Travels with Alexander the Great

[magicmountain]

Alexander the Great: murdered in Babylon, resurrected in Skopje
By Sam Vaknin - posted Thursday, 18 August 2011

Summarizing a book, Graham Phillips "Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon" (Virgin Books, 2004) Vaknin characterizes ATG as a narcissistic psychopath.


http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=12473&page=0

In his review of A first-rate madness: Uncovering links between leadership and mental illness Thomas Mallon writes:

'After examining the psychological histories of a few living leaders and a necropolis of power, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts University Medical Center, is ready to proclaim a link between madness and achievement that is usually reserved for poets, not prime ministers: ‘‘Depression makes leaders more realistic and empathic, and mania makes them more creative and resilient.’’ '

Some in this day and age may seek to medicalise the violence of Alexander's campaigns based on today's norms. Nevertheless I struggle to see how a self-absorbed tyrant could attract such love that his army clamoured to be able to salute Alexander one last time as he lay on his deathbed.

[magicmountain]

Having had the opportunity to visit this wonderful exhibition recently myself, I thought this review by Anthony Organ excels anything I might attempt. I was especially entranced by the life-sized figure of a wild beast under attack by a dog on its back which stood in the area of the gymnasium in the palace at Aegae. It was strange knowing that Alexander as a boy must have seen this statue on a daily basis.

The current special exhibition at the Ashmolean museum in Oxford chronicles the lives and times of both Macedonian royalty and peasants through over 500 archaeological discoveries spread across three galleries.

As a keen student of ancient history I approached this exhibit with very high expectations. I had already read in advance of the esteemed historian Robin Lane Fox breaking down into tears upon coming into contact with a golden diadem (ornamental headband) worn by Meda, wife of the king Philip II, and so knew that this exhibit would be particularly special. Many of the objects on show have never before been available to view in the public domain.

Even though arriving only half an hour after the museum opened, upon entering the exhibit I was somewhat taken aback by how busy it was. Most of the visitors were fairly elderly but there were relatively youthful faces as well as children in the mix as well. As a member of staff opened the door to take my ticket he helpfully pointed me to a good place to start, anticipating that it would be fairly easy to soon find yourself lost amongst the exhibits. The first room is the King's gallery in which there are displays of various artifacts found mostly in male royal tombs. On the wall as you enter is a short introduction as well as a time line of the Temenid kings, beginning with Heracles, moving from mythical to historical with Amyntas I (550-498 BCE), before finishing with Alexander IV (323/317-310/308 BCE), son of Alexander the Great and the last Macedonian king.

As you move your way around the room you come face-to-face with the artifacts which, coming from mostly male tombs, include many tools and weapons such as spearheads and complete swords. Some objects are in better condition than others and each one is accompanied by a description and estimated age. It is near impossible not to feel a certain sense of wonder upon realising that you are standing inches away from an object which could date back as far as 1300 BCE, making it almost three and a half millennia old. As well as small objects within glass cases are remains of statues which are life-size and larger. Each set of objects is also accompanied by more general commentary which allows you to better understand life in Macedonian times and hence better understand the objects before your eyes.

As you reach the end of the room you turn right to find an even larger gallery known as the Queen's gallery which showcases, amongst other things, jewellery, toiletries and religious symbols. Made from precious metals, a large proportion of the jewellery is still in very good condition and the lighting is perfect to allow it to glisten brightly. There are a large number of perfume bottles, including several in the shapes of people or birds, which you can't help but wonder might still influence some designers to this day. There is also a wall at the end in which five female silhouettes are adorned in the decorations found on the "Lady of Aegae" and four priestesses and dating to around 500 BCE. The "Lady" herself in the middle is most interesting as she is outlined with thin gold, decorated with mythical scenes including Theseus slaying the minotaur and Odysseus blinding the cyclops Polyphemus, all of which can still be discerned if one looks hard enough.

It is this room which features the aforementioned diadem which reduced Mr. Lane Fox to tears. The object, dating to 336 BCE, almost has a case to itself and only shares it with several gold discs each decorated with a star, the symbol of Macedonian royalty. The object is evidence of remarkable craftsmanship and is shaped like myrtle which was sacred to Aphrodite and a symbol of immortality. 80 leaves and 112 flowers survive to this day, leaving one to wonder whether it was even more impressive when it was first made. The flowers seem to show some oriental influence, perhaps due to the fact that Macedonia was under Persian rule for many generations before forcing it to bow to its own control, thus presenting plenty of opportunity for trade between civilisations. Whilst I found this item remarkable, I was personally more impressed with a very similar item on display in the King's gallery. Only found in 2008 at the sanctuary of Eukleia, this diadem was preserved in a gold urn alongside the cremated remains of a supposedly royal youth who died no older than seventeen years of age. This object is shaped as oak leaves rather than myrtle and even features miniature acorns hidden amongst the leaves. The oak was sacred to Zeus who was father of Heracles, who in turn the Macedonian kings claimed to be descended from. The fact that such detail could be crafted from gold during ancient times is simply incredible and well worth seeing with your own eyes from all angles.

