Monthly Archives: May 2014

The Foundation of Alexandria

Posted on May 28, 2014 by M J Mann

For the other posts in the series, click here

The following account of the foundation of Alexandria is not historical. It comes from The Life of Alexander of Macedon (Longmans, Green and Co. 1955) by an unknown author named Pseudo-Callisthenes.

According to the translator, Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, the Life was written around c. AD 300 although it is likely based on much a much older text dating, it seems, to just after Alexander’s death.

Now they began to construct Alexandria from the plain of Mesos and the district took its name from the fact that the building of the city began there…

[Alexander] directed that the digging of the foundations should proceed only in one place, namely exactly where a great hill appeared which is called Kopria. And when he had prepared the foundations of the greatest part of the city and planned it, he inscribed five letters Α Β Γ Δ Ε, Α for Alexander, Β for βασιλεύς (king), Γ for γἐνος, (son), Δ for Δίος (of a god), and E for the initial of the phrase beginning ἔκτισε (built the city).

alexandria1
… [Alexander] constructed a very great altar in front of the Heroon, which is now called the Altar of Alexander. Then he made a sumptuous sacrifice, and offered this prayer: “Whatever god thou art who dost protect this land and dost survey the boundless world, accept the sacrifice and be my helper against my foes.” With these words, he placed the sacrifice on the altar. Then suddenly a great eagle, swooping down, seized the viscera of the offering and bearing them through the air put them down upon another altar… [Alexander] went… in haste and saw the viscera lying on the altar and a temple built in antiquity and a seated wooden image inside, which mortal tongue could not describe… Now he made enquiries of the natives there as to who the god was…

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The mysterious god turned out to be Sarapis. He appeared to Alexander in a dream and prophesied the rise of Alexandria to him, and the Macedian king’s destiny:

…
By my authority, you in your youth
Shall all the tribes barbarian subdue.
And have a longed-for city, queen of the world.
And, after many seasons and times pass,
It shall be famed among the brave, adorned
By many temples, many varied shrines,
Famed for its beauty, size, inhabitants.
And every traveller shall come to stay,
Forgetful of the land where he was born.
And of this city I shall be the god
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… everywhere and always in your life
Shall mortals reverence you as if a god,
And dying you shall be a god indeed,
Receive obeisance and the gifts of kings.
Here in this city always you shall dwell
In life and death. The city which you built.
Shall be your tomb. This I, your sire, swear,
O Alexander…
alexandria3

Categories: Mapping Alexander | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

c. 320 B.C.

Posted on May 27, 2014 by M J Mann

I was looking at pictures for The Second Achilles‘ Pinterest page this morning, and came across this one of Hephaestion.
The head is owned by J Paul Getty Museum. Here is their description of it,

This head of Hephaistion, broken from a full-length statue, was originally part of a multi-figured group, which might have depicted a sacrificial scene. The J. Paul Getty Museum has more than thirty fragments of this group. The participants include Alexander, Hephaistion, a goddess, Herakles, a flute player, and several other figures, as well as animals and birds. This group may have served as a funerary monument for some nobleman who wanted to associate himself with Alexander, or it might be a monument erected in response to Alexander’s call for the creation of a hero cult.

I have to admit, I’ve seen the bust before and not given it too much consideration. This time, however, my attention was immediately drawn to the date of its carving; according to J Paul Getty, the statue was carved c. 320 B.C.
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If that is correct (and I am not in a position to say otherwise) the statue was carved as few as four years after Hephaestion’s death and, of course, three after Alexander’s.
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For me, the statue’s production after Hephaestion’s death is very significant as it provides proof that Hephaestion was remembered after his death, which is not an impression I get from the books I have read about Alexander’s life and times. Of course, that may be because I have not read enough or, understandably, because the writer’s focus has been elsewhere.
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Happily, though, someone, somewhere (according to the text accompanying the head of Alexander [below] the group was found in Megara, Greece) thought either that Hephaestion’s presence was necessary to a correct remembrance of Alexander or that he - Hephaestion - was worth remembering in his own right (as Alexander wanted): as a hero.
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This knowledge makes feel as if I have - even if just for a moment - gone below history: past the partisan writings of people like Ptolemy and Aristobulos and their successors, Arrian and Plutarch, which are prone to blank out events and forget people not relevant to their agenda, and into someone’s actual life; out of the library and right up to someone’s doorstep. Alas, for the want of knowledge which means I can go no further!
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Sadly for me, I am probably romanticising the truth. According to J Paul Getty, the head of Alexander is an idealised image. If that is the case, I expect the head of Hephaestion is as well. In fact, I would be most surprised if it was not. It is as partisan an image, therefore, as Ptolemy et al are writers.
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But maybe I shouldn’t worry too much. The head, after all, is still proof of Hephaestion’s continuing importance after his death and that is something that - up until this morning - I did not have a great sense of.
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I may not have gone below history but I have taken a further step into it, which is no less thrilling.

