Nectanebus in his chamber, enchanting a basin of water: Royal MS 20 B XX, f. He could also influence the fate of battles by moulding wax figures of men and bringing them to life, only to sabotage the miniature boats in his water basin, meaning that the real enemy ships would sink. According to the Greek Alexander Romance, he would regularly procure a bronze basin of rain or spring water and would use miniature ships to predict the outcomes of sea battles. In the prime of his reign as pharaoh, Nectanebus was a skilled practitioner of astrology and divination.
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Even in texts that claimed Philip to be Alexander's real father, Nectanebus still played a key role in Alexander’s early life as his childhood mentor, teaching him how to read the stars and prophesise the future. Other authors were more sceptical and condemned them as slandering the Macedonian queen’s fidelity to her husband, King Philip II of Macedonia. Some medieval texts embraced the rumours of Alexander’s Egyptian ancestry. ‘Nectanebus King of Egypt’ enthroned, in the prose Roman d'Alexandre (Southern Netherlands, c. This Greek romance became the main source for later medieval legends of the Macedonian conqueror, many of which began with extended prologues recounting Alexander’s conception via Olympias’s (not so) secret affair with Nectanebus, the exiled pharaoh. They included legends about his life and conquests, such as the Greek Alexander Romance attributed to Pseudo-Callisthenes. Stories about Alexander’s alleged Egyptian origins gained considerable popularity during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Olympias enthroned with Nectanebus wearing a white robe and holding a case of astronomical instruments, in Le livre et la vraye hystoire du bon roy Alixandre (Paris, c. You can explore their story in our major exhibition, Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth. That boy grew up to become one of the most famous people in the ancient world: Alexander the Great. Little is known of his life thereafter, but rumours spread that Nectanebus had an affair with Olympias, queen of Macedonia, and that he fathered her illegitimate son. His rule began relatively successfully, but he fled Egypt after he was defeated by the Persian ruler, Artaxerxes III. Nectanebus II was the last pharaoh and native king of Egypt, who reigned from approximately 360 to 342 BC.
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