Table Of ContentTHE
HISTORY
OF
THE LIFE AND REIGN
OF
ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
BY
QUINTUS ClJRTIUS RUFUS.
\1
•
Qt'mn~lateb from tte '1!atin.
'VITH SUPPLEMENTS, -N
OTES, AND A MAP.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
l'RINTED FOR SAMUEl, RAGSTER, IN THE STRAND,
lly James ~loyes, C;reville Street, Hatton GilJden.
1809·
PREFACE.
rfHE life of Alexander, as transmitted by ancient wri.
ters-while the subject, and fulness, of detail, in each,
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
iv PREFACE.
-the new protectors of the independence of Persia
permanently seated there.
The policy by which Alexander, with an inferior
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
or
semblance between the foundation 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.
PREFACE. v
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 ofthe French
emperor and the great Persian king destitute of a fieet,
may suppress circumstances resisting accommodation,
and embody coincident shadows.
'Vhy does Buonaparte, as far as he can.grasp the
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.
Alexander did not suppress commerce, as the me ...
dium of more intelligence than he willed should circu
late in vassal states.. He extended the free harbour,
vi ,PREFACE.
and protected the many-Ianguaged exchange; sensible
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~