Categories: Alexander and... | Tags: , , | 1 Comment

Fever Pitch

Posted on May 20, 2014 by M J Mann

This afternoon, after finishing the last of my posts on Plutarch’s Women, I continued reading Paradise Lost by Giles Milton, which is an account of the destruction of Smyrna in 1922.

According to Pausanias, Alexander refounded Smyrna during his passage through Asia Minor*. I’m still early on in the book so don’t yet know who - if anyone - Milton blames for the city’s loss to a great fire that killed many thousands of people in September 1922; Wikipedia says that both the Turkish troops who took control of the city just four days before its devastation have been blamed as have Greeks and Armenians who lived there.

The reason I mention Smyrna here is not to discuss the fire but on account of a man named Alfred Simes.

In the last chapter of his Life of Alexander, Plutarch gives a day-by-day account of Alexander’s last illness. The Macedonian king developed a fever following a drinking party. For a few days he was able to bathe, play games, sacrifice and talk to his officers. On the third night, however, the fever grew worse. From the next day until his death Alexander was bedridden. On the eighth day he lost the ability to speak. On the tenth day, ‘he died’.

What was the ultimate cause of Alexander’s death? Plutarch discusses the allegation that he was poisoned on Antipater’s orders. Plutarch is sceptical that this happened as Alexander’s body did not decompose in the days following his death.

Now, it often happens that when a famous person dies, conspiracy theories regarding their death spring up. A mysterious bike rider was supposedly seen at the scene of the accident that killed T. E. Lawrence. How was 93 year old Rudolph Hess able to hang himself in Spandau Prison? Surely it was murder.

Events also breed conspiracies. Why did the twin towers of the World Trade Centre fall in the way they did? Why were there no Jews in the Towers at the time? Allowing for the fact that just because something is a conspiracy theory that does not mean it is therefore false, we do - as a race - find it difficult sometimes to accept that the most rational explanation for an occurrence is the correct one. On other occasions, of course, the conspiracy theory relies on the propagation of out and out falsehoods for its life.

The length of time that has passed between Alexander’s death and the present makes it hard to reach a definitive judgement regarding the cause of his death one way or another. I do suspect, though, that when we look for conspiracies we fly in the face of the simplest - and in this case, best - answer to what happened; namely, that he caught a bug and that it killed him.

The problem with saying that is that it does feel too simple an explanation. Alexander was a tough man! He was also an very injured one - not just physically by psychologically. It is here that I come back to Alfred Simes. His father died in 1916. Here is his account of what happened, as recorded by Milton,

‘He went fishing in the torrential rain,’ recalls Alfred, ‘and fell ill with a fever soon after.’ With no medication available [due to a British Naval blockade of Smyrna’s port], he died after an illness lasting just a few days.

Alfred Simes was just five years old when his father died. I daresay he thought his father a strong, perhaps indestructible, man as well. Despite this, like Alexander, Mr Simes died after doing no more than catching a bug and developing a fever. Sadly, these things happen.

Of course, this is a fact that I knew before I wrote this post. What Paradise Lost has done is connect me to the past - and enabled me to appreciate it more - through an event that happened in the present. Well, not the present but when you are considering an event that took place 2,337 years ago, 100 years is hardly more than yesterday.

* See Alexander the Great’s Dream of the Nemeses at Smyrna

Categories: Of The Moment, Plutarch's Women | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Plutarch’s Women: The Susa Weddings, Olympias, Roxane & Philinna (Chapts. 70 and 77)

Posted on May 20, 2014 by M J Mann

For the other posts in this series click here

The Susa Weddings
Chapter 70 of Plutarch’s Life of Alexander opens with Alexander hosting a drinking contest. Sadly for the winner he was only able to enjoy his prize - more wine - for three days before dying. Plutarch doesn’t give his cause of death but if he had said it was alcohol poisoning I would not have been surprised. It certainly seems to have been the cause-of-death of the other forty one (forty one!) people who are said to have died following the contest.

