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 of Warfare under Philip II and Alexander the Great, 359-323 B.C. Jefferson: McFarland, 1998.

Bose, Partha. Alexander the Great’s Art of Strategy: the Timeless Leadership lessons of History’s Greatest Empire Builder. New York: Gotham, 2003.

• 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.

• 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: the Collapse 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.

• 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.

• ----------------------. Who’s Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander’s Empire. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.

• ----------------------, et al., eds. Alexander the Great: Historical Sources in Translation. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.

• ----------------------, et al., eds. Alexander’s 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.

• Kurke, Lance B. The Wisdom of Alexander the Great: Enduring Leadership Lessons from the Man Who Created 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.

• -------------------------. Brill’s Companion to Alexander the Great. Leiden: Brill, 2003.

• Saunders, Nicholas. Alexander’s Tomb: the Two Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror. New York: Basic, 2006.

• 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.

• 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 Marx’s communist theory: the historical current cannot be rejected)

• Great men made history [created new era]

• Perhaps, both = sparkplug and fuel

• Historical Background

• Rise of Macedonia (in the far north)

• 359 B.C. Philip (II) = King of Macedonia, a brilliant 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

• 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 Greek poleis.

• Philip, d. 336 -- political assassination?

• Queen Olympias

• 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) Homer’s Iliad (Achilles was said to be Alexander’s hero or idol), and

• (2) A dagger under his pillow

• Symbolized his passionate yet warlike nature/character

• Similarities with Achilles, yet with wit, for instance, he used wit to tame a newly caught wild horse

• The impetuous ambitions of Alexander the Great:

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

• 2. Whenever he heard Philip, his father, had taken any town of importance, or won any significant victory; instead of rejoicing at it altogether, he would tell his companions that his father would anticipate everything, and leave him and them no opportunities of performing great illustrious actions.

• Alexander’s conquest of Persia (334-332 B.C.)• In 333 B.C., after Alexander defeated the

Persian army in a battle, the Persian king sent an envoy to ask for peace, giving Alexander half of the empire + his only daughter, the heiress/princess to be wife of Alexander; yet, “when Alexander read the letter to his council, his general Parmenio said that if he were Alexander, he would accept. ‘So would I,’ replied Alexander, ‘if I were you [Parmenio],’ and rejected the compromise.”

• In 332 B.C., Alexander took Egypt, and was greeted as the son of Zeus (that is, a living god), and built Alexandria.

• 330 B.C. invaded Afghanistan

• 327 B.C. invaded India (war elephant)

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

• Arguments:• [Negative] Alexander the Great might have caused

the decline and fall of the Greek polis -- by exhausting the energy of Greece; and his foundation (military power and troops) might have been laid by his father, Philip II of Macedon.

• [Positive] On the other hand, Alexander definitely witnessed the rise of Macedonia, and he has started the idea of cosmopolitanism, and the Hellenistic [cf. Hellenic] Age.

• [Negative] Alexander the Great was opposite to Aristotle, his mentor. Aristotle loved the polis to be small, but Alexander built a big empire. Aristotle preferred the cultured Greek to rule over the foreigners, but Alexander’s satrapy was highly autonomous with foreigners ruling.

• [Neutral] Arrian, a Roman historian, thought that Alexander the Great was a warrior king, and his military achievements were great. But Arrian thought that Alexander’s eastern expedition was wrong, which got the eastern problems instead.

• On the other hand, Plutarch, another Roman historian, believed that there were two broader meanings in Alexander’s 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.

• [Negative] 20th century historians: A.R. Burn, E. Badian, and Ulrich Wilcken believed that Alexander did not aim at cosmopolitanism. He was only an ambitious adventurer.

• [Positive] On the contrary, W.W. Tarn and J.F.C. Fuller believed that Alexander the Great was a philosopher-king, and he was an ideal believer in cosmopolitanism.

• Alexander as a traitor

• Alexander destroyed the small polis

• Alexander’s 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

• Alexander as an innovator• Alexander united Greece and created an

unprecedented empire (over 3 continents), and started the Hellenistic Age

• Alexander’s 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

• 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 to India; 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

• [Negative]• 1. Even though he won on horseback

[by conquests], 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 weakened Greece, and ultimately even Greek resistance at home to Roman aggression later;

• 3. Alexander destroyed the spirit (small, exclusive, oneness, etc.) of the polis