The History of the life and reign of Alexander the Great.'VITH SUPPLEMENTS, NOTES, AND A MAP.
- IN TWO VOLUMES.
lly James ~loyes, C;reville Street, Hatton GilJden.
1809·
PREFACE.
differ as much as biography, annals, and history-is,
in all, an extraordinary field of incident. Quintus
Curtius, while exhibiting the progress of a mighty
transition of power, has mixed, with the minutes of
the council, and the journal of the camp, sketches of
biography which lead to a knowledge of man.
The middle-part of the narrative, and route, of the
Macedonian expedition to the East, possesses new in..
terest, on account of Buonaparte's designs on Persia ~
his proclaimed invasion of India, if any thing more than
a machination to induce the Porte, as well as the Court
of Tuhran, to permit his occupation of important pos ..
sessions,. is a distant object. Alexander subjugated as
he went: we may calculate that Buonaparte will follow
an example from which deviation would be unsafe,
without expecting him to draw his catalogue of means
from a magnanimous school. A French army introdu­
ced in,to Persia-a revolution in the palace at Tubran
a2
permanently seated there.
fleet, deprived Darius of a navy*, is another interesting
subject ofexamination;' as it is IJossible that Buonaparte
imagines that he is imitating it. If he discover a re­
semblance between the foundation or the naval powe~
of ancient Persia, and that of Britai~, he possesses crea~ ti~e discer~n~ent. Deterred 'by the' scruples ofa strange'
sup~rstition from navigating at sea, the Persians, n'ever­
th~less~ commanded a for~idabl~ ~arine, composed' ~f
tributary or merc~nary fleets, from Rhodes and Cyprus;
Tyre "and Sidon: the fi'rst successes of the Maced6nians
weakened the' influence of' Darius over these naval
states: The intermediate progress of the invaders ex­
cluded him from vicinity, or any other than a precarious
correspondence, with maritime powers, while he yet
controlled the greater portion of the continent.
An intrepid reasoner, determined to establish a pa­
rallel between' the victorious Macedonian and B nona ..
parte, may tread convincing ground, by imitating
Sh~kspeare's model t. 'Fluellen. ' I think it is 'in Macedon where Alexan­
der is porn: "1 tell y'ou, captain!' if you look into'the
'* Vol. I. p. 230, line antepenult. p. 251.
tK. Henry V. act iv. scene 13.
v PREFACE.
maps' of the orld, I warrant that you saIl find, in the
comparisons between Macedon and ~Ionmouth, tbat the
situations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in
Macedon, there is also moreover a river in Monmouth,
but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other
river; but it is all one, 'tis as like as my.fingers to my
fingers, and there is salmons in both.
In the same manner, any peac~maker, who will in­
sist upon agreement between the situations of the French
emperor and the great Persian king destitute of a fieet,
may suppress circumstances resisting accommodation,
and embody coincident shadows.
coast of Europe, arrest t~e prow of neutral commerce;
and influence the governments of maritime countries to
annihilate the, navigator and merchant? In offering mo~
tives for his prohibitions, it is impossible to reason, and
difficult (0 make two consistent remarks. He may not
so much expect to deaden one of the sinews of Bri­
tain, as to paralyse Russia and other defe~~ed powers.
Th.ey cannot recruit their strength; while he, by secret
licenses, may throw such trade as he is constrained to
.permit, into the ports of countries whence his o~n re,.
-yellues arise.
dium of more intelligence than he willed should circu­
late in vassal states.. He extended the free harbour,
vi ,PREFACE.
that the intercourse of nations wears lingering ferocities
from tbe emerging Barbarian, and distributes over the
.habitable world the blcssing~ of humanized life. It
may be questi~ned, on a. ground which win not affect
-the character of his. intentions, whether he had traced
ALL the enlarged and accurately~combined plans latterly
ascribed to him~ By what revelation did be rise supe­
,rior to tpe dar4, and erroneous notions of N earchus *, respecting the gulfofArabia and the country SQuth of
the Isthmus of Suez?' and no perspn who entertained
them, could project such establishments on the Red
Sea, as the First and Second Ptolemy effected. Arrian
has recorded a strange misapprehension of Alexander:
-When observation was destitute of topical aids, a sa..
gacious traveller might ~easure a large portion of the
earth's surface,without acquiring the true relation of
the regions visited :-The Macedonian leader, from ob~
serving alligators in the Indus, and beans like those pro­
duced in'Egypt growing on the banks of the Acesines,
had announ~cd, in a lett~r to his mother, .that he had
discovered the sources of the Nile; information which
he expunged, when the natives, in answer to his inqui­
rie~, assured him that the Indus fell into tbe ocean very
far from Egypt. Perhaps his route, frpm the D~Ita of
* krian, I~dica, chap. xliii~
. PREFACE.
the Nile, had appeared to him, having no compass to
determine the bearings, to sweep nearly in a'circle ••
The Translator does not recollect, that his Author
has once prostituted'the epithet" divine" by applying
it to his hero, or sunk into a;. fulsome competition with
the Greek sycophants: This might be the place for a
protest, had not the historian acknowledged the per­
plexity of Alexander's' character.' Does a deed :merit
censure or execration? Curtius' 'has no partiality. Is
admiration due? His pen, recently so severe, knows no
antipathy, fluent in applauding great and good actions.
