"Derkyllis, daughter of Mnason lived, 39 years, then 760 nights" "Mantinias, son of Mnason lived, 42 years, then 706 nights" "Aristion, son of Philocles lived 47 years, then 52 years" "Mnason, son of Mantinias lived 66 years, then 71 years" Indeed, escorted by his generals Hephaistion and Parmenion, Alexander steps into a hypogeium, which contains several stone sarcophagi, adorned with peculiar inscriptions: Balagros reports that after the conquest of Tyros, a soldier approached Alexander, and notified the king, of a rather strange discovery. Balagros sends the letter to his wife -also historic- Phila, the eldest daughter of Antipater. It was written by a Greek, Balagros, who had been a member of the Somatophylax Guard, historically attested in the service of Alexander the Great. However, the novel's first frame actually is a letter, obviously discovered by Faustinus.
A corresponding letter of the author follows a dedication to his own sister, also Isidora. He's even off to Tyros, looking for marvels for his sister Isidora, who basically loves reading books. The novel begins in an outermost layer where the author writes about a certain Roman fellow, Faustinus, reporting on his travels in search of books. Yet the few surviving papyrus fragments do extend our knowledge of the structure and content of the novel significantly.Įven though Photios initially praises the work in high notes, for its style clarity and its plot credibility, the summary of the content that he presents, creates a confusing impression, mainly because of the many nested levels of narration. Two sections at Porphyry also survive partially, where the Apista are used as a historical source for his Life of Pythagoras, but neither are all that helpful about the plot. What is known of the content of the novel today, we owe it to Photius, who left a brief summary in his lengthy volume of what-is-worth-to-read, Myriobiblos, which he made for his idle brother, Tarasios, to choose from which books to read.
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