Immediately after his account of this deadly party, Plutarch gives a brief account of the famous Susa Weddings. On this occasion, we are told, Alexander married Stateira ‘the [eldest] daughter of Darius’ and assigned ‘the noblest of the Persian women to the bravest of his men’. Furthermore, he ‘also invited to a collective wedding-banquet the Macedonians who had already married Persian wives’. It was a very great feast with 9,000 in attendance.

Plutarch does not have anything else to say about the weddings but if you would like to know more, Arrian contains further details. He states that Alexander also married Parysatis, the daughter of Ochus, while Hephaestion married Stateira’s sister, Drypetis; Craterus married Amastrine, daughter of Oxyatres; Perdiccas married an unnamed daughter of Atropates; Ptolemy married Artacama, daughter of Artabazus, and Eumenes married Artacama’s sister, Artonis.

As a result of reading Arrian, what becomes clear to me is that Plutarch’s assertion that Alexander married the noblest women to the bravest men is not all of the story. Let’s take a quick look at the fathers of the brides mentioned above.

  • Darius - Darius III the former Great King.
  • Ochus - Artaxerxes III Ochus, who was Great King between 358 - 338 B.C. Diodorus says Bagoas the eunuch (not the Bagoas whom Alexander was fond of) poisoned him, but according to Wikipedia there is a cuneiform tablet at the British Museum which says Ochus died of natural causes.
  • Oxyatres - Darius III’s brother.
  • Atropates - Governor of Media so a nobleman who remained in Alexander’s service after (?) Darius’ death and performed good service for him.
  • Artabazus - grandson of Artaxerxes II (who reigned 405/4 - 359/8 B.C.). I presume, therefore, that he was a senior member of the Persian nobility?

While I have no doubt that Alexander’s officers were all brave men, Eumenes’ presence in Arrian’s list makes me think that politics was an important factor in Alexander’s decision making regarding which woman was given to which man. After all, as far as I am aware, Eumenes played no significant role in any of the great battles.

One final point - I am surprised that Arrian does not name Perdiccas’ wife. I presume her name was not known to him? Perhaps this is an example of Ptolemy’s alleged bias against Perdiccas?

Olympias
We now jump forward to the final chapter of Plutarch’s Life - Chapter 77. Alexander has just died following an illness that lasted ten days. Plutarch says that,

[n]obody had any suspicion at the time that Alexander had been poisoned, but it is said that five years afterwards some information was given, on the strength of which Olympias put many men to death…

Now, it’s perfectly possible that in 318 B.C., the truth about what happened to Alexander finally came out.

Or maybe…

In 319 B.C. Antipater died. Before his death, he appointed Polyperchon - rather than his son, Cassander - his successor as Alexander IV’s guardian. This was ‘… to avoid giving the impression that he was trying to set up an Antipatrid dynasty’ (Waterfield Dividing the Spoils p. 73).

This move led to war between Cassander and Polyperchon. For his part, Cassander soon won the support of Antigonus, and (though to a lesser extent) Ptolemy and Lysimachus. Polyperchon, however, was short of friends. He kept going, though, and by 317 B.C. had convinced Olympias to back him.

Could it be possible that this alliance was rooted in a message sent by Polyperchon to Olympias the previous year in which he intimated that Antipater had ordered his sons, Cassander and Iollas, to assassinate Alexander? It would certainly explain why Olympias very vindictively ordered Iollas’ ashes (he died on an unknown occasion between 323 - 317 B.C.) to be scattered.

If Polyperchon did make this allegation ‘five years afterwards’ we can be sure that Olympias would soon connect the dots and fear that just as he had killed her son Cassander would, if he had the chance, kill her grandson. Which is precisely what did, in the end, happen.

For his part, though, Plutarch is sceptical that Alexander was poisoned. He cites the lack of corruption in the king’s body in the day’s following his death as proof of this.

Roxane
Moving on, at the time of Alexander’s death,

… Roxane was expecting a child and she was therefore held in special honour by the Macedonians. But she was jealous of Alexander’s second wife, Stateira, whom she tricked into visiting her… [w]hen she… got her into her power, she had her murdered, together with her sister, threw the bodies into a well and filled it up with earth. In this crime her accomplice was Perdiccas…

Roxane’s actions are altogether horrible but before we condemn her out of hand we have to ask ourselves what would have happened had Stateira (and Drypetis) lived? Given half a chance, would they have let Roxane alone? Perhaps Stateira and Drypetis were in a weak position as they were Persian and - in the former’s case - had not had time to bear Alexander any children but given their family connections I can’t believe that had Roxane and Perdiccas not murdered them they would have been allowed to slip into obscurity like Bagoas.

