273 



A brief notice of some of the 



Such are the statements of the Persian writers. We will now turn 

 to those of the Greeks, by many of whom Alexander is said to have 

 been the offspring of Olympiabyan enormous dragon, while others 

 give out that he was her son by Jupiter. M. Visdelon informs us, on 

 what authority I know not, that he was the son of this lady by a Persi- 

 an Magi named Nestabdnus. " Ce qui peut etre vrai en cela, est que 

 suivant le rapport de quel que Historien Grec, Nestabdnus, Persan de 

 nation, et Mage de Religion, vit Olympius. Ce seigneur l'etoit venu 

 trouver, la foudre a la main, et dans tout l'equipage de Jupiter ; soit 

 que ce fut une veritable fraude, ou une pure collusion de la Dame. Se 

 meme auteur ajoiite qu Olympius avoua la chose a Philippe." It is 

 well known that Alexander himself instigated by personal vanity, or 

 rather perhaps for political purposes, encouraged the report, spread 

 abroad by flatterers, of his divine origin. After the conquest of 

 Darius, he caused himself to be worshipped as a god and led his army 

 over the scorching sands of Lybia, to the oracular temple of Jupiter 

 Amnion, there to be saluted by its sycophantic priests as the son of 

 Jupiter. 



These statements it will be allowed are equally contradictory with 

 those of Persia. Mr. Ousely in a note to his Epitome of the Ancient 

 History of Persia (p. 26) remarks, " It is not surprising that the 

 Persian traditions on the life of Alexander should be vague and discor- 

 dant, since the Greek historians acknowledge the obscurity of this sub- 

 ject." " Of Alexander" (says Arrian, Proem :) " various persons have 

 recorded various things ; nor is there any one of whose history there 

 have been more writers, or writers more disagreeing one with another." 



The opinion of Nizami, from whatever source derived, and of those 

 Grecian authors who suppose Alexander to be the son of Philip by 

 Olympia, appears to have the best foundation. For it would be ab- 

 surd to imagine that Philip would prefer a nameless foundling to his 

 own offspring, or that the Macedonians would accept him rather than 

 a prince of the blood royal as their sovereign. 



The early Persian historians, who inform us that Alexander was the 

 son of Darius, were, no doubt, influenced to do this both by a feeling of 

 national vanity which would not allow of their admitting the subjection 

 of the great Persian empire by a foreign prince, and through a desire 

 of ranking among their own hereditary sovereigns, a monarch whose 



