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Volume of the MONTHLY 
and Seanisn LITERAT 
MONTE. 
EMMA AIIM SE ity ey. 
7? a % i ane 7 is fig My, 
bhfhed, the ‘SurPremMewr 
GAZINE, containing—A compreie 
of Bairvisa LiTERAT eh | grins thélaft fic Months-—and hg ; 
- 
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; with INDEXES, TITLE, 
A Sey, ' 
ry Numeer ¢o the Sixteenth 
epfive Retrofpeét of the Progress 
ar Retrofpel#s of FRENCH, 
AZINE. 
No. 111.1] 
Fepruary 1, 1804. 
[1, of Vousil7. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. © 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, . 
Few mornings ago I paid a vifit to 
the Britifh Mufeum, where, among 
other reliques of Egyptian grandeur, I faw 
the large Sarcophagus, now affirmed to 
be the aé?ual tomb of ALEXANDER THE 
Great. Whatever,valne it: might de- 
rive frova its beauty or antiquity, was, in 
my mind, fuperfeded.. by the reflection, 
that it had been once the Jittle tenement, 
where, by the viciffitude of human things, 
the bones of a conqueror had mouidered 
in filence.. Thofe remarkable. lines of 
Juvenal rufhed inftantly on my recollec- 
tion: 
** Unus PELLZO JUVENI men fafiicit orbis: 
fi tuat infelix angufto limite mundi, 
Uc Gyare claufus fcopulis, parvaque Seripho. 
Quum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit 
urbem, 
SARCOPHAGO contentus erit.? 
Yet the opinion, I thought, was not to 
be too haftily adopted; and I determined 
to confultevery authority within my reach, 
whether claflical or of a later era, that 
might tend to throw light upon {fo curious 
a fubject. 
ALEXANDER, itappears from Plutarch, 
had formed the defign of erecting a mo- 
nuinent for himfelf; he intended to ex- 
pend upon the workmanfhip ten thouland 
- talents, and had fixed upon Staficrates for 
his architect, whofe genius, we are told, 
promifed an happy boldnefs and grandeur 
in every thing he planned. But death 
¢hecked the conquefts and the pride of 
Alexander prematurely ; and for many 
days, while the generals were difputing, 
his body lay unzmbalmed-in a fultry 
- place. 
Aridzus, to whofe care the funeral was 
afterward intrufted, {pent two years in 
_ making preparations ; and Perdiccas, 
out of love to his native country, was 
defirous the body thould be fent to the 
royal fepulchres in Macedon ; ‘but Ari. 
. deus, pleading the King’s exprefs direc- 
tion, fucceeded in carrying it‘to Egypt. 
Diodorus Siculus (1, xviii. § 26.) reiates 
the funeral proceflion as it was conduéted 
from Babylon by Perdiccas, and received 
upon the borders of Syria by Piolomy 
MONTHLY Mac, No, ir, 
Lagus, in the third year of the 114th 
Olympiad ; whence the body was at firft 
intended to have been fent to the Temple 
of Ammon, in the Sands of Lybia, but 
was, at length, carried, by Ptolomy, to 
Alexandria, “¢ where he prepared a fhrine 
whofe magnitude as well as ftruéture was 
worthy the glory and the greatnef¥ of 
Alexander, in which it was depofited with 
unufual pomp.’’* ; 
That Ptolomy brought the body to 
Alexandria is undoubted; but there is 
one fact concerning it which is omitted 
by the earlier writers, and which we only 
afcertain from Quintus Curtius, that hav. 
ing received the body from  Perdiccas, 
Ptolomy firft condu&ted it to memPuis, 
whence, a few years afler, he tranflated it 
to Alexandria. : 
“« Ceterum corpus ejus a Ptolemzo, cui 
Egyptus ceflerat, MEMPHIM; ef inde 
paucis poft annis Alexandriam tranflatum 
eff: omuisque.memoriz ac nomini honos 
habetur.”’ (Lib. x. é.10.) 
If, as is univerfally acknowledged, 
Ptolomy built a magnificent temple folely 
for the reception of Alexander’s body, 
the filence of o:her writers, as to the reft- 
ing of his corpfe at Memphis; may be 
eafily reconciled. 
Ptolomy Lagus, it appears, had depo- 
fited the body of Alexander in a coffin of 
gold, but one of his fucceflors, Ptolomy 
Coccus, (or Cybiofactes, as he is more fre- 
quently called), carried it away, and left 
a glafs one in its room: for this we have 
the expre{s authority of Strabo, who fays 
To 0 caysa rou Ardsaydpou xoperrac, 6 Mrore- 
fectos exndevrev ev on Arcfavdrsia, ome wy Ele 
HEITOb? B pEY EY TH BUTN MUEAAwW* Darin yap 
" a ‘ ’ 
auTn, sxe:v9g Oe ev Yuen HaTEdnuey.  Eouhnce 
Saurny 6 Koxuns, d< “Haperantos emmancers 
Titonecaiog, ex 17 Zupias EMEAT HY; Hat EXTECW 
euSug acl’ avonta avtm Ta cura yever9at.. 
(Strabo, lib. xiii.) ~ 
This glafs coffin was remaining in the 
* Thefe are the words of Diodorus Siculus : 
ndlacnevecey ey Teuevos xara To eEyEOag Hat 
nara thy xedlacusuny tng AAsEaWpa Ioeng alior, 
ty undevong autoy, nat Surat neobHoss Kas 
ayWr mEvaromeenect TiyanrAs, Barna aVvteain 
FUY (AVON, ahAa Kat rapa Dewy nares amides 
chabey. Jib. xvili. §. 27, 
tomb 
