Kartli chronicles and in The Life of Kings . The second was produced sometime between the ninth to twelfth centuries, and fragments of it were kept by

1752-589: The Alexander Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes , whose oldest manuscript dates to the 3rd century, but an interpolation into recensions around the 8th century. In the latest and longest Greek version are described the Unclean Nations, which include the Goth and Magoth as their kings, and whose people engage in the habit of eating worms, dogs, human cadavers and fetuses. They were allied to Belsyrians ( Bebrykes , of Bithynia in modern-day North Turkey ), and sealed beyond

1825-504: The Alexander Romance . Two books appear to be the main sources used by the author of the Alexander Romance . One was a collection of Alexander fictions involving pseudepigraphical letters between Alexander and other figures such as Aristotle and adversaries of his like Darius III , as well as dialogues with Indian philosophers among other material. The second was a history written by Cleitarchus (c. 300 BC), containing an already mythologized account of Alexander. Historians also suspect

1898-571: The Alexander Romance . The Pseudo-Methodius (7th century) is the first source in the Christian tradition for a new element: two mountains moving together to narrow the corridor, which was then sealed with a gate against Gog and Magog. This idea is also in the Quran (609–632 CE), and found its way in the Western Alexander Romance . This Gog and Magog legend is not found in earlier versions of

1971-529: The Byzantine Empire , some of them recasting it into poetical form in Medieval Greek vernacular. Recensio α is the source of a Latin version by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius (4th century), as well as an Armenian version (5th century). The β recension was composed between 300 and 550 AD. It rephrases much material in α and also adds new material to it. Compared to α, it lacks the end of Book I and

2044-530: The Early Scots poet John Barbour , which exists only in a sixteenth-century printing; and a Middle Scots version from 1499: Middle Scots versions include: There were two translations of the Alexander Romance into Old Church Slavonic /Old Bulgarian. The Irish Alexander Romance , also known as the Imthusa Alexandair , was composed around 1100, representing the first complete vernacular version of

2117-545: The Harklean Version (616 CE) of Thomas of Harqel . The New Testament of the Peshitta often reflects the Byzantine text-type , although with some variations. Peshitta is derived from the Syriac mappaqtâ pšîṭtâ (ܡܦܩܬܐ ܦܫܝܛܬܐ), literally meaning "simple version". However, it is also possible to translate pšîṭtâ as "common" (that is, for all people), or "straight", as well as the usual translation as "simple". Syriac

2190-422: The "Breasts of the North", a pair of mountains fifty days' march away towards the north. Gog and Magog appear in somewhat later Old French versions of the romance. In the verse Roman d'Alexandre , Branch III, of Lambert le Tort (c. 1170), Gog and Magog ("Gos et Margos", "Got et Margot") were vassals to Porus , king of India, providing an auxiliary force of 400,000 men. Routed by Alexander, they escaped through

2263-509: The 12th century, but ancient Indian texts do not mention Alexander. The Epic of Sundiata , an epic poem for the Mandinka people , structures the story of the hero and founder of the Mali Empire , Sundiata Keita , in a way that resembles the biography and legends of Alexander. The most important Greek recensions of the Alexander Romance are the α, β, γ and ε recensions. There is also

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2336-649: The 5th century onward a wide circulation in Asia, and was accepted and honored by the whole diversity of sects of Syriac Christianity. It had a great missionary influence: the Armenian and Georgian versions, as well as the Arabic and the Persian, owe not a little to the Syriac. The Nestorian tablet of Chang'an shows the presence of the Syriac scriptures in China in the 8th century. The Peshitta

2409-513: The Egyptian, a Persian for the Persians, and so forth. In Europe, the popularity of the Alexander Romance resurged when Leo the Archpriest discovered a Greek copy in Constantinople while he was on a diplomatic missions. He produced a translation into Latin titled the Nativitas et historia Alexandri Magni regis , which became the basis of the far more successful and expanded version known as

2482-595: The Gospel according to the Hebrews and from the Syriac Gospel," means we should have a reference to a Syriac New Testament as early as 160–180 CE, the time of that Hebrew Christian writer. The translation of the New Testament has been admired by Syriac scholars, who have deemed it "careful, faithful, and literal" with it sometimes being referred to as the "Queen of the versions". The standard United Bible Societies 1905 edition of

2555-555: The Huns break through the gates is linked to the invasion of the Sabir people in 515 AD as Syriac texts would use the Seleucid calendrical system which began in 1 October, 312 BCE; by subtracting 311 or 312, a date of 514/5 is arrived at, representing a vaticinium ex eventu . A second prophecy of an incursion appears for 940 SE, pinpointing to 628/9 AD and corresponds with the invasion of Armenia by

