The tale tells that before Alexander fought against Porus he sent messengers to all lands in Asia, and among the rest to the land of the Amazons. It is said of that land that only women live in it, and it is governed by women, and whatever man comes into it he is straightway slain; for the first founders of that land were the wives of the men that were called Goths, the which men were cruelly slain, and then their wives took their husbands’ armour and weapons, and fell on their enemies with manly hearts, and took revenge of the death of their husbands. For by dint of sword they slew all men, both old men and children, and saved the females, and parted out the prey, and purposed to live ever after without company of men. And by the example of their husbands they had ever two queens among them, one to lead the host and fight against enemies, the other to govern and rule the kindreds. In short time they became such fierce warriors that they had a great part of Asia under their lordship nigh a hundred years; and among them they suffered no man to live or abide, but of the nations that were nigh to them they chose husbands, and they nourished their children till they were seven years old, and then their sons they sent to their fathers, but they saved their daughters and taught them to shoot and to hunt. It is told that the great Hercules was the first who daunted their fierceness, and that was more by friendship than by strength.
Now came messengers from Calistris, queen of the Amazons, to Alexander, bearing letters from her in answer to his demand of tribute, for she had heard how Alexander had followed in the footsteps of Hercules, and had gone into India, and the letters told of her land and its customs, and of the number of warriors she had, and she went on: “I wonder at thy wit, that thou purposest to fight with women, for if fortune be on our side, and if it hap that thou be overcome, then art thou shamed for evermore, when thou art overcome of women; and if our gods be wroth with us, and thou overcomest us, it shall be little honour to thee that thou hast overcome a band of women.” And when Alexander looked over the letter he laughed, and wondered on her answer, and said that it was not seemly to overcome women with sword and anger, but rather with love and noble dealing: and therefore he sent messengers to them offering friendship and a treaty. Then the queen of the Amazons came with many of her maidens, and they reached Alexander when he returned from the land of the Brahmans, and abode with him many months, and at the last they departed from him and went to their own land, being subject to his empire, not by violence, but by friendship and by love.
And after these things Alexander reared up a pillar of marble, and upon it he wrote in the tongue of the Greeks and of the Indians. Now the inscription in Greek characters was but this:—
Α Β Γ Δ Ε
the first five letters of the alphabet, and they stood for the same words as those in the Indian inscription:
ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΓΕΝΟΣ ΔΙΟΣ ΕΚΤΙΣΕ
“King Alexander the God-born built this:” and he graved it deep on the sides of the pillar.
