Travels with Alexander the Great

[fritzkep]

Amen to that, MM.

[magicmountain]

Two great historians (and Oliver Stone) discuss Megalexandros

The conversation continues here:

"I'm not only interested in power, per se. I'm interested, I suppose, in tortured power. The tortured power of Richard Nixon and Alexander [the Great] fascinate me." - Oliver Stone

http://blogs.forbes.com/booked/2011/03/14/oliver-stone-talks-alexander-the-great-with-historians/

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Eumenes – the Manga version

The Japan Media Arts Festival has been held annually since 1997, growing in scale and importance on the Japanese, and international, art scene. For the manga section, Hitoshi Iwaaki's Historie - the tale the eventful life of Eumenes, a Macedonian officer who would go on to become secretary to Alexander the Great - was selected as the winner of the Grand Prize. ("Manga" is a term used to refers to comics originally published in Japan.) Set in ancient Greece and the Middle East in the mid-300s BC, Historie is the story of Eumenes of Cardia, a young boy who comes from the lowest of backgrounds and, in adulthood, becomes one of the generals of Alexander the Great.

One of the sweeping images in the story was when the phalanx formation before Cardinia came into full view to Eumenes.

In Japan, people of all ages read manga. The medium includes a broad range of subjects: action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business/commerce, among others. Since the 1950s, manga have steadily become a major part of the Japanese publishing industry, representing a 406 billion yen market in Japan in 2007 (approximately $3.6 billion). Manga have also become increasingly popular worldwide. In 2008, the U.S. and Canadian manga market was $175 million. Manga are typically printed in black-and-white, although some full-color manga exist. In Japan, manga are usually serialized in telephone book-size manga magazines, often containing many stories, each presented in a single episode to be continued in the next issue.

http://www.comixology.com/articles/19/Manga-Salad-1-Hitoshi-Iwaakis-Historie

http://www.punkednoodle.com/champloo/2009/02/13/14-historie/

The real Eumenes



Eumenes was first employed as secretary by Philip II and accompanied Alexander to Asia as chief of the royal secretariat. But Alexander seems to have recognized military talent in him and gave Eumenes at least one small command in India. In 324 Alexander appointed him to one of the highest posts in the Macedonian army, that of a hipparch. After Alexander's death, Eumenes was made governor of Cappadocia and became trusted lieutenant of Perdiccas, alexander’s successor. In 321 Eumenes defeated the invading army from Macedonia of general Craterus. He was placed in command of the veteran corps of Macedonian infantry known as the Silver Shields and commissioned to raise forces for Polyperchon in Asia Minor. He conducted a skillful running war with Antigonus for two years, until he was finally betrayed by the Macedonian Silver Shields, captured and executed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eumenes

Eumenes' dispute with Hephaistion

Eumenes did not get on with Hephaistion, Alexander's closest friend, lover and second in command. Shortly before Hephaestion's death, he and Eumenes quarrelled - specifically over the housing of a flute-player. Plutarch describes row and the ensuing bad blood between them.

The quarters that had been taken up for Eumenes, Hephaestion assigned to Euius, the flute-player. Upon which, in great anger, Eumenes and Mentor came to Alexander and loudly complained, saying that the way to be regarded was to throw away their arms and turn flute-players or tragedians; so much so that Alexander took their part and chid Hephaestion; but soon after changed his mind again, and was angry with Eumenes, and accounted the freedom he had taken to be rather an affront to the king than a reflection upon Hephaestion.

Another difference happened between him and Hephaestion concerning a gift, and a great deal of ill language passed between them, yet Eumenes still continued in favour. But Hephaestion dying soon after, the king, in his grief, presuming all those that differed with Hephaestion in his lifetime were now rejoicing at his death, showed much harshness and severity in his behaviour with them, especially towards Eumenes, whom he often upbraided with his quarrels and ill language to Hephaestion. But he, being a wise and dexterous courtier, made advantage of what had done him prejudice, and struck in with the king's passion for glorifying his friend's memory, suggesting various plans to do him honour, and contributing largely and readily towards erecting his monument.

Eumenes also managed to antagonise Alexander. Plutarch takes up the story.

