Travels with Alexander the Great

[magicmountain]

Lawrence Tritle presents a highly personal reading of the effects of war on ancient Greeks and on twentieth-century Americans. Starting with the proposition that "the human experience with violence, culture, and survival is one that transcends time", Tritle constructs parallel narratives of ancient Greece and the Vietnam-era United States. From these, he argues that notions of heroism, the effects of violence-induced trauma (in particular post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD), depictions of the enemy as "other," and mourning practices are similar, even identical in both cultures.

Tritle argues that Xenophon's portrayal of the Spartan Clearchus "in fact provides us with the first known historical case of PTSD in the western literary tradition". Indeed, Xenophon's eulogy of Clearchus in the Anabasis represents for Tritle virtually a clinical diagnosis of PTSD. Tritle adduces further examples of ancient warriors suffering PTSD: Epizelus at Marathon, Telamonian Ajax, the Spartans  Aristodemus and Pantites and even Alexander the Great.

See an extensive review here:

http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2001/2001-03-03.html

[magicmountain]

Aristotle teaching Alexander. (Illustration by Joe Ward)

[magicmountain]

A bum wrap?

It would seem that Alexander the Great's bare bottom is keeping Annabel's novel off shelves in Canada. Apparently its jacket – featuring a naked youth lying on the back of an equally naked white horse – is offensive to some. Although stores across Canada and the UK are selling the book, Lyons revealed on her blog that British Columbia ferry company BC Ferries is not stocking it "since the trade paperback still features a bare bum on the cover".

BC Ferries said it had told the book's publisher, Random House Canada, that it would carry the book if it featured a 'belly band' wrapped around the offending parts "because we're obviously a 'family show' and we've got children in our gift shops". But Random House refused, and the transportation company decided against stocking the title. "While some people might think it's art or appropriate or whatever, parents of young people might not think it's appropriate for young children to view," BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall told Canadian paper the Province.

But is it really Alexander on the horse? Lyon has addressed the issue in her blog. "I get asked a lot about The Golden Mean's cover: what is with the naked guy on the horse? Alexander had an older half-brother named Arrhidaeus. The Roman historian Plutarch, who wrote a canonical early biography of Alexander, claims Arrhidaeus became an 'idiot' following a childhood illness, or perhaps poisoning. In my novel, he's suffered brain damage as a result of meningitis (though the ancient Greeks, of course, had neither of those terms).

"I imagine Aristotle tutoring both princes: Alexander out of duty, Arrhidaeus out of scientific curiousity. In an early scene, the philosopher discovers Arrhidaeus loves horses and decides to teach him to ride. Once mounted, Aristotle wants the boy to sit up straight.  'No, no,' a groom who's been watching them says. 'Now you hug him,' and leans forward with his arms around an imaginary mount. Arrhidaeus collapses eagerly onto the horse's back and hugs him hard."

[magicmountain]

Sealstone portrait of Alexander the Great from the 4th century BC.

Gems and sealstones were used to seal letters as well as voting urns or even doors in order to protect privacy and property. They served the purpose of our written signature today in an age when not many people could write. In the Hellenistic period, it became common for rulers of the separate Hellenistic kingdoms to have their own images, whether realistic or idealised, engraved on seal-stones. This fashion appears to have started with Alexander the Great, who is said to have granted the seal-engraver Pyrgoteles a monopoly in portraying the royal image in this medium. Like earlier Archaic and Classical Greek seals, many Hellenistic examples would have been set into rings and used both as jewellery and as a mark of possession or identity. The fashion for wealthy individuals to form collections of fine examples of gems is first seen at this time.

Pyrgoteles one of the most celebrated gem-engravers of ancient Greece, lived in the latter half of the fourth century BC. The esteem in which he was held may be inferred from that edict of Alexander, which placed him on a level with Apelles and Lysippus, by naming him as the only artist who was permitted to engrave seal-rings for the king. He may have been responsible for the Alexander with “horns of Amun” images on the Lysimachus coinage and the Ashmolean quartz ringstone pictured above.