Philinna and Olympias
The penultimate reference to a woman is Philinna who Plutarch describes as being ‘obscure and humbly born’. She is mentioned here because she was also Philip III Arrhidaeus’ mother. Plutarch has no more to say about Philinna but one more allegation to make against Olympias. He says that she,

… was believed to have given [Philip III Arrhidaeus] drugs which impaired the functions of his body and irreparably injured his brain.

And that is the end of the book. Plutarch has ended it on a bit of gossip. It should come, I suppose, as no surprise - he has not liked Olympias since the start. Perhaps she really was an unlikable person but I’m not sure she was worse than any of the men.

I have enjoyed reading Plutarch’s Life of Alexander. Thinking about what I have read, I shall always be a little disappointed that he did not deepen his narrative to allow us a little more insight into the character of the women he mentions. I understand that his focus is Alexander and not anyone else - male or female - but it is a shame that they both really just have walk on-walk off parts. I shall always appreciate the Life for reminding me of the existence of obscure people like Philinna, above, and Telesippus but the one thing that has really struck me about the narrative is Plutarch’s deficient treatment of Olympias in the early chapters. He could have treated her better.

Categories: Plutarch's Women | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

St Alexander and Heroes on the Stage

Posted on May 13, 2014 by M J Mann

From the Boston Business Journal (11.5.14),

On his deathbed Alexander the Great summoned his generals and told them his three ultimate wishes:

The best doctors should carry his coffin.

The wealth he had accumulated (money, gold, precious stones) should be scattered along the way to his burial.

His hands should be left hanging outside the coffin for all to see.

Surprised by these unusual requests, one of his generals asked Alexander to explain. Here is what he said: “I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal. I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everybody sees that the wealth acquired on earth, stays on earth. I want my hands to swing in the wind so that people understand that we come to this world empty-handed and we leave empty-handed after the most precious treasure of all is exhausted — time.”

The article provides eight tips for effective time management in the workplace. You can read it here.
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As for Alexander, did he really speak those words? I would say ‘no’ but as I have not read all the sources I am not in a position to do so. Instead, I’ll settle for I very much doubt it.
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My reason for this is that, in my opinion, the humility and detachment from worldly things expressed in the quotation belongs to the Christian era rather than B.C. period. What we are reading here, therefore, as worthy as it is in its own way, is simply the result of someone co-opting Alexander for the furtherance of their own agenda. It’s a shame they could not find a Saint to help them make their point.
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And from the Chicago Tribune (12.5.14),

On Friday, May 9th, East Lake Academy celebrated Grandparents’ Day with a special Mass in honor of some very important people: ELA’s 2014 first communicants, the ELA 8th grade class of 2014, ELA grandparents, and the Blessed Mother, Mary.

Another tradition also took place: the annual Grandparents’ Day 5th Grade Class Play. This year, the 5th graders performed “Tales of Ancient Greece,” an original piece written and directed by the class (with some help from their teacher) that follows the story of Greece from its mythical beginnings during the Trojan war up to the rise of Alexander the Great almost a millennium later.

Read the full report here.
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It’s good to see Alexander on the stage again, even if he had to share it with sundry other Greek heroes!

Categories: Of The Moment | Tags: | Leave a comment

Plutarch’s Women: Antigone, Frenzied Women, Olympias & Cleopatra, Women of Persis (Chapts. 48, 49, 67 - 69)

Posted on May 12, 2014 by M J Mann

For the other posts in this series click here

Antigone
We start this post with the effective beginning of the Philotas Affair. In Chapter 48 of his Life of Alexander, Plutarch tells us how Philotas, while being an extremely generous man was also a proud one; so much so that even his father, Parmenion, was obliged to ask him to tone his behaviour down.
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Unfortunately, the warning didn’t work. Perhaps it was too late. For, as Plutarch says,

… accusations against Philotas had been reaching Alexander for many years.

