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transmitted down to us of Darius by the Oriental and Greek histo- 

 rians have been already noticed ; and, in fact, they are so utterly 

 contradictory, that there is no possibility of reconciling them in the 

 character of one person. In such turbulent periods, and from people 

 so inveterately hostile to each other, the true portrait of neither the 

 conqueror nor the conquered can, perhaps, be drawn ; nor ought it 

 to be expected. If the Greeks have described the Persian monarch 

 in amiable characters, many of the Orientals, and, in particular, the 

 Indians and Persians, by tradition, depict Alexander in the most 

 odious colours ; representing him as divested of every great and 

 generous quality, and never naming him but as a " most mighty 

 robber and remorseless destroyer of the human race*. 



* Holwell's Interesting Historical Events, part ii. p. 4. Chardin's Voyages en Perse, 

 torn. ii. p. 185. Herbelot, article Escander and Dara. 