"Afterwards, when Nearchus, with a fleet, was to be sent to the Southern Sea, Alexander borrowed money of his friends, his own treasury being exhausted, and would have had three hundred talents of Eumenes, but he sent a hundred only, pretending that it was not without great difficulty he had raised so much from his stewards. Alexander neither complained nor took the money, but gave private orders to set Eumenes's tent on fire, designing to take him in a manifest lie, when his money was carried out. But before that could be done the tent was consumed, and Alexander repented of his orders, all his papers being burnt; the gold and silver, however, which was melted down in the fire, being afterwards collected, was found to be more than one thousand talents; yet Alexander took none of it, and only wrote to the several governors and generals to send new copies of the papers that were burnt, and ordered them to be delivered to Eumenes."

http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/eumenes.html

Alexander - the Manga version

And yes – there is a Manga with Alexander as the hero entitled Alexander Daiou - Tenjou no Oukoku, by Akaishi Michiyo. Here is one reviewer’s summing up:

"This is the best manga ever you guys. The title means "Alexander the Great - The Kingdom of Heaven"! The exclamation point is strongly implied. It’s all froofy angsty old-school-style shoujo manga where Alexander and Hephaistion look like twelve-year-old girls. Alexander gets ambushed and clutches his sword and thinks 'Hephaistion!' And Hephaistion is twenty miles away and goes 'The Prince - the Prince is calling me! Prince - whenever you need me, only say my name in your heart, and I will be there… to protect you!' Hephaistion is also telekinetic.

"And Alexander flies into sudden violent rages and kills his own men, and Hephaistion looks fearfully into the distance, his hair blowing in the wind, narrating about how he is feeling a sense of deep forboding. Oh! And Queen Olympias is draped in snakes all the time."

http://www.sarahpin.com/2009/09/16/alexander-daiou-tenjou-no-oukoku-akaishi-michiyo/

Anime Alexander



The Japanese take on Alexander doesn’t end with manga comics. Anime (animation) also gets into the act with the epic Reign: The Conqueror based on the novel by Hiroshi Aramata. The blurb states:

In the ancient world of Macedonia, science and magic are one. And one man controls them both. With them he can conquer all -all but his own ambition. Reign puts a 21st Century sci-fi spin on the epic exploits of Alexander The Great. Reign is a visual feast of cutting edge animation, with engaging characters, an intricate plot, and epic battle sequences.

This bizarre reworking of the story of Alexander features character designs by Peter Chung (Aeon Flux). It’s a singularly weird mixture of anime conventions, sci-fi and fantasy elements, special effects, and muddled ancient history. Alexander’s comrades and future generals, including Hephaestion and Ptolemy, have been recast as effete courtiers. Bucephalus (“Ox-head”), his steed, is a flesh-eating monster. His mother is a Medea-esque sorceress, and his tutor Aristotle has the inevitably spunky niece, Cassandra. The magician-disciples of Pythagoras appear and disappear, searching for the “Platohedron.” The elongated, mannerist figures bear Chung’s distinctive stamp. The women wear revealing robes; the men run around in bits of armor and codpieces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign:_The_Conqueror

Here is a foretaste of the Reign anime series set to the music of Iron Maiden.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sRjlq279kw&feature=related

Start watching Reign: The Conqueror – Part 1 here: (subsequent parts are listed on the Youtube sidebar.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_7BgbjxOZs&feature=related

[magicmountain]

William Shatner is Alexander

At the time of its filming (1964), Alexander The Great was the most expensive TV pilot ever made. It was envisioned as the first weekly TV series in the style of sweeping, historical battle epics, and starred Shatner (pictured) in the title role, as well as Adam West (later TV's Batman), famed indie actor/director John Cassavetes, Joseph Cotten and Simon Oakland. After completion, this one-hour film (depicting the legendary Battle of Issus in 333 B.C.), was deemed too "exotic" and salacious for middle-American audiences and sat on a shelf for almost half a decade, until Shatner and West were both famous for Star Trek and Batman, and then it was shown just once as a TV movie to capitalize on their success. Shatner has publicly said that he based his take on the character of Captain Kirk on this earlier role.

[magicmountain]

Chess set featuring on one side Alexander the Great...

There is speculation that Alexander the Great not only played chess (or something very like it) but was responsible for spreading it across the Middle East, Asia and India as he conquered and then set up Greek colonies in those territories. Victor Keats, writing on the origin of chess reports:

One theory is that chess has an ancestor in the ancient Greek game of pesseia (or petteia) which spread to the East in the period of colonization following the conquests of Alexander the Great. In this theory, the original Indian war-game of chaturanga, which was played with dice, was transformed by the influence of pesseia -- which is mentioned in classical sources as a game essentially dependent on skill. (Chaturanga symbolized the four elements of battle - chariots, elephants, cavalry and infantry.)