The beginning of the end came after Parmenion captured Darius III’s treasure in Damascus. He brought numerous prisoners to the Macedonian camp, one of whom was a ‘beautiful girl’ named Antigone. She became Philotas’ lover.
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Over time, Philotas boasted to Antigone that Alexander’s achievements were actually due to Parmenion and himself. According to Plutarch, Philotas,

[spoke] of Alexander as a mere boy who owed his title of ruler to their efforts.

Plutarch says that Philotas’ boastings were fuelled by alcohol. However much Antigone had drunk, she remembered what he said and shared it with a friend. Who then told another friend. Before long, Philotas’ indiscreet words reached the ear of Alexander. He had Antigone brought before him and ordered her to spy on Philotas for him.
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There is no indication in the text that Antigone was acting maliciously when she repeated Philotas’ words to her friend. I imagine they were friends simply catching up with each other’s news and the latest gossip. If so, being hauled before Alexander must have been a big shock for her. According to Heckel*, Plutarch describes Antigone as a gynaion, which means a ‘weak, little woman’**. If indeed she was, meeting Alexander would have been terrifying.
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Antigone appears one more time, at the start of Chapter 49, when Plutarch records that

… in his conversations with Antigone he uttered many indiscretions and often spoke slightingly of the king, sometimes through anger and sometimes through boastfulness…

It is a great shame we don’t know anything more solid about Antigone’s character or her relationship with Philotas other than what Plutarch tells us. Whether or not Philotas was a means to an end for her, spying on him could not have been easy. Who knows what stresses it caused. Such information is now, it seems, lost to history.
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Frenzied Women
After Antigone, there are no further references to any women until Chapter 67. Alexander is now on his way back to Babylon, reclining on a couch set on a large wheeled platform at the head of a ‘Bacchanalian procession’. As Alexander sat with his companions, feasting day and night, the Macedonian soldiers behind him ambled along,

… dipping their cups, drinking-horns or earthenware goblets into huge casks and misxinf bowls… as they marched…

… except, that is, for those who had given up walking and were now ‘sprawled by the wayside’!
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Drinking was not the only order of the day, though,

… the whole landscape resounded with the music of pipes and flutes, with harping and singing and the cries of women rapt with the divine frenzy…

This puts me in mind of Olympias’ ‘Orphic religion’, which Plutarch describes in Chapter 2 (and which I wrote about in this post), the rites of which she celebrated with such wild abandon.
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Olympias and Cleopatra
Speaking of Olympias, she is referenced again - along with Alexander’s sister Cleopatra - in Chapter 68. Unsurprisingly, given Plutarch’s view of the queen, we find her ‘intriguing against Antipater’. In fact, according to Plutarch, she and Cleopatra had done no less than taken Epirus (Olympias) and Macedon (Cleopatra) for themselves.

When Alexander heard of this, he remarked that his mother had made the wiser choice, since the Macedonians would never tolerate being governed by a woman.

This, of course, is not wholly true. Macedonians were happy to be led into war by Adea Euridike in 317 B.C. And who knows, if the soldiers hadn’t realised that the army opposite was being led by Olympias, Euridike might have won and had a chance at ruling Macedon properly.
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Women of Persis
In Chapter 69, Plutarch gives an account of how Alexander ‘distributed money to the women’ of Persis, which was a ‘custom of the Persian kings’. Or most of them, anyway; Plutarch names and shames Ochus who ‘never set foot’ in Persis despite it being his native country. ‘[h]e was mean enough to exile himself from his native land’. Alexander’s actions again recall how Plutarch says he avoided meeting the Persian Royal family or indeed women in general in order to prove himself better (i.e. more chaste) than the Persians.

* Waldemar Heckel Who’s Who in the World of Alexander the Great (2009)
** I am indebted to a kind friend, EY, for this information. Further to the above, when used by a husband/lover, gynaion becomes a term of endearment, meaning simply ‘little woman’

Categories: Plutarch's Women | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Egypt: A Modern Gordian Knot

Posted on May 8, 2014 by M J Mann

In antiquity, Greeks did not completely accept Macedonians as being one of them. Herodotus (V. 22) tells us that Alexander I (reigned 498-454 B.C.) was permitted to take part in the Olympic Games, but only after proving his Greek descent.
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Today, of course, the country has no doubt and is rightly proud of the achievement of Macedon’s most famous son, Alexander the Great. In proof of this, here is the first paragraph of an article on the Al Arabiya News website.

When Greek Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos met with presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on April 28, he presented him with the Sword of Alexander in appreciation of Sisi’s status and efforts. Some, however, have questioned the sword’s significance and why it was given to him.

