ERM - Tape 126 - Phoenicians; Purple Empire-Hern; Alexander The Great-Lamb
TAPE NO. 126.......by Ella Rose Mast
THE PHOENICIANS
The Purple Empire of the Ancient World by Gerhard Hern, originally published in Germany in 1973, and translated by Caroline Hillier in 1975.
Here we have a book written by a so called 'modern Historian', which of course is not what we would term an 'Identity' book, for our author struggled with the identification of people as he tried to establish just where these people called Phoenicians came from.
We being an Identity buff, and after studying 'The Swift Ministry' and old books by Harold Lamb who did much research as to the people of the Ancient land, called today 'The Middle East' as well as other old books on archaeology, symbolism and such. I will mark my thoughts in ( ) as I try to help our author find just who are 'The Phoenicians'.
Our author finds traces of the Phoenicians as late as 320-21 B.C., as Alexander the Great came to the sea coast cities of the Mediterranean, to the city of Tyre. As Alexander the Great came he told his men to tell these people in their walled cities that his people belonged also to this same race as they, and that this knowledge was given to him by the gods in a dream.
To the Greeks, the Phoenicians had always been a rather mysterious people. They failed to understand as to how such a tiny group of people had succeeded in building an Empire which spread over the entire area of the Lebanese coast. This Empire of the Phoenicians seemed to be built on a network of trading routes, and the only trace of this Empire was a fleet of ships, walled settlements, storehouses, barracks, watch towers, and possibly a Temple, all built in some sheltered bay along some coastal waters.
The Greeks had open cities, marble facades, pillars and brightly painted statues of their gods. Whereas it seemed that the Phoenicians would arrive in different cities, conduct their business, and then quietly disappear. They also sometime would let it be known that they had traveled to lands where no Greek had set foot. Many times a Greek captain would on sighting a newfound shore discover a Phoenician trading post already established. They found these Phoenician Posts on the Bosphorus, In Italy, Sicily, on the Spanish coast and the North African Coasts. They also found that these Phoenicians stood as counselors behind..thrones of Egyptian rulers, that they were whispering advice into the ears of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Kings. It seemed to the Greeks that wherever they went that the Phoenicians had been there before them, and finally they began to resent these people who lived mostly on the sea, instead on the dry land which seemed only to serve as a base from which to launch their ships.
Our author becoming curious, set out to find a modern Phoenician in his day and time, and he thought he had found one in the Sinai desert, in Salem and he concluded this from the fact that the Bedouins of the Sinai are today ancestors of the Phoenicians of old, since they are an independent people who pay no attention to either Israeli, or Egypt, they live always in isolation, always on the move hunting for water and food.
In his search our author found, as had other, that a new and strange people came into the Middle-east area long before the birth of The Christ Child. These people built great cities, and had a stable religion, a political system of government, and he found that Sir Leonard Woolley in the early twenties excavated one of these cities which was called 'Ur of the Chaldees'. This great city was where Abraham was born, that Great man of the Scripture. Here excavations revealed that people lived in solidly built houses of 13 or 14 rooms. They walked on paved streets, divided the day into 24 hours or 60 minutes or 3.600 seconds. These people our author found could read and write contrary to modern thinking. In fact they even had trouble with their tax returns as does the modern man. They could extract square or cubic root, and were very concerned with education and literature. For nearly 200 years this city of Ur was the Capital of a great Empire.
Our author thinks that Sargon the Magnificent was a Semite. (We disagree since he was the descendent of Cain) Our author did find that the Cainanites were always trying to infiltrate the man-made Paradise these Strange people built between the Tigris and the Euphrates, as well as other places. It was found that these same strange people were the ones who established the great cultural centers of the ancient world which flowered in the Nile Valley. Our author tells us (as we also have told you) that as these people came into Egypt the country soon changed from a land of mud huts to a land of great cities and accompanying culture.
Modern Historical Research discovered the Phoenicians at a late date, at the city of Byblos, Lebanon and became curious as to the name of this great city, wherein a discovery was made. Byblos was the Greek word for Papyrus, or writing material, and from it came the word...biblion or book. In 1922., after a great rain storm Archaeologists were led by the inhabitants to a small cave which looked as though made by human hands as a burial chamber. In this Chamber was a stone Sarcophagus and a large number of funerary offerings. Also from this cave...tunnels led to other similar burial chambers. In fact 9 large tombs were found, some were linked by underground passages. Step shafts led downward then broadened out sideways in each cave to form a hollow space in which the Sarcophagus could be placed. It was this which led the experts to decide that these people were very similar to those who built the Empire of culture of Egypt. One of the Sarcophagus' contained on its side Phoenician alphabetic script, which gave the name of the King of Byblos, and the son's name who had made this final resting place for his father.
At last historians and archaeologists were on the trail of these ancient people called the Phoenicians who undoubtedly had come very suddenly out of the desert, into ancient Egypt and emerging on the scene in a grand and almost Imperial manner. Archaeologists would now concentrate on this area along what was now the Lebanon coast line for more traces of these ancient people. They were to find that about 4,500 B.C., something similar to a large village had suddenly arose in this spot situated above the present day Port of Gebeil. It consisted at first of primitive huts then grew into houses with strong walls, and a roof ridge. In about 2,900 B.C., the buildings were now made of wood, and Byblos had become a city with both a land and a sea entrance. A canal system carried the rain and drainage away. The inhabitants of Byblos were now quite well-to-do and prepared to defend themselves if necessary. Then came the Cainanites and began to infiltrate into this land.
(Perhaps we should designate between Canaanites the people of the land of Canaan, and the Cainanites which there is usually no distinction made. Canaanites could be Israelites, or Hebrews etc., whatever they were called at that time, but the CAINANITES were the descendants of CAIN.)
Here in Lebanon, the land of the big trees, lumber became a commodity much in demand, and Lebanon the 'Plateau of Cedars' as it was called by the Egyptians would become the lumber camp of the Mid-east where lumber was in such scarce supply. Also from these great Cedars which grew only on some of the coastal mountains around the Mediterranean came an oil, light brown in color which was used on cloths to bind bodies of their mummified Kings.
A people known as Aryans or Hyksos (White Shepherds) had also came into this area known as Phoenicia. A peasant woman found what became know to archaeologists as the 'Tell El Amarna Tablets' which outlined the coming of the Hyksos into this area of the city of Byblos. Our author then asked:... Who were these people whose coming always brought such an amazing advance in the style of Living as they came into this strip of land in Lebanon which they transformed into Phoenicia....Who were they?....Who were they?
(As I saw that question I thought...a blinded people to be sure, and oh, how I wanted to help our author. All through this series of 'The Mysteries of the Kingdom' we have been pointing out who the people of the books really are. This identification is definitely a requirement as you strive to understand just who the Sons and Daughters of the Kingdom really are, because these are a definite people with a destiny to perform here in earth. We have traced these Aryan or Adamic people from the High Tarim Basin in the Himalayas to Northern India where they paused to build a great civilization. Then on Westward more than to the East. We have outlined where these people went and what they built as reminders to those who came behind them. From our research we have established that the Phoenicians were in the Beginning the Enoch people. They were instrumental in establishing the great civilization wherever they settled. They were just one wing of this Aryan race that moved out as the Adamic race in their march of Destiny. Their names changes as they moved westward but they were still of this same race. They were in time the Hebrews, and then the Israelites who came into Canaan Land to take back the area where their ancestors had once lived. As the Israelites increased in that old land they also would move out looking for land in an area in which they could spread out and grow. Some would leave that old land long before the birth of The Christ Child. The enemy tried to suppress the identity of these roaming Aryan people so as to maintain this blindness as to who you are and why you are here as CHILDREN OF SPIRIT IN PHYSICAL BODIES FOR A VERY DEFINITE PURPOSE)
Our Author describes these ancient Phoenicians who took to the Sea Lines for trade and expansion. He went to the American College in Beirut and he spoke to the curator of the University Archaeology Museum..Dimitri Baranki ...who informed our author that he had found from his research that the Phoenicians were a daring, determined people, and as the time came to take to the sea they just built ships and took their families with them and left the shore life for a life at sea. He found that they seemed to have an un- usual religious strength, he could not quite define. They were also a tough breed of tall men who the Jews later would regard as giants. The Hyksos (White Shepherds) when they were finally driven out of Egypt had also come up the shoreline of the Mediterranean sea and they seemed to be comfortable with the Phoenicians and would be absorbed by them and then drop out of view.
As time went on, a new westerly route was opened leading to Greece, Italy, and Spain, the main points of departure then from Phoenicia would shift from Byblos to Sidon and Tyre which existed even before 1,000 B.C.