The third and final room of the exhibit is named the Banquet gallery and takes you back beyond the Temenid kings to around 1100 BCE before Macedonia acquired wealth and when even royalty lived in relative poverty and had to cook meals for themselves. The room features many pots and plates used at dining times, and includes my personal highlight of two small jugs with smaller spouts protruding from a side which were used to feed babies through. As you work round the room you progress through time and watch as clay objects become metal objects once the royalty began to amass wealth. Since the majority of intact archaeological finds are found at the burial sites of the wealthy you inevitably end up with many exhibits featuring more from the rich than from the poor. This is also true of this exhibit but the Banquet gallery does make some effort to include the poor as well, such as exhibiting later clay objects which were modelled on those used by the rich, but simply made with the cheaper materials. Finally, the end of the room features a large piece of the tiled roof of the palace of Aegae, the political, religious and mythical centre of Macedon. This temple was constructed on the order of Philip II and was completed in 340 BCE, just four years before the king's assassination. The temple measured 12,000 square metres, making it slightly smaller than Buckingham Palace, and stood until it was was finally dismantled by the Romans several centuries later. To be able to stand in front of and touch a genuine fragment of history is indescribable.

Even as you exit the exhibit into the compulsory gift shop you are treated to one last moment of wonder. There is a tribute to the late Manolis Andronikos (1919-1992) who dedicated much of his life to uncovering the secrets of this lost civilisation. Amongst his achievements were revealing a painting of the abduction of Persephone by Hades, of which there is a full-size copy along a wall in the Queen's gallery, in the tomb of Nikesipolis, another wife of Philip II, and also the excavation of the intact tomb of Alexander IV in 1978. It is a touching homage at the end of a powerful exhibit and gives you a chance to appreciate the work which has gone into unearthing this former world power which had been all but forgotten over the ages.

To anyone within visiting distance of Oxford and with even the slightest interest in ancient history, this exhibition is a must, and to those further away it is worth travelling to. At just £8 for a full-price ticket and £6 for concessions, it is well worth making an effort to visit the museum before the exhibition closes in just over a week.


Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/310610#ixzz1WQdxsLmW

[magicmountain]

The Alexander Medallion

Sri Lankan numismatist Prof. Osmund Bopearachchi  has co-authored a book with Prof. Frank Holt titled The Alexander Medallion: Exploring the Origins of a Unique Artefact. Written partly in defence of the authenticity of the gold medallion, the book describes the extraordinary circumstances that led to the unveiling of the priceless artefact. Its historical significance far outweighing the value of the precious metal itself, its history is both the subject of the book and of Osmund’s long obsession. Osmund Bopearachchi recounts his great find among the treasures of Mir Zakah

Embossed on the gold coin is the arrogant profile of Alexander the Great. On it, the young conqueror’s features endure: his luxuriant curly hair and the crooked line of his broken nose; his elongated cheeks and large, unblinking eyes. Curiously though, his head is covered in the scalp of an elephant, its trunk curling triumphantly over his brow. Around his neck is the image of the Gorgon, the coiling snakes worn as an aegis. The horn of Ammon protects his temple. The striking image is valued for far more than its obvious beauty. It is believed to be the only portrait actually created during the lifetime of Alexander the Great to survive into modernity. This is Alexander as he saw himself - invulnerable, verging on godhood, immortalized in the moment of his triumph. “It’s exactly Alexander, there is no doubt about that”.

At the centre of the story is a humble village in Afghanistan. Located in one of the most hostile political and geographical landscapes on earth, Mir Zakah lies along the ancient trail that connects Ghazni in modern Afghanistan to Gandhara in what is now Pakistan. Travelling in the company of a French journalist and 12 bodyguards, Osmund made his way there in 2004. As the temperature plummeted to minus 15 degrees centigrade outside, the men covered themselves with carpets to keep warm and brushed their teeth with snow. Despite the abject poverty that surrounded them, in the evenings the numismatist would show his hosts pictures of incredible treasures – of gold, silver and bronze ornaments, vessels and coins - and ask them whether there were any among them they recognized. The pieces he was showing them were in the possession of a Japanese museum.