[magicmountain]

Historian weeps at groundbreaking
Alexander the Great exhibition

The classical historian Robin Lane Fox calls the Ashmolean museum’s exhibition Heracles to Alexander the Great: Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedon in Oxford 'the greatest day of classical exhibitions in my lifetime'. He was reduced to helpless tears, over the glittering golden diadem of a woman who died more than 2,300 years ago and silver cups and wine jugs last used by Alexander the Great and his father, Philip II.

Silver wine jug from the royal tombs at Vergina (ancient Aegae)

Lane Fox – an Oxford academic who has not only written widely on Alexander the Great but also led the cavalry charge as an extra and adviser in the recent Hollywood film – described the treasures at the Ashmolean museum, retrieved from the graves and the palace of the king and his ancestors, as "the greatest day of classical exhibitions in my lifetime". He called the diadem of hundreds of golden myrtle flowers and leaves, probably worn by a queen who killed herself to join her husband, Philip II, in the grave, "the single most beautiful object in gold on the planet".

Another diadem of golden oak leaves on display had only been rediscovered in 2008 after it was deliberately hidden with the cremated remains of a teenage boy who may have been Alexander's murdered son. Only a handful of the jewellery, weapons, armour, sculptures and fragments of architecture has ever been seen by the public anywhere, even in Greece. Some were excavated only in the past few years. Most of the pieces have been brought by Angeliki Kottaridi, curator and archaeologist, straight from her stores in Vergina – a small town situated on top of Aegae, the ancient capital of Macedon. The site has only begun in the last 30 years to reveal its secrets, which include the unlooted tombs of Philip II, of a queen who may have been his grandmother buried covered from head to foot in gold, and of Alexander IV, the last of the line of kings.

Only a fraction of the cemetery (comprising more than 500 burial mounds) and Philip's huge palace have been excavated – enough, Lane Fox said, to suggest it made Buck House "look like a cottage". The building, as proved by the dazzling silver, was the scene of royal banquets on a scale which might have made Cecil B DeMille splutter: the 16 banqueting halls had space on double couches for more than 400 diners, while the court had room for 3,500 seated guests.

Future excavation, and the plans for a major museum to display the extraodinary finds, may depend on what the future holds for the tottering Greek economy. "Our strength is our past, and our memory," Kottaridi said. "We need Alexander to help us; we need our pride restored again."

http://www.u.tv/News/Historian-weeps-at-groundbreaking-Alexander-the-Great-exhibition/9ab72b34-e397-44df-9ae3-743190a71b74

[magicmountain]

Robin Lane Fox walks us through the exhibition which he describes as “the most
emotional exhibition experience of my lifetime”.

The Ashmolean’s new show is the most stunning loan exhibition ever to have come from Greece to Britain. It consists of objects from ancient Aigai, the modern Vergina – the ceremonial centre of the ancient Macedonian kingdom and the cradle of King Philip and his son Alexander. Almost all the 500 items have been excavated since 1977 and one of the most spectacular, a gold wreath, was found only in 2008.

The exhibition is beautifully shown in three big rooms and contains items that will require histories of Greek art to be rewritten. The effect is overwhelming, the most emotional exhibition experience of my lifetime.

For some 500 years Macedon was ruled by kings who traced their ancestry back to the hero Heracles, whose image appears on Alexander’s many coins; from about 330BC Alexander and his heirs ruled an area stretching from Egypt as far as north-west India. Even 150 years after Alexander’s death, kings in Bactria (modern Afghanistan) were showing their Macedonian features and armour on their fine coins and alluding still to Alexander himself. The Ptolemies in Egypt, including Cleopatra, spoke Greek in the Macedonian dialect. In Oxford we can look in for the first time at the previous history of the royal society that produced the most famous conquerors in ancient history.

