Egypt under the Sates, Persians, and Ptolemies

140 FLIGHT OF NECTANEBUS TO PELLA
at once that they had forsaken him, and that the end
of his sovereignty was at hand. He then went and
shaved his head and beard, and arrayed himself in poor
apparel, and taking with him all the money he could
carry, he fled to Pelusium and thence to Pella in
Macedonia, where he established himself as a physician,
and a soothsayer, and a reader of the stars. Nectanebus
soon gained such fame in Pella that Olympias, the wife
of Philip II. of Macedon, came by night to consult him
about her future, and to know if Philip was going to
put her away when he returned from the war, and take
another wife. Nectanebus cast the nativities of herself
and her husband, and declared that Philip did intend to
put her away, but that he was able to make him to do
otherwise ; he went on to say that it was decreed in her
fate that a god who lived on the earth should pass
a night with her, and that she should bear a son by
him who would avenge her cause on Philip. In answer
to her questions he told her further that the god was
Amen of Libya, and that he had a golden beard and
hair, that he had horns of gold on his forehead, and
that he was of " middle age," and he promised her that
she should see the god in a dream. In due course by
means of his magic Nectanebus sent a dream to
Olympias, in which she thought that the god was
embracing her, and that he promised to give her a son
who would avenge her ; when the queen awoke she
was pleased with the dream, and she went and begged
the magician Nectanebus to bring it to pass.