It was Hiram now the Tyrian King who about 1000 B.C., transferred his city from the coast out into the sea. This was an immense but carefully considered undertaking, using the experience of the past as well as the knowledge of the Sea these people had acquired. There was an Island lying 600 meters from shore which could be fortified. Actually it was more like two flat and partly submerged rocky ledges. Hiram started a massive building program. The narrow channel between the two rocky ledges were filled in and all material remember had to be brought from the mainland. To the north of this man-made Island a harbor was also made. To the south they built a harbor as well as quays and jetties. On the east side of the Island Hiram had a vast and handsome civic building erected. Josephus in his writings says that Hiram felled great timbers in the mountains of Lebanon for the roofs of the Temple.
Tyre was thus a city on a cliff, an artificially made stronghold in the Sea. The other cities of Phoenicia tried to hold their connection with the sea as much as possible for their protection.
Historians of modern times are now united in thinking that the Phoenicians were among the most outstanding technicians of their day. They are considered as more gifted than their neighbors. One of these gifts that they brought with them was the knowledge as to how to build a keeled boat, one that would hold a better course than could a flat bottomed boat. First they had a War Galley, which was a long narrow vessel with two banks of oars, a convex stern, a ram on the prow, and a small sail. The crew hung their shields over the side of the ships as did the Vikings at a later date.
There was a short and broad Merchantman ship with a sail, and a large hold and a minimum depth of water under the keel. The third type of vessel was the mussel boat, which had more oarsmen, and was used as an auxiliary to the war fleet, as armed merchantmen, in pirate infested waters.
Herodotus wrote of these Phoenicians:...that fair dealing in business was their trade mark, and that they stuck to this even when it was not absolutely necessary. They followed the rules which still apply today, in that this foundation of trust on which all trade is based was the life- blood of the Ancient Phoenician towns.
Ezekiel tells us that as time changed and world trade became the game, then the products the Phoenicians carried on their ships changed also because the Great Timbers of their forests could not be moved long distances. Therefore Ezekiel writes:..'All the ships of the sea, with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy Merchandise, by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they (the whole world) traded in thy fairs. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants; they traded the persons of men, and vessels of brass in thy markets. They of the House of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules. The men of Dedan (Arabia) were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thy hand. They brought you for a present, the horns of ivory and ebony (from Africa) Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of thy wares they were making, they occupied in thy fairs with Emeralds, Purple and Embroidered work, and fine linen, and coral and agate. Judah and the land of Israel also, they were thy merchants; they traded in thy market ...wheat of Minneth and honey and oil, and balm. Damascus was they merchant in the multitude of wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbow, and the white wool. Dan also and Javan went to and from in thy fairs bringing iron, cassia and calamus. Dedan was thy merchants in precious clothes for chariots. Arabia and all the princes of Kedar brought lambs, rams and goats for trade. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah (Yemen) brought spices, precious stones and gold to the trading centers. The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy markets; and thou (the Phoenician trading centers) were replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the Seas.' Ezekiel 27.
Thus medicants, cosmetics, spices like balm, and the calamus (oil) which is still used in the preparations of medications together with honey and cinnamon reached the world markets along with all the other items as well as the bulk goods of iron, tin, lead, horses, cattle, wheat, rope and slaves.
In those days 'Barter' was the trading practice and most profitable of all was the products made in one's own country. Production and export combined set the rules for wealth. (What a lesson for today since we have allowed our nation to be stripped of this privilege).
The Phoenician's land at first glance did not contain many products to help their goal, but Sand remember contains a great quantity of Quarts, which is pure Silicic acid in Crystalline form, and this acid is most important as a constituent of glass, ordinary window pane contains over 70%, and even lead crystal glass 60%. The process of blowing glass was known to Egyptians in the fourth century B.C. (Actually the Aryans carried this knowledge further back according to Archaeology.)
In Tyre and Sidon glassworks were built, and fine transparent glass was then carried to the world markets. The Phoenicians found the dye for their Purple color in the Sea-snail, and this Purple cloth from Tyre was reserved for Royalty and became a symbol of the Highest Authority. Another product of trade was from the Ancient 'carvers' of the race. These skilled hands took the elephant or walrus tusks and brought them home on their ships and carved realistic trinkets to be bartered in the world markets.
According to our author it was the Phoenicians who showed the Israelites the way to all foreign lands and ports. It was the Phoenicians who showed the way to the Kingdom of the Queen of Sheba, and gave them the great sacred shrine...their temple at Jerusalem..by sending their great Cedar Trees. The Israelites and Phoenicians being of the same people were there- fore a massive migration in their time into the Mid-east.
In about 1500 B.C., the Rocky Plateau on the Red Sea was the launching ground for a great migratory movement at the time of the Hyksos (white shepherd) rule, their forefathers had gone into Egypt and were received by the related people with open arms. A man named Joseph rose to high office and great honor, and his whole family joined him there. In the Bible these were Hebrews, and they struck back when the rulership turned against them, and they left the Nile Valley in a flight across the Red Sea. The Sinai of course could not be their home thus they pressed on toward the territory in the Jordan valley, where their forbearers had lived before in times long passed. Thus we trace them through the Bible back to the eastern banks of the Jordan, then across and the nation of Israel with the 12 tribes was formed. With the Phoenicians still to the north of them, then King David formed the State of Israel in 1910 B.C.
David's son Solomon saw to the building of the Great Temple at Jerusalem which was also typical of Phoenician architecture. Herodotus tells us that the Temple at Tyre also had two Pillars, one of pure gold and one of Emerald which shown brilliantly at night. This type of Temple with the two Pillars has been found in Cyprus and in various Palestinian towns such as Samaria.
Solomon had the whole inner chamber paneled with this Cedar wood, there was no stone seen (I Kings 6:18). The Curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the central hall was of 'blue and purple and crimson.' (II Chronicles 3:14) Thus the Phoenicians were very close related to the Hebrews of Israel. Together they then founded a Maritime Empire which reached all the known world. The great copper mines of King Solomon's days have been found today in the Jewish claimed land of Israeli. The second best hotel in the land is called 'The Queen of Sheba'.
In Ancient times there is no doubt that the ships of Tarshish were loaded with all things made from copper on that spot. From the close working partnership of the Phoenicians and the Hebrews we assume that they had to be one of the same race of people.
Today things are so much different..barbed wire barricades..with now the land of Phoenicia or today Lebanon a battleground which the Jews of Israeli seek to destroy. Why?
In time the Phoenician throne was usurped, and the lady known as Jezebel of the Bible was Jezebel the daughter of the usurper, and she then married Ahab who became King of Israel. She was a very beautiful woman, had grown up at one of the most Liberal Courts of the day. She did not change her religion when she married, instead she clung to the many gods of her people.
Ezekiel, the Prophet of Israel, was a power in his own right. He was a prophet sent from the Israelite God..YAHWEH..who according to Moses meant ..I AM...later would be called head of the Elohim, or simply God.
According to our author...no normal race would have had the idea of recognizing a supernatural power who watched and saw that HIS commandments were kept. Jezebel thus being of other lineage, could not understand this fascination with such a God and she brought her own Priests into Israel. Thus bringing forth the Great Catastrophe which struck the land. The worship of Baal brought prostitution, and rumors of human sacrifice. The Bible reports that (Jer. 7:31) the people of Judah then built the high places of worship, there to burn their sons and daughters in the fire---whereas YAHWEH ‘commanded them not, neither came it into HIS heart.’ After all, human sacrifice was forbidden in Israel. There the sacrifice of an animal such as in Abraham’s case was sufficient. Jezebel however being of Cainanite stock, would meet here death. And then the men of Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim and Manasseh would destroy the high places out of their land and appoint a new Priest. And once more the land of Israel would return to her God.
Before this instance, Phoenicia had reached here Golden Age, richer than ever before---and then accepted a ruler not of themselves. Thus began her downfall. Phoenicia had been a group of states working together, never waging war with each other or her neighbors. Only once does Josephus mention sending a force to a distant colony in Africa which was considered a Phoenician outpost. The Phoenicians were considered members of an almost laughable small race, living in gull-like nests on cliffs. They took off in ships to places they knew not where. Why did they do this? Surely not for profit alone? They had faced no tides in the Mediterranean Sea, yet they were soon feeling their way down the Atlantic coast of Africa. And according to unconfirmed theories, they even sailed westward to America. Professor Cyrus H. Gordon of Brandeis University in Boston theorized that the light skinned Indians in East Tennessee came as they themselves believed from Phoenicia, two and one-half millennia before Columbus. Ancestors of their’s, they say, landed on the shore of the New World and became settlers. They were a amazing people. And the things they have not recounted would fill many volumes. Today we trace their graves from settlement to settlement until they had established bases wherein to gather supplies for their further journeys.
Herodotus recounts that they sailed thru the Pillar of Hercules and came back to Egypt by going around Africa. They reversed these orders and sailed from the Red Sea and landed in Africa and planted their crops, waited for the harvest, then sailed on. And by the third year, they entered the Pillars of Hercules and back to Egypt. An eye witness account would have been a most exciting adventure story, but it was never written.
