1.30 From there he crossed over Libya with a few soldiers, and journeying on arrived at the shrine of Ammon. And putting his men on the ship he ordered them to set sail and wait for him at the island of Pharos. He himself did obeisance to Ammon and made sacrifices to him. Remembering that his mother had said he was the son of Ammon, he offered prayer, saying: "Father, if my mother spoke the truth in calling me your son, give me an oracle." After these words, he waited a day. Then he lay down and in his dreams he saw Ammon embracing Olympias. So he arose from his sleep and having witnessed the action of the god, he adorned the shrine with an inscription by himself: "To his father the god Ammon Alexander set this up." He demanded also to receive an oracle from the god as to where he should found a city bearing his name. And he beheld in his sleep the god, who said to him: King, to you I speak. Behold the god of the ram's horns. If you wish forever to flourish in youth eternal, Build an illustrious city above the island of Proteus, Where once Aion Plutonius first took his throne as a ruler, Lord of the boundless kingdom, over the five spreading mountains. When he had received the oracle, Alexander searched for the island of Proteus, who is the god who presides there. And after sacrificing to his father Ammon, he made the journey back and halted his forces in a certain town of Libya. 1.31 And, as he was walking about, a huge hind ran towards some lair. So he called a bowman and ordered him to shoot the creature. And he, taking aim too slowly and fumbling, shot his arrow at the beast without success. And Alexander said: "Fellow, you made a bad shot." Hence that place was called Paratonion, "the place of the bad shot," from the exclamation of Alexander. Then continuing his journey, he came to Taphosiris, and he learned from the inhabitants that the shrine was the tomb of Osiris. He sacrificed to the god and made the rest of his journey. And when he came to the plain, he saw a very large district stretching out endlessly and including sixteen villages. These were (?) Steirampheis, Phanenti and Eudemos, Acames, Eupyros, Rhacotis, Hegiosa, Hypones, Crambeitai, Crapatheis and Lyidias, Pases, Teresis, in which are both Nephele and Menyia, Pelasos (?). And Rhacotis was famous, for it was the metropolis. And the sixteen villages had twelve rivers flowing out into the sea. And, until now, the exits were blocked up, and the rivers became the streets and the squares of the city. Only two went on and flowed through into the sea, . . . and there was one called the river Rhacotitis, which now is the stadium of the great god Sarapis. Then comes the canal of the city's plaza. The largest river, the one named (?) Xyleras, is now called Aspendia. Then comes the canal where the Tychaeum is and a very great river Copronicos. Then a great canal and river Nepherotes, now the precinct where is the shrine of Isis Nepheron, the first structure of Alexandria. And the greatest of all the rivers is called Argeos where the Argeion is. Then comes the canal of Areios where the pillar of Areios is. And there is a canal along the Canopicos river, going out along the Zephyrion. The greatest waterway is the Heracleion bay. 1.32 Now Alexander arrived at the district and found the rivers and the canals and the towns (?) arranged as described. From the land he saw a certain island out at sea and asked what it was called. The natives said: "Pharos, and Proteus dwelt there, where the memorial to Proteus is on a very high mountain, the one revered by us." Then they escorted him to what is now called the herōon and showed him the coffin. He sacrificed to the hero Proteus and, seeing that the memorial had fallen down from the ravages of time, he gave orders to have it set up at once and that the circumference of the city should be plotted. Now they began to construct Alexandria from the plain of Mesos and the district took (?) its name from the fact that the building of the city began there. While they were occupied there, as happens, a serpent appeared and terrified the workmen who stopped working because of the arrival of the creature. This was reported to Alexander. He gave orders on the next day, whenever it came down, to capture it. So having received the order, when the creature appeared near what is now called the Stoa, they surrounded it and killed it. Alexander then ordered that the spot should be a sacred enclosure and he buried the serpent in it. He ordered that garlands should be hung there in memory of the Agathos Daimon whom they had seen. Next he directed that the digging of the foundations should proceed only in one place, namely exactly where a great hill appeared which is called Copria. And when he had prepared the foundations of the greatest part of the city and planned it, he inscribed five letters Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε; Α for Alexander, Β for βασιλέυς {king}, Γ for γένος {son}, Δ for Δίος {of a god}, and Ε for the initial of the phrase beginning ἔκτισε {built the city}. Now many beasts of burden and mules were sacrificed. And when the herōon was consecrated, there came to the epistyle many troops of serpents and, creeping, they made their way into the four houses already built. And Alexander, present in person, consecrated the city and the herōon itself on the twenty-fifth of the month Tybi. So the door-keepers reverenced these serpents as Agathoi Daimones that had entered the homes. They do not shoot arrows at them, but even a pretence of shooting drives them away. And sacrifices were made to the hero as to the son of a serpent and the animals were festooned with garlands, and given a rest from their labours because they had worked hard and long for the founding of the city. And Alexander commanded that food be given to the guards of the buildings. They took the grain, ground it, and, keeping off wild creatures, (?) on the day quickly gave it to those dwelling in the buildings. So among the Alexandrians even till now this custom is preserved: on the twenty-fifth of Tybi the animals are festooned with garlands and sacrifices are made to the Agathoi Daimones by those who care for the buildings and gifts of domestic animals are made. 2.6 When he had said these words and offered sacrifices with the generals, he left to the Lacedaemonians their city without making war on it, or exacting tribute. And from there he set forth to the lands of the barbarians by way of Cilicia. 3.27 After this exchange of letters, Alexander wrote to his mother, Olympias, to tell her everything he had done. His letter ran as follows: ‘King Alexander greets his sweet mother, Olympias. As far as concerns my first achievements up until we reached Asia, I am sure that you are fully informed by my previous letters. I thought it would be best to tell you about our journey to the interior also. We made a journey to Babylon, taking with us 150,000 soldiers. And then we made another journey… arriving at the Pillars of Heracles in ninety-five days. The local inhabitants told us that Heracles, in order to mark the limits of the lands he travelled, had set up two columns, one of gold and one of silver; and each of them was 20 feet high and 3 feet broad. I did not believe that they were solid, so I decided to sacrifice to Heracles and to make a hole in one of them. Then I discovered that it was of solid gold. So I filled up the hole again, which turned out to contain the equivalent of 1,500 gold pieces. Text used: Pseudo-Callisthenes, and Richard Stoneman. The Greek Alexander Romance. Penguin Books, 1991. Accessed from http://www.attalus.org/info/alexander.html