ABSTRACT
In 1889 E.A. Wallis Budge edited a few Syriac texts about Alexander the Great including the Syriac version of the Alexander Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes. Among these was the first edition of a Syriac work called Neshanâ dîleh d-Aleksandrôs, roughly “The Glorious Deeds of Alexander,” extant in the same five manuscripts as the Syriac Alexander Romance.1 Though often discussed in the context of the Alexander Romance tradition, and clearly inspired by traditions about Alexander’s conquests like the Romance, this Neshanâ is nevertheless an entirely different work with its own history and a different story to tell (to be dealt with later in detail). Budge named it “A Christian Legend Concerning Alexander” to distinguish it from the Alexander Romance itself. Recent scholarship has shortened this name to “the Alexander Legend” to distinguish it from the Alexander Romance. I follow this convention here.
