The Historians' History of the World 04

It must be owned, that there are some points in these schemes which look suspicious, and which, even if they had crossed Alexander’s mind, we should not have expected he would have committed to writing. But the part relating to the temples can scarcely have been fabricated, and was probably contained in the instructions given to Craterus. The plan for an interchange of population between Europe and Asia is also quite conformable to the views which Alexander disclosed in his life-time. This however, and that of the expedition to Africa, could not any longer have entered into any one’s thoughts, and might have been silently dropped. But perhaps Perdiccas apprehended that the sums destined for the other objects might be demanded from him by his colleagues, and therefore deemed it advisable formally to annul the whole by the highest authority. That he forged the project of the expedition, to render the real contents of the papers the less acceptable to the Macedonians, seems a very improbable conjecture. All were laid before a military assembly, and rejected as impracticable or useless.

During the tumultuous scenes which followed Alexander’s death, his body had lain in the palace unburied. There are various reports as to the place selected for its interment. According to one, it was to have been transported to the sanctuary of Ammon. But the more probable is, that it was determined it should be deposited in the sepulchre of his ancestors at Ægæ. And Aristander the soothsayer is said to have declared that it had been revealed to him, the land where it rested was destined to be ever prosperous and secure from invasion: which however was no more than an ancient Greek superstition as to the virtue of a hero’s relics. Orders were now given to construct a funeral car worthy of these precious remains, and the general Arrhidæus was appointed to escort them towards the western coast.b

The description by Diodorus (XVIII, 3) of this funeral pomp is so gorgeous that as a farewell sunset of Alexander’s day it merits insertion here:a

ALEXANDER’S FUNERAL DESCRIBED BY DIODORUS

“First was provided a Coffin of beaten Gold, so wrought by the Hammer as to answer to the Proportion of the Body; it was half fill’d with Aromatick Spices, which serv’d as well to delight the Sense as to preserve the Body from Putrefaction. Over the Coffin was a Cover of Gold, so exactly fitted, as to answer the higher part every way: Over this was thrown a curious Purple Coat embroider’d with Gold, near to which were plac’d the Arms of the Deceas’d, that the whole might represent the Acts of his Life. Then was provided the Chariot, in which the Body was to be convey’d, upon the top of which was rais’d a Triumphant Arch of Gold, set thick and studded over with precious Stones eight Cubits in breadth, and twelve in length: Under this Roof was plac’d a Throne of Gold, join’d to the whole Work, foursquare, on which were carv’d the Heads of Goat-Harts, and to these were fastened Golden Rings of two Hands breadth in the diameter; at which hung, for Show and Pomp, little Coronets of various beautiful Colours, which, like so many Flowers, gave a pleasant Prospect to the Eye. Upon the top of the Arch was a Fringe of Network, where hung large Bells, that the Sound of them might be heard at a great distance.