Note 2319 — Chapter XXIV · THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS OR THE ALEXANDER LEGEND IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES[2293]

The story is better told in the Syriac version (Budge, 14-17), where Alexander does not push Nectanebus into the pit until after he has asked the astrologer if he knows his own fate and has been told that Nectanebus is to be slain by his own son. Alexander then attempts to foil fate by pushing Nectanebus into the pit, but only fulfills it. In the Ethiopic version Nectanebus is represented as educating Alexander from his seventh year on in “philosophy and letters and the working of magic and the stars and their seasons.” Aristotle becomes Alexander’s tutor only after the death of Nectanebus. Aristotle, too, is represented as an adept in astrology, amulets, and the use of magic wax images. (Budge, Ethiopic Histories, pp. 31, xlv).