The museum had been sold the pieces which had been deliberately misrepresented by corrupt agents as belonging to another set known as the Oxus treasure . Now, Osmund was unsurprised to discover the men had in fact seen many of the pieces before. After all, some of them had actually handled the objects themselves, pulling each piece fresh from the earth just a few feet away from where they now huddled together. Some shared their keepsakes with the visitors – on the palm of his hand, one man displayed a single diminutive gold coin. Unbeknownst to the Afghan farmer, the Indo-Scythian coin with the image of Azes stamped onto its face was a rarity, worth an estimated $20,000. Yet, this was only one of Mir Zakah’s treasures – and there are hundreds of thousands more.

The Mir Zakah deposit is believed to contain roughly 550,000 coins alongside hundreds of other, larger objects. “When you look at the composition you get everything – from North India to Southern Uzbekistan and North Afghanistan,” says Osmund explaining that the pieces are equally diverse in their chronology, with some of the earliest dating to the 5th century B.C going up to the 2nd century A.D. How they came to be tossed together in the same well remains a matter of speculation. Osmund himself imagines a scenario where an army of Sassanians successfully plundered the treasuries and collections of temples and cities but was then faced with a sudden challenge from a rival group. They would have been forced to ditch their loot before going to battle. If so, clearly they lost and their treasure was left to languish unclaimed for centuries.

When some of it resurfaced centuries later, many pieces would be routed through the bazaars of the Pakistani city of Peshawar, before they were smuggled out to America and Europe. The first coins appeared in the late 1940s and 50s, just after the hoard at Mir Zakah was first excavated. Intervening in 1948, French archaeologists attempted to collect and study some of the deposit’s treasures, but political disturbances and violence in the region forced them to give up their hunt well before the hoard was exhausted. It would lie relatively undisturbed till a group of ambitious looters would dig up the well again in 1993 - 94. Again, they would leave the job half done. Violence and multiple deaths among those involved with the illicit dig would earn the Mir Zakah hoard a reputation for being cursed among locals. Soon the site would become altogether inaccessible to outsiders, as Afghanistan entered a prolonged period of unrest.

Still, what was dug up was enough to flood the markets of Peshawar with astounding quantities of artefacts and coins in particular. It was here that Osmund first encountered the treasures of Mir Zakah in person. Osmund remembers being entirely overwhelmed as sack after sack, each filled with approximately 50 kgs of coins, were poured over the floor before him.  “I began to sort the coins into groups according to the issuers, e.g. early Indian, Greek city states, Seleucids, Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians, and Kushans.” It was an impossible exercise, as was the authorities’ every attempt to confiscate or buy the loot of Mir Zakah – even as you read this, a known stash of three tons of valuable coins in Basel, Switzerland remains tantalisingly inaccessible to scholars. Instead wily smugglers have succeeded in ushering priceless artefacts into museums and private collections all over the world – not hesitating to create fictitious histories for their antiques if required. Alexander’s commemorative medallion would find its way to London and into the hands of an anonymous collector who has no intention of parting with it, though he has allowed it to be exhibited.

For those familiar with coins from Ptolemy I’s reign, the portrait of Alexander is not an uncommon one. Though the work is particularly fine, it could have arguably come out of a workshop in Egypt. However, the one obstacle to this interpretation is quite literally of elephantine proportions. On the back of the coin, where you might have to expected to find Athena brandishing a spear, you see instead an elephant walking on tiptoe. Issued in 326 BC to commemorate Alexander’s resounding defeat of Porus, the King of Paurava by the river Jhelum in what is modern Punjab, the coin was intended to be a golden boast. It is a find that excited Osmund – he calls it “the missing link” that explained the baffling appearance of an Asian elephant on coins minted in countries where there were none about. It represented the attempts of other, later rulers to share in Alexander’s glory. Other silver coins issued around the period flesh out the action of the battle. In one, Alexander, astride a horse, flings a spear at Porus on his elephant. In another, the King’s men ride in four-horse chariots as they draw their awesome bows. These coins are evidence, that where historical records fail, where stories are forgotten, coins remain to tell the tale.


http://ansmagazine.com/Summer06/Portrait

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200606/ptolemy.s.alexandrian.postscript.htm

[magicmountain]

Prof. Bopearachchi co-authored a second book on the Alexander Medallion with Philippe Flandrin titled Le Portrait d’Alexandre le Grand: Histoire d’une découverte pour l’humanité. Here are extracts from a somewhat critical review.

"...we have a portrait of Alexander which is surely a tour de force. Even considering the small size of the coin (1.9 cm), the portrait is rich with thrilling details. Everything protrudes: the forehead, the eye, the orbital, even the swelling lips. However, the parts do not harmonize. Comparing a specimen of Seleucus’s double darics side by side with the new coin, one observes at once that the Seleucid engraver designed the portrait as one throw, while the engraver of the new coin put pieces together. Consequently, there are gaps—places where one element of the face thrusts against another without organic transitions. Note the bow of the upper eyelid, which does not correspond to the heavy orbital; the hanging lower eyelid (Alexander’s look is entirely inexpressive); the lifeless surface of temple and cheek; and the clumsy engraving of the ear. This engraver is not a sculptor but merely a draftsman; his work is not plastic but graphic. In fact, he uses border lines, a feature entirely unknown in ancient coin engraving (note the outline of the elephant skin, and further, Alexander’s eyelids, lips, and auricle).

