It was indeed rather as a Deliverer than as a Conqueror that Alexander was received by the inhabitants of Babylon. The Persians had never been more than a garrison4, and had made themselves as hated there as they had elsewhere. Hence it was with genuine delight that the population flocked out to meet their new master. Sacrifices over which the priests prayed for his welfare were offered on altars built by the wayside, and enthusiastic crowds spread flowers under his feet.
Among those who came out to pay their respects to the king was a deputation from the great Jewish colony which had long existed in the city, and which, indeed, continued to inhabit it, till almost the day of its final abandonment. Alexander greeted them with especial kindness, and promised that they should have his favour and protection. Charidemus had been furnished by Manasseh of Damascus with a general letter of introduction to the heads of the dispersed5 Hebrew communities. This he lost no time in presenting, and he found that he had made a most interesting acquaintance.
Eleazar of Babylon was indeed a remarkable6 personage. His family, which was distantly connected[253] with the royal house of David, had been settled in the city for more than two centuries, tracing itself back to a certain Gemariah who had been one of the notables removed from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the first Captivity7.[65] He was now in extreme old age, having completed his ninety-second year, and he had for some time ceased to leave his apartments. But his intellectual faculties8 retained their full vigour9. He still held the chief control of a vast business which had grown up under his care. The Jews had already begun to show their genius for finance, and Eleazar surpassed predecessors10 and contemporaries in the boldness and skill of his combinations. The Persian kings were far too wealthy to need the help which modern rulers are often glad to get from bankers and capitalists; but their subjects of every rank often stood in want of it. A satrap, about to start for his province, would require a loan for his outfit11, and would be able to repay it, with liberal interest, if he could hold power for a year. A courtier, anxious to make a present to some queen of the hareem, a merchant buying goods which he would sell at more than cent. per cent. profit to the tribes of the remote east; in fact, every one who wanted money either for business or for pleasure was sure to find it, if only he had security to offer, with Eleazar of Babylon, or with one of his correspondents.[254] The old man had able agents and lieutenants12, but no single transaction was completed without his final approval. Even the little that Charidemus and his friend could see, as outsiders, of the magnitude of his affairs, struck them with wonder. Greek commerce was but a petty affair compared to a system which seemed to take in the whole world. But there was something in Eleazar far more interesting than any distinction which he might have as the head of a great mercantile house. He was, so to speak, a mine of notable memories, both national and personal.
Among the worthies13 with whom his family claimed relationship was the remarkable man who had held high office under three successive dynasties of Babylonian rulers—Nebuchadnezzar, the conqueror of Jerusalem; Astyages[66] the Mede; and Cyrus the Persian. One of Eleazar’s most precious possessions was a book of manuscript, written, it was believed, by the great statesman’s own hand, which recorded the story of himself and his companions. Eleazar, when he found that his young guests were something better than mere14 soldiers of fortune, thinking of nothing but fighting and prize money, and had a sympathic interest in great deeds and great men, would read from this precious volume its stirring stories of[255] heroism15, translating them as he went on from the original Hebrew or Aramaic into Greek, a language which he spoke16 with ease and correctness. The narrative17 stirred the two friends to an extraordinary degree, and indeed may be said to have influenced their whole lives. They admired the temperate18 self-restraint of the young captives who preferred their pulse and water to the dainties from the royal tables, sumptuous19 but unclean, which their keepers would have forced upon them.
“Why,” cried Charondas, when the story was finished, “the young fellows might have won a prize at Olympia. ’Tis in the training, I believe, that more than half of the men break down.”
The young man blushed hot as soon as the words had escaped him. It was, he remembered, a painful subject, and he could have bitten his tongue out in his self-reproach for mentioning it. The smile on Charidemus’s face soon reassured20 him. Larger interests and hopes had made the young Macedonian entirely21 forget what he had once considered to be an unpardonable and irremediable wrong.
With still more profound interest did the friends listen to the tale of how the dauntless three chose rather to be thrust into the burning fiery22 furnace than to bow down to the golden image which the king had set up.
“Marked you that?” cried Charidemus to his friend, when the reader, to whom they had listened[256] with breathless eagerness, brought the narrative to an end; “Marked you that? If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods. How splendid! If not—I can understand a man walking up to what looks like certain death, if he feels quite sure that Apollo, or Poseidon, or Aphrodité, is going to carry him off in a cloud; and I can understand—for of course we see it every day—a man taking his life in his hand, from duty, or for a prize, or, it may be, from sheer liking23 for danger; but this passes my comprehension. Just to bow down to an image, which every one else is doing, and they won’t do it. Their God, they feel sure, will save them; but in any case they will stand firm. Yes, that if not is one of the grandest things I ever heard.”