The city of Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians. Their Golden Age lasted about three hundred years. By the year 320 B.C. at the coming of Alexander the Great, the sun had set on the Phoenician story in the east. However those Phoenicians had given much to the world. It is said that writing came from Egypt and on to the Greeks. Then the Greeks went to Egypt for further schooling, and many of the Grecian myths came from stories of the Phoenicians exploits which were imagined. The practice of ‘shorthand’ served these sea rovers well in their business dealings.
Carthage---Phoenicia in the West---was built on a promontory surrounded on three sides by water. It had a flat beach sheltered bays, a narrow strip of land connected it to the mainland. Thus this was also a typical Phoenician headquarters. In case of trouble the harbor could hold 200 ships. Many of the houses there were six stories high. The whole community was surrounded by a ring of strong fortifications. The fortifications were over fifteen meters and ten thick. The stables inside could hold 200 Elephants and four thousand horses, with their storehouses, arsenals and barracks.
As the Greeks began their sea journeys, they began to crowd the Phoenicians and in some cases to join them, since they were the same type of people. Both had a far older civilization in their background. Carthage, the Western Phoenicia, followed the sea paths laid out by those from Eastern Phoenicia. One story tells of how the Carthaginians always tried to hide their tracks as they sailed to places unknown. One story tells that a Roman ship tried to follow from Cadiz and the Phoenician ship was on a northern route. And as the ship captain realized he was being followed, he ran his ship aground and traveled back to Carthage by land where the Senate reimbursed him for the loss of his ship and gave him compensation for loss and profits. It seems that the Romans were trying to discover the trading posts in Britain, for the tin trade was very valuable to the Phoenicians. And they were trying to protect their interests without fighting.
About twenty-five years after rule of Himileo, the leader of another expedition, Hanno sailed along the Atlantic coast of Monaco. His story comes down to us in a Greek version. He describes how he traveled thru the Straits of Gibraltar with sixty ships and a company of 30,000 people, both men and women. This sounds more like a migration than an expedition. Perhaps they were going to Phoenician bases on the West coast of Africa, or to build new settlements elsewhere. He describes how they sailed for many days then formed a settlement. Then sailed up a river called Chretes and finally reached a lake with three islands. Then sailed on for another day and reached the end of the lake. Where could this be? It has never been determined.
The story goes on to record that the Phoenician Carthaginians sailed on until they reached a high tree-clad mountain and beyond it was a vast gulf with plains on either side, where at night they saw large and small fires that flickered up and then would go out again. Here the ships took on water then sailed on reaching another island on which only huge woods could be seen by day. But at night, they saw fires, and heard sounds of flutes, and cymbals and voices.
During the following days, they saw great streams of lave which flowed into the sea. And they could not land because of the heat. Finally a mighty volcano reared up before them which Hanno says, was called ‘The Chariot of the gods.’ The narrative then says that the Phoenicians then turned around and went home. Where did they travel? The Phoenicians did not tell them. But after all, 200 years before this, they had already sailed around South Africa.
The Phoenicians of Lebanon seemed to have been the pioneers of the trade routes. The Carthaginians also traveled the same routes laid out for them. They bartered over the world and did not mint coins until the 4th Century B.C., 300 years later than the Greeks and their Phoenician brethren.
In general the Phoenicians, altho roamers of the seas, seemed to have been also good household managers and good at raising crops. They liked to dream of their own little plots and perhaps this is what led them to go to Sea in Ships, to find their own little plot to settle down in. Their cities always had farm plots around them to produce if their supplies brought by the sea failed to arrive.
Diodorus Siculus described Carthage as a little Paradise. It was divided into vegetable gardens and orchards with streams and canals running thru them irrigating every bit of land. There were splendid country homes with stucco facade demonstrating the wealth of the owners. Large barns, olive trees, and fruit trees, cattle, sheep, and horses were in the region where the leading Carthaginians had their estates. They always taught the other people of that land how to grow many things which raised their standard of living. Early in the 3rd Century B.C., there must have been about 400,000 people living in the area of Carthage. But not all were pure blooded Carthaginians. But the pure blooded ones were the rulers for many, many years.
After this system was over turned, then the Carthaginians were termed cruel. They built temples to many gods and sacrificed to the gods. But no longer were these pure blooded Carthanians.
At the time for Alexander the Great to conquer Persia, the Hellenistic Age began. And there would no longer be a place for the Phoenicians, a people whose history had begun far back in Biblical times. Carthage, this Phoenicia of the West, would then go the way of Tyre.
Alexander had declared that he could not march on to conquer Persia and Egypt and leave the coastal towns of Phoenicia and their fleets at his back. Actually, the strongest unit of the Persian fleet consisted of the Phoenician unit, and this obstacle must be removed before Alexander marched eastward. He then took the Island city of Tyre and the other Phoenician cities had already guaranteed him safe passage. (Many of the Phoenicians joined Alexander and his army) But with the taking of the city of Tyre, the history of Phoenicia came to an end. Carthage had sent an envoy to help Tyre, but they were sent home by Alexander in their own ships. And he did not molest them. The mother city of the Phoenicians was now gone. And the daughter now stood alone. Alexander never attacked Carthage--this Phoenicia of the West.
The next power to arise was Rome. And Rome was the one who would conquer Carthage. The Romans used a captured ship as a mode. And in record time they built their fleet. A mere land power had thus driven the Queen of the Sea from her throne. (Or had the time come for this part of history to be finished?)
In 1959, Theodore Heuss gave a valedictory speech to the German Bundestag. This is part of what he said, (quote)’A state can disintegrate, can be broken, yet a people live on.’ (Unquote)
It would seem that especially ‘THE GIFTED RACE’ does not vanish from the earth lest the earth disintegrate. The Phoenicians did not then disappear, only their headquarters were gone. Today, Lebanon and especially Beirut holds people who are Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Egyptians, Turks, British, and French, who have mingled down thru the ages. Today, Lebanon is about one-half Mohammedan and one-half Christian in religion. The largest hotel in Beirut is called Phoenicia and others are Cadmus and Byblos. The country’s flag had a cedar tree on it. The woods of Mount Lebanon are not being reforested.
Phoenicia has been absorbed by History. Archaeologist however have been working to widen a little the small crack thru which we look back to those mysterious people, the Phoenician, the great silent one of antiquity.
(Since we believe that the Phoenicians were of the Adamic race, we know that the Phoenicians live on. For remember that they established far flung colonies in the West as did others of this race. We have found traces of them in both North and South America. Thus today perhaps even forgetting their beginning, they march on in their destiny. It is an established Biblical fact that if one of the race stepped out of his race to marry and raise children, that the Holy Spirit does not pass forward to the offspring, but within this race the spirit passes forward to the offspring. Thus a new generation of Phoenicians would be in the world until their total destiny is fulfilled. It is also a fact these Phoenicians, these sea people, were a part of this Aryan race of ours. And the Archaeologist in time will make this very plain.)
In the book by our author, ‘ The Phoenicians,’ is a picture of what they thought a Forester should look like. The author does not define a ‘Forester,’ but from other writings, we learn that this was a person gifted in preserving and caring for forests, as well as using the products thereof. We find that this Aryan race had this gift. They used the products of the forests for their carts, and wagons for their migrations. And when they came to the sea, they used the lumber for their ships. They are said to have been able to pass thru a great forest without doing it any harm. And when it was necessary to cut the trees for settlements, they used all the products and replanted for use by the next generation. It was people not so gifted who cut and did not replant, not seeming to know that man can destroy, ‘but only God can make a tree.’
The ancient Phoenicians became a people of the sea. But archaeology has also established that, altho they took to the sea as if born there, still they loved the land. And they kept as close to it as possible. For it was on the land in the cave of the rocks where they buried their dead, not in the sea. Thus when looking for a trace of these people of antiquity, find a rocky bay with a little vegetation around it, anywhere along the Mediterranean Coast, with a spring, and some small tomb entrances nearby. Together with the carefully cut tombs in the solid rock and you probably will find that they had been there as had been others of this race.
(On the next page, you will find pictures of the location of the Phoenicians and their neighbors.)
(End of topic.) E.R.M.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
by Harold Lamb--1946
Book Review by Ella Rose Mast
As a boy Alexander learned the lexicon of war from his father. He learned the discipline of the brain from Aristotle. He read the "Iliad" or "The tale of Troy" until he knew much of them by heart. He was tutored by a kinsman on his mother's side. He was taught that mountain folks like the Macedonians had to climb mountains. And each morning after his run he offered sacrifice before his breakfast. The great God of the Macedonians was Zeus, and these Kinsmen were training Alexander to be a King, but he also clung to his books.
It was a lonely life here for this young boy although there were companions who studied with him, and one of these companions was Ptolemy who was believed to be a son of Philip the Macedonian by another woman.
