Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/300

278 Such are the statements of the Persian writers. We will now tarn to those of the Greeks, by many of whom Alexander is said to have been the offspring of Olympia by an 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 Persian Magi named Nestabánus. "Ce qui peut être vrai en cela, est que suivant le rapport de quelque Historien Grec, Nestabánus, Persan de nation, et Mage de Religion, vit Olympius. Ce seigneur l'etoit venu trouver, la foudre á la main, et dans tout l'equipage de Jupiter; soit que ce fut une veritable fraude, ou une pure collusion de la Dame. Se même auteur ajoûte qú Olympius avoua la chose á 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 Ammon, 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 discordant, since the Greek historians acknowledge the obscurity of this subject." "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 absurd 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