The Age of Alexander (Penguin Classics) by Plutarch

Author:Plutarch
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780141970387
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-02-29T16:00:00+00:00

Accordingly, Alexander rose and immediately visited Pharos: at that time it was still an island77 near the Canopic mouth of the Nile, but since then it has been joined to the mainland by a causeway. When he saw what wonderful natural advantages the place possessed – for it was a strip of land resembling a broad isthmus, which stretched between the sea and a great lagoon, with a spacious harbour at the end of it – he declared that Homer, besides his other admirable qualities, was also a very far-seeing architect, and he ordered the plan of the city to be designed so that it would conform to this site. There was no chalk to mark the ground plan, so they took barley meal, sprinkled it on the dark earth and marked out a semicircle, which was divided into equal segments by lines radiating from the inner arc to the circumference: the shape was similar to that of the chlamys, or military cloak, so that the lines proceeded, as it were, from the skirt, and narrowed the breadth of the area uniformly. While the king was enjoying the symmetry of the design, suddenly huge flocks of birds appeared from the river and the lagoon, descended upon the site and devoured every grain of the barley. Alexander was greatly disturbed by this omen, but the diviners urged him to take heart and interpreted the occurrence as a sign that the city would not only have abundant resources of its own but would be the nurse of men of innumerable nations, and so he ordered those in charge of the work to proceed while he himself set out to visit the temple of Ammon.78

This was a long and arduous journey, which was beset by two especial dangers. The first was the lack of water, of which there was none to be found along the route for many days’ march. The second arises if a strong south wind should overtake the traveller as he is crossing the vast expanse of deep, soft sand, as is said to have happened to the army of Cambyses79 long ago: the wind raised great billows of sand and blew them across the plain so that 50,000 men were swallowed up and perished. These dangers were present in the minds of almost everyone, but it was difficult to dissuade him from any course once he had set his heart on it. For Fortune, by giving way to his insistence, on every occasion had made his resolve unshakeable, and his passionate nature was carrying his ambition on and making it invincible against all obstacles, so that he was able to overcome not only his enemies but even places and seasons of the year.

27. At any rate, during this journey the examples of divine assistance which he met with in the midst of his difficulties were more readily believed than the oracles that followed; and in a way it was because of this assistance that the oracles were believed. First

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