Pliny the Elder Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 25 August 79 AD), in his
Natural History, says that Alexander passed through the Caspian Gates, which he contrasts with the Gates of the Caucasus, a vast natural feature in a mountain chain rent asunder. Here, he says gates with iron covered beams have been placed above a horribly odorous river, along with a fortress to bar the passage of the innumerable tribes. These gates divide the world into two portions.
Josephus Josephus, a Jewish historian in the 1st century, gives the first extant reference to gates constructed by Alexander, designed to be a barrier against the
Scythians. According to this historian, the people whom the Greeks called Scythians were known (among the Jews) as Magogites, descendants of the group called
Magog in the Hebrew Bible. Josephus makes these references in two of his works.
The Jewish War states that the iron gates Alexander erected were controlled by the king of
Hyrcania (on the south edge of the Caspian), and allowing passage of the gates to the
Alans (whom Josephus considered a Scythic tribe) resulted in the sack of
Media. Josephus's
Antiquities of the Jews contains two relevant passages, one giving the ancestry of Scythians as descendants of Magog son of
Japheth, and another that refers to the Caspian Gates being breached by Scythians allied to
Tiberius during the
Armenian War.
Pseudo-Hegesippus In his description of the
Alans, Pseudo-Hegesippus follows Josephus in mentioning the construction by Alexander of an iron gate to section off the barbarian group. In the first of two references to this gate, Ps. Hegesippus, places its location at the
Taurus Mountains. This is mentioned in the context of a discussion on Alexander's founding of the
Antioch of the Orontes, and therefore represents Alexander not only as a founder of civilization but also its protector. In the second reference, it is informed that Alexander had confined the Alans among other savage nations but that, either due to a bribe or political conflict, they were able to persuade the king of
Hyrcania to let them burst out. Although not itself apocalyptic, the description of Ps. Hegesippus foreshadows the development of the apocalyptic narrative of Gog and Magog behind Alexander's wall, for it is first in his text that the notion is developed that the tribe behind the wall have actually been confined or imprisoned behind it.
Jerome Jerome states in the late-fourth century in his seventy-seventh letter that "the gates of Alexander keep back the wild peoples behind the Caucasus". Like Ps. Hegesippus, and unlike the later traditions of the Syrian church, Jerome was concerned with the Greco-Roman discourses on civilization and barbarity as opposed to apocalypse.
Rabbinic literature The story of Alexander's construction of walls to seal away and confine Gog and Magog is absent from the
rabbinic literature. before 1906
Alexander Romance The Gates occur in later versions of the
Alexander Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes. This version locates the gates between two mountains called the "Breasts of the North" (). The mountains are initially 18 feet apart and the pass is rather wide, but Alexander's prayers to
God causes the mountains to draw nearer, thus narrowing the pass. There he builds the Caspian Gates out of bronze, coating them with fast-sticking oil. The gates enclosed twenty-two nations and their monarchs, including
Gog and Magog (therein called "Goth and Magoth"). The geographic location of these mountains is rather vague, described as a 50-day march away northwards after Alexander put to flight his Belsyrian enemies (the
Bebrykes, of
Bithynia in modern-day North
Turkey).
Syriac Alexander Legend The late antique Christian
Syriac Alexander Legend transformed the gates into an apocalyptic barrier built by Alexander in the
Caucasus to keep out the nations of
Gog and Magog. This development was inspired by some elements of the historical context of the time, including dread of the northern hordes, a variety of Persian fortifications meant to seal off the movement of steppe nomads, and eschatological thinking and attitudes of the time. At its outset, the Syriac Alexander Legend (otherwise known as the
Neshana) records Alexander constructing a wall of iron to prevent an invasion of the
Huns that would result in the plunder of peoples and countries. Alexander commanded that the gate should be constructed out of iron and bronze, for which he recruited three thousand blacksmiths to work the latter and three thousand other men for the former. However, it was believed that the barbarian tribes would break through during the apocalypse. The dimensions and features of the gate are described in detail, and Alexander was said to have placed an inscription on it which reads "The Huns will come forth and subdue the countries of the Romans and Persians; they will shoot arrows with armagest and will return and enter their country. Moreover, I wrote that (at) the end of eight hundred and twenty six years, the Huns would come forth by the narrow road..." (the inscription goes on for several more pages). This prophecy whereby the Huns break through the gates is linked to the invasion of the
Sabir people in 515 AD as Syriac texts would use the Seleucid calendrical system which began in 1 October, 312 BCE; by subtracting 311 or 312, a date of 514/5 is arrived at, representing a
vaticinium ex eventu. A second prophecy of an incursion appears for 940 SE, pinpointing to 628/9 AD and corresponds with the invasion of
Armenia by the Turkic Khazars (not to be confused with a reference to the Turks which may not occur in this type of literature until the ninth century), The description of the gates of Alexander in the Syriac Alexander Legend influenced most subsequent Syriac literature describing these events.
Tiburtine Sibyl More indirect, the
Tiburtine Sibyl records that Alexander "enclosed" the people of Gog and Magog to prevent their incursion from the north, coinciding with the statement that at some point in the future they will rise again and break through.
Quran .
Persian miniature from a book of
Falnama copied for the
Safavid Shah Tahmasp I (), currently preserved in the
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. A similar narration is mentioned in
al-Kahf ("
The Cave"), the 18th chapter of the
Quran. According to the Quranic narrative, Gog and Magog ( '''') were walled off by
Dhu al-Qarnayn ("possessor of the Two Horns"), a righteous ruler and conqueror who reached the west and the east. The barrier was constructed with melted iron sheets and covered with copper. There is debate regarding whether the Quran is referring to the Gates of Alexander, or to a different fortification.
Late Medieval literature During the
Middle Ages, the Gates of Alexander story was included in travel literature such as the
Travels of Marco Polo and the
Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The identities of the nations trapped behind the wall are not always consistent, however; Mandeville claims Gog and Magog are really the
Ten Lost Tribes of
Israel, who will emerge from their prison during the
End Times and unite with their fellow
Jews to attack the
Christians.
Polo speaks of Alexander's Iron Gates, but says the
Comanians are the ones trapped behind it. He does mention Gog and Magog, however, locating them north of
Cathay. Some scholars have taken this as an oblique and confused reference to the
Great Wall of China, which he does not mention otherwise. The Gates of Alexander may represent an attempt by Westerners to explain stories from China of a great king building a great wall. Knowledge of Chinese innovations such as the compass and
south-pointing chariot is known to have been diffused (and confused) across Eurasian trade routes. Other medieval literature, such as the Latin Frankish
Chronicle of Fredegar in the first half of the seventh century and the tenth-century Armenian History of Movsēs Dasxurancʿi connected Alexander's gates especially to events during the reign of
Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor who defeated the
Sasanian Empire in their great war of the first decades of the seventh century. The medieval German legend of the
Red Jews was partially based on stories of the Gates of Alexander. The legend disappeared before the 17th century. ==Geographical identifications==