The exhibition strikes an admirable balance between treasure and scholarship. Nobody could fail to be impressed by the gold myrtle wreath adorned with 112 gold flowers that belonged to one of Philip’s seven wives and was found in the front chamber of his tomb in 1977. It is the most beautiful piece of ancient Greek jewellery known to us. A line of tall modelled clay heads from about 480BC are also star turns. They were found with the earlier female burial of a queen of Macedon: are they heads of the goddess Persephone and some unknown divinities or are some of them portrait heads, even at this unimaginably early date?

Gold myrtle wreath adorned with 112 gold flowers that belonged to one of Philip’s seven wives

A brilliantly staged group of the dresses and jewellery of the ladies of ancient Aigai centres on the incredible gold decorations of the queen herself. For the first time they let us see how women actually wore these bulky precious items. High points of a room devoted to the Macedonian court’s dining and partying are silver cups from the tombs of Philip and of a prince who is almost certainly Alexander’s short-lived son from his wife Roxane. These exquisite items remind us of the elegance among the wilder side of Macedonian nightlife. Roxane surely touched some of these silver pieces, Philip the others.

It pays to look closely at the detailed decoration on so many of the smaller items in this show. The queen’s headband, from perhaps as early as 500BC, is decorated with scenes of Greek myth, including the Minotaur. The handles on the silver vessels are adorned with Dionysiac faces and the samples of carved ivory figures have superb skill: the Greek patronage, taste and language of the Macedonian court-society are plainly visible.

The show includes reproductions of the tomb-paintings found under ancient Aigai’s great mound. These are the high spots of the most spectacular discoveries in Greek archaeology in my lifetime. If only the great Italian Renaissance artists could have seen the Aigai paintings: the history of Western art might have been different if Botticelli or Leonardo had been able to study these breathtaking depictions of human emotion, interrelated action, schematic landscape and rhythmic movement.

The exhibition is right to devote a lot of space to the ground plans and images of Aigai’s huge, 12,500 sq m palace: recent revelations about the site have changed our entire understanding of architecture in and after Alexander’s lifetime. It is the most important classical Greek structure after the Parthenon and shows us the increasing grandeur of the court in which young Alexander grew up. The building was formerly dated to the generation after Alexander, as if it had been the result of his grand conquest in Asia. But it is now known, through renewed excavation since 2007, to be nothing less than Philip’s own palace.

In 2008 I was taken round the new excavations by their presiding genius, Angeliki Kottaridi, to whose generosity this loan exhibition is due. I remember telling her that she must survey the palace in front of us and use technology to work out where Philip’s earlier palace lay beneath it. “I have done that, Robin,” she replied, “and there is no earlier palace underneath.” I realised that she knew, as I now did, that we were standing in Philip’s own vast palace, the place where he, Olympias and the young Alexander walked and maybe quarrelled. As the moon came up we sat in the recently found theatre below the palace, only feet away from the very spot where Philip was murdered. It was clear that our understanding of Philip’s vision as king had changed forever; only now do we realise the scale of his vision and ambition.

Alexander was a Macedonian and the more we know about his homeland the more we know about the context in which to assess his career and the generation he brought to fame. This fabulous show makes us aware of a world whose secrets we have only recently begun to unlock.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5f489386-6137-11e0-ab25-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1JJQwhV2X

[magicmountain]

More than 500 objects recovered from the ancient city of Aegae are on display at the Ashmolean exhibition - the first time the vast majority of them have been seen anywhere in the world. They represent a fascinating journey tracing the chronological development of Aegae's long and illustrious history from the pre-Temenid era (1100-650 BC) to the age of Philip II and Alexander the Great (around 350-300 BC).