You can read the full article here. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is a Field Marshal in the Egyptian army, and the leading candidate to become the country’s next president following the downfall of Mohamed Morsi last summer.
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The BBC website has an article about Sisi here. As I don’t know a great deal about Egyptian politicians I can’t vouch for its fairness but I trust that the BBC - while not being a perfect organisation - would not publish anything hopelessly bad.
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One thing that jumped out at me as I read the BBC article was this quotation from Sisi regarding a dream he had had,

I saw President Sadat, and he told me that he knew he would be president of Egypt, so I responded that I knew I would be president too.

It immediately reminded me of the way Alexander’s Successors claimed to see/speak to Alexander in their dreams as part of their political strategy. By-the-bye I can just about remember seeing the footage of Anwar Sadat being assassinated in 1981; it is interesting to see that his memory has not been forgotten in the last thirty or so years.
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To go back to the article, though, the gift of the sword is a dramatically two-sided one. The article explains that it was given to Sisi as a symbol of his bravery for standing,

…by the Egyptian people on June 30 last year [upon the fall of Morsi]. He struck a knot and took a brave stance. This is what Egypt needs, and what Sisi needs to do.

But, of course, swords are not instruments of peace and one might also say that Dimitris Avramopoulos’s gift also alludes not only to Sisi’s military background but the ability that the Field Marshal will have - if he becomes president - to orchestrate violent actions in defence of his rule. I know it could be said that as a high ranking military official he already has that ability. But either way, whoever wins the election, I hope and pray that peace is restored to Egypt and her people.

Categories: Modern Politics | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Wu of Han a Very Manly Man - More So Than Alexander

Posted on May 6, 2014 by M J Mann

I first ‘met’ Edith Hall in 2011 when she and her then colleagues at the Royal Holloway Classics Department put on some meetings to support the Department against the RHU bean counters who wanted to close it. I wrote about them on my general literary blog, here, here, and here).
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Happily, the university eventually decided to keep the Classics Department going. Sadly for her colleagues, though, Professor Hall decided to move on; today, she is professor of Classics at King’s College, London.
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Thanks to Blazeaglory, a commenter to this blog, I now ‘meet’ Professor Hall again; this time, I am pleased to say, in more playful mood. On 29th March this year, she posted an entry to her blog with the neatly provocative title Making Alexander the Great Look Like A Wimp.
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The man with this honour is Wu of Han, a Chinese Emperor of the second century B.C.
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His claim to fame is that he ‘vastly expanded’ China’s borders. This puts him on the level of Philip II. Alexander created and immeasurably expanded the borders of his empire.
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He embraced Confucianism and ‘killed tens of thousands’ (in support of it). Alexander, of course, was open to all religions. We must admit though, Alexander was not averse to bloodshed.
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Wu also founded ‘an Imperial Music School’, which really puts him on the level of Ptolemy I Soter and Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
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Wu ruled for 54 years, and in that time ‘developed weirdness and paranoia’. In respect of the latter, this puts him on the level of those Roman Emperors who wanted to be Alexander but were also mentally unhinged.
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Wu executed his magicians who could not make him immortal. Silly man for not following Alexander’s lead and going to Siwah.
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He also executed his infertile wife’s attendants after accusing her of witchcraft. This puts him very firmly below Alexander who respected women greatly - even if, as I sometimes think, it was for egotistical reasons.
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Wu ‘went on expensive imperial tours with a vast entourage’. This reminds me more of Demetrius the Besieger than Alexander. Wu also ’emptied the national treasury’ which puts him on the level of Harpalus.
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Wu ‘suppressed’ peasant revolts. Here, we must again admit that he is the equal of Alexander. And he suffered ‘psychotic delusions’. Alexander was never mad, and neither did he drive anyone to suicide (Wu’s wife and heir both died this way).
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On the issue of Alexander’s mental health, since finishing my reading of Arrian for the Letters series, I have been thinking about the view that he became a megalomaniac in later life. I didn’t sense that from Arrian. Though, perhaps that is not a surprise as he is very pro-Alexander, as were his sources. But this is certainly something I’d like to look into more. Through Curtius, for example?
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But going back to Edith Hall - obviously a direct comparison between Wu and Alexander is impossible. They lived in different ages with different motivations and circumstances to influence their behaviour.
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Apart from the opportunity to learn about another historical figure what makes Professor Hall’s blog post really valuable today is the reminder it gives me to look at Alexander’s mental health. On another day, it might suggest another new line of thought or study. The ability to open doors - the beauty of blogs and books.