 

"Turning to the reverse, we see an elephant dancing ballet. Far from having the phlegma known from all other ancient depictions of pachyderms, this one’s toes are raised as if it were up on point. Obviously, the engraver knew little about the animal’s physique. Elephants are animalia unguligrada, which do not walk on their soles. In fact, elephants are always walking on their tiptoes, and thus cannot raise their feet any further."

Full review here:

http://ansmagazine.com/Summer06/Portrait

[magicmountain]

Mary and the Conqueror



Playwright Juliet Jenkin’s latest play, Mary and the Conqueror, is set against the backdrop of the life of Mary Renault, a historical novelist who lived and wrote in South Africa. An Englishwoman who moved to South Africa in the late 1940s, Renault’s works of the 1950s to 1980s became iconic works for gay people, dealing as they did with love, war, homosexuality and heroism during key periods in the history of Ancient Greece. Mary Renault’s triumphant trilogy dealing with the life of Alexander the Great, Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy and Funeral Games, transformed Alexander from a distant icon into a living, breathing man with a complex personal life. She also authored a work of non-fiction, The Nature of Alexander.

Jenkin’s play imagines an encounter between Renault (Diane Wilson) and her hero, Alexander the Great, in which we also meet Renault’s lifelong companion and lover, Julie Mullard (Adrienne Pierce), and one of Alexander’s lovers, Hephaistion (Francis Chouler). A newcomer to Cape Town’s stage, Armand Aucamp makes his professional stage debut as Alexander the Great in Mary and the Conqueror.

The play is set on a deserted beach somewhere in history.  Mary Renault is drinking a beer, when Alexander washes up in front of her. In the ensuing meeting between the writer and her most famous subject, we travel through history and swim across time to see where these two people came from and how they’ve ended up here. On a deserted beach somewhere in history, Mary Renault (Diane Wilson) is drinking a beer, when Alexander washes up in front of her. In the ensuing meeting between the writer and her most famous subject, we travel through history and swim across time to see where these two people came from and how they’ve ended up here.

“This play is about Alexander’s encounter with Mary Renault in limbo,” explained Aumont. “I’m focusing more on what she wanted Alexander to be in her novels. There’s a wealth of know-ledge about him in her books… she made him a person showing his heart, his emotion and his relation-ship with Hephaistion, his lifelong companion and lover.” Given three (The King Must Die, The Persian Boy, Fire from Heaven) of Renault’s many books for research, Aucamp points out that he also tried to reference facts, but thinks what should come through in his portrayal is the passion and drive of the character that came through in Renault’s writing.

The Mary Renault character is played by Diane Wilson and, while the author may have transformed Alexander from an iconic figure on the page into a person with a rich, complex personal life, she was much more reticent about the details of her own life. Jenkin’s play, though, explores this unexplored facet of Renault’s own life, by entangling the lives and loves of Mary and Alexander. Aucamp explained that when his character interacts with Hephaistion they do so in ancient times, but when Alexander and Mary interact, it is in a contem-porary setting, though in limbo. “So, it’s very different and bizarre. He’s not at all the way she thought of him, so she doesn’t know who he is. “So it was difficult to go from this real intimate relationship with Hephaistion, to this… almost Puck-ish character. Having him teasing her, it’s also a nice play on the relationship. Juliet Jenkin has captured the intricacies of relationships that are applicable then and now in a beautifully bizarre way.

Mary and the Conqueror will be performed at the Artscape Arena, Cape Town, from 29 September to 15 October 2011

[magicmountain]

Alexander in China



Recently 28-year-old Silvano Zheng found himself the center of attention for something other than being an openly gay man in China. Signing copies of his newly published translation of Mary Renault’s The Persian Boy at a launch at Beijing’s LGBT center, and slicing pieces of a Hellenistic-themed cake for his friends and guests, Zheng revelled in people’s appreciation for his contribution, as a translator, to China’s LGBT community.

Zheng, since the age of 24, has been a very public figure. [His mother, Wu Youjian, in support of her son, founded PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in China, an organization that reaches out to friends and relatives of China’s LGBT people.] In December 2004, Zheng became one of the first Chinese people to appear on television as gay, fielding questions from hosts and guests about his sexual orientation on various talk shows thereafter. He felt pride in his role, but still felt he ought to be doing more.