The word iskundrée appearing in the Baybylonian Talmud, is interpreted by American scholar Alexander Kohut as chess. Kohut considers that iskundrée derives from "Iskander ibn-Phillip Maqudon" which is nothing other than the Persian and Arabic version of the name "Alexander son of Philip of Macedonia". In the Talmud, Alexander the Great is himself called Alexandros; the contrasting word iskundrée may have been specially chosen to denote the game of which Alexander was the mediator.

http://www.schachquellen.de/15059.html



... and on the other side the Indian king Porus.

[magicmountain]

The first "Citizen of the World"

Alexander in Thessaloniki

The 7th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (EPCA) in Greece has announced that a new virtual museum for Alexander the Great is to be created in Thessaloniki, named “Alexander the Great: from Ages to the World”.

His personality and his action, as they have been reformed by archaeologists through excavations and as they have been perceived by contemporary makers, like Oliver Stone and Andy Warhol, will play the “leading” role of the museum.  Digital pictures, direct information, forums, an interactive map, a digital library, digital navigation systems, games, interactive documentaries and connection to the most famous platforms of social netting will be some only of the applications which will be included in the museum.

The museum will appeal to scientists and organizations, but also to people of all ages and interests. The head of the 7th EPCA, Aggeliki Kottaridi, said that the new virtual museum will be worthy of the first citizen of the world, the founder of globalization. Mrs. Kottaridi will talk about this effort today afternoon, at the 24th meeting for the Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace. The kingdom of Macedonia will be one of the central elements of the museum. Some of the subjects the museum will deal with are the traditions on which Alexander relied, his great course throughout time and space, the consequences of his action and his successors.

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011/03/12/virtual-museum-dedicated-to-alexander-the-great/

[magicmountain]

Thessaloniki, the sister of Alexander the Great

Thessaloniki was founded by Cassander (son of Antipater, regent of Greece during Alexander's Asian campaigns) who gave the city his wife’s name to honour her. Thessaloniki was step-sister of Alexander the Great and daughter of Phillip II and his fifth wife Thessalida, who was a princess of Nikisipolis. Since she was born on the same day that Phillip won a battle against the Thessalians, he decided to name her "Thessaloniki" in order to remind him of his great victory (victory="niki" in Greek, so "Thessoloniki" means "victory against the Thessalians).

According to the legend, Thessaloniki, turned into a mermaid after her brother’s death. She lived in Aegean sea and whenever she met a sailor during a storm, she asked him only one question: “Where is King Alexander?” If he answered “He lives and reigns” the storm subsided. Any other answer made her very angry and caused death for anyone who was on the ship.

Read the tale of Thessaloniki and the Water of Immortality and watch a cute video recounting the story.

http://schoolnewspaper.pbworks.com/w/page/28118378/Thessaloniki%20-%20history%20and%20fairytale

 

[magicmountain]

Alexandre le Grand is a tragedy in 5 acts and verse by Jean Racine. It was first produced on December 4, 1665 at the Palais Royal Theater in Paris. The subject of the play is the love of Alexander and the Indian princess Cleofile complicated by intrigues between her brother Taxilus and his ally Porus. The play is largely based on a surviving work by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus. Shortly after the play’s opening at the Théâtre Palais Royal, Racine moved the play to a more prestigious company at the Hotel de Borgoyne creating a rift with Molière.

Jean Racine

For the first time, Racines's Alexander the Great (the most famous play written about the Macedonian conqueror) will be presented on stage scripted in Greek. Since its premiere in Paris in 1665, this play, which established Racine as a prominent author and poet, has been performed in many countries. The play incorporates historical references as well as elements of poetic fantasy The work is considered to portray in exceptional psychological depth the struggle for dominance between virtue and passion. It will be performed at the Theatre Scarabeus rue Creuse 19, 1030 Bruxelles (Schaerbeek), on 25-27 March.

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

This adaption is written as a play but in narrative form, rather than in Racine's poetic style, with casual readers, theatre productions and students in mind. This is an English language version of the original French that keeps faith with Racine's work. The story roughly follows the little that is known about Alexander's invasion of what is modern day Pakistan. This play is not historically accurate, as Racine always adapted characters and events to suit his plots. The original play is a neoclassical tragedy of the very highest quality.