What will compensate for the destruction of two
books of the history of Curtius, and for chasms in se­
parate chapters? . Not all the essays of all his commen­
tators. Other classic writers,whose antiquity is incon­
testable, have escaped oblivion by a: slighter interven­
tion, as it respects the number of manuscripts preser ..
ved; but have been more fortunate in retaining, to this
day', the identity of fame, commemorated by personal
notices-or, have left works which excite a less poig­
nant curiosity respecting the authors ...
With the two books, and introductory matter, may
have perished information relating to Curtius,-a dedi­
cation, or allusions, which would have fix.ed his contem­
.. Arrian, History of Alexander's Expeditionl b. vi. chap. t.
viii PREFACE.
porar~~,s. ,In. the pr.ogress of the narrative, he. observes,
.t~lat Tyre, when he was writing, enjoyed security un­
der. the protection of Rome *; and that the different
bra~ch,es ?f the Macedopian kings had been d~prived of
their domi~ions by the. Romans t: These notices de­
clare. the ,era 'of the author to be subs~quent to the ac­
cession of the seco~d Cresar. AI,lOther guide to inquiry.?
is an allusion to the emperor who was reigning when
the Jast book was composed: "It is therefore with due
" gratitude, that the Romanpe~ple ascribe their salva­
" tion to their prince; who, on the night whic? we had
" nearly dated as our last, shone on us a new star. In­ " contestably, the rising of this, not of the day t, rea
" stored light to the ,shadowed world, when ~he divided
" members of the state were trembling without a head.
" How many firebrands did he extinguish! how many
" swords sheathe! what a tempest dissipate by inter..
" posed serenity! Hence the reinvigorated empire
"flourishes. May envy never touch him; may he
" live through the age; be his house established, hi$
" line perpetual II."
'* B. IV. iv. 19. t B. VIII. vi. Q1.
t Hujus; non solis. In the rendering offered in the history, no~
is treated as a corruption of novi. See another construction of this
difficult passage in page xiii. infra. On the above, however, the
Translator is disposed to rely, as sufficiently literal.
II B. X. ii. 23~
ix PREFACE.
commentators, will be presently stated. Before the
probability of each can be weighed, the passage
must be considered in connexion ",ith the incidental
mention-by Cicero, by Tacitus and Pliny, and by
Suetonius-of individuals of the name of Curtius. The
addition, found in most of the older manuscrip~s, of the
surname " Rufus," claims a share of attention, as well
the opinion pronounced by classical critics', ,that in pu­
rity, elegance, and terseness, the historian's style is
worthy of the golden age oflatinity. '
Cicero, in a letter to his brother Quintus, speaking
of expected candidates for the consulship, their adhe­
rents and opponents, mentions a Quiutus Curtius as a
young man of integrity and erudition *.-Men do not
commonly live an hundred years :-the Quintus Cur­
tius Rufus ofTacitus and Pliny, is therefore, probably,
a distinct person from that slightly introduced to us by
Cicero. Their accounts are the same in effect + : " Curtius Rufus, in early life, atteJlded a qmestor into
"Africa. In the city of Adrumetium, while he was
" sitting protected, by a portico, from the mid-day
" sun, the form of a woman, above the Imman size,
" addressed him: 'You, Rufus! are destined to
$ Ep. ad Qllintum, III. !2.
t Tacitus, AnnClls, XI. 21. Plin. Ep. VII. 27.
x PREFACE.
" authority.' Animated, he returned to Rome;
" and, by interest and active intrigue, obtained the
" qmcstorship. He afterwards succeeded, against com­
" petitors of distinguished rank, in a struggle for the
" dignity of prret?r, supported by the suffrage of Ti­
"berius. Curtius Rufus, said that emperor, blending
" a .compliment to his favourite candidate ·with an apo­
" logy for his mean extraction, seems to be a man
" sprungfrom himself. At a late period of life, he ob­
" tained the consular and triumphal ensigns, and finally
" went proconsul into Africa, where he finished his
." days."- In the field of. exhausted research, is
found a scanty memorial of a third individual, who may
be the same with tbe historian of Alexander the Great.