Alexander had blue eyes and red gold hair that curled, he had his mothers delicate skin that reddened rather than darkened to brown under the sun. These Macedonian people were mountain people, but in the valleys they raised barley, grapes and cattle, and regular farm work was performed. These rough mountain people---his mother's kinsmen had read the works of the Greek writers of that time such as Herodotus, Demosthenes, Homer, Aristotle and so forth and it was Aristotle who came to teach this young man who would become Alexander the Great, and his companions.
Alexander absorbed much of what these ancient writers had recorded, and at this time the Temple at Ephesus had burned the night that Alexander was born. But Alexander now knew that Plato believed that out upon the Atlantic Ocean existed Islands known as 'The Blessed Isles' and sometimes also reference was made to the Lost Islands of Atlantas. He knew that civilization seemed to have advanced from east to west, that science was known in Asia before it was known on Crete. Apparently the Greeks had learned from Asia, and especially in Egypt.
'The Iliad' mentioned the threshold of Asia, the Watergate of the Dardanelles where the city of Troy stood, and how the Argonauts had been actually thru the Dardanelles , and just suppose that the Argonauts had been actually searching for gold washed down from mountains instead of the legendary 'Golden Fleece'? Still they had ventured into the mythical mountains at the end of the furthermost sea, and those mountains were the Caucasus mountains. The voyagers to the Greek Colonies reported seeing the loom of vast mountains raising into the cloud level covered by everlasting snow. And yet they said: ----a gate--way gave access to the unknown which was still further east. They believed that in this region was the UNKNOWN which was still further east. They believed that in this region was the Inland sea called the Caspian Sea where giant birds lived, where also unknown Celestial powers were thought to be. They believed that if this Caspian Sea existed it might flow northward toward the outer ocean.
Knowing this then Alexander grew to young Manhood believing that perhaps to the east---the true Gods might still exist. Thus his mind, by what he read, was fastened on the unknown area to the east. Here we find that the Children of God seemed to have lost their identity and were perhaps pagan, but still something drew them toward the east, to the past of their Race, and Alexander would have this longing to go ---- to look for a past Identity.
Herodotus had described the great eastern city of Babylon with its lofty towers, and great hanging gardens. And one Phoenician is said to have reported that the name Babylon meant the Gate of God. Alexander knew nothing of the Phoenician language still he caught at this idea of a Gate-Way to the past. There had to be a source of two great rivers, because both the Tigris and Euphrates flowed by Babylon, but where and from whence was their source?
Most legends, Alexander the Great discovered originated in the far distant east. There, men said: --- that the very 'Waters of Life' flowed out of the ground, this was the waters that preserved life forever in those who drank of them. There too was situated by all accounts, the 'TREE OF LIFE' the fruit of which imparted Celestial Knowledge. Young Alexander, the Great was drawing a map of the world to the east, and from legends it was fairly accurate, but his teacher ridiculed it, and both his teacher and his father tried to turn him to politics and political rule, for after all he had to live in a literal world.
The Macedonians still retained traces of tribal life, and there were many tribes and nations to contend with. It took strong leaders to maintain these Aryan people wandering in their destiny patterns, and this was what Alexander was being trained to do. We are told that Socrates thought that to many of the Greeks had limited their effort to the past, to the now of creation, and to the nature of Divine power but did not understand any of it. Socrates had thus as his objective the purpose for which the world existed, not the source from whence it came.
Alexander was then thrust on to the Royal stage by the wounding of his father, and he was sent back from Crete to rule his homeland. He then became at a very young age a Warrior protecting his people from wandering tribes. His father then joined him, and they conquered the cities of Greece. It was in these cities of educated people where Alexander heard the tales of ancient Egypt, where it was said that the Sphinx had been heard to utter prophecies. Here in the modern world of Athens Alexander missed seeing children because of a new thing called Abortion, which was used to keep the population down. This was so unlike Macedonia, for in those mountains women seemed to have almost litters of children, and here also Alexander saw the great statue to the Goddess Pallas Athena, and he remembered the small alter of the God -- Father Zeus at home.
With all of his duties as king, still Alexander never lost that dream of marching to the East, to the land of the Persians and beyond to find what he thought was out there. But then his father Philip of Macedonia was assassinated and at 20 years of age, Alexander took his fathers place and attempted to put order back in all the conquered land. He was now compelled to lead warriors in battle which was the least thing that he liked to do, but he was the King, and this was the tradition, so he led his men while Celtic warriors watched from the forests.
Knowing of the dream of his son, then before he died Philip of Macedonia had agreed to an expedition to the east, and it was planned that Alexander was to lead 25,000 men eastward across the Dardanelles and beyond. Out of the east had been coming an ever increasing flow of coins, and precious metals, ivory , alabaster, traders, and slave dealers. But the trade routes did not as yet enter the Macedonian mountains, and the Usurers, and moneylenders had not yet taken their places with their scales in the doorways of the temples in Macedonia. Since these trade routes did not enter the Macedonian mountains then the Macedonians must go out for a seacoast, and the decision was made that at the rising of the star Arcturus, in the year 442 B.C. the now famous journey to the east was to begin. Alexander would lead this expedition, and now we know that he was never to return to his homeland.
The expedition arrived at the ancient city of Troy or rather to the ruins of that old city and they were surprised at the small size, and the poverty of the ruins, but they were happy to be camped among the graves of the old heroes of their race. They then learned that horsemen of Asia were coming to do battle with them, and they prepared for this battle which was bloody and Alexander was hurt, twice, but his men protected him and at last the battle was over. However Alexander had learned the lesson of Command, and now no man refused to follow him as their leader. He now found that there were better lands, than their rocky soil of home, and he realized that here were people of his own race, and it would be well if they were all joined together, but they seemed to enmeshed in their own lives to give more than lip service to that idea.
As the Pleaides sank in the Southern sky the Macedonians settled in for the winter months. The married men were sent home, and they would return in the spring. The rest of them started inland for a winter march over the icy and snowy plateau. After all these were mountain men, and they went on to the city of Gordium where they then planned to rest. It was here that they were told that this --- wagon of the east, from Asia -- would rest. If any man could untie the knot that bound the yoke to the wagon shaft, then it was said that one could become a great king of Asia. We are told that the Macedonians came to this so called 'Great wagon of the east' and they studied it and found that this cord of Cornel bark was so tied that its ends were tucked inside, and could not be seen. Then Alexander pulled out the pin of the wagon pole, and as he drew it out the yoke came free, and the cords came loose. That night there was heard thunder from the sky, and the rumor spread across that snow bound plateau of Asia Minor that this golden haired Macedonian youth had in himself -- Divine power, and he was destined to rule these lands.
` When spring came, it was learned that an enemy fleet was established at the Dardanelles, and new plans of attack must be made. They were told that in this ancient country they were approaching there were strange gods, the Dragon and Baal before whom children were burned as an offering. They were told that Tyre had been built by a Semitic people called Phoenicians, that Metallic stones had fallen from the sky and now lay like blackened iron on the face of the earth. They were told that one of these Meteorites lay within the city called Jerusalem, covering a opening that led down into the middle of the earth, that the walls of Jerusalem had been built by a man named Nehemiah, above a salt Inland sea where plants were poisonous and the earth salted.
As the Macedonians came down from the mountains into the lowlands, they sent a column ahead and reached Tarsus before the enemy could defend or demolish it. Then Alexander was laid low with a fever. The Army tried to move carrying him in a litter, but a great army moved to surround the Macedonians and their sick commander. However the enemy had misjudged these mountain men, and Darius their great king from the East gave up the battle before it was lost, and now the enemy became friends and welcomed Alexander, after all they were all Aryans.
The city of Beirut is a Semitic (Sethic) name, and it means "The Wells", and this was a resting place for the Macedonian Army. Alexander gave the orders that the women of now their friends were to be respected as was their own, and any man who violated a woman was to be treated as a wild beast. Alexander had no prostitutes following his camp, he could not have done this, could not have objected if his officers had done this, or he himself was doing such, but that was not the mode of life for Alexander and his men.
After the city of Tyre was taken the Macedonians went down into Egypt and there built the city of Alexandria at Heliopolis, and now they would behold cities of permanent stone, of dark porphyry and gleaming limestone. Some of these buildings had stood for a millennium or so before stones were laid in place on a small acropolis at Athens. Thus the people had existed here, unchanging, and they had carved their records in picture graphs and script upon these walls of stone, and Alexander absorbed this as he remembered passages from the poet Homer about this spot where he now stood -- "An Island lies within sounding surf -- and island Pharos on the Egyptian shore". Here at Alexandria, Egypt Alexander called for a Temple to be built like the one his men had built earlier in their journey at Sardis, with a gymnasium and sports arena such as he had built at Sidon, and a great Library, a whole building to house books such as he had seen at Memphis.