This play is based on Alexander the Great's expedition into the Punjab, and the subsequent battle of Hydaspes against King Porus in 326 B.C. Alexander was victorious; however this historic event had such an effect that this part of what is today Pakistan came to mark the furthest extension of his Empire. The fight against Porus proved to be just one too many for Alexander's all conquering army. After this engagement Alexander turned south to the Indian Ocean and a return to Babylon, where he died in 323 B.C.

The original neoclassical play was penned by Jean Racine in 1665. In this version Alexander the Great is adapted from classical French rhyming couplets into a more modern narrative English. All the elements of ancient Greek tragedy and neoclassical theatre are present in this play, including war, politics, betrayal, passion, rivalry, love and tragic death. The true action hero of this history is not Alexander, but rather Porus, who long wished to prove himself as the greatest of all leaders of the known world. Of the six principle actors it is the two female characters, Axiana and Cleophila, who are the real stars. It is they who give depth and structure to the plot. Racine stands high amongst the all time greats of French literature, being known in particular as one of a trio of famous neoclassical playwrights of his period, alongside Corneille and Molière.

http://persona.rin.ru/eng/view/f/0/28186/racine,-jean-racine-jean

[magicmountain]

Alexander in Azerbaijani folklore



A talking tree informs Alexander of his early death

Seyfaddin G.Rzasoy, Head of the Mythology Department of the Institute of Folklore in the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences writes:

The mystic 33

Alexander lived only 33 years, but those years were a lightning strike across world history. Countries and nations fell into his control before they had time to realise what was happening. It was as if it all happened in an instant. This ‘instant’ lasted 33 years. God grants people with life. Alexander was allocated just 33 years on Earth. But those 33 years of life were understood by others to be those of a divine king’s stay in this world. The idolization of Alexander arose from the mythical-sacred mentality of the people of that era. They believed that a king was a mediator between the profane world of people and sacred heaven. As a consequence, many countries and nations accepted Alexander’s arrival as the will of heaven.

There was a mysticism about his 33 years life. In eastern mystic beliefs the number ‘33’ had magical significance. It is interesting that in the legends of the Oghuz Turks, 33 was the border between life and death: it was necessary to reach 33 to arrive at the edge of the world of death and chaos and relocate to another world.

People like the Macedonian king are passionate, with stormy, wild and irresistible internal energy. They are born with extraordinary abilities and their qualities soon become apparent; they overtake all others to assume positions of power. Such people leave the world, as a rule, shortly after achieving their purpose.

Mythbreaker and buried treasure

One legend has it that Alexander came to the Shirvan region crossing the Azerbaijani town of the Gates of Derbend. He climbed Mount Fit, where locals were afraid to tread and announced his arrival to the people. It used to be thought that people of the other world lived on Mount Fit and there was no way back for those who once went there. Alexander destroyed that belief. Alexander told people that he was king of the whole world. He constructed a castle on the mountain, buried all his treasure there, appointed guards and left Shirvan.

A magic horn, causing earthquake, treasure and defeat

After conquering the world, Alexander decided to occupy the Azerbaijani kingdom of Shirvan. Shirvan’s regent was a woman who lived in her Maiden Castle. She rejected Alexander’s ultimatum to capitulate. A battle began and Alexander’s army surrounded Shirvan. The queen sent poisoned snakes towards Alexander. He was powerless against them and offered to fight a Shirvanian face to face. The queen went out herself to fight. During the fight Alexander dropped his helmet and his horn become apparent. She knocked him down, grasping at his horn. His broken horn pierced the land. As all of Alexander’s strength was held in the horn, he became weak and was defeated. He buried his treasure in the land of Shirvan and left the country. People began to look for his treasure. But Alexander’s horn, broken and stuck in the earth, protected it. Whenever people began searching for the treasure, the horn shook and created an earthquake. Alexander’s horn was the reason for the frequent destructive earthquakes in Shemakha, in Shirvan.*

Alexander and the Water of Life

Alexander the Great searched for the Water of Life to achieve immortality. He found the Fountain of Youth in Shirvan, Azerbaijan. He immediately took up some of the water in a golden cup and lifted it to drink. But a bird suddenly flew past, hitting the cup with its wing and knocking it out of his hand. Alexander was angry and went to kill the bird. Suddenly a voice told him that the bird was his saviour. The voice came from behind a rock. It told him that he was an old man, who had never wanted to die.

