The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great: Being a Series of Ethiopic Texts Edited from Manuscripts in the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, with an English Translation and Notes

This work was first published in 1896 by E.A. Wallis Budge, a prominent and prolific Egyptologist and keeper at the British Museum. The project was conceived as a monumental academic endeavor to preserve and translate the complex Alexander Romance as it evolved within the Ethiopic literary tradition. Budge sought to bridge the gap between ancient Greek legends and their subsequent cultural transformations in the Horn of Africa, painstakingly transcribing and comparing rare manuscripts from the British Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale to establish a definitive comparative text.

The design and scholarly rigor of the volume reflect the late nineteenth-century obsession with empire-wide historical preservation and linguistic documentation. Budge’s translations were highly regarded at the time for providing Western scholars with unprecedented access to Semitic and Ge'ez versions of the Alexander cycle, though his methods and interpretive conclusions have been subject to modern academic critique. The publication remains a foundational, albeit controversial, resource for students of hagiography, folklore, and the dissemination of classical myth across Eastern cultures.