The city of Alexandria, Egypt prospered and it grew, but still today over two thousand years later this city is still a great naval base, and something of an international settlement; but it is no longer a world center of worship and learning. The Macedonians encountered the Semitic God, but did not pay to much attention, they had at Tyre selected Heracles as the ruling Deity. But in Egypt they observed lofty Monoliths called Obelisks, visible for a day's march across level Valleys. They found that Ammon-Re was depicted as sailing in a ship across the sky. So if this tall beardless figure in the sky did not look like their Zeus they would be mistaken, so was not Zeus in fact this Ammon-Re just as Apollo might be Osiris who was slain only to return to life again, the visible evidence of the Divine Power among mortals. Alexander felt that he must be sure of this, and he heard that the oldest sanctuary of Ammon-Re lay a long way out in the desert, so he insisted on going there. Here the Robed Priests welcomed the young Macedonian, and he asked for assurance that his mission be successful, and was told that it would be. Those who had followed Alexander to Suvak declared that the Oracle had pronounced him the son of Ammon-Zeus.
During the time that Alexander was in Egypt only his guards were with him, the rest of his army was scattered in numerous settlements as far back as Tarsus. But when he appeared on his big black horse his men rushed to greet him, and others bowed for now he was the Pharaoh of Egypt. Alexander had been King of Macedonia, tribal head, as chosen by the council, and protector of the Delphi Shrine. He became captain general of the Hellenes, and overlord of the Ionian cities, Military ruler of Tyre and the Syrian coast as well as the Islands, now in Egypt he had become as Pharaoh, and a god.
Ptolemy was still with Alexander and he said that when you write it down it does not make sense, but then nothing of this expedition makes sense for instead of taking a spoil, they had to treat even the Egyptians more respectfully than the Ionians who at least could speak Greek, but here then Alexander had in three years accomplished what seemed to be a miracle. He had in those three years taken the whole eastern end of the Mediterranean sea, from Troy to Memphis. Alexander made no changes in the local governments. This is the way he controlled this vast area. He remembered that Aristotle said; --- 'It is more difficult to organizer peace than to win a war. But the fruits of victory will be lost if the Peace is not well organized.'
Early in the spring of 331 B.C. the Macedonian army was gathered by order at the new base of Tyre, and here occurred the first bitter quarrel between Parmenio, and Alexander and many of his staff. Some thought they had fulfilled all of Alexander's fathers plans and they felt there was no need of going further. The others felt that there was no security as long as the Persian army existed inland to the east. Darius had offered ten thousand talents for his wife and family, and to cement the friendship between Alexander and himself he offered one of his daughters in marriage and promised to surrender all the territory between the river Euphrates and the Greek sea, yet Alexander felt still compelled to go on to the east, and he thus gave that command.
Now; Alexander had only the texts of Herodotus's narrative, and the Anabasis of Xenophon, the world plan of Hecataeus to depend on that SOMETHING still lay to the eastward. He and his army now moved inland, passing around mount Hermon, thru Damascus angling north to keep to the fringe of good grazing land, and crossed the Euphrates River and found himself on the King's was to Babylon. His army was swelled by the arrival of another years recruits from home, and the wagon train had grown carrying more of the engineer's machines as well as some of their women. You see -- Alexander's army consisted not only of the men and machines, but many of the wives came back to move east with their men, and even some of the children were in the vanguard of this army. Perhaps as many as 35,000 people were now on this great plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
The new recruits wondered what drove their commander on into this great unknown. They heard of a great army to oppose them, and it was not fear, but they did wonder what lay ahead. Alexander led them north-eastward toward the second great river, but always close to the mountains for here they were more at home, more confident. As they forded the Tigris river there was a total eclipse of the moon. Phoenicians with the engineers argued that the darkening of the moon foreshadowed the approach of the Lady of the Underworld, who was called Astarte. It was believed that she held great power among the people of the two rivers. That she was served by the beasts of three worlds -- the sky, the earth, and the underworld. So she might appear mounted on a dragon, a lion or a great serpent.
As Alexander's great army dropped down from the mountains they learned that the Great king Darius now waited to attack them at the edge of the plain. Scythian and Bactrians --great horsemen, more horsemen than ever, and more infantry now awaited the Macedonians. Alexander hoped they would come into the lower foothills to attack, so they camped there for three days, for this battle would decide who was to rule Persia. Finally with Alexander mounted on his famous black horse the two forces were joined. The outside of the Macedonian forces were carrying the brunt of this attack, outnumbered four to one when the advance group with Alexander on his black horse struck at the center of the Persian Army where their king rode in his chariot. As he had done before Darius in his chariot raced back out of the fight pulling hose around him also backwards, and gradually the whole force was being pulled back, for the leader was not leading and that force ceased to exist. Roman historians much later recorded this battle in all its details noting how the Macedonians held together under stress because of their leadership.
The Macedonians gathered strange spoil from that battle plain such as armored elephants, scores of chariots equipped with scythe blades, gilded spears, and whole regiments of mountain men speaking a strange language called Armenian, as well as skilled horsemen wearing loose trousers and flowing turbans, called Kurds. These captives indicated they came from the mountain wall to the east. Darius in his flight was found to have gone eastward and to have spread out his forces south and east. And as yet Alexander was leading his 30,00 men against the manpower of millions. But this Darius was not the Great King Darius I, only his successor, and did not have the courage and leadership of Darius I, and the Mighty Xerxes even who had in turn ruled, and whose likeness appeared carved in stone upon place and cliff walls.
Alexander sent ahead two officer messengers to the two nearest capitals of Babylon and Susa. These officers just announced that the Great King was coming -- so just welcome him and he would grant freedom to worship to all Temples, and would not disturb and provincial government, nor exact tribute of any personal property. Thus -- Alexander the Great came to Babylon, and was welcomed.
At Babylon the Macedonians were amazed at what they saw --- there was nothing Greek about it, the signs of the lady of the Beasts, the Crescent moon rested over towering gateways. They found that these gigantic walls and summits were built of clay, molded by the hands of slaves, and baked in ovens, or dried in the sun. Even the ornamental Tile were no more that earth cleverly glazed.
Learned Chaldeans now showed them libraries of tablets, and thin squared of clay, stamped with wedges, and then dried so that they never yielded to age. Such tablets recorded marriages, loans, and gifts made centuries before. The bricks of the lower walls carried the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar. Building out of the earth itself, the Babylonians had tried to escape the Earth's surface by rising their edifices in step - back pyramids to the upper levels of cooled air. Such a structure had been called the tower of Bal - El meaning the Gate of the LORD in the time when the wandering Hebrews had lived by the waters of Babylon.
The hanging Gardens of Babylon were a wonder to the Macedonians. They also found that there was much more to this kingdom, for beyond the mountains were the other three capital cities of Susa, Persepolis, and Ecbatana. Alexander confiscated the treasury of Babylon but left the civil government intact with only a Macedonian officer and a small garrison in charge. The schools, the temples, the tithe, the charities of the Metropolis were to remain as they had been until his return.
Now Alexander prepared for his march still on to the east. As they left the city of Babylon thru the Ishtar gate and turned east along the highway, up into the mountains, a messenger came bearing the message that the city of Susa welcomed this new Conqueror. Susa had been the home for the Kings during spring and in the fall, but Babylon was their winter home. At Susa the Macedonians found great treasure and they also found statutes that Xerxes had carried off from Greece generations before. Among them were the bronze figures of Harmodius, and Aristogeton, and these Alexander sent back to Greece. Susa had been the vital center of Elam, and Ecbatan (modern Hamadan) had been the great city of the tribal Medes; Babylon had been the Metropolis of the Neo - Babylonians who had risen, along with the Medes upon the ruins of Assyrian power. Only Persepolis -- city of the Persians -- had been built by the Great Kings of their homeland upon the Persian plateau itself.
The Macedonians were now marching against time toward the heart of Persia itself, hoping to arrive before Darius could mobilize new manpower. Thus leaving the foothills around Susa they headed southeast and climbed into the mountains. Here they found a narrow summit pass, and it was walled up and defended in force. They took a few prisoners and then fell back. Then from one of the prisoners they learned that a trail led over the mountain on the right of the river, beyond the pass. Thus Alexander and a chosen company went over this trail, traveling by night, while the main army was camped in the valley, in the hands of the new leader Craterus. They rested in the daytime out of sight of the Persians, and they say still high above the great peaks of these mountains. By the second night they were behind the summit guarding force, and as the day brought the sound of the trumpet the Macedonians attacked from the front and the rear and the battle was soon over.
Alexander now sent men ahead to build bridges over the river for the wagons following the troops, but he and his group pushed on to the city of Persepolis, and they took that city before the people even knew what was happening. A fire had been started and as Alexander moved thru the fire fighters he was a stone bearing the likeness of Xerxes on the throne. This was the portrait of the Great King who had destroyed Athens generations before. Alexander left the statute laying, and returned to his camp, for now they must rest for a month of two until winter ended. Ptolemy at this time was still with Alexander, and the administration of this conquered territory was immense. The women and children left at Babylon, now began to catch up with the troops who were sopped for winter quarters. Even those with the Wine Grape roots caught up and here they planted them in the ground. If the troops stayed in one place for a time then things just seemed to happen, for every one in their order finally arrived in the camp.
