Melkarth, whose city had been thus depopulated, was then honoured with a splendid sacrifice. All the soldiers, in full armour17, marched round the temple; games, including a torch race, were held in the precincts; while the battering-ram that had made the first breach in the wall, and the galley[215] that had first broken the boom guarding the harbour, were deposited within the temple itself.
“And now,” said the king, at the banquet with which the great festival of Melkarth was concluded, “we will settle with that insolent18 priest who would not help us against these Tyrian rebels.”
“Sir,” said Hephaestion, “it is said that the god whom these Hebrews worship is mighty19.” And he went on to relate some of the marvels20 of Jewish history of which he had lately been hearing.
The king, who had something of a Roman’s respect for foreign religions, listened with attention. “Have you heard anything of this kind?” he went on, addressing Charidemus. “Did your friend Manasseh tell you anything like this?”
Charidemus, as it happened, had been greatly impressed by his conversations with the Jew. The story of the end of Belshazzar, and of the mysterious hand that came out upon the palace wall, as the impious king sat with his nobles, drinking out of the sacred vessels21 of the temple, and that wrote his doom22 in letters of fire, had particularly struck him, and he now repeated it. Alexander heard it in silence, sternly checking some scoff23 on which one of his younger courtiers ventured when it was finished.
His resolve, however, to visit the seat of this formidable Deity24 was strengthened rather than weakened; and on the following day he set out with a select body of troops and a numerous retinue25 of[216] native princes, leaving the main body of the army in charge of Parmenio, to follow the road which led to Egypt—which country he proposed next to deal with—over the Maritime26 Plain of Palestine. The distance between Tyre and Jerusalem was somewhat under a hundred miles, and was traversed in about six days. It was the evening of the seventh when he reached the hill-top, now known by the name of Scopus, or the Outlook, which is the northern spur of the ridge27 of Olivet. Fronting him stood the Hill of Sion, crowned with the Temple buildings, not yet, indeed, grown to the majestic28 strength which they attained29 in later days, but still not wanting in impressiveness and dignity. Below were the walls, now restored to their old strength, which had withstood more than one conqueror31 in his march, and the city, which, during more than a century of prosperity and peace, had more than repaired the desolation of the last siege. Just then it was made singularly picturesque32 by the greenery of the booths of branches, under the shade of which the people were keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, and which crowded every open space in the city.
But the attention of the visitors was arrested by a remarkable33 procession that met them as they reached the crest34 of the hill. At the head of it walked the High Priest, in all the magnificence of his robes of office. He wore a long garment or tunic35 of blue, made of the finest linen36, that reached to[217] below his knees. Below this were drawers of white linen, while the feet were protected by sandals. The upper part of his person was covered by the vestment known as the ephod, the tunic above described being “the robe of the ephod.” The ephod was a mixture of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet37, and was richly embroidered38. On each shoulder was a large onyx, while the breast was covered with the splendid “Breastplate of Judgment39,” with its twelve precious stones, and round the waist was the “girdle dyed of many hues40 with gold interwoven with it.” Round the bottom of the robe of the ephod were pomegranates wrought41 in blue, purple, and scarlet, and golden bells. Behind this gorgeous figure came the priests in their robes of spotless white, and behind these again a crowd of citizens in holiday attire42.
The king stepped out from the ranks, and saluted43 the High Priest. So full of respect was his gesture that his attendants expressed, or at least looked, their surprise.
“I adore,” said the king, “not the priest, but the God whom he serves. And this very man, clothed in these very robes, I now remember myself to have seen in a dream before I crossed into Asia. I had been considering with myself how I might best win the dominion44 over these lands, and he exhorted45 me boldly to cross over, for he would himself conduct my army and give me his blessing46. Seeing him therefore this day I both thank the God whose[218] servant he is for that which I have already attained, and beseech47 Him that I may attain30 yet more, even the fulfilment of all that is in my heart.”
A solemn entry into the Temple, a sacrifice conducted by the king according to the High Priest’s directions, and the offering of some splendid gifts to the treasury48 followed, and the king did not fail to enforce his compliments by conferring on his new subjects substantial privileges. The Jews were henceforth to live under their own laws; every seventh year, as they reaped no harvests, they were to pay no tribute; the same immunity49 was to be extended to all of Jewish race that might be found within the borders of the Persian kingdom. The High Priest, on the other hand, engaged to furnish a contingent50 from his nation for the Macedonian army. He only stipulated51, and the king readily agreed, that the recruits should not be required to do anything that might be at variance52 with the law which they were bound to observe.