2628-456: The Islamicized regions of Asia and Africa, from Mali to Malaysia . Some of the more notable translations were made into Coptic , Ge'ez , Middle Persian , Byzantine Greek , Arabic , Persian , Armenian , Syriac , and Hebrew . Owing to the great variety of distinct works derived from the original Greek romance, the "Alexander romance" is sometimes treated as a literary genre , instead of

2701-448: The Legend. The first is during a prayer by Alexander's: King Alexander bowed, and worshipping said: “Oh God, master of kings and judges, you who raise up kings and dismiss their power, I perceive with my mind that you made me great among all kings, and that you caused horns to grow on my head, so that I may gore with them the kingdoms of the world. Give me the power from the heavens of your sanctity so that I may receive strength greater than

2774-510: The New Testament of the Peshitta was based on editions prepared by Syriacists Philip E. Pusey (d. 1880), George Gwilliam (d. 1914) and John Gwyn . These editions comprised Gwilliam & Pusey's 1901 critical edition of the gospels, Gwilliam's critical edition of Acts , Gwilliam & Pinkerton's critical edition of Paul's Epistles and John Gwynn's critical edition of the General Epistles and later Revelation. This critical Peshitta text

2847-457: The Persians. He marries Roxane, the daughter of Darius, and writes letters to Olympias describing all he saw and his adventures during his conquests, including his wandering through the Land of Darkness , search for the Water of Life , and more. Next, he proceeds to conquer India from which he writes letters to Aristotle, though he also receives an omen about his coming death in this time. He visits

2920-561: The Romance in a European vernacular. It includes episodes such as Alexander's visit to Jerusalem, talking trees, encounters with Dindimus, and more. Two sources the author identified for his work were Orosius and Josephus . An Ethiopic version of the Alexander Romance was first composed in the Geʽez language between the 14th and 16th centuries was produced as a translation of an intermediary 9th-century Arabic text of what ultimately goes back to

2993-429: The Syriac recension. The Ethiopic version also integrates motifs from the Syriac Alexander Legend within the Romance narrative. There are seven known Ethiopian Alexander Romances: There are three or four medieval Hebrew versions of the Alexander Romance : There are four texts in the tradition of the Alexander Romance in Syriac, and they have been often mistaken with one another. All four were translated in

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3066-609: The Turkic Khazars (not to be confused with a reference to the Turks which may not occur in this type of literature until the ninth century), although this may have been an interpolation that was made into the text during the reign of Heraclius to update the narrative for a contemporary political situation. The description of the Gates of Alexander in the Syriac Alexander Legend influenced most subsequent Syriac literature describing these events. The horns of Alexander are described twice in

3139-547: The chronicler of David the Builder and by a Mongolian -era Georgian chronicler. Legends of Alexander would continue to influence varieties of Georgian literature from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Later, in the eighteenth century, the 18th-century king Archil of Imereti would produce a translation of a Serbian or Russian Alexander Romance into Georgian, and this one has survived. Peshitta The Peshitta ( Classical Syriac : ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ or ܦܫܝܼܛܬܵܐ pšīṭta )

3212-499: The contents of the legend likely circulated orally for several decades prior to its being placed into a written form. The plot of the Legend can be divided into three main sections: The late antique Christian Syriac Alexander Legend transformed the Gates of Alexander into an apocalyptic barrier built by Alexander in the Caucasus to keep out the nations of Gog and Magog . This development

3285-643: The converted Jew whose scholarship was so valuable to the English reformers and divines, made use of it, and in 1569 issued a Syriac New Testament in Hebrew script. In 1645, the editio princeps of the Old Testament was published by Gabriel Sionita for the Paris Polyglot , and in 1657 the whole Peshitta was included in Walton's London Polyglot . An edition of the Peshitta was that of John Leusden and Karl Schaaf, and it

3358-399: The early-to-mid-6th century CE (perhaps during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I ), and that the second and later prophecy was a hastily made interpolation in the text in the context of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , potentially to propagandistically reignite its utility for the current war situation. Aside from the written date of the text, others have also argued that

3431-423: The first six chapters of Book II. However, it contains the end of Book II, which is missing from α. A combination of α and some material from β was used to create the ε recension in the 8th century. Furthermore, the β and ε recensions were combined to generate the much larger γ recension later still. There are several Old and Middle French and one Anglo-Norman Alexander romances. The following list of works

3504-419: The first work to connect the Gates of Alexander with the idea that Gog and Magog are destined to play a role in the apocalypse. In the Legend, Gog ( Syriac : ܓܘܓ , gwg) and Magog ( Syriac : ܡܓܘܓ ܵ, mgwg) appear as kings of Hunnish nations. The Legend claims that Alexander carved prophecies on the face of the Gate, marking a date for when these Huns, consisting of 24 nations, will breach the Gate and subjugate