Alexander was always trying to understand the symbols of the land that he conquered. Here he found a pair of Eagle's wings carved in stone over entrances of tombs. He had seen these Eagle's wings in Egypt where they formed the Emblem of Osiris, the so called Sun God. They found them again in Babylon attached to a bas - relief of the grotesque god Marduk. And here they supported only the head of Ahura, the Lord of wisdom who shared in the power of the sun. Alexander wondered why the rulers of Persia were related to the sun, and to the wings of the Eagle?
Alexander found that the only temples of this land were Stone Altars on high places where fire burned at night, and he questioned these Zarathustrians, who the Greeks called Zoroastrians, as they attended these stone altars. They said that the Great Eagle formed a link between men and sky. They believed that the spirit of the Eagle descended to the hilltops to aids men. The Zoroastrians believed that the human spirit endured thru eternity, struggling to raise itself out of darkness to light, losing strength when it came under the power of evil, gaining strength when it progressed toward the light. The Sky is their Zeus, the soldiers said of the Zoroastrians. And they had a legend that the deity of the sky who ascends to earth was to be born in the WINTER SOLSTICE.
It seemed to Alexander that the Persian Zoroastrians had drawn their knowledge from the same source as the ancient Greeks, only the names were different. He also discovered that the ancient speech of the Persians also resembled Greek. Therefore at some time in the past surely the Greeks and the Persians must have been related. These ancient Zoroastrians said that from ancient Iran backward in time stretched their Lost Paradise. Somewhere far off in the limbo of the Steppes they had come, and they bred and ridden horses, and worked metal. The early tribes had migrated they said, out of Lost Paradise thru the Soghd, thru Bactria, and Parthia around the waters of a clear lake, or inland sea. This Iranian tribe called Parsa had given their name to Persia, to that great Plateau which grew good grass and fed their herds.
Here also Alexander learned that the foremost of this clan, called Cyrus by the Greeks had gained supremacy over the Medes of the mountains, and has swept with his horsemen westward as far as the Mediterranean sea. Only tow centuries before Cyrus had reigned in at the waters of that Sea, and united the different people under his rule. He could not understand the Greek method of selling food in the Market place, among his people food was given, not sold.
Here in Alexander's time the tomb of Kurush (Cyrus) was a place to be visited. Alexander gave orders that the Zoroastrians keep on with their guard of this tomb for he did not want that tomb to be molested. Alexander saw also the tombs of Darius the Great, and Ahasuerus (Xerxes), and all had the Eagle's wings and the Disk of the sun above the threshold. No city was near these tombs, only a single altar tended by Priests.
The Zoroastrians told Alexander that there had been no was for two centuries, and that they had tried to make their homes like they had been in lost Paradise like the first Aryans. Alexander then wondered if this Lost Sanctuary must then be still further eastward. He sent a message home to Aristotle asking for someone of his old school to come and travel to this new region if he could not come himself. Aristotle did not come but he sent his nephew to join this expedition looking for the Lost History of the Aryans.
In the spring of 330 B.C. the Macedonians began their march ever eastward keeping to the higher ridges. The last ruler Darius kept away from them with his armies, and they pursued him. They took city after city, and the people even came to Alexander before their cities were captured, and he left them as they were. Information reached the Macedonians that the Last Darius had passed thru the narrow defile called the Caspian gates, and they learned that now this leader was in trouble for he had been taken captive by his own officers. Alexander took a picked number of men and they crossed the desert in pursuit, but when they found Darius he was dead, in his cart, killed by his own men who no longer would follow his orders of retreat. Alexander threw his white cloak over the body of the dead king and returned to his expedition.
The Macedonians moved on to the city of Ecbatana, a city which was wind swept ,and cold as his native Pells, it also had a mountain fortress, but definitely more majestic. In fact this city now far to the east had what looked like Greek Architecture. It also commanded a chain of mountains that dwarfed the knobby heights of Greece. Unseen in the north lay the snow peak of Urartu, or Ararat (the lost mountain). Armenians from that area told Alexander that back in that land lay lakes as vast as inland seas, and mines still unexploited. That they -- the Armenians had submitted to the rule of THE GREAT KING, who had lived in huts by these lakes. The mountain folks -- Armenians and Kurdish tribes had accepted the faith of the Zoroastrians, and they had built fire altars in the cold air of the highest places. The Zoroastrian were said to believe that they were engaged in a conflict where they were to bow down to only ONE GOD. Often these Aryans spoke of simple things like fire, and water, and life, and then Alexander could understand their words which seemed similar to the Greek,. They explained how they had in their folk knowledge and memory remembered the flooding of the water around Ararat, and they expected to survive the last catastrophe which was to be of fire. They believed that a Comet should strike the earth ending this battle between Light and Darkness, good and evil, so tranquility of everlasting Paradise.
Already the Macedonians from the last of the column were beginning to reach this land with their seeds from home, and only the ivy failed to grow in this eastern soil. Alexander had brought along in the pipe line the things needed to build ships, and the men to run them, and he was eager to find an Inland Sea.
The Greek language had been understood as far east as Babylon, but from there eastward it was the Persian language, which some of the Macedonians quickly mastered. Alexander now reigned over much territory in the east, but he was still also king of Macedonia, and Ptolemy's half brother. Alexander thus now knows that these people all the way east are Aryans and he believed that they were One people, and could be fused together. This was supposed to be the end of Alexander's battles all had been won, now they could go home. But Alexander still dreamed of going further eastward to the land of Indus, for along this river Alexander was told dwelt other Aryans. Some where out there stretched an Inland Sea, above the Caspian gates and beyond, at some point unknown to men lay an ocean itself encircling the continental mass --- how far no one knew.
Here in the east the Macedonians were learning something besides warfare and agriculture, they were learning the taste for luxuries, and conveniences unknown in the Macedonian hills. They developed a taste for oriental bath scents, and even silver nails and sandals. Thus Alexander was not turning Asia into Greek thinking, instead Greek leadership was leaving intact the Aryan governments underneath which his mother at home thought ridiculous. His men were now strung out over an area of 650 thousand square miles, and he tried to keep in touch with courier dispatches. Alexander went to great length to impress on his men that this was not a conquest of people, instead a reconstruction of the world state of the Great King. Even the young sons of Darius were educated, since Alexander saw to that.
Alexander, himself, was beginning to show the strain of his many duties. Men began to have other allegiances rather than to only Alexander, for the road ahead had stretched to far, and yet they marched on. Then all of a sudden in those great mountains they were lost, at least the column advancing with Alexander were lost. Oh, they knew that they were on the face of the earth, but just where. The last land marks of the Greeks were left behind at the twin rivers of Euphrates and Tigris, and now they could no longer calculate according to these old land marks, and the Persian scientists now could not help them. They now moved more by the pictures in the heavens, by certain constellations. The people of this area said that if Alexander turned north, marched 4 marches, he would be at the shore of that great Inland Sea. This they did and they reached what is today the Caspian Sea. And now the scientists could not agree on what lay to the eastward.
Here Alexander let his army rest while he gathered information, and what he learned excited him. He was told that if he kept on to the east he would be on the track of the ancient Aryans as they came in their migration from the land of the sun, the land they said was known as Kurush. If he continued on he would then reach two rivers flowing out of Paradise -- the river of sand, and the river of the Sea. If he kept on, passing these rivers he would be within sight of the greatest mountain range ever seen towering above timber line, above the level of bird life, dwarfing these mountains he had just passed through. These mountains they said were called the Parapanisades.
This was the winter of 330 - 329 B.C. and this advance guard with Alexander were now near what is known today as the northern frontier of Afghanistan, and here the cold of the winter was intense. He left a strong garrison behind while now pushing on to the north and east for he was seeking these Scythians, these horsemen who were plaguing the Macedonians. And now there was trouble behind as well as ahead for the Scythians raided deep into his supply lines. The expedition then decided to build another city for protection, and the Scythians were now puzzled by what Alexander did next. Inside this city the sick, and those who had served their time were quartered along with the farmers of the countryside, while the engineers built rafts and floats for crossing the river. Here a battle between the Macedonians and the Scythians took place as they crossed the river, and the Macedonians won. Later they would sue for Peace with the Scythian raiders, and some of the men began to think that surely their leader had gone mad. The people of this area were not friendly, and did not come into contact with the Macedonians except when they raided out of ravines, and then quickly vanished.