These matters concluded, Charidemus was summoned to the royal presence.
“Are you bent,” asked the king, “on going with me into Egypt?”
“To tell you the truth, my lord,” answered the young man, “I had not thought of it one way or the other.”
“Well,” said Alexander, “I have something for you to do here. First, you will take charge of the[219] queen, who does not wish to travel just now. Then I want you to recruit and drill some of these sturdy Jews for me. They look like fine stuff for soldiers; and, if they are anything like their fathers, they should fight well. The High Priest thinks that you will do best in the Galilee country, where the people are not quite so stiff about their law. But you can settle these matters with Hephaestion, who knows my mind.”
Queen Barsiné, who was expecting shortly to become a mother, had made interest with the king to have the young Macedonian put in charge of her establishment, partly because she had great confidence in him, partly because she had a kindly53 interest in his attachment54 to her niece, a feeling which, of course, had not escaped her quick woman’s eyes.
The eight months that followed were, perhaps, the happiest that our hero ever enjoyed. A little walled town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee had been chosen for Barsiné’s residence during her husband’s absence in Egypt, and Charidemus was appointed its governor. He was in command of a garrison of some hundred and fifty men, and had a couple of light galleys at his disposal. His duties were of the lightest. Two or three veterans, who had grown a little too old to carry the pike, drilled under his superintendence a couple of thousand sturdy Galil?an peasants, who had eagerly answered[220] the summons to enlist55 under the great conqueror’s banners. This work finished, he had the rest of his time at his own disposal. The more of it he could contrive56 to spend with Clearista, the happier of course he was. As long as the summer lasted, and, indeed, far into the autumn, there were frequent excursions on the lake, Clearista being accompanied by her gouvernante, the daughter of a Laconian farmer, who had been with her from her infancy57. The waters then as now abounded58 with fish, and Charidemus was delighted to teach his fair companion some of the secrets of the angler’s craft. As the year advanced there was plenty of game to be found in the forests of the eastern shore. The young Macedonian was a skilful59 archer60, and could bring down a running deer without risk of injuring the choice portions of the flesh by an ill-aimed shaft61. He found a keener delight in pursuing the fiercer creatures that haunted the oak glades62 of Bashan, and many were the trophies63, won from wild boar and wolf and bear, that, to the mingled64 terror and delight of Clearista, he used to bring back from his hunting excursions. Nor were books wholly forgotten. Charidemus had always had some of a student’s taste, and Barsiné had imparted to her niece some of her own love of culture. The young soldier even began—so potent65 an inspirer is love—to have literary ambitions. He wrote, but was too shy to exhibit, poems about his lady’s virtues66 and[221] beauty. He even conceived a scheme of celebrating the victories of Alexander in an heroic poem, and carried it out to the extent of composing some five or six hundred hexameters which he read to the admiring Clearista. Unfortunately they have been lost along with other treasures of antiquity67, and I am unable to give my readers a specimen68.
Hunting.
Meanwhile little or nothing in which he would have cared to have a part had been happening elsewhere. Alexander’s march through Egypt was not a campaign, but a triumphal procession. The Persian satrap had made no attempt at resistance, and the population gladly welcomed their new masters. They hated the Persians, who scorned and insulted their religion, and eagerly turned to the more tolerant Greek. So the country was annexed69 without a blow being struck. Grand functions of sacrifice, in which Alexander was careful to do especial honour to Egyptian deities70, with splendid receptions and banquets, fully71 occupied the time; and then there was the more useful labour of beginning a work which has been the most permanent monument of the conqueror’s greatness, the foundation of the city of Alexandria. Charondas, who was attached to the king’s personal suite72, kept his friend informed of events by letters which reached him with fair regularity73. I shall give an extract from one of these because it records the most important incident of the sojourn74 in Egypt.
[222]
“Charondas to Charidemus, greeting.