“I found this fountain, drank of the water and became immortal. I was called Diri baba (elder) because I never died and have remained alive. After some time I lost all my relatives who had completed their term in this world. Now I am completely alone. Life is boring for me, but I can’t die. I sent that bird to you because I don’t want you to repeat my miserable experience.”

Alexander understood that eternal physical life is pointless. A person must live by doing good works in this world. Indeed, he lived for only 33 years. But in this short life he achieved things that carved his name forever into the cultural history of the world and the epic memories of nations. We still remember his name, his deeds, and he lives on in our memories in spite of the 2333 years that have passed. Our ancient Earth never forgets those who create history by good deeds.

http://www.visions.az/literature,219/

* The phallic imagery of the horn is pretty obvious. Since the horn was meant to cause earthquakes I wonder if Alexander asked the queen if the earth happened to move for her too!

[magicmountain]

Queen Cleopatra donned the garb of Venus, the Goddess of Love when attempting to seduce
Mark  Anthony. Of all the costumes the Queen of the Nile has been portrayed in, this is the most famous.  
Elizabeth Taylor is vividly remembered wearing a reproduction in her famous portrayal of the queen.

When Elizabeth Taylor played the role of Cleopatra in 1963 she was at the height of her beauty. Cleopatra was the last ruler in the Ptolemaic Dynasty founded by her ancestor, Alexander the Great’s friend, general and some say half brother, Ptolemy. As such Cleopatra, bearing the same name as Alexander’s sister, was Macedonian not Egyptian by ethnicity. In fact she was the first of her line to actually speak the Egyptian language.

The movie Cleopatra was famous for the tempestuous affair she began with co-star Richard Burton who played Mark Anthony and because the production was so expensive it almost sent the studio broke.

In the following scenes from the movie, Cleopatra joins Caesar (played by Rex Harrison) before the crystal tomb containing the body of Alexander the Great. In the 3rd century BC Alexander had been enshrined in a great public tomb in Alexandria in Egypt, crowned with a golden diadem and eventually placed in a crystal coffin which we see in the film. Note that a giant mural depicting the Battle of Gaugamela on the tomb wall is identical with the famous Alexander Mosaic found at Pompeii.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq-BvLc9mvE

Historical note:

After her brother Ptolemy XII drove Cleopatra from the throne (49 B.C.), she used her charms to get the help of Julius Caesar, who was in Egypt at that time. Ptolemy was killed and Cleopatra was restored to her Egyptian throne as a joint ruler with her youngest brother, Ptolemy XIII.

Cleopatra bore Caesar a son and named him Caesarion (Little Caesar). In 46 B.C., a year after Caesar's return to Rome. Cleopatra joined him there. When Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C, she returned to Egypt. After she returned she poisoned her brother to gain complete control of the throne.

In 42 B.C. Mark Anthony, who shared Roman rule with Octavian (later called Augustus), ordered Cleopatra to appear before him to determine her loyalty. When Antony saw Cleopatra he fell in love with her and stayed with her in Egypt for a time. Cleopatra and Antony have several children.

Antony returned to Rome and married Octavian's sister, but later abandoned her after living with her for some years, to stay again with Cleopatra in Egypt. He lived and enjoyed a luxurious and comfortable life with Cleopatra. Later Octavian declared war on Egypt not only because he was angry with Antony because he left his sister for Cleopatra but also because of his ambition to Rule Rome alone. Octavian defeated Antony in the naval battle of Actium in 31 B.C. The following year Octavian invaded Egypt. Antony thought that Cleopatra died during the invasion, so he killed himself.

Cleopatra tried to use her charm to win favor with Octavian as she had with Caesar and Antony. She failed, however, and came to know that Octavian planned to exhibit her in his military triumph at Rome. To escape this humiliation, she killed herself. According to legend, she has an asp bite her. Octavian killed Cleopatra's son, Caesarion during the same year. Cleopatra's death, which came after a reign of 21 years, ended the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt.

[magicmountain]

Her mouth is fragrant as a vine,
A vine with birds in all its boughs;
Serpent and scarab for a sign
Between the beauty of her brows
And the amorous deep lids divine.

Her great curled hair makes luminous
Her cheeks, her lifted throat and chin.
Shall she not have the hearts of us
To shatter, and the loves therein
To shred between her fingers thus?

Small ruined broken strays of light,
Pearl after pearl she shreds them through
Her long sweet sleepy fingers, white
As any pearl's heart veined with blue,
And soft as dew on a soft night.

