His3258 Lecture04 Alexander the Great A

8/3/2019 His3258 Lecture04 Alexander the Great A

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Alexander the Great

Main References:

Adams, W. L. Alexander the Great: Legacy of a Conqueror.

New York: Longman, 2005.

Ashley, James R. The Macedonian Empire: the Era ofWarfare under Philip II and Alexander the Great, 359-323

B.C. Jefferson: McFarland, 1998.

Bose, Partha. Alexander the Greats Art of Strategy: the

Timeless Leadership lessons of Historys Greatest Empire

Builder. New York: Gotham, 2003.


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Bosworth, A.B. Conquest and Empire: the Reign of

Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press,

1988. ------------------. Alexander and the East: the Tragedy of

Triumph. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.

------------------, et al., eds. Alexander the Great in Fact

and Fiction. Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 2000. Carney, Elizabeth. Olympias: Mother of Alexander the

Great. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Dahmen, Karsten. The Legend of Alexander the Great

on Greek and Roman Coins. New York: Routledge,2007.


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Fildes, Alan. Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods.

Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002.

Fox, Robin Lane. Alexander the Great. London:Penguin, 1973.

Fraser, P.M. Cities of Alexander the Great. Oxford:

Clarendon, 1996.

Grainger, John D. Alexander the Great Failure: theCollapse of the Macedonian Empire. London:

Hambledon, 2007.

Hammond, N.G.L. The Genius of Alexander the

Great. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina Press,1997.


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Heckel, Waldemar. The Wars of Alexander the Great, 336-323 B.C.

New York: Routledge, 2003.

----------------------. The Conquests of Alexander the Great.Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 2008.

----------------------. Whos Who in the Age of Alexander the Great:

Prosopography of Alexanders Empire. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.

----------------------, et al., eds. Alexander the Great: Historical

Sources in Translation. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. ----------------------, et al., eds. Alexanders Empire: Formulation to

Decay. Claremont: Regina, 2007.

Holt, Frank Lee. Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the

Elephant Medallions.

Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2003.


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Kurke, Lance B. The Wisdom of Alexander the Great:Enduring Leadership Lessons from the Man WhoCreated an Empire. New York: American

Management Association, 2004. Lonsdale, David J. Alexander the Great: Lessons in

Strategy. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Roisman, Joseph, ed. Alexander the Great: Ancient

and Modern Perspectives. Lexington, Mass.:D.C.Heath, 1995.

-------------------------. Brills Companion to Alexanderthe Great. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Saunders, Nicholas. Alexanders Tomb: the Two

Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror.New York: Basic, 2006.


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Skelton, Debra. Empire of Alexander the Great. New York:

Facts on File, 2005.

Stoneman, Richard. Alexander the Great: a Life in Legend.

New Haven: Yale U. Press, 2008.

-----------------------. Alexander the Great. New York:

Rougledge, 1997.

Tarn, W.W. Alexander the Great. Vol. I: Narrative; Vol. II:

Sources and Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1948.

Thomas, Carol. Alexander the Great in His World. Malden,

M.A.: Blackwell, 2007.

Wood, Michael. In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: a

Journey from Greece to Asia. Berkeley: U. of California Press,

1997. Worthington, Ian, ed. Alexander the Great: a Reader. New

York: Routledge, 2003.


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Heroes and Heroic Worship

The Great Men Theory by Thomas Carlyle, (1795-1881):

The history of mankind is but the biographies of great men.

(Cf. Tseng Kuo-fan)

Great men were just products of history (cf. Karl Marxs

communist theory: the historical current cannot be rejected)

Great men made history [created new era]

Perhaps, both = sparkplug and fuel


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Historical Background

Rise of Macedonia (in the far north)

359 B.C. Philip (II) = King of Macedonia, abrilliant soldier, a fine speaker, a man of much

personal charm with wit, a tactful diplomat + learnt

some skill [such as the phalanx from Thebes as

hostage (as a young prince)

Athens, Sparta, and Thebes -- all tried but failed to

dominating the Greek world -- now all worn out


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The Macedonians were considered the northern

barbarians

Philip said, Yes, we [the Macedonians] are crude

people. We call a spade a spade. [that is, not

flowery]

+ appeasement atmosphere among the Greekpoleis.

Philip, d. 336 -- political assassination?