“I have just returned safe—thanks to the gods—from a journey which I thought more than once likely to be my last. Know that the king conceived a desire to visit the Temple of Zeus Ammon, where there is an oracle75 famous for being the most truth-speaking in the world. Not even the Pythia at Delphi—so it is said—more clearly foresees the future, and a more important matter, it must be confessed, more plainly expounds76 what she foresees. The king took with him some five thousand men, many more, in my judgment, than it was expedient77 to take, seeing that the enemy most to be dreaded78 in such an expedition, to wit, thirst, is one more easily to be encountered by a few than by a multitude. At the first we marched westwards, keeping close to the sea, through a region that is desolate79 indeed, and void of inhabitants, but rather because it has been neglected by men than because it refuses to receive them. There are streams, some of which, it is said, do not fail even when the summer is hottest, and in some places grass, and in many shrubs80. Thus we journeyed without difficulty for a distance of about 1,600 stadia.[56] Then we turned southward; and here began our difficulties and dangers. The difficulty always is to find the right way, for such a track as there is will often be altogether hidden in a very short space of time; and so it was with us. The[223] danger is lest the traveller, so wandering from the way, should perish of hunger and thirst, for it is not possible that he should carry much provision with him. How, then, you will ask, did we escape? Truly I cannot answer except by saying that it was through the good fortune of Alexander, not without the intervention81 of some Divine power. Many marvellous things were told me about the means by which we were guided on our way. Some averred82 that two serpents, of monstrous83 size, went before the army, uttering cries not unlike to human speech. Of these I can only aver15 that I neither saw nor heard them, and that I have had no speech with any that did see or hear, although not a few have borne witness to them second-hand84, affirming that they had heard the story from those that had been eyewitnesses85. The same I am constrained86 to say concerning the ravens87 which some declared to have been guides to the army. I saw them not, nor know any that did see them. But I had some converse88 with a native of these parts who was hired to be our guide. This man, I found, trusted neither to serpents, whether dumb or not, nor to ravens, but to the stars. And I noticed that he was much perplexed89 and troubled by what seemed a matter of rejoicing to the rest of us, namely, that the sky became overcast90 with clouds. We were rejoiced by the rain which assured us that we should not perish of thirst; but he complained that his guides were taken from him.[224] Nevertheless, as the clouds were sometimes broken, he was not wholly deprived of the help in which he trusted.
“Let it suffice, then, to say that we got safely to our journey’s end, not without assistance from the gods. No more beautiful place have I seen, though doubtless my pleasure in seeing it was the greater by reason of the desolation of the region through which we had passed. It is, as it were, an island in the sand, nowhere more than forty stadia across, covered with olives and palms, and watered by a spring, the marvels of which, unlike the serpents and the ravens, I can affirm of my own knowledge. That it is coldest at noonday and hottest at midnight, I have myself found by touching91 it. Or was this, you will perhaps say, by contrast only, because my own body was subject to exactly the opposite disposition92? It may be so; nevertheless in such matters common tradition and belief are not wholly without value.
“You will ask, What said the Oracle? To the king it said that without doubt he was the son of Ammon; to others that they would do well, if they reverenced93 him as being such. Whether more be intended by this than what Homer says of Achilles and other great heroes that they were Zeus-descended I cannot say. Many take it to be so, and some are not a little displeased94. Last night I heard two soldiers talking together on this matter. ‘Comrade,’ said one to the other, ‘if I had King Philip[225] for my father, I should be content, nor seek another,’ ‘Aye,’ returned the other, ‘thou sayest true. If Alexander be the chicken, truly Philip was the egg.’ ‘But now,’ the first speaker went on, ‘but now they say that the king’s father was this Ammon. Didst ever see such a god? It is like a Pan with the goat-part uppermost. And who ever heard talk of a hero that had Pan for his father? Nay95, nay, I would liefer have a plain honest Macedonian for my father, so he had head and legs like a man, than all the Ammons in the world.’ So many talk in the camp, though there are some who are ready to say and do anything that may bring advancement96. But these are dangerous matters to trust even to paper. We will talk of them, if need be, when we meet. Till then, farewell!”
AMMON.
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1
mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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javelin
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| n.标枪，投枪 | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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aver
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| v.极力声明；断言；确证 | |
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galleys
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| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
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armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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scoff
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| n.嘲笑，笑柄，愚弄；v.嘲笑，嘲弄，愚弄，狼吞虎咽 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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maritime
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| adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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exhorted
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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51
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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53
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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58
abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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annexed
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| [法] 附加的，附属的 | |
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deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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73
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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expounds
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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79
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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80
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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81
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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82
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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83
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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84
second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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85
eyewitnesses
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| 目击者( eyewitness的名词复数 ) | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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overcast
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| adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天 | |
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91
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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92
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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reverenced
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| v.尊敬，崇敬( reverence的过去式和过去分词 )；敬礼 | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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95
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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96
advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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