One of the burials in the "queens" cluster at Aegae, dating to around 480 BC, yielded 26 life-sized clay heads pictured here. Astonishing both in terms of their early date and their realistic and expressive facial features, these enigmatic faces would originally have been part of wooden statues

See more here:

http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%26+heritage/archaeology/art352926

See videos of the exhibition here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-13011954

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13046299

[magicmountain]

Alexander's family home



Plan of the royal  palace at Aigai

The palace of the Macedonian royal family at ancient Aigai was organized around a large, central peristyle court and comprises a circular shrine (Tholos) dedicated to Herakles Patroos, and luxurious banquet halls for the king and his officers. One of these rooms includes a fine mosaic floor.

The most imposing palace to have been located in Macedonia was the residence of the Macedonian kings when they returned to their old capital for official ceremonies. The layout reproduces on a grand scale the plan of the ancient Greek 'oikia' (house) with an inner peristyle (columned courtyard) surrounded by rooms.

The east wing included a monumental entrance, the 'Tholos' (probably a place of worship), and other rooms of unknown purpose. The south wing held the residential rooms proper as well as banqueting halls decorated with mosaic floors. The west wing also contained banqueting halls.

On the lower north slope there extended a long and narrow veranda in front of the chambers. The building is dated to the second half of the 4th century BC.

More details here:

http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/HellenicMacedonia/en/C1.1.1.html

The archaeological site of Alexander's palace.

[magicmountain]

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about Alexander the Great is the fate of his empire after his premature death.
Alexander the Great conquered an enormous empire--stretching from Greece to the Indian subcontinent--and his death triggered forty bloody years of world-changing warfare. These were years filled with high adventure, intrigue, passion, assassinations, dynastic marriages, treachery, shifting alliances, and mass slaughter on battlefield after battlefield. And while the men fought on the field, the women, such as Alexander's mother Olympias, schemed from their palaces and pavilions.

The story of one of the great forgotten wars of history, Dividing the Spoils serves up a fast-paced narrative that captures this turbulent time as it revives the memory of the Successors of Alexander and their great war over his empire. The Successors, Robin Waterfield shows, were no mere plunderers. Indeed, Alexander left things in great disarray at the time of his death, with no guaranteed succession, no administration in place suitable for such a large realm, and huge untamed areas both bordering and within his empire.

It was the Successors--battle-tested companions of Alexander such as Ptolemy, Perdiccas, Seleucus, and Antigonus the One-Eyed--who consolidated Alexander's gains. Their competing ambitions, however, eventually led to the break-up of the empire. To tell their story in full, Waterfield draws upon a wide range of historical materials, providing the first account that makes complete sense of this highly complex period.

Astonishingly, this period of brutal, cynical warfare was also characterized by brilliant cultural achievements, especially in the fields of philosophy, literature, and art. A new world emerged from the dust and haze of battle, and, in addition to chronicling political and military events, Waterfield provides ample discussion of the amazing cultural flowering of the early Hellenistic Age.

Robin Waterfield talks about his book here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eddzG2oSfD8

[magicmountain]

The Rapper's take on ATG



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nx70YdIauQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGm2nIpTG9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0vB1pj6QYs&feature=related

[magicmountain]

Nurata in Uzbekistan

Once known as Nur, this ancient town of Nurata held a strategic position on the frontier between the cultivated lands and the steppe in ancient Sogdiana (modern Uzbekistan). Alexander the Great, Arab conquerors, Genghis Khan and many others spent their time here during the winter.



Hillstop citadel rebuilt by Alexander

These ruins of a hilltop citadel in the town centre near the bazaar is said to have stood before the arrival of Alexander the Great and his soldiers rebuilt it. A grave nearby may be that of one of Alexander's generals. Alexander also installed a water supply system that is still used today. Known as kariz, this a unique underground water-pipeline system near Nurata, was was connected to the source of spring water. Its length reached several kilometers. Interconnected wells dug out several meters apart from each other, were used to clean the pipeline system. Today parts of the pipeline systems near Nurata have been restored and are being used by local people.