Old Eleazar heard with delight the young man’s enthusiastic words. He had no passion for making proselytes, and, indeed, believed that they were best made without direct effort; but he could not help saying, “Ah! my young friends, is not that a God worth serving? It is something to be sure as these Three were sure, that He will save you; but it is still more to feel, that whether He save you or no, anything is better than to do Him any wrong.”
Eleazar had also recollections of his own which keenly interested the young men.
[257]
“Your king’s success,” he said one day, “has not surprised me. In fact, I have been expecting it for these last sixty years and more. When I was a young man I saw something of events of which, of course, you have heard, when the younger Cyrus brought up some ten thousand of your soldiers to help him in pulling down his brother from the Persian throne, and setting himself upon it. Mind you, I never loved the young prince; if he had got his way, no one but himself and his soldiers would have been a whit24 better for it. Indeed, I did all that I could to help the king against him. We Jews have a good deal to say to the making of war, even when we don’t carry swords ourselves; gold and silver, you may easily understand, are often far more powerful than steel. Well; I was present at the battle, and though I did not wish well to your countrymen’s purpose, I could not help seeing how very near they came to accomplishing it. I saw the pick of the Persian army fly absolutely without striking a blow when the Greek phalanx charged it. Nor could there have been a shadow of doubt that what the Greeks did with the left of the king’s army they would have done with his centre and his right, if they only had had the chance. It was only the foolish fury of the young prince that saved the king. If Cyrus had only kept his head, the day was his. Well, what I saw then, and what I heard afterwards of the marvellous way in which these men, without a general,[258] and almost without stores, made their way home, convinced me that what has happened now was only a matter of time. For sixty years or more, I say, I have been waiting for it to come to pass. Time after time it seemed likely; but something always hindered it. The right man never came, or if he came, some accident cut him off just as he was setting to work. But now he has come, and the work is done.”
In the Gardens of Babylon.
The friends spent with their venerable host all the time that was not required for their military duties; and these, indeed, were of the very slightest kind. The fact was that his society was very much more to their taste than that of their comrades. Alexander’s army had been campaigning for more than three years with very little change or relaxation25. If they were not actually engaged in some laborious26 service, they had some such services in near prospect27; and what time was given them for rest had to be strictly28 spent in preparation. Never, indeed, before, had the whole force been quartered in a city; and a month in Babylon, one of the most luxurious29 places in the world—not to use any worse epithet—was a curious change from the hardships of the bivouac and the battle-field. And then the soldiers found themselves in possession of an unusual sum of money. An enormous treasure had fallen into Alexander’s hand, and he had dispensed30 it with characteristic liberality, giving to each private soldier sums varying from thirty to ten pounds, according to the corps31 in which[259] he served, and to the officers in proportion. Such opportunities for revelry were not neglected, and the city presented a scene of license32 and uproar33 from which Charidemus and his friend were very glad to escape.
For Charondas the household of Eleazar possessed34 a particular attraction in the person of his great-grand-daughter Miriam. He had chanced, before his introduction to the family, to do the girl and her attendant the service of checking the unwelcome attentions of some half-tipsy soldiers. The young Miriam began by being grateful, and ended by feeling a warmer interest in her gallant35 and handsome protector. So the time passed only too quickly by. There was no need to go for exercise or recreation beyond the spacious36 pleasure grounds which were attached to Eleazar’s dwelling37. They included, indeed, part of the famous “hanging-garden” which the greatest of the Babylonian kings had constructed for his queen, to reproduce for her among the level plains of the Euphrates the wooded hills, her native Median uplands, over which she had once delighted to wander. The elaborate structure—terrace rising above terrace till they overtopped the city walls—had been permitted to fall into decay; but the wildness of the spot, left as it had been to nature, more than compensated38, to some tastes at least, the absence of more regular beauty. In another part of the garden was a small lake, supplied by a[260] canal which was connected with the Euphrates. This was a specially39 favoured resort of the young people. Water-lilies, white, yellow, and olive, half covered its surface with their gorgeous flowers; and its depths were tenanted by swarms40 of gold fish. A light shallop floated on its waters, and Miriam often watched with delight the speed with which the friends could propel it through the water, though she could never be induced to trust herself to it. Days so spent and evenings employed in the readings described above, and the talk which grew out of them, made a delightful41 change from the realities of campaigning, realities which, for all the excitements of danger and glory, were often prosaic42 and revolting.
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1
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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3
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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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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dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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6
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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7
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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8
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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10
predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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11
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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12
lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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13
worthies
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| 应得某事物( worthy的名词复数 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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14
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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15
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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18
temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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19
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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20
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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21
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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22
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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23
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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24
whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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25
relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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26
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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27
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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28
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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29
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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30
dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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31
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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32
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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33
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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34
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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35
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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36
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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37
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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38
compensated
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| 补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款） | |
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39
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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40
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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41
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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42
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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