Robinson -- Alexander's Ideas

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The Extraordinary Ideas of Alexander the GreatAuthor(s): C. A. Robinson, Jr.

Reviewed work(s):Source: The American Historical Review, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Jan., 1957), pp. 326-344Published by: The University of Chicago Presson behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1845186.

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The Extraordinary deas ofAlexander he GreatC. A. ROBINSON, JR.

THROUGHOUT the ages,andwith the most diverse mphases,hemeteoriccareerof Alexander he Greathas appealed o all mannerof men. My dis-tinguishedfriend, C. BradfordWelles, once remarked'that "therehavebeen many Alexanders. . . . No account of him is altogether wrong....The problemof Alexander s more than a purely historicalproblem.Itis, essentially, psychological ne.... The problemof Alexander s com-parable, ctually, nly to theproblem f Jesus.... One'sdifficultys to knowwhat to believe."As for biographiesof Alexander,Welles went on tospecify"the documentary nd statisticalAlexander f Berve,2 he reasonableAlexanderof Wilcken,3 he mythicalAlexanderof Radet,4 he gentlemanlyandsportingAlexander f Tarn"with the extremeviewsreminiscent f "theEnglish gentry,"5 my "humanitarianAlexander,"6and Schachermeyr's"brutal"Alexander.7 t is certainlyair to say thateach of thesebiographiesrestson detailedstudyof the ancientevidence,and yet thereis no area nGraeco-Romanistorywheresharperdisagreementtill exists.I submit hatthe mainproblems not essentially psychologicalne-although thesepageswill make clearthat it can easilyturn into that-but ratherone of nailingdown in chronologicalorder each of Alexander'sextraordinarydeas, oractionswhichmaybe indicativeof suchideas,providedhe source s a goodone.8

1 In his review of Schachermeyr see fn. 7, below), Am. four. Archaeol.,LV (I95I), 433-36;cf. my reply, "Alexander'sBrutality," bid., LVI (I952), z69-70.2Helmut Berve, Das Alexanderreichauf prosopographischerGrundlage (2 vols.; Munich,1926).s Ulrich Wilcken, Alexander der Grosse (Leipzig, 1931); cf. my review, Am. Jour. Philol.,LIII (1932), 383-85. The English translationby George C. Richards (London, 1932) is herecited as Wilcken.4 Georges A. Radet, Alexandre le Grand (2d ed.; Paris, I950); cf. my review, Am. four.Philol., LIV (1953), 222.5 William W. Tarn, Alexander the Great (2 vols.; Cambridge, 1948). Here cited as Tarn.The first vol. is a biography, the second consists of monographic studies. Cf. my review, Am.Jour.Philol., LXX (1949), 192-202.6 Alexander the Great (New York, 1947).7 Fritz Schachermeyr,Alexander der Grosse (Graz, 1949); cf. my review, ClassicalPhilology,XLVII (I952), I96-98.8 When he set out for Asia,Alexanderbroughttwo secretarieswith him, Eumenesand Diodotus,whose task it was to keep the Royal Journal(Ephemerides),a dry "official"daily record. Aristotle'snephew, the philosopher Callisthenes,also accompanied Alexander and wrote a History of theexpedition on the march, basing it in part on the Royal Journal.Callistheneswas arrested n 327

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328 C. J. Robinson, Jr.Cyrus o theverygatesof Babylonand,thoughdefeated, eturnalive.Earlierin Alexander's wn century, he Spartanking, Agesilaus,had enjoyedcon-siderable uccessesn Asia Minor,and, of course,Philip,Alexander'sather,hadbeenready o marchagainst hePersian mpireat thetime of hismurder(336 B.C.). Nor should we overlook, or its laterimplications, he practicalcertainty thoughthere is no evidence or it) thatAlexandercouldhardlyhave beenunfamiliarwiththeactivity n SicilyandItalyof his royalrelativesandneighbors,who livedjust to thewestof Macedonian Epirus.This much,however,we do know.AlexandernheritedPhilip'sarmy,butinsteadof rashlycrossingntoAsia-the bridgeheads f theDardanelleswerethenheld byParmenio, hilip'soldgeneral-he spent henext twoyears rain-ing thearmy,marching o theDanubeandbeyondandthen intowhat is noweasternYugoslavia,"3ll fortheaddedpurpose f insuringhis latercommuni-cationsbetweenEuropeand Asia. And we also know that Alexander n-heritedPhilip'scommissionromthe CorinthianLeagueto leadthe Greeksin a PanhellenicWar of Revengeagainst hePersianempire, o punish t forthecrimes t hadcommitted gainstGreecea centuryand a halfearlier.14Thus, when he crossed o Asia, Alexandercame in a dualcapacity.Hewas both commander-in-chiefhegemon) of the CorinthianLeague andKing of Macedon. Te latterofficemeantthat he was responsibleo no onebut himself in militarymatters,but we mustemphasize againfor the laterimplications) hat in civil affairs he army-that is, the armedcitizens-alsoplayed a role. It is safe to guess that Alexanderdid not come as a meremarauder nd seekerafterloot-otherwise,why the Danubeexpeditionandits extensionwestward?But whetheror not he plannedsimplyto substituteHellenicdespotismor Oriental s theprimaryquestion,andcertainlywe donot havetheansweratthispoint n hiscareer.It is well known that Alexanderwas neveranythingbut young (356-323 B.C.). It is alsoprobablehat f his cold rationalism ndmilitary killcamefrom Philip,his abilityto dream,his mysticism-and probablyhis temper,which was his worst enemy,and perhaps, oo, the growing megalomaniawhichis discernible t the end of his life-came fromhis mother,Olympias,the fieryand passionate rincessof Epirus.Nevertheless, oungor not, it isdifficulto understandwhy,on enteringAsiaas the uninvitedntruder n anancientempirewhich peoplelookedupon as essentially quivalent o thecivilized world, he left his army15and made a side trip to Troy."6Thecommon nterpretationhat Alexanderdid thisfor its propagandaffect'7onthewaveringGreeksathome-that herewasanotherAchillesorAgamemnon

i3 Arrian I, i-6. 14Ibid. I, I, 2; II, I4, 4. 15 Ibid. I, iI, 6. 16 Ibid. I, 12, I.17 For example,David G. Hogarth,Philip and Alexanderof Macedon(London, I897), p. 177.