3577-454: The greater part of the world. The Gog and Magog material, which passed into a lost Arabic version, and the Ethiopic and later Oriental versions of the Alexander Romance . It has also been found to closely resemble the story of Dhu al-Qarnayn in the Quran (see: Alexander the Great in the Quran ). The Pseudo-Methodius , written originally in Syriac, is considered the source of the Gog and Magog tale incorporated into Western versions of

3650-432: The horned motif, representing the horns of Zeus Ammon to visualize Alexander stems from much earlier, originally in coinage depicting Alexander by his immediate successors Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt and more prominently the king of Thrace Lysimachus were the earliest produce coinage of Alexander with the rams horns. The motif would be carried over into later Alexander legends, such as the Armenian translation of α and

3723-404: The kingdoms of the world, and I will humiliate them and glorify your name forever, oh Lord! The second reference occurs towards the end of the text as God speaks to Alexander and tells him that he gave him two horns to use them as a weapon against other worldly kingdoms: I made you great among all kings, and I caused horns of iron to grow on your head, so that you may gore with them the kingdoms of

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3796-492: The major languages of Europe as versions of the Alexander romance became the most popular form of medieval European literature after the Bible , such as Old French (12th century), Middle Scots ( The Buik of Alexander , 13th century), Italian , Spanish (the Libro de Alexandre ), Central German ( Lamprecht 's Alexanderlied , and a 15th-century version by Johannes Hartlieb ), Slavonic , Romanian , Hungarian , Irish, and more. The Syriac Alexander Romance ,

3869-408: The most important Syriac translation of the Greek Romance , as well as the much shorter and abridged version known in the Syriac Alexander Legend , composed either in ~630 shortly after Heraclius defeated the Persians or in the mid-6th century during the reign of Justinian I , contains additional motifs not found in the earliest Greek version of the Romance , including the apocalypticization of

3942-446: The much earlier Latin translation by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius , the Zacher Epitome , achieved some popularity. In addition, in 781, Alcuin sent Charlemagne a copy of a text known as Alexander and Dindimus King of the Brahmans . The principal manuscript of Beowulf also contains a translation of Alexander's letter to Aristotle. Translations from Leo's Latin version and its recension would subsequently be made into all

4015-551: The pass is rather wide, but Alexander's prayers to God causes the mountains to draw nearer, thus narrowing the pass. There he builds the Caspian Gates out of bronze, coating them with fast-sticking oil. The gates enclosed twenty-two nations and their monarchs, including Gog and Magog (therein called "Goth and Magoth"). The geographic location of these mountains is rather vague, described as a 50-day march away northwards after Alexander put to flight his Belsyrian enemies (the Bebrykes , of Bithynia in modern-day North Turkey ). In

4088-404: The plunder of peoples and countries. Alexander commanded that the gate should be constructed out of iron and bronze, for which he recruited three thousand blacksmiths to work the latter and three thousand other men for the former. However, it was believed that the barbarian tribes would break through during the apocalypse. The dimensions and features of the gate are described in detail, and Alexander

4161-415: The recensions (including in Greek) of the Romance can be considered canonical. Furthermore, translations were not merely so but were also typically variant versions of the text. The legendary Alexander was also widely assimilated into the religion and culture of those who wrote about him: in Christian legends, Alexander became a Christian; in Islamic legends, Alexander became a Muslim; he was an Egyptian for

4234-587: The same 1889 volume by E. A. Wallis Budge , though some of them have appeared in newer editions since then. A Coptic translation of the Romance from the Greek was already being revised in the sixth century. A fragmentary manuscript, originally 220 pages long, in the Sahidic dialect was discovered in the White Monastery . It draws on older Demotic Egyptian traditions, which existed in written form perhaps as early as 275 BC. It has been edited and published by Oscar von Lemm. Several fragments of it have been collected and translated. Though Georgian versions of

4307-451: The similarities and downplays the differences. She argues that a direct relation between the two traditions has been assumed but not yet established. In turn, Tesei has argued that the narrative differences are minor compared to the coherence between the texts, and that a direct relationship is bolstered by the presence of many elements unique to the Legend in the account of Dhu al-Qarnayn. Alexander Romance The Alexander Romance

4380-402: The temples of the sun and moon, and makes the Amazons his subjects. During his return, as he reaches Babylonia , he meets the son of Antipater (the figure ruling Macedonia in Alexander's stead during the journeys of the latter) who was sent to poison Alexander. The conspiracy succeeds, and Alexander begins to die, though he names the rulers who will control the provinces of his empire after he

4453-409: The term Romance refers not to the meaning of the word in modern times but in the Old French sense of a novel or roman , a "lengthy prose narrative of a complex and fictional character" (although Alexander's historicity did not deter ancient authors from using this term). It was widely copied and translated, accruing various legends and fantastical elements at different stages. The original version

