“Thou hast destroyed thine own renown. If I am beaten, thou thyself hast called me but a petty thief, and no honour shalt thou have: if I overcome thee, the greater glory is mine, and men shall ever tell how I have conquered a king, the greatest in the world. Nevertheless I hope that one of thy tales is true, that of the greatness of thy riches, for it has raised our hopes, and sharpened our wits, and made us eager for battle, that we may the sooner exchange our poverty for thy riches.
“But as for thy presents, know, O Darius, that the ball thou hast sent represents the world, and thou hast handed over the mastery of the world to me: the hollow hat held before the head when it is bowed, shows that all kings shall bow before me: and this headpiece of twigs is to say that ever shall I overcome, and be overcome never. In the day of thy defeat, O Darius, remember my interpretation of thy gifts.”
Then great gifts were given to the messengers, and they were sent out of the camp to Darius, and Alexander made all his preparations for the war against the Persians. But when Darius had read the letter of Alexander, and heard the words of the messengers, he was sore angered, and he made up his mind to fall on the Greeks and to destroy the power of Alexander. So he wrote to two of his greatest satraps, the duke Priam and the duke Antigonus, ordering them to get their forces together and to go out and seize this insolent lad who was so bold as to defy the army of the Persians, and who had entered the borders of Asia with such a large number of followers. “Then,” said Darius, “bring him bound to me, that he may be well beaten with scourges and then I will sew him up in a mantle of bright purple and send him to his mother. Since he is so proud, the punishment of a child will be best for him, and when all is over he may play at home at bowls or handball with his mother’s servants.”
Now this letter reached the dukes soon after they had fought a great battle with Alexander’s men and had been defeated; so when they had broken the king’s broad seal and turned the leaf to read the letter, they looked on one another, and they thought that Darius could not know what manner of man Alexander was, or how hard it was to stand before him in battle. So Sir Priam the duke wrote to Darius by a special messenger that this child, whom they had been ordered to seize, had wasted all their lands, and had passed through the province, and that when they had raised an army to meet him, neither prince nor soldier could face him sword in hand: and the letter ended by begging the king to come at once to their aid with as many men as he could, that the honour of Persia might not be put to shame.
So Darius called a council to advise him as to the best means of meeting Alexander, but before they were met another messenger came with tidings that the Greeks had crossed the river that was called the boundary of Persia, and that they were now in the Emperor’s own land. And when this was told the council all men wondered how that Alexander should be so bold as to enter Persia, or to disobey the letter of Darius, and they advised the king to write once again to him, reproving him, and that if he still disobeyed, that he should be crushed to the earth, and the king did so, for he knew not how a man could disobey his order.
The tale tells that when this letter reached Alexander it found him in great grief, for messengers had come from Macedon telling that his mother was like to die, and Alexander had bidden his men strike their tents and return home to Macedon. So the messengers drew near trembling, and gave the letter of Darius to Alexander, and with it was a glove full of poppy seeds, which are almost the smallest of all seeds. So Alexander read the letter and he laughed out, for Darius had told him that even the gods obeyed him on earth, and now bade him return to Macedonia ere his wrath should arise. “And as a token,” added Darius, “I send thee this glove full of seeds, count them if thou canst, and thou hast the number of knights in my army. But the seeds are numberless, and so are the soldiers I rule.”
Then Alexander called to him the messengers, and said: “Hearken, and tell the king that which you see and hear.” Then he took the glove and poured out some of the seeds into his hand, and biting them he said: “Here I see that the soldiers of Darius are passing many, but they seem to be soft and feeble, as these seeds prove. But be they soft or hard, it matters but little.” And he wrote a letter to Darius telling him that though he was returning to Macedon it was not on account of the threats of the Persians, but because his mother was at point of death, and that he would return with an army larger than before. “And in answer to thy glove full of seeds, I send thee a purse full of black pepper, that thou mayst see the comparison between the Persian and the Macedonian.”