“I received a lot of praise for my appearance, but I wasn't doing much. I wanted do a service to the community. There I was just a celebrity for five minutes, and to tell you the truth I felt fed up with it for a while. It was always the same questions, and I wasn't feeling like I was doing something in and of itself worthy of being talked about.” Four years ago, when Silvano Zheng embarked on his translation of Mary Renault’s historical novel about the relationship between Alexander the Great and his young Persian lover, his expectations that a publishing company would pick up his translation of The Persian Boy were abysmally, albeit realistically, low. Not only had he never translated a novel before, the attitude toward the LGBT community, as well as artistic expressions of their sexual identity and orientation in early 2006, were not what they are today. Zheng counts himself as lucky. Through a friend he found an editor who made it her mission to publish his translation into Chinese.

The Persian Boy joins a small, but growing list of queer novels that have been translated into simplified Chinese, such as Allen Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty set in 1980s Great Britain, as well as Irish writer, Coilm Tolbin’s work. For Zheng, the issue is not so much the availability of the literature in Chinese, however, rather the quality of the translations, as well as their ability to affect a Chinese audience. “Sometimes very good literary work is not necessarily liberating work,” Zheng said. “My goal was to translate a work of fiction that would make Chinese gay readers feel really liberated and enlightened. It felt wonderful to throw myself totally in the novel, in the fictional world that makes me feel that humanity never changes much. It's wonderful to feel connected to people who lived more than 2,000 years ago.”

Chronicling the last seven years of Alexander's life through the perspective of his young Persian lover, a eunuch named Bagoas, Mary Renault’s novel made waves when it was published in 1972. For Zheng, The Persian Boy’s appeal lay neither on the book’s role as groundbreaking, nor in descriptions of gay eroticism. Rather, it was the details of a domestic affection between two men that made him decide to translate the novel into Chinese.

Full article here:

http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2010/08/16/The-Persian-Boy-is-Out

http://wxw.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/global/22chinabook.html

[magicmountain]

Walter Plitt Quintin produced this caption for his illustration of Alexander's lightbulb moment before the walls of Tyre:

‘Respectfully I present Alexander The Great, the most extraordinary and invictus general of all time. This is the moment when the Greeks are in front of the fortification island of Tyre. The classic historians told us that Alexander pondered deeply, looking to the city for hours, then, suddenly, he said something like - I've got it!’

Tyre was located on a cozy little island half a mile away from the mainland, framed by sturdy walls a hundred and fifty feet high. Plus, Alexander didn't have a navy. How did Alexander solved the problem? He decided to build a causeway across the channel and, in addition, he borrowed a Phoenician navy. That did the trick and Alexander's troops were eventually able to breach Tyre's walls.

I’m not sure which classic historians reported Alexander’s supposed statement or what prompted him to exclaim “I’ve got it!” at the siege of Tyre. Perhaps it was the moment he decided to construct a mole to capture the island of Tyre. Perhaps it was when he decided to unilaterally declare a change of date to confirm the prediction that he would capture the city by the end of the month – a necessary manoeuvre since the last day had arrived and the city was not yet captured! Perhaps he was inspired by his dreams.

In any event here is how Arrian and Plutarch described events leading up to the taking of Tyre.

Arrian

Alexander was encouraged by a divine admonition, for that very night in his sleep he seemed to be approaching the Tyrian walls, and Heracles seemed to take him by the right hand and lead him up into the city. This was interpreted by Aristander to mean that Tyre would be taken with labour, because the deeds of Heracles were accomplished with labour. Certainly, the siege of Tyre appeared to be a great enterprise; for the city was an island and fortified all round with lofty walls. Moreover naval operations seemed at that time more favourable to the Tyrians, both because the Persians still possessed the sovereignty of the sea and many ships were still remaining with the citizens themselves. However, as these arguments of his had prevailed, he resolved to construct a mole from the mainland to the city.



Storming of the walls of Tyre

Plutarch

During the siege of this city, which, with mounds of earth cast up, and battering engines, and two hundred galleys by sea, was carried on for seven months together, he dreamt that he saw Hercules upon the walls, reaching out his hands, and calling to him. And many of the Tyrians in their sleep fancied that Apollo told them he was displeased with their actions, and was about to leave them and go over to Alexander. Upon which, as if the god had been a deserting soldier, they seized him, so to say, in the act, tied down the statue with ropes, and nailed it to the pedestal, reproaching him that he was a favourer of Alexander. Another time Alexander dreamed he saw a satyr mocking him at a distance, and when he endeavoured to catch him, he still escaped from him, till at last with much perseverance, and running about after him, he got him into his power. The soothsayers, making two words of Satyrus, assured him that Tyre should be his own (‘sa tyros’=’tyre is thine’)The inhabitants at this time show a spring of water, near which they say Alexander slept when he fancied the satyr appeared to him.