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4526-404: The two, but Nectanebo allays Philip's suspicions by sending a magic sea-hawk to him in a dream. Alexander is born from this pregnancy, but while he is growing up he kills Nectanebo, who reveals Alexander's paternity as he dies. Alexander begins to be educated by Aristotle and competes in the Olympics . After Philip dies, Alexander begins his campaigns into Asia, although the story is written in

4599-486: The use of Greek-language Egyptian sources underlying traditions about the pharaohs Nectanebo II and Sesostris . By contrast, oral tradition did not play an important role. A strikingly close parallel to Alexander's relentless quest, though one limited by the constraints of human and mortal existence, is in the Epic of Gilgamesh . The first commentary to the Romance was a German work titled Der griechische Alexanderroman , published by Adolf Ausfeld in 1907. In 2017,

4672-413: The wall built against Gog and Magog . Subsequent Middle Eastern recensions of the Alexander legend were generated following the Syriac traditions, including versions in Arabic , Persian ( Iskandarnameh ), Ethiopic , Hebrew (in the first part of Sefer HaAggadah ), Ottoman Turkish (14th century), and Middle Mongolian (13th-14th century). Knowledge of Romance tradition entered Chinese texts by

4745-405: The world. The two-horned imagery of the Syriac Alexander Legend draws together elements from the Peshitta of 1 Kings 22:11/2 Chronicles 18:10, Micah 4:13, and the two-horned ram in Daniel 8. In particular, the term used in the Legend for two horns, qrntʾ , is likely to be inspired by the appearance of qrntʾ in the Peshitta (standard Syriac translation) of Daniel 8:3. The Legend is considered

4818-406: The α recension of the Alexander Romance , Alexander's father is an Egyptian priest named Nectanebo who sports a set of ram horns. After his death, Alexander is described as " the horned king " (βασιλέα κερασφόρον) by an oracle instructing Ptolemy, a general of Alexander, on where to bury him. This statement was repeated in the Armenian recension of the Alexander Romance in the 5th century. The use of

4891-404: Was compiled in 1708–1709. The old consensus, since Theodor Nöldeke , placed the provenance of the Syriac Alexander Legend in north Mesopotamia in around 629–630 CE, shortly after Heraclius defeated the Sasanians . In recent years, many historians have conducted a reappraisal of the date of the text. The basis of the original dating has been a vaticinium ex eventu prophecy, whose termination

4964-513: Was composed in Ancient Greek some time before 338 AD, when a Latin translation was made, although the exact date is unknown. Some manuscripts pseudonymously attribute the texts authorship to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes , and so the author is commonly called Pseudo-Callisthenes. In premodern times, the Alexander Romance underwent more than 100 translations, elaborations, and derivations in dozens of languages, including almost all European vernaculars as well as in every language from

5037-476: Was first brought to Europe by Moses of Mardin , a noted Syrian ecclesiastic who unsuccessfully sought a patron for the work of printing it in Rome and Venice. However, he was successful in finding such a patron in the Imperial Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire at Vienna in 1555—Albert Widmanstadt. He undertook the printing of the New Testament, and the emperor bore the cost of the special types which had to be cast for its issue in Syriac. Immanuel Tremellius ,

5110-430: Was inspired by some elements of the historical context of the time, including dread of the northern hordes, a variety of Persian fortifications meant to seal off the movement of steppe nomads, and eschatological thinking and attitudes of the time. At its outset, the Syriac Alexander Legend (otherwise known as the Neshana ) records Alexander constructing a wall of iron to prevent an invasion of the Huns that would result in

5183-418: Was placed around the year 630. One reanalysis of the internal chronology of the text has placed the termination of this prophecy instead in 614. A more common approach in recent years has been to re-emphasize a second, earlier vaticinium ex eventu prophecy which describes an event that occurred in 514/5. Several scholars have since argued that the text was originally composed in the aftermath of this event, from

5256-455: Was produced by Franco in 2001. In 2010, a Polish translation was published by Krzysztof Nawotka. In 2007, Richard Stoneman published an Italian edition of the Romance in three volumes, titled Il Romanzo di Alessandro . Throughout classical antiquity and the Middle Ages , the Romance experienced numerous expansions and revisions exhibiting a variability unknown for more formal literary forms. Distinctively, and unlike other texts, none of

5329-458: Was said to have placed an inscription on it which reads "The Huns will come forth and subdue the countries of the Romans and Persians; they will shoot arrows with armagest and will return and enter their country. Moreover, I wrote that (at) the end of eight hundred and twenty six years, the Huns would come forth by the narrow road..." (the inscription goes on for several more pages). This prophecy whereby

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