Another view of the citadel.

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

Alexander and the African Queen



Relief of a Kentake (Queen) of Meroe

Meroe was a wealthy kingdom in southern Egypt, bordered on three sides by the waters of the Blue and White Nile, which flourished from between 800 BCE to 350 CE. The Kingdom of Meroe (also known as Kush, as referenced in the Biblical book of Genesis 10:6, and elsewhere, and as Aethiopia) was ruled by Nubians.

The title of the queen was Kentake, commonly rendered as 'Candace' (which most likely meant 'Queen Regent’or 'Queen Mother') and there were at least seven Candaces between 284 BCE and 115 CE. The Candace Amanishakheto is depicted as extremely fat, a towering figure conquering her enemies who are all rendered as smaller and helpless in her grasp and the Candace Amanitore is shown in the same way, clearly illustrating the power and prestige women rulers had in the Meroitic culture.

Easily the most famous (though fictional) event illustrating the esteem in which the Candaces were held is the legendary tale from Pseudo-Callisthenes of Alexander the Great being deftly turned aside from his attack on the kingdom by a Candace of Meroe in 332 BCE. According to this story, the Candace arrayed her army so perfectly that Alexander, surveying the field of battle, thought it more prudent to retreat than press an attack. The true account of Augustus Caesar's clash with the forces of Meroe in 22 BCE, however, is actually more compelling as the Emperor ended hostilities with the Nubian Kingdom by a peace treaty which favored Meroitic interests over those of Rome; a very rare gesture for Augustus to offer.



Today Meroe is the most extensive archaelogical site in the Republic of Sudan and the ruins
of the pyramids, palaces and official buildings stand silent where the populous city once thrived.

Here is a Jewish legend based on the fictional meeting with the African queen.

THE LAND OF DARKNESS

After many days King Alexander came to the Mountains of Darkness. Acting on the advice of the wise men, he had provided himself with asses from the land of Libya, for they have the power of seeing in the dark, and also with a cord of great length. Mounted on the asses, he and his men plunged into the realms of darkness, unwinding the cord as they went, so that they might find their way back with it.

Around them was blackest darkness and a silence that inspired the men with awe. The asses, however, picked their way through the tall trees that grew so high and so thick that not the least ray of light could penetrate. How many days they traveled thus they knew not, for day and night were alike. The men slept when they were tired, ate when they were hungry and trusted to the asses and the cord.

At last when they emerged into the light they were almost blinded by the sun, and it was some time before they could see properly. Then, to their great astonishment, they found that there were no men in the land, only women, tall and finely proportioned, clothed in skins and armed with bows and arrows.

"Who are ye?" asked Alexander.

"We are the Amazons, women who are skilled in war and in the art of hunting," they answered.

"Lead me to your queen," commanded Alexander, "and bid her surrender, for I am Alexander, the Great, of Macedon, and conqueror of the world. I fight not by night, for I scorn to steal victories in the dark, and my men are armed with magic spears of gold and silver and are therefore invincible."

The queen of the Amazons appeared before him, a beautiful woman, with long raven hair. "Greeting to thee, mighty warrior," she said.

"Hast thou come to slay women?"

"Perchance it is you who will triumph over me," replied Alexander.

The queen of the Amazons smiled.

"Then shall it be said of thee," she replied, "that thou wert a valiant warrior who conquered the world, but was himself conquered by women. Is that to be your message to history?"

King Alexander was a man of learning and of wisdom, as well as a great soldier, but the words of the queen of the Amazons were such that he could not answer. He bowed low before the queen and with a gesture indicated that he had naught to say.

"Then it is to be peace," said the queen. "At least, before thy return, let me prepare for thee a banquet."

In a hut made of logs and decorated with skins, a rough wooden table was placed before Alexander and on it was laid a loaf of gold.

"Do ye eat bread of gold?" asked the king, much surprised.