Alexander, that he might refresh his army, harassed with many former encounters, had led only a small party towards the walls, rather to keep the enemy busy than with any prospect of much advantage. It happened at this time that Aristander, the soothsayer, after he had sacrificed, upon view of the entrails, affirmed confidently to those who stood by that the city should be certainly taken that very month, upon which there was a laugh and some mockery among the soldiers, as this was the last day of it. The king, seeing him in perplexity, and always anxious to support the credit of the predictions, gave order that they should not count it as the thirtieth, but as the twenty-third of the month, and ordering the trumpets to sound, attacked the walls more seriously than he at first intended. The sharpness of the assault so inflamed the rest of his forces who were left in the camp, that they could not hold from advancing to second it, which they performed with so much vigour that the Tyrians retired, and the town was carried that very day.

[magicmountain]

Journalist Lewis Lapham has interviewed historian James Romm about his book Ghost on the Throne.

The book covers in gripping detail the events that began on June 1, 323 B.C., when Alexander the Great became ill with what would be a fatal fever, and ended seven years later with the death or imprisonment of his two surviving heirs. It follows the machinations of the half-dozen generals who grappled for the right to succeed Alexander as commander of the army, as well as the dynastic intrigues that played out among the royals who had sole rights to the throne. For those intrigued by how Alexander won his empire, this book tells the equally compelling story of how that empire was lost, fragmenting into the rival blocs that would dominate the Hellenistic world for centuries.

The death of the 32-year-old Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.E. took the world by surprise. Even as his corpse remained in the throne room near Babylon, battles for succession erupted among his top generals. With a mentally damaged brother and a posthumously born son as the prime candidates for the crown, power would fall to the officer who seized the day. Meleager led the infantry in revolt and marched against Perdiccas, who fled the palace only to regroup with the cavalry.

To avoid outright civil war, the two sides agreed to a joint kingship between the heirs apparent. Perdiccas ordered a post-mutiny lustration, a cleansing rite where the infantry in full armor marches between two halves of a sacrificial dog placed on the far sides of a field. Waiting outside the city walls with the cavalry, Perdiccas demanded that the mutineers be handed over. As the foot soldiers looked on, 30 top officers were bound and thrown to be trampled by a herd of military elephants. Meleager escaped the lustration, only to be killed as he took refuge in a temple.

The Roman writer Quintus Curtius Rufus relates the story in his Historiae Alexandri Magni:

‘Perdiccas saw that they [the mutineers] were paralyzed and at his mercy. He withdrew from the main body some 300 men who had followed Meleager at the time when he burst from the first meeting held after Alexander's death, and before the eyes of the entire army he threw them to the elephants. All were trampled to death beneath the feet of the beasts ...’

Listen at the following link to Lewis Lapham interview Romm about 1. Throne of the World 2. Dead Young Emperor 3. Succession Bloodbaths 4. Army Logistics 5. Tomb of Alexander’s Son (Note that the audio may take a minute or so to load):

http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/Views/Lewis_Lapham/v4WGbWlax.EE.mp3

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

Mary and the Conqueror



Playwright Juliet Jenkin’s latest play, Mary and the Conqueror, is set against the backdrop of the life of Mary Renault, a historical novelist who lived and wrote in South Africa. An Englishwoman who moved to South Africa in the late 1940s, Renault’s works of the 1950s to 1980s became iconic works for gay people, dealing as they did with love, war, homosexuality and heroism during key periods in the history of Ancient Greece. Mary Renault’s triumphant trilogy dealing with the life of Alexander the Great, Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy and Funeral Games, transformed Alexander from a distant icon into a living, breathing man with a complex personal life. She also authored a work of non-fiction, The Nature of Alexander.

Mary and the Conqueror will be performed at the Artscape Arena, Cape Town, from 29 September to 15 October 2011

A scene from Mary and the Conqueror

The reviews of Mary and the Conqueror are now coming in. This reviewer is somewhat less than impressed if this quote is anything to go by:

'Aucamp’s portrayal of one of the world’s most successful commanders of all time – by the age of 30 Alexander had created one of the largest empires in ancient history – feels somewhat whimsical and lacking in emotional depth. He struts about the stage in a very tiny pair of white hot pants, which distracts from the dialogue and action on stage.'