As if the very eyes of love
Shone through her shutting lids, and stole
The slow looks of a snake or dove;
As if her lips absorbed the whole
Of love, her soul the soul thereof.

Lost, all the lordly pearls that were
Wrung from the sea's heart, from the green
Coasts of the Indian gulf-river;
Lost, all the loves of the world---so keen
Towards this queen for love of her.

You see against her throat the small
Sharp glittering shadows of them shake;
And through her hair the imperial
Curled likeness of the river snake,
Whose bite shall make an end of all.

Through the scales sheathing him like wings,
Through hieroglyphs of gold and gem,
The strong sense of her beauty stings,
Like a keen pulse of love in them,
A running flame through all his rings.

Under those low large lids of hers
She hath the histories of all time;
The fruit of foliage-stricken years;
The old seasons with their heavy chime
That leaves its rhyme in the world's ears.

She sees the hand of death made bare,
The ravelled riddle of the skies,
The faces faded that were fair,
The mouths made speechless that were wise,
The hollow eyes and dusty hair;

The shape and shadow of mystic things,
Things that fate fashions or forbids;
The staff of time-forgotten Kings
Whose name falls off the Pyramids,
Their coffin-lids and grave-clothings;

Dank dregs, the scum of pool or clod,
God-spawn of lizard-footed clans,
And those dog-headed hulks that trod
Swart necks of the old Egyptians,
Raw draughts of man's beginning God;

The poised hawk, quivering ere he smote,
With plume-like gems on breast and back;
The asps and water-worms afloat
Between the rush-flowers moist and slack;
The cat's warm black bright rising throat.

The purple days of drouth expand
Like a scroll opened out again;
The molten heaven drier than sand,
The hot red heaven without rain,
Sheds iron pain on the empty land.

All Egypt aches in the sun's sight;
The lips of men are harsh for drouth,
The fierce air leaves their cheeks burnt white,
Charred by the bitter blowing south,
Whose dusty mouth is sharp to bite.

All this she dreams of, and her eyes
Are wrought after the sense hereof.
There is no heart in her for sighs;
The face of her is more than love---
A name above the Ptolemies.

Her great grave beauty covers her
As that sleek spoil beneath her feet
Clothed once the anointed soothsayer;
The hallowing is gone forth from it
Now, made unmeet for priests to wear.

She treads on gods and god-like things,
On fate and fear and life and death,
On hate that cleaves and love that clings,
All that is brought forth of man's breath
And perisheth with what it brings.

She holds her future close, her lips
Hold fast the face of things to be;
Actium, and sound of war that dips
Down the blown valleys of the sea,
Far sails that flee, and storms of ships;

The laughing red sweet mouth of wine
At ending of life's festival;
That spice of cerecloths, and the fine
White bitter dust funereal
Sprinkled on all things for a sign;

His face, who was and was not he,
In whom, alive, her life abode;
The end, when she gained heart to see
Those ways of death wherein she trod,
Goddess by god, with Antony.

Cleopatra - By Algernon Charles Swinburne

[magicmountain]

The Macedonian Cleopatra

Before there was a Cleopatra in Egypt there was Cleopatra of Macedon, the sister of Alexander the Great and a strong player in early Hellenistic politics.  The name Cleopatra brings to mind Greco-Egyptian princesses, but the name was once stock for Macedonian princesses. The most notable of them may be she who is now often known as Cleopatra of Macedon, in equal measure described as an unfortunate pawn and a prudent strategist.

The Early Life of Cleopatra

Cleopatra was the daughter of King Philip II by his Molossian wife Olympias, which would make her the full-sister of Alexander the Great. Little is known about her early life, but Cleopatra was most likely raised at the Macedonian court and lived there until her marriage.

Queen Cleopatra of Epirus

Although Cleopatra’s marriage is highly notable, it is unlikely to have been arranged for her benefit. Philip II had made some poor choices and was seeking to atone for them. When he married his seventh wife, a Macedonian noblewoman named Cleopatra, he had let her relatives imply that Alexander was not the natural heir and even a bastard son on account of his foreign mother. A spat ensued after which Alexander and his mother stormed out of the hall and out of the country.

