Egypt is under threat from an alliance led by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and…

Nectanebus, king of Egypt, who was Alexander's father, was at that time the most adept of all men in astronomy and astrology and the science of enchantments… He took his astrolabe and quadrant and began to examine the stars, and saw that the planet then ascendant was hostile to the Egyptians and smiling on the Persians. As soon as he realised this he went to another room and called for a barber and had his head and his beard shaved; then he took as much gold and silver as he thought he'd need and all the things required for the arts of magic and mathematics, and changed his clothes and left the land so secretly that no one knew what had become of him…

Leaving Egypt he went to a land called Pelusium and from there to Ethiopia where he dressed in white samite in the manner of Egyptian prophets; and thus clad he made his way to the kingdom of Macedon, where he lived for a long while without anyone knowing who he was; and to all who came to him for counsel he would give guidance and divination of things to come…