Here these Aryan mountain people had like the Macedonians, themselves known no military yoke. They regarded the Macedonians as European invaders, aliens, and infidels, and they did not plan on becoming friendly with them. Another strategy had to be tried, such as Colonization, cities were built and some of the Aryan tribes would be subdued, but one at a time. This proved to be a slow task and Alexander was wounded twice. To avoid these horsemen of the plains Alexander moved east into the foothills, and here at the city of Maracand (modern Samarkand), they finally had some Peace. Alexander had to be carried back to the river on a litter. Word came back to Samarkand that they were in trouble, encircled by Sythians, so Alexander ordered a relief column sent and 135 miles were covered in three days and three nights, and at dawn on the fourth day they came into the valley. Here they found many dead men as the relief column arrived, and the besiegers had run away. Those in the mountain area found that now snow blocked the higher passes as winter came again, thus the Macedonians settled in the lower regions to ride out the winter. And even the yearly quota of recruits from home finally caught up with this advance unit. With them came others -- Semitic mariners from along the Mediterranean sea, some from the base in Zoroaster land, and they called themselves the Kharismians. Their stories of Northern Steppes bewildered the Greek geographers, but interested Alexander. The chieftain of the Kharismians offered to guide Alexander to this great lake, and supply the army on the way, and to show him the Amazons that the Greek philosophers had talked so much about.
These men also offered to get a Royal Sckythian bride for Alexander but he declined. However he decided to push on thru the Parapanisades -- Hind --I -- kuk, into the lands of the Hindus. But first he must secure his highland, and finally with the leader of the Sythians besiegers killed this was now possible. Only one resistance force was now left, and this was a rocky height called the Rock of Soghd. Here the Bactrians laughed at the Scythians trying to scale this great rock. It was decided that the rock must be climbed at night, for the defenders also believed that their Rock could not be climbed thus would not be on guard at night. Some 300 men volunteered, then left camp that night and by morning most of them were up above the rock, and above the defenders of this Dome, and they were flying the flags that they had taken with them, and the defenders of this camp then surrendered.
Alexander went to inspect the settlement, and as he came to one house on the cliffs edge, the door opened and out came a girl with long braids light I color as new wheat, and twisted back of her head. She was lovely to watch, and her head glowed in the Sunrise. When Alexander asked her name, they told him it was Rushanah (Roxanna) the daughter of LIGHT. This Barbarian child of the Bactrian lord knowing no Greek still stirred some memory in Alexander. Taking a bracelet from his wrist he put it on her arm saying --- 'keep it for you will be my wife.'
Roxanna went with Alexander into India, and she bore him a son, but the men of his army did not approve of this marriage, and much trouble was caused because of it. Writers wrote many false tales about Alexander and his exploits, but all of them were false. Then a group of flatterers formed around Alexander and they began to say their king was equal to the hero sons of Zeus. Alexander then began to turn from the Macedonians, to the eastern followers, thus he began doing wrong things. He began back tracking, and losing his dream, and his expedition was soon in trouble.
The Macedonians had thought that the Indus and the Nile might be connected on the other side of the earth for no one they knew ever found their source. Maybe they went thru the inner earth, for after all there was this river Styx.
Finally Alexander regains his dream and moves Eastward, thinking he was going to the shore of the ocean never dreaming that the great Ocean is as yet so far, far away. Into his camp now were coming Soothsayers, and then women and children and the army now became a moving column with pack animals and carts. Yet on they pushed, and down thru the Khyber Pass, to the valley of the Indua.
Now; the army itself ceased to be Macedonian although officered mainly by Macedonians. But most of the men were from Asia, and they traveled on Horseback, and Alexander now commanded an International army. He was leading this force, not to subjugate the people but to reconcile the Aryan people of India, for already he was in touch with them. He knew they were ready to meet him at the edge of the valley of the Indus, and that they were ready to grant him peaceful passage thru their land.
Now, Alexander headed north - east toward the higher passes where the Hind - I - kuh meets the immense ridges of the Himalayas, where no army could pass. This was so as to cross the Indus at its head waters, and also to keep in the cooler weather for this was summer time. And he also was exploring the world for the Greeks who did not have a true picture of this area. Always as he went east he found that he must climb higher and march further. The very rivers had increased in size, and the men wondered -- were they at the last horizon, overlooking the ocean, the place of the rising sun, where there was evidence of Divine power? Always he wondered --- were there being who were more than mortal in their wisdom, having partaken of "The tree of Knowledge", and having drunk of the "Waters of LIFE" Perhaps Alexander journeyed on to discover if destiny really existed.?
Another winter came and went, and in the spring the Macedonians found Ivy growing at the town of Nysa, they had found this no place else since the Dardanelles. And these people here knew many Greek words. The story finally came out that these Nysaeans thought themselves to be the descendants of the heroes who had followed Dionysus in his wanderings Disabled men, so the tale ran founded this ancient colony. Here the Macedonians reasoned that they had found evidence that Greek heroes had been here before them. Here also they found a breed of Longhorned Cattle -- or oxen as they were called, and Alexander sent some of these back, and they then moved over the Indus on the boats that their engineers provided. Here his wife joined Alexander, and now traveled with the army, and here they would see the elephants, the spotted serpent, and the hooded serpents, and men died of these bites as they had found in Egypt. Here the Indus flowed south, where as they knew that the Nile flowed north,, thus the headquarters of these rivers had to be of no connection. Here in India Alexander found Aryans who had drifted down out of these northern plains in Patriarchal clans. These people were cattle raisers, and they kept but one wife, and worshiped at the scared fire, having reverence for only ONE GOD, of the upper air whom they had named Indra. They were a warrior cast, their Priests were Brahmins, and they held aloof from the dark-skinned Aborigines of the land.
Further east they were to cross another river, and this time they ran into big trouble. The enemy were mounted on Elephants and a horse will not face an elephant. Suddenly in this battle the famous black horse which Alexander rode was killed, and Alexander was forced to take another horse. The battle was finally over and they were allowed to cross the river, but the scars of this crossing of the Jhelm river, placed its scars upon these remaining Macedonian veterans. Ahead was to come the fifth river -- called the river of the Bees, or Beas, this being the first of the five rivers of Punjab, and here the army began to rebel. Ahead also was rumored to be the Ganges, a river mightier than all the others. His troops were rebelling, they do no want to go further. Alexander tells them that after they cross the head of this river of the Ganges then the ocean will be next, and they will build their boats and sail home. He outlined the eastern world as he thought it should be. They would sail home past India, to Egypt, simple if the world had been just that way.
Coenus spoke up: -- the army believes that some end must be put to its labor, in order to hold what it has won. The army is being decimated, see how few are left of the Macedonians and Greeks who started with us. The rest have died in battle or wounded and left to settle in the cities we have founded. The plea then came --- 'take us home, do not lead us against our will'. Alexander then agrees to turn back. What lay behind him he knew, what lay ahead he was abounding and did not know he could not have reached the Pacific, for it still lay so far to the east. But now he seemed a changed man -- his dream was over, and he drove himself as never before and his army with him.
The army started down the Indus river hoping to reach the sea. He scattered his army both sided of the river to keep the inhabitants back. For the first time it is written that inhabitants of the land were killed. Then Alexander was wounded, and arrow had entered his lung, and now he must ride the galley moving down the river. Finally the ocean was reached and they paused to build a Naval base. Alexander was now feeling better and he explored the are. The Macedonians had never ventured to sea, so it was decided that the army would march along the shore, and Alexander would lead them. There was 12 to 14 thousand men to move on land, while the rest of the troops and engineers and followers would move on the ships. The Sea Shore turned out to be Sand dunes and mud and finally the army had to turn inland for food and better walking and they finally reached the inland city of southern Persia where the fleet was to come in. Many were the stories of the adventures of the fleet, how they had met the great Sea Monsters -- Whales -- a new experience for these people.
As the army moves back westward Alexander finds that the men he left in charge of conquered territory have not followed his orders, and corruption had set in, a flood of traders, adventures, were all moving toward the east. Alexander was forced to sit all day to go over petitions and accounts even at night. He now needed interpreters, and for Greek he could understand, but Armenian, and Hebrew, Arabic and Hittite now had to be explained. He noticed that the order of one sheep, for flour and wine to be supplied to the Magi who kept watch at the tomb of Kurush (the Great King) , these to be delivered daily, had been stopped. He learned that even the tomb had been robbed and the Magi imprisoned. Alexander made a journey to the tomb to see if it is all true. He finds that things have not been done as he wished. He must take up the administration of this great land he has conquered, and the 70 cities he had founded. Now Roxanna is pregnant, but Alexander made no public arrangements for a son who might succeed him as was the custom. In fact he seemed to waste no time on his close kin in Macedonia, or wonder how they might act toward a child of a supposedly Asiatic woman. He started to work on canals to bring the water to the cities and settlements he had built, and always he moved as tho in a big hurry.
