For more than two thousand years, the life and acts of Alexander the Great have been the subjects of numerous works, songs and poems. Of the legendary history of Alexander, every version known is based upon the Greek history of him falsely attributed to Callisthenes, his companion and friend. This Syriac version, translated between the seventh and ninth centuries, represents one of the oldest forms of the story, older probably than any other known version.

E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was the Curator of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum from 1894 to 1924. He is known for publishing texts, with English translations, from Coptic, Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopian, and Egyptian manuscripts. Budge was knighted in 1920. He died November 23, 1934 in London.