By creating a lavish stately wedding for Cleopatra, his daughter by Olympias, Philip hoped to reconcile and minimise the risk of being assassinated by his wife and his heir. He gave her to a foreign king, more specifically the brother of Olympias, who was king of the Molossians at Epirus. This Alexander of Epirus was also, notably, one of Philip’s many previous lovers. Olympias and Alexander came for the wedding. Philip, on the other hand, never left. He was assassinated then and there.

Cleopatra soon gave her uncle-husband two children, Cadmeia and Neoptolemus, after which he went to Italy on a military campaign, Cleopatra was sole regent and the religious head of state in her husband’s stead. It was a power previously unknown to a woman of the Macedon royal house, and her kinship with Alexander the Great – at this point the king of Macedon – may have influenced that decision. On the other hand, the women of Epirus had always held more power than those of Macedon. When her husband died still campaigning in Italy, Cleopatra simply remained regent and religious head of state until her son came of age.

The Sister of Alexander the Great

It is likely that Cleopatra remained on good terms with her brother while he was campaigning in the east and conquering the Persian Empire. He made her gifts of eastern loot, and she was allowed to impact his policies on behalf of her friends.

After the death of Alexander the Great, the Macedon throne lay open. He had named no heir and none was immediately apparent. Eventually both Alexander’s mentally challenged half-brother, Arrhidaeus, and the infant son, Alexander IV, still unborn when his father died, were made co-rulers, under a regent. A battle between nobles and generals ensued over who was to control the co-kings and eventually take power for himself in this way. For this purpose, Cleopatra was important: marriage to the full sister of Alexander could help legitimise claims to the throne.

In Macedon the most powerful noble and potential claimant to the throne was Antipater and neither Cleopatra nor her mother liked him. Thus, when he offered one of his daughters in marriage to Leonnatus, another prominent noble and general whose claims to the Macedon throne seemed imminent, Cleopatra intervened and offered her own more desirable hand. Alas, Leonnatus died before he could marry Cleopatra.

To ensure her future prosperity Cleopatra needed a Macedonian husband who commanded an army, and the natural choice, even more natural than Leonnatus who may have been chosen simply for his geographical proximity, was Perdiccas.

Perdiccas was the man most in control of the two kings and he was the man Alexander had given his signet ring to on his death bed. Unfortunately, Antipater had also decided that Perdiccas was a suitable match for his daughter and Perdiccas had agreed. Though he would rather marry Cleopatra and claim the Macedonian throne, he couldn’t outright refuse Antipater without gaining a dangerous enemy. For a long period, he could not make up his mind and Cleopatra travelled to Sardis to persuade him. He was assassinated before he could decide.

The Final Years of Cleopatra

Cleopatra remained at Sardis after the death of Perdiccas. It may have been a conscious choice, because she felt safe there, but it is more likely that she remained because she was a prisoner of the general Antigonus, who was cooperating with her sworn enemy Antipater.

As far as prisoners go, Cleopatra was a desirable one. According to the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus, all of her brother’s prominent generals tried to win her hand in marriage, to legitimise their claims to her brother’s throne. Knowing that it was her marrigeability that kept her alive, Cleopatra refused them all.

The fight for control over the two kings, Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV, eventually turned into a fight for the kingship. Both kings were killed and Cleopatra was quick to realise that if it was acceptable to kill the last males of the Argead line then a woman would not fare well. Her marrigeability was quickly waning as well, for she was beyond ideal childbearing years and had probably entered menopause.

So she chose Ptolemy, the general who had made himself king of Egypt and based his claims of legitimacy around Cleopatra’s brother even to the point of stealing his corpse. She left Sardis to go to him, but she ran into trouble with Antigonus’s men who escorted her back. Before she could attempt another escape she was assassinated.

- Emma Oxenby Wohlfart

[magicmountain]

Alexander’s feisty female relatives

Apart from his full sister Cleopatra, Alexander had two other half sisters: Cynnane and Thessalonike Thessalonika was born the same day her father Phillip conquered the Thessalian army (hence her name).  Cynnane was the daughter of Philip and Audata-Eurydice, the daughter of the Illyrian king Bardylis.

Cynanne: a warrior princess

Born ca. 358, Cynnane accompanied her father on an Illyrian campaign in the mid 340s in which she is said to have slain with her own hand an Illyrian queen . Soon thereafter she married Amyntas son of Perdiccas and bore him a daughter, Adea Eurydice. When Amyntas was executed by Alexander in 336/5, the widowed Cynnane was offered as a bride to Langarus, king of the Agrianes but he died of illness before he could come to Pella to receive his bride. She remained unmarried in Macedonia, raising her daughter, whom she trained in the Illyrian arts of war. After Alexander's death, she crossed the Strymon in spite of Antipater's attempt to prevent her journey and took her daughter to Asia, where she planned to arrange her marriage to Philip III Arrhidaeus (Alexander’s mentally retarded half brother).
 