This appears in the memoir left by Suetonius of cele­
brated orators *, which time has reduced to·a fragment~
In the summary of contents to each MS. intermixed
with the names of the pleaders or rhetoricians, of whom
the extant sections transmit particular accounts, are
enumerated cleven individuals of whom no- trace re­
mains in the mutilated book. Quintus Curtius Rufus
~s the third, M. Fabius Quintilianus the tenth, among
,. Dc Rhetorcbus. SUETONIUS. The known offices of some of
his rllCtores shows, that -the term will embrace the public orator
and the professor of eloqllence.
xi PREFACE.
cognise, in one of the earlier characters preserved, that
Crassus, of whom Cicero said: " I had rather be the
" author of the single oration of Crassus, in defence of
" Curius, than be honoured with two Ligurian tri­
." umphs*."
the reigning emperor, is applied, by the commentators
Frisius and_Herwartus, to Augustus; and their opinion,
I believe, as well as that ofAngelus, identifies the histo­
rian with the Quintus Curtius mentioned by Cicero.
How does the serenity of the passage correspond with
the state ofRome after the death of Julius Cresar? Au­
gustus unsheathed the sword, kindled the torch, and
excited the tempest, of civil war t. His competitors
fell, and tranquillity followed his triumph. "Peace,
". it is true, was soon after established: but what kind of
" peace! The slaughter of Lollius amI Varus stained
" it in Germany; and the massacre of the Varros, the
" Egnatii, and the Julii, made Rome a theatre of
" blood t." "In the judgment of Raderus, Popma, and Perizo­
nius,-theemperor alluded to, is· Tiberius; and the
• Brutus. t Le Tellier's Priface to his edition of Curtip!.
~ Murphy's Tacitus, Annals, I. 10.
xii PREFACE.
African proconsul of Tacitus is one person with the ora­
·tor of Su~tonius and our historian. But the circum­
stances leading to the accession of Tiberius, form a
picture of repose*._ There was no storm, or darkness,
to be dissipated by the new sovereign as by a rising
sun. N or, to cite a stricture of the learned Casatibon,
docs the historian appear to have any thing in common
with the proconsul.
the e~peror Claudius coincide with the citation from
Curtius, let us survey the grounds upon which 'co~­
jecture has resorted to V cspasian and Trajan. Con~
neeted with the subject is a minute question respecting
.the import of the word" night :"-Does not, however,
the subjoined phrase, " which we had nearly dated a!§
" our last," decide it to be literal; for conceive it to
be a figure for" a time of calamity," and the congra­
tulation becomes absurd, as the Roman people would
not be desirous of a second metaphoric night. On the
contrary, a gn;at perplexity is found in another part of
the passage, if it be not figu,rative 1 and the COQ1menta.
tors Rutgersius and Loccenius, are embarrassed byap;.
plying the word" star," literally, to one of the celes­
tial bodies. For this servile construction, they com!"
pensate by a violent iml)lication, proceeding to read:
" Tacitus, Annals, I. 11-13.
"sun, restored light-to the shadowed world." The
new star is not a trope for the prince unexpectedly in­
stalled" but is the moon suddenly rising, during a noc ..
turnal engagement, fought near Cremona, between the
armies of Vespasian and Vitellius. "While the bat ..
" tle remained doubtful, the night being far advanc'ed,
" the moon rose, and illuminated the surface of things,
" with partial advantage to Vespasian's army. The
" light, shining. at the back of their lines, projected
" from the men and horses such long shadows, that the
" Vitellians, deceived by appearances, aimed at the
" wrong object: their darts, consequently, fell short:­
" but the moon.beams, playing on the front of the Vi­
" teHians, exposed their bodies to the full view of their
" adversaries *." Vossius and Freinshemius concur in
discovering, in Curtius; a retrospect to the accession of
Vespasian; but these give the" new star" an unforced
relatio.n, as a figure for the emp~ror intended. Almost
every feature in the history of Vespa sian, must increase
the surprise which the suggestion of the four last-named
. commentators, however modified, is calculated to excite.
He' did not gain the victory in person; his elevation to
the throne opcurred at a time long subsequent, and the
barbarities and horrors. of intestine war deformed the
turbulent interval.
xiv }>REFAC~.
eluded Tiberius, apply to Trajan, with these additional
objections, tbat the latter emperor was destitute of off..
spring, and that in his reign, Latin composition had
descended far in its decline. The silence of Quintilian
respecting Curtius has been the solitary inducement,
with one or two critics, in defiance of outnumbering
reasons, to postpone the era of the historian to the reign
of Trajan. Tlw silence of Quintilian respecting the
elegant historian VeUeius Paterculus, who is known
to have lived u~der Tiberius, proves that his silence
respecting C urtius should have no inB uence whatever
against a train of circumstantial deductions.