Full review here:

http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/life/a-lack-of-sparkle-1.1153782

[magicmountain]

Alexander – the first celebrity

   

‘Celebrities are our myth bearers; carriers of the divine forces of good, evil, lust, and redemption’ - Lewis Lapham, The Wish for Kings

Alexander the Great was the first famous person in a modern sense, contends Leo Braudy, professor of English at the University of Southern California and author of The Frenzy of Renown. ‘Not only did he want to be unique, but he wanted to tell everybody about it, and he had an apparatus for telling everybody about it. He had techniques for doing famous things. He had historians, painters, sculptors, gem carvers on his battles. Heroes, we all might agree, carry intrinsic value—the essence of the heroic and the noble. Durable gods serve to lift our vision above the mundane.’

For Alexander the Great, fame meant accomplishing what no mortal had ever accomplished before. According to Braudy he was the first celebrity. All of Mr. Braudy's choices - beginning with Alexander the Great - also possessed a fame grounded in accomplishment. All exhibited the need to carve out a niche that justified elevation above the crowd; yet they laid claim to universal attributes that elicited not only the crowd's admiration but a sense of identification.

All of Braudy's choices - beginning with Alexander the Great - also possessed a fame grounded in accomplishment. All exhibited the need to carve out a niche that justified elevation above the crowd; yet they laid claim to universal attributes that elicited not only the crowd's admiration but a sense of identification.

In his book Braudy paints a picture of the Roman general Pompey as a man with an unquenchable thirst for fame who loved to identify himself with Alexander the Great. He wore what was supposed to be Alexander’s cloak, put Alexander’s emblem on his shield, and was portrayed with his head tossed in imitation of Alexander (and Scipio). His self-identification as a latter-day Alexander would have been enhanced when he defeated Mithridates VI of Pontus, another Alexander wanna-be. At that time Pompey styled himself the greatest conqueror of the age. But later he suffered a humiliating defeat by Caesar in the battle of Pharsalus. Then he was forced to flee Rome. He turned to the Egyptians for help. But he was no longer viewed as the impressive man he considered himself to be. When he landed on Egyptian shores his head was cut off and sent to Caesar as a peace offering.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/07/books/fifteen-minutes-is-never-enough.html?pagewanted=all

[magicmountain]

Alexander has just left the building

British poet Robert Graves compared T.E. Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia's transformation into 'Aircraftsman Shaw'  with a similar transformation of Alexander the Great in his 1923 poem, “The Clipped Stater” (see below). In this poem Alexander fakes his own 'death' to make possible his final conquest: that he must fulfil himself by self-destruction, living an ordinary flesh-and-blood life, far beyond the limits of his empire which he gives up  to toil as a common soldier at a Mongolian outpost. For his labours, he’s given a defaced silver coin that nonetheless bears traces of his likeness, a symbol of all that has been lost and yet still remains.

The Clipped Stater

King Alexander had been deified
By loud applause of the Macedonian phalanx,
By sullen groans of the wide worlds lately conquered.
Who but a god could so have engulphed their pride?

He did not take a goddess to the throne
In the elder style, remembering what disasters
Juno's invidious eye brought on her Consort.
Thais was fair; but he must hold his own.

Nor would he rank himself a common god
In fellowship with those of Ind or Egypt
Whom he had shamed; even to Jove his father
Paid scant respect (as Jove stole Saturn's nod).

Now meditates: 'No land of all known lands
Has offered me resistance, none defied me
Infinite power, infinite thought and knowledge;
What yet awaits the assurance of my hands?'

Alexander, in a fever of mind,
Reasons: 'Omnipotence by its very nature
Is infinite possibility and purpose,
Which must embrace that it can be confined.

'Then finity is true godhead's final test,
Nor does it dim the glory of free being.
I must fulfill myself by self-destruction.'
The curious phrase renews his conquering zest.

He assumes man's flesh. Djinn catch him up and fly
To a land of yellow folk beyond his knowledge,
And that he does not know them, he takes gladly
For surest proof he has put his godhead by.

In Macedonia shortly it is said:
'Alexander, our god, has died of a fever;
Demi-gods parcel out his huge dominions.'
So Alexander, as god, is duly dead.

But Alexander the man, whom yellow folk
Find roving naked, armed with a naked cutlass,
Has death, which is the stranger's fate, excused him.
Joyfully he submits to the alien yoke.

He is enrolled now in the frontier-guard
With gaol-birds and the press gang's easy captures;
Where captains who have felt the Crown's displeasure,
But have thought suicide too direct and hard,

Teach him a new tongue and the soldier's trade,
To which the trade he taught has little likeness.
He glories in his foolish limitations:
At every turn his hands and feet are stayed.

'Who was your father, friend?' He answers: 'Jove.'
'His father?' 'Saturn.' 'And his father?' 'Chaos.'
'And his?' Thus Alexander loses honour:
Ten fathers is the least that a man should prove.

Stripes and bastinadoes, famine and thirst -
All these he suffers, never in resolution
Shaken, nor in his heart inquiring whether
Gods by their fiats be self-accursed.