Confronted with the threat posed by Cynnane's dynastic ambition, Perdiccas, the regent, sent out his brother Alcetas to prevent her from joining the main army. Alcetas foolishly tried to eliminate the threat by murdering Cynnane in front of his army. Instead ofthwarting Cynnane's plans, Alcetas' crime brought them to fruition. The army rebelled and forced him to arrange the marriage for which Cynnane had given her life. After Perdiccas was killed  in 321 BC Cynnane’s daughter Eurydice made a bold bid for power. She demanded that the new regents of Macedon, Peithon and Arrhidaeus, grant her a share of kingly power. Eurydice's ties to the Macedonian army, and her status as queen, helped her and succeeded briefly in becoming the power behind the throne.
 
Eurydice leads an army into battle

It was at this point, however, that a new adversary, Alexander the Great's general Antipater, returned to the king's court and laid claim to the vacant regency. In an attempt to forestall this and retain command over the Macedonian army, Eurydice spoke in public to the assembled soldiery. It was a serious violation of the taboos of the time for a female to speak in public, let alone for one to publicly announce herself to be the antagonist of a male leader such as Antipater. Ancient historians report that Eurydice's speech had been written for her by her secretary Asclepiodorus; these reports may have been accurate, or they may have been an attempt to defend the taboo. At any rate Eurydice's speech failed; the Macedonian army swung in favor of Antipater, and the general was appointed regent and guardian of the king.

Eurydice, once again relatively powerless, accompanied her husband and Antipater to Macedonia. But the death of Antipater in 319 BC, the more feeble character of Polyperchon, who succeeded him as regent, and the failure of his enterprises in Greece, and above all, the favourable disposition he evinced towards Olympias, determined her again to take an active part in proceedings. She concluded an alliance with Cassander, and, as he was wholly occupied with the affairs of Greece, she herself assembled an army and took the field in person. Polyperchon advanced against her from Epirus, accompanied by Aeacides, the king of that country, and Olympias, as well as Alexander’s widow Roxanne and her infant son. But the presence of Olympias was alone sufficient to decide the contest: the Macedonian troops refused to fight against the mother of Alexander the Great, and went over to her side. Eurydice fled from the field of battle to Amphipolis, but was seized and made prisoner.

She was at first confined, together with her husband, in a narrow dungeon, and scantily supplied with food; but soon Olympias, becoming alarmed at the compassion excited among the Macedonians, determined to get rid of her rival, and sent the young queen in her prison a sword, a rope, and a cup of hemlock, with orders to choose her mode of death. The spirit of Eurydice remained unbroken to the last; she still breathed defiance to Olympias, and prayed that she might soon be requited with the like gifts; then, having paid as well as she could the last duties to her husband, she put an end to her own life by hanging, without giving way to a tear or word of lamentation. Her body was afterwards removed by Cassander, and interred, together with that of her husband, with royal pomp at Aegae.

For a short period Olympias was mistress of Macedonia. Cassander, Antipater's son, hastened from Peloponnesus, and, after an obstinate siege, compelled the surrender of Pydna, where she had taken refuge. One of the terms of the capitulation had been that her life should be spared; but in spite of this she was brought to trial for the numerous and cruel executions of which she had been guilty during her short lease of power. Condemned without a hearing, she was put to death (316 BC) by the friends of those whom she had slain.

While Olympias and Cleopatra attempted to manipulate events in the indirect way royal women had done for some time, Cynnane and Adea Eurydice subverted the traditional political roles for women in Macedonian society. They conducted military action themselves and put little or no trust in male assistance.

Writing about Eurydice and Olympias leading their respective armies into battle Athenaeus states:

"Duris of Samos says that the first war between two women was that waged by Olympias and Eurydice; in it Olympias marched forth rather like a Bacchant, to the accompaniment of tambourines, whereas Eurydice was armed cap-a-pie in the Macedonian fashion, having been trained in military matters by Cynna, the princess from Illyria."

NOTE: Cynnane (Kynna) and Eurydice appear as characters in the historical novel Funeral Games by Mary Renault.