I t appears, from the narrati ve of Josephus *, tbat
the single night which passed between the assassination
ofCaligula by conspirators and the unpremeditated ele­
vation. of Claudius, was an interval of hasty debate,
110stile defiance, confusion, and terror; during which,
the senate, and the opposed members of the state, were
trembling without a head. Had the nobles who asserted
ri val pretensions to the throne, and the desperate factions
who impatiently aimed to abolish tbe imperial govern.
ment, come to the promiscuous conflict which was im­
pending, embrued Rome had been sternly desolated.
Again; after Claudius was saluted emperor, when the
soldiers supporting him prepared, with uplifted weapons;
• .Antiquities, eh. xix. 3, 4.
PREFACE. xY
exhorted the senate to recover their liberty, Claudius,
interposing, snatched the consul out of peril, and
seated him at his side. How many firebrands did the
,new sovereign extinguish, how many swords sheathe,
what a tempest dissipate, by this moderation! To the
senate, this eventful night had nearly proved the last,
and the influence of Claudius alone prevented the mem­
bers, making a late submission, from falling victims to
the enraged army.
belongs chiefly to the commentators, Lipsius, Brisso­
nius, and Le Tellier. When the historian of Alexan­
der the Great is admitted a contemporary of Claudius,
an identity may be inferred between him and the Q. Cur­
tius Rufus of Suetonius. The order, in the biogra­
. phic fragment of illustrious orators, is that of time;
and it has been gleaned from another source, that M.
Port ius Latro, whose name is second in the bare list of
names, died of a quartan ague in the fortieth year of
Augustus: thence to the accession of Claudius inter­
vened thirty years :-The orator or rhetorician Curti us,
Who follows Latro, whether as a junior contemporary,
or as belonging to the next generation, may reasonably
"be supposed to have lived till the beginning of the reign
of Cla~dius. This conclusion has the sanction of Ca­
saubon, and in full unison with a recommendation, by
xvi PREFACE.
Erasmus, of the history of Curtius, as a repertory of
formulas of eloquence not to be found in Cicero.
A separation of the remaining subjects of this long
Preface, will enable the reader to act according to his
view of their importance.
HISTORY WRITTEN BY CURTIUS, .CONJECTUUALLY
EXPLAINED.
"\:Vas the history suppressed, by an act of the Senate,
because the first two books contained offensive political
reflections? That which in the shape of information
had been credible, may deserve to be mentioned among
conjectures. But inquiry flies to other mere probabi­
lities. How woul~ the moral independence with which
Curtius writes, be received in. the court of the Cresars ?
The private character of Claudius is as little stained as
that of any of the pagan emperors except Ant(;mine:
but the almost Christian rectitude * which condemns the
degeneracies of Alexander, must 'have displeased -Nero
and many of his successors. Anecdotes related by Sue­
tonius, attest, that at Rome, the temple of fame 'was not
far distant from the cave ,of oblivion :-Caligula per..
mitted the histori~al writings of Titus Lubienus, Conlus
:if Romans, ii. 14.
icribed by the Senate, to be universally circulated; and
afterwards the august critic was preparing to banish the
works of Virgil and Livy from public and private libra­
ries: Domitian condemned to death H ermogenes of
Tarsus for oblique reflections in his history, and cruci­
fied the clerks who had transcribed it *. I shall now endeavour impartially to collect facts op­
posing, and facts countenancing, another conjecture, that
the history written by Curtius was suppressed, through
a political jealousy of Alexander's fame, connected
with a creed, useful in the legions, that Rpman tri­
umphs were greater than other triumphs. Augustus
spared Alexandria, from veneration for its founder: de­
posited flowers and a golden crown on his sarcophagus:
and, in the middle-part of his reign, 'used a seal with
the head of Alexander. The whimsical despot Caligula
sometimes wore his breastplate: Nero, whose conduct
is £1.r less a criterion of state policy, named a new Ita­
lian legion the phalanx of Alexander t. From Nero's
reign to Trajan's I do not know that any expression in
honour of the Macedonian escaped any of the emperors.
F or the most part the Roman classics are not liberal to
• In Caligu1. c. 16, 34. In Domit. c. 10.
,t Dion CU5sius, 1. 51. Suetonius, in C. A.ugust. c. 18,50. Idem,
in Caligul. c. 52. Idem, in Neron. c. 19.
b
tius wrote, the servitude of Macedon, Syria, and Egypt,
was growing mature,-but a government…