Thus he grows grey and eats his frugal rice,
Endures his watch on the fort's icy ramparts,
Staring across the uncouth leagues of desert,
Furbishes leather and steel; or shakes the dice.

He will not dream Olympianly, nor stir
To enlarge himself with comforts or promotion,
Nor yet evade the rack when, sour of temper,
He has tweaked a corporal's nose and called him 'cur'.

His comrades mutinously demand their pay--
'We have had none since the Emperor's Coronation.
At one gold piece a year there are fifteen owing.
One-third that sum would buy us free,' they say.

The pay-sack came at length, when hope was cold,
Though much reduced in bulk since its first issue
By the Chief Treasurer; and he, be certain,
Kept back one third of the silver and all the gold.

Every official hand had dipped in the sack;
And the frontier captains, themselves disappointed
Of long arrears took every doit remaining;
But from politeness put a trifle back.

They informed the men: 'since no pay has come through,
We will advance from out too lavish purses
To every man of the guard, a piece of silver.
Let it be repaid when you get your overdue.'

The soldiers, grumbling but much gratified
By hopes of a drink and drab, accept the favour;
And Alexander, advancing to the pay-desk,
Salutes and takes his pittance without pride.

The coin is bored, to string with the country's bronze
On a cord, and one side scraped to brassy smoothness;
But the head, clipped of its hair and neck, bears witness
That it had a broad, more generous mintage once.

Alexander, gazing at it then,
Greets it as an Alexandrian stater
Coined from the bullion taken at Arbela.
How came it here among these slant-eyed men?

He stands in a troubled reverie of doubt
Till a whip stings his shoulders and a voice bellows:
'Are you dissatisfied, you spawn of ditches?'
So he salutes again and turns about,

More than uncertain what the event can mean.
Was his lost Empire, then, not all-embracing?
And how can the stater, though defaced, owe service
To a power that is as if it had never been?

'Must I renew my godhead?' But well he knows
Nothing can change the finite course resolved on;
He spends the coin on a feast of fish and almonds
And back to the ramparts briskly enough he goes.

[magicmountain]

The Methodist preacher Halford Luccock authored  a book of sermons entitled Marching Off the Map encouraging people to venture beyond their normal thoughts and behavior patterns. Luccock (1885–1961) who was a prominent American minister and professor of Homiletics at Yale's Divinity School, based the title of his book on a quotation from Harold Lamb’s  Alexander of Macedon in which Lamb memorably describes the consternation of the Macedonian army when, having swept across Asia Minor and through Persia, they found themselves in the unchartered mountainous region that is now Afghanistan:

"And there they discovered that they had marched clear off the map. Their only maps were Greek maps. These maps showed only a part of Asia Minor. The rest of the map was a blank space."

Writers on leadership have also drawn on Alexanders’ story in similar terms:

“The Greek army was not the first group to find itself in uncharted lands, nor was it by any means the last. Amidst globalization, a volatile job market, shifting economic realities, and technological innovations, the leaders of today frequently find themselves marching through unexplored and unmapped terrain. In these moments, no one has marked the road, no precedents have been set, and it falls upon the leader to blaze a new trail. How can a person prepare to lead effectively in such an uncertain environment?”

http://www.crispim.org/?p=61

However, modern-day preachers offer this comforting thought to steady those who may be nervous about the prospect of the unknown!

“If God calls you to ‘march off the map', he promises to go with you."

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2011/oct/08/if-god-calls-you-march-map-he-promises-go-you/?print=1

[magicmountain]

An Amazon reviewer writes:

Harold Lamb portrays Alexander the Great realistically, offering possible explanations of Alexander's goals and driving obsessions. He also summarizes some of the legends that have risen over time, and considers the idea that Alexander slowly slipped into a condition of insanity, or extremely acute paranoia. This can be viewed as a loosely written reference meant more for pleasure and entertainment than scholarly appeal, with a large dose of Lamb's signature personalism and in-depth dramatics. View it as an adventure story that follows a historical guideline. It is not historical fiction, though minor details are certainly embellished.

The overall story follows history as Harold Lamb understood it. In my opinion, Lamb was some kind of genius who was extremely gifted at storytelling. He explains with detail Alexander's upbringing and many lifetime achievements, and tries to guess at some of the modern locations of the numerous cities built under Alexander's "renaissance" of the east. He also analyzes some of the darker actions of Alexander, including the execution of some of his top generals and the break-away from, and disdain for, the culture of his own people. This is the saga of a man with incredible curiosity, lifelong dreams, overpowering thirst for knowledge and culture, and superior military strategy at the time, who attempted world conquest, similar to his predecessor Cyrus the Great (or Kurush).
   

[magicmountain]