Queen Olympias


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Alexander the Great, r. 336-323 B.C. (age 20 -- 33

d.) [13 years of reign]

During his expedition to the east, two things were

always with Alexander the Great:

(1) HomersIliad(Achilles was said to be

Alexanders hero or idol), and

(2) A dagger under his pillow

Symbolized his passionate yet warlike

nature/character


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Similarities with Achilles, yet with wit, for

instance, he used wit to tame a newly

caught wild horse


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The impetuous ambitions of Alexander theGreat:

1. Charging across the river to fight the Persianarmy without his own main army to back up;

2. Whenever he heard Philip, his father, had

taken any town of importance, or won anysignificant victory; instead of rejoicing at italtogether, he would tell his companions that hisfather would anticipate everything, and leave himand them no opportunities of performing greatillustrious actions.


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Alexanders conquest of Persia (334-332 B.C.)

In 333 B.C., after Alexander defeated the

Persian army in a battle, the Persian king sentan envoy to ask for peace, giving Alexanderhalf of the empire + his only daughter, theheiress/princess to be wife of Alexander; yet,when Alexander read the letter to his council,his general Parmenio said that if he wereAlexander, he would accept. So would I,

replied Alexander,if I were you [Parmenio],

and rejected the compromise.


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In 332 B.C., Alexander took Egypt, and was greetedas the son of Zeus (that is, a living god), and builtAlexandria.

330 B.C. invaded Afghanistan

327 B.C. invaded India (war elephant)

323 B.C. (June 10) on his return trip, died of swampfever in Babylon


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Arguments:

[Negative] Alexander the Great might have caused

the decline and fall of the Greekpolis -- byexhausting the energy of Greece; and hisfoundation (military power and troops) might havebeen laid by his father, Philip II of Macedon.

[Positive] On the other hand, Alexander definitelywitnessed the rise of Macedonia, and he has startedthe idea of cosmopolitanism, and the Hellenistic

[cf. Hellenic] Age.


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[Negative] Alexander the Great was opposite toAristotle, his mentor. Aristotle loved thepolis to be

small, but Alexander built a big empire. Aristotlepreferred the cultured Greek to rule over theforeigners, but Alexanders satrapy was highlyautonomous with foreigners ruling.

[Neutral] Arrian, a Roman historian, thought thatAlexander the Great was a warrior king, and hismilitary achievements were great. But Arrian

thought that Alexanders eastern expedition waswrong, which got the eastern problems instead.


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On the other hand, Plutarch, another Roman

historian, believed that there were twobroader meanings in Alexanders eastern

expedition: 1. Alexander the Great was a

philosopher-king; 2. The goals for

expedition made Alexander a philosopher --

that he was not for his own luxurious glory

or wealth, but for the peaceful cosmopolitan

society of human beings.


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[Negative] 20th century historians: A.R.

Burn, E. Badian, and Ulrich Wilckenbelieved that Alexander did not aim atcosmopolitanism. He was only an ambitiousadventurer.

[Positive] On the contrary, W.W. Tarn andJ.F.C. Fuller believed that Alexander the

Great was a philosopher-king, and he was anideal believer in cosmopolitanism.


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Alexander as a traitor

Alexander destroyed the smallpolis

Alexanders aim in the eastern Expedition

was ambitious, impetuous, adventurous

Consequence: mutually affected with the east,

but to some historians, the highly cultured

Greeks were barbarized


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Alexander as an innovator

Alexander united Greece and created anunprecedented empire (over 3

continents), and started the Hellenistic

Age

Alexanders aim was related to the philosopher-king

ideal, cosmopolitanism, and necessity

Hellenized the world, that is why Greek history was

from Hellenic to Hellenistic then


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Significance:

[Positive]

1. Created a big empire ruling over 3 continents;

2. A break-through in the idea of cosmopolitanism

(including the satrapy, etc.), at least, it was a kind of

fusion;

3. Greek influence over the east (all the way toIndia; his coins were found in India), thus,

Hellenistic;

4. According to W.W. Tarn, Alexander the Great

was a contributor or promoter of the unity of mankind


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[Negative]

1. Even though he won on horseback [byconquests], he could not rule the empire for long

[soon he died, and his empire scattered];

2. Alexander by draining off so much Greek

man-power so far into the east, Alexander weakenedGreece, and ultimately even Greek resistance at

home to Roman aggression later;

3. Alexander destroyed the spirit (small,

exclusive, oneness, etc.) of thepolis

His3258 Lecture04 Alexander the Great A

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