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[3] He went to the royal chair, put on the royal dress and bound his head with the diadem, them seated himself upon the chair and remained quiet.1 As soon as the king learned of this, he was terrified at the odd event, but walked to the chair and without showing his agitation asked the man quietly who he was and what he meant by doing this.

1 The significance of the royal throne in the Orient has appeared in chap. 66.3-7 (66.3, note). If the man was a native, he may have regarded it as a sanctuary, or at least as a place of refuge from the pursuing guards; in Arrian's account, they did not venture to remove him by force "because of some Persian custom." (According to the anecdote traced back to Trogus by O. Seel (Pompeius Trogus, Fragmenta, 1956, 109 f.), it was "capital" for anyone to sit on the throne of the king of Persia.) Plut. Alexander 73.4, states that he was a Greek. It is possible that he did not put on the royal garments, but merely held them. Later references to the significance of the throne are Dio 50.10.2; 56.29.1; Script. Hist. Aug. Septimius Severus 1.9.

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