Categories: Alexander and... | Tags: , | 4 Comments

Alexander Down Under

Posted on May 6, 2014 by M J Mann

If you would ever like to write to me, you are more than welcome to do so - my e-mail address is thesecondachilles [at] gmail.com. I welcome all comments, (constructive) criticism, or e-mails written simply to say hello.
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The reason I mention my e-mail now is because I have just been into my account and set up an alert in the name of “Alexander the Great”. Google will now search the web on my behalf and report back any usages of Alexander’s name.
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This will be my second attempt to make use of the Alert feature; the first was a while ago and, I have to admit, wasn’t terribly successful. That’s not to say that it didn’t bring back any results but that the results it did return were as often as not sportsmen etc whose name was Alexander and had been nicknamed the Great. All very good for them, but not so much for me!
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Upon a whim, I have decided to give the feature a second go. Now that I think about it, I might add the name of Alexander’s generals to the alert, although sadly I have my doubts as to how many people are talking about them. If that is the case, at least I won’t be constantly getting references to ice hockey or basketball players called Antigonus Monophthalmus or Ptolemy I Soter.
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That aside, no sooner than I entered Alexander’s name this morning than I got a very interesting return - a play in Australia about his rise to the throne of Macedon.

SONS of Anarchy meets Greek tragedy in a black comedy performed at the Oxley Bowls Club this week.

Written by first-time playwright Shae Riches, Alexander tells the story of Alexander the Great struggling to claim his birthright and become the next King of Macedon.

Except it’s not a crown, it’s a presidency. And it’s not Macedon, it’s a bikie gang.

You can read the full report in the Courier Mail here.
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The concept of transplanting Alexander’s story to a bike gang is an interesting one, although I’m not sure I like the idea of it being treated as a black comedy. Having said that, I once saw a production of Euripides’ Helen* that was, if I remember correctly, had been translated into cockney English. On paper the dialogue looked awful but when heard on the stage it was brilliant so, of course, it is best not to judge before seeing.
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The play, titled Alexander, has been written by a student named Shae Riches. He says that it,

“… strips bare the meaning of ‘family’ … This is a tale in which nothing is as it seems and everything is permitted.”

The concept of what is a family is always worth thinking about, whether in our own day or antiquity. For example, can anything meaningfully called ‘family’ exist among people who are prepared - and do - kill their relations in order to obtain/keep power?
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I don’t recognise the idea that ‘everything is permitted’ as it relates to Alexander. He had firm boundaries within which he had to work. If he hadn’t, I am sure that more people would have died by the time he took his place on the Macedonian throne. However, that is just a first thought; in the first instance, it is good to see that Alexander’s story is inspiring a new generation of playwrights and actors. I hope the play is a success.

* Translated by Frank McGuinness

Categories: Alexander on the Stage | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Today’s Tomb of Alexander Report

Posted on May 1, 2014 by M J Mann

Last August it was The Daily Mail (see my blog post here), this week an on-line publication I had not previously heard of called World News Daily Report claims that the tomb of Alexander the Great might have been found. You can read the report here.
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Having read the report a couple of times these are my thoughts.

  • As a candidate for Alexander’s tomb the site reportedly discovered by the Polish archaeological team is a good one as it is in Alexandria. Against that, I thought the area of the city where the royal complex - and thus, Soma, where Alexander was buried - fell into the sea after an earthquake. Am I wrong?
  • I presume the ‘Polish Center of Archaeology’ is the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archeology
  • No one from the PCMA is named in the piece even though it cites information presumably uncovered by the archaeologists. I have no idea if this is significant! [It probably is - see the Update below]
  • Carbon dating will not tell us whether the bones that the report says have been recovered are Alexander’s or not. All carbon dating can do is give us an indication of how old the bones are. Quite a different thing
  • For all we know, the bones could belong to a Ptolemy

The World News Daily Report certainly appears to be a very intriguing one but until we get more information from the archaeologists who have made this discovery we would be wise to remain cautious.
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UPDATE
As I finished writing the above, I took a quick look at Rogue Classicism to see if it mentioned this report. It does, and - unsurprisingly? - the report appears to be a hoax. Read more here. I am very relieved to have hedged my bets when I wrote this post!
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As for Alexander, the search goes on.

Categories: Of The Moment | 2 Comments

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