"Nay," replied the queen. "We are women of simple tastes, but thou art a mighty king. If thou didst but wish to eat ordinary bread in this land, why didst thou desire to conquer it? Is there no more bread in your own land that thou shouldst brave the dangers of the dark mountains to eat it here?"

Alexander bowed his head on his breast. Never before had he felt ashamed.

"I, Alexander of Macedon," he said, "was a fool until I came to the land beyond the Mountains of Darkness and learned wisdom from women."

Read more here:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/jftl/jftl29.htm

[magicmountain]

The story of Alexander’s career is relatively well known. The events were dramatic, exciting and far-reaching in their importance so they were well recorded at the time and have been much explored by historians since. Hollywood has made two biopics about Alexander the Great.

What marks all these accounts is that they tend to concentrate on the political side of the conflict. Battles and campaigns, though they are often dealt with in some detail, are seen as background to and results of the intrigues and machinations of the rulers and politicians who fill the pages of these writings. This is understandable, for the ancient sources that we have focus on pretty much the same things.

For a military historian, this can all be rather frustrating. The reasons for battles are given clearly enough and who won them, but only very rarely is there any discussion about how the battles were fought. We read almost nothing about weapons, tactics or logistics. But how were the armies kept supplied with food? How did a Macedonian soldier fight? Why were Alexander’s cavalry so devastating in battle?

This book is an attempt to explain to the general reader the reality of warfare in the year 334bc. It seeks to give a plausible recreation of the tactics used in the Granicus Campaign and to put them into the context of the time. It explains what the weapons were like and how they were used in action. It describes the usual tactics of the different military units involved and how these would have impacted on each other in battle. I have walked the battlefields on foot and have handled replica weapons at some length. I have then used this information to put together an account of the campaign itself.

- Rupert Matthews

[magicmountain]

It can be said that each age has re-evaluated the meaning of Alexander's life in order to enrich the meaning of its own existence.

It may seem that he didn't leave us a legacy. He didn't found any new religion, and the one he followed himself was dead within five hundred years after him.Indeed, there is a living legacy of Alexander. It has passed on from one generation to the next, mostly without being rationalized. He symbolizes, to every soul who is exposed to him, the reckless ability of the human spirit to accept a superhuman challenge and then carry it through. ...

It shouldn't surprise us at all that most historians have failed to explain the mystery of Alexander. The key to this mystery doesn't lie in the strategies of his famous battles, or the controversies over their exact locations. The key to the mystery of Alexander lies in those several anecdotes from his life, "the Alexander stories," which have inspired the young and old of each generation, and kept alive a kind of Alexandrian cult.

One of the earliest stories is a one-liner. As a young boy, whenever he would hear that his father had conquered another city, Alexander remarked, "Alas! Another city less for me to conquer." What saved him from being a psychopath, and brings him out as a hero, is the fact that through his conquests he wasn't seeking a proof of his own existence. He was what he was, whether he conquered cities or not.

This is manifested in his famous meeting with the cynic Diogenes, who was known for his refusal of worldly possessions. It is said that Diogenes would carry a wooden enclosure on his back, and lay it down as a symbolic home wherever he chose to make a brief stay in his endless wanderings. Few other incidents in history could be as "dramatic," as this meeting between the man who said he would have nothing of the world and the man who claimed that he would own all of it. "Is there anything I may do for you?" The young conqueror asked. "Indeed," replied the cynic. "Stand aside, and don't stop the sunlight from reaching me." The enthusiastic followers of Diogenes, understandably "cynical" of Alexander's ambitions, stop at this point when telling the story. But Alexander's historians go further to record the young conqueror's remark, which is more baffling than the philosopher's cynicism. "If I weren't Alexander," he said to his companions. "I would have been Diogenes." This, then, was the spirit of Alexander. He would either take the entire world or none of it. He was what he was, whether he did anything or nothing.

http://pakistanspace.tripod.com/khurram/alexander.htm