At Susa, Alexander staged an immense celebration, and contrary to his earlier actions, now he encourages his officers to marry these Asian women, who were however Aryan women, and he selected the eldest daughter of Darius as a second bride. He selected a younger sister of Roxanna for Nearchus his closest officer who was at this time absent at sea.
Roxanna has quite a company of her people who travel close to her and in this establishment she is considered Royalty. Here in this distant land the army now is mostly Eurasian, not Macedonian as he had started with, and his original companions are now in disagreement with him, therefore Alexander hopes to defuse his problems as he frees himself from the service of the Macedonians. By this marriage to Asians (still all Aryans) then Alexander hoped to solve his problems, for now they will all be relatives. Babylon was selected as the capital, or center of this domain, and from here he sends home all the Macedonians who have been wounded, and he sends rewards home with them, big rewards for these men who served him so well. However this still does not solve all his problems, thus Alexander goes to the army and talks with the men, telling them how he has led them and how they have enriched themselves, and also he tells them to go home and tell their people how they had left their King among conquered foreigners --- alone.
At this suggestion, the Macedonians yielded and stayed with Alexander. It was still a choice with his men, and 10,000 men then decided to go home to Macedon. They were given full pay plus about $15,000 each, and they headed for their homeland. The families of all soldiers who had died were compensated, and any children born of Asiatic women were to be left in Asia, but they were to be cared for and educated western style.
Now; the new army was like an International Police force, no more did Alexander have an army to follow him like he had at the first as the Macedonians followed their leader. But from the Nile to the Indus river there was no conflict. And Alexander found that he was least able to control his homeland of Macedon. But after all more than 10 years had estranged the wanderer from his people thus no wonder the conflicts.
The old wound in his lung still caused a fever which was draining the magnificent body of this great conqueror, actually Alexander was not able to make the long journey home, altho he never admitted it. In the spring he journeyed to the mountains in the Caspian Sea area, and here he planned to build a fleet, and then perhaps they could settle this question as to whether this sea actually connected, or drained north into the outer ocean. If so, he dreamed that his ships could reach the northern edge of the habitable world. And then he would know if -- the river of Sands, and the river of Sea emptied into this Caspian sea. Perhaps from here he could reach the dark homeland of the Scythian tribes. Alexander The Great no longer expected to find the beginning of the Aryan people, for he had seen the snow line of the great Himalayas. He had seen Eagles fly over immeasurable chasms. He in his mind now traversed this Kingdom of his, this Kingdom here in natural earth, and it had never been so clear in his mind. What he did not know was that his mind was now failing him as was his physical body.
One of the architects tried to win his favor with a plan for a memorial to Alexander, which would dwarf the Pyramids. His idea was to make the stone face of mount Athos into an effigy of the King who would stand this way for Eternity holding a city of 10,000 people in his left hand, while the river flowed from his right hand into the sea. But Alexander would have none of this.
Ptolemy, his last surviving companion from home, who you remember was also Alexander's half brother, was still by his side, and they now planned on leading a small expedition against the Kassite mountain tribes. But this was not to be for he was forced to return to Babylon as he learned that envoys from as far away as Libya had arrived.
As Alexander neared Babylon a group of Priests from the Temple of Marduk stood in the way saying -- do not enter the gate of Babylon, evil will be thy fate if thou doest for the second time. But of course Alexander went on in, because Babylon was his capital city, and Hearchus, his man awaited him. It was decided that they would now travel over the shore of Arabia and on the Sea along that coastline and maybe they would map the size of Arabis which they thought to be the size of India. They could then together reach the land of the Nile and then solve the mystery of the great deserts to see what lay to the south of that land.
This would be a new expedition and new shipyards at Babylon were now launching ten to 30 oared galleys per month, thus Alexander went out on one of the new test cruises down river, and as he came back to Babylon he entered the second time by the Water gate. That night Alexander could not sleep, the fever in him rages. This continued for several days and then at the age of 32 years, and 8 months, Alexander the Great died there in Babylon. He had worn out his mind and his body as well, in those last years. He died with his dream of dominion only half completed. Perhaps his dream was impossible -- who knows?
At the death of Alexander the Great many things happened of which he would not have approved. As Alexander died there in the Palace at Babylon, Ptolemy, Selencus, Perdiccas, Pencestas and Nearchus were all with him. These were his powerful Lieutenants, and now they would carve up this Empire that he had built. Ptolemy then elected to serve as ruler in Egypt. Selencus chose to rule at Babylon. Alexander’s Sarcophagus should have been sent back to Macedon but Ptolemy took it with him into Egypt thinking it would increase his own prestige. Ptolemy would eventually marry Thais, and at Memphis and Alexandria, in Egypt Ptolemy would establish his new dynasty.
The boy born to Roxanna was to be protected by the soldiers related to that Royal family, and he would eventually become Regent in the north. These Lieutenants of Alexander the Great fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel: --'The king of the north shall be strong, but one of his captains shall be stronger.' This would be Selencus, who looked upon himself as the trustee of the dominion that Alexander had created.
In Egypt, Ptolemy occupied himself with building the great library at Alexandria which Alexander had started. There was no clear plan of government left for his successors to follow in those days, only his examples and purposes were there, and men did not choose at all times to follow their now dead leader.
Alexander's mother -- Olympia finally persuaded the eastern successors to send the Bactrain Princess and Alexander’s son, her grandchild, back to Pella, in Macedonia. After all she had lost her son, and now wanted to see her grandson. But there in Macedonia in 310 Cassander the son of Antipater who had been Alexander's old enemy at home now began his work of destruction of the Macedonian Kingdom. In this time period then Alexander's mother, his wife and son were killed, and this split the dominion into four parts while an independent kingdom was being formed in Palestine. The collapse of older nations set men to grouping for a new fellowship. Later into this path of mingled humanity were to step the Apostles of a new religion called Christianity.
Descendants of the Macedonian settlers left their physical characteristics among the white Kafirs of the Hind - I - Krh, and until the time of the writing of this book (1924) the red banner of Samarkand was supposed by the natives to be that of Alexander the Great. Trade flowed all over the dominion that Alexander had laid out. Today one fact (1924) strikes the observer, of all the construction done in the time of Alexander, nothing remains visible. Even the Lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt, on the Nile, has vanished without a trace. British archaeologists have not been able to identify with certainty the site of Alexander's memorial pillars on the bank of the river Beas. Perhaps this work is buried under more modern works.
In Egypt, Ptolemy was able to finish exploring Arabia and send shipping to Yemen. An attempt to sail around Africa to reach the ocean in the west was attempted. Always there was this fear that they were reaching the end of the world. Perhaps only a few knew that there was much, much more out there which the world had not reached.
Alexandria, Egypt became the Knowledge center of the world. Books were copied in great numbers for a reading public. The works of Aristotle were to be preserved in the main thru translation into Arabic, and centuries later they were neglected in Europe, after the decline of Rome however they were still available.
The cold concept of earlier Greek philosophy was quickened and warmed by Asiatic (Aryan) Mysticism. The influence of the Magi (from Zoroaster land) shaped the religion in Judea, and then Christianity more than the Greek concept was able to do. Alexander's travels had broken down the limitations of their thoughts, now they could reach out with their minds. And then came the Romans about two centuries after Alexander's death but they were never able to penetrate much beyond the Euphrates. As Rome then collapsed in the west, thru international deterioration she survived for a millennium in this eastern or Byzantine Empire.
After a century or more after the death of Alexander the people began to call him Alexander The Great, and with this concept of global rule which Alexander did not perfect still the Myths of the Asiatics, such as the great winged Eagle of the Magi, the bird which flew between mankind and earth and the seats of the gods of the sky --- all of these stories came to Europe. It is true that an Eagle was the favorite bird of Zeus, and was found in its natural form upon the Standards of the Roman legions. It survived and was twin on the heraldry of German Emperors, Polish Kings, and Tsar's of Russia, but it came from the east.
Asia remembered Alexander more than any other, but before their legends took shape the writers with Alexander had finished their accounts. But each land remembered Alexander in a different way --- each adopted him as belonging to them. The records of the Greeks is lost, the ones of Roman Writers have come down to us. At the end of the first century after The Christ there was a great surge of Alexander books.
Perhaps it will seem strange to some but the Persians thought that Kurush (Cyrus the Great) of the Zoroastrians was as well as they -- servant OF YAHWEH, the God of Israel who had said to him: 'Be thou my shepherd'. Alexander appeared to them as tho a vague Messiah, king related to the House of David. Thus many were the tales told connected to Alexander and his travels. Later the Crusaders would enter the Near East and they also heard these stories. The Crusaders heard the Persians say: --- 'He searched for more than anyone else had sought. His story lies still on the horizon's rim.'
(Our author for two years or more followed Alexander's path in his journey except within Northern India. Much help came to him form the great library in Beirut, Lebanon. Wonder if any of that Library is still there today, since this land has been a battleground since the little state of Israeli was formed. ??)
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