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Extraordinary deas of Ilexander the Great 329leading victorious uropean ostagainstAsia-will not standup; for therealwayto win Greek upportwasto defeat he Persiansn battle.The tripto thefamous itywasprimarily youthfultunt.

There s somethinglseaboutAlexanderhat s not so wellknown,how-ever,andwithout t he canneverbe fullyunderstood:is amazing apacityfor rapidgrowth.This is illustratedy his entirely ifferenteactiono twosimilar xperiences ithinmonthsof eachother.At the Granicus,is firstencounter ith hePersians, lexanderaptured reekmercenarieshohadbeen ightingorDarius, he GreatKing,againsthe Panhellenicecreesfthe Corinthian eague. n his capacity s hegemon, e sent themback oMacedonian chains o till the soil;18 ut when,a little ater,he capturedmoreGreekmercenariest Miletus, e allowed hemto enlist n his ownarmy.19 bviously, lexander'seliance n the Corinthianeaguewasweak-ening,but we do not yet knowwhathe was planning o substituteor it:personal ominions the tempting xplanation.or, mostunfortunately,sthe ancient vidence learabouthis treatmentf the liberatedGreek itiesalong he coast.Did he jointhem o the Corinthianeague r to himself sallies?The bestanswero thismuchdebated uestions that,byand arge,Alexander'successorsn Asiawereprone o followhis schemesn outline;andsinceAntigonus, issuccessorn AsiaMinor, llied heGreek ities ohimself, t is likely hattheprecedentadbeenset byAlexander.20Soonafterward,n Caria,Alexanderllowed henativequeen,Ada,toadopthimasherson,21n indicationhathehadcome n a somewhatargercapacityhanthatof mereconqueror. hen,as he proceededntothenon-Greekdistrictsf theinterior, e claimedhe tributewhichhadpreviouslybeenpaid he GreatKing.22 t Gordium,f course, e cutthe famous not-anotherstunt,and alsoa challenge e hadto accept, houghagainsthefamiliar tory hat worlddominionwaspromisedo the man whocoulduntie t,we should lacehemoreikely toryhatruleoverAsiaMinor lonewasheld forth.23n the interior f AsiaMinor,at last,we get a cluetoAlexander'shinking,or he appointedarbarians,on-Greeks,ssatrapsftwo provinces.24ateron, in the fartherEast, t was common nough orhimto appoint arbarianso administrativeosts, ut,so theargumentuns,therewerenotenoughGreeks ndMacedoniansogo around ndhecouldhardlyhavedoneotherwise. siaMinor, owever,wasdifferent,orit was

18 Arrian I, i6, 6. 19Ibid.I, I9, 6.20 Victor Ehrenberg,Alexanderand the Greeks (Oxford, 1938), chap. I; cf. my review, Am.lour. Philol., LXI (1940), 498-99. See also ArrianIII, 2, 7, for Alexander'sfurtherindependenttreatmentof Greekcities (the Chian traitors).21 Arrian I, 23, 8. 22 For example, ibid. I, I7, I. 23 CurtiusIII, I, 13.24 Arrian I, 23, 7 (Ada is appointedsatrapof all Caria); II, 4, 2 (Sabictas s appointedsatrapof Cappadocia).


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330 C. AI. Robinson, Jr.a world of Greeks.25Then, eighteen months after he had crossed the Darda-nelles in the dual capacity of King of Macedon and hegemon of the Corin-thian League-and had meanwhile also become the arbiter, and perhapstheally, of the Greek cities of the coast, the adopted son of a native queen, andthe Great King of the native districts (at least for the collection of tribute); 2had treated the Greek mercenaries of the Persians as he liked; and had ap-pointed two barbariansas satraps-Alexander defeated the Persians a secondtime, at Issus, and Darius was in flight.

It had been a crowded year and a half. If Alexander revealed unexpectedand strange ideas, it is impossible for us to place a label upon them; we mustwait several years, until his arrival in Bactria, to do that. Meanwhile, thereare several important things to notice. The first is the foundation of Alex-andria,27 or it is an outstanding example of Alexander's well-known policyof founding cities across Asia. Most of them, in fact, were not new creationsbut represented, rather, the addition of colonists (generally old or woundedsoldiers) to existing communities. Their chief purpose was to form a localgendarmery and to insure the safe arrival of supplies and reinforcements,but they became mighty forces in the Hellenization of Hither Asia.

Another thing we must notice is Alexander's famous trip28 across thedesert to the oracle of Ammon in the oasis of Siwah, where, it is declared, hewas greeted as the son of God. The institutionof divine monarchyin westerncivilization dates from the divine honors paid Alexander the Great on hisdeath. Whether or not the living Alexander gave any impetus to the idea isthe question; and, to judge from the extensive modern literature on the sub-ject, the answer, on balance, is that it dates from this trip. Ferguson, for ex-ample, says: "The greeting of Ammon, whose influence had waxed in Greeceas that of Delphi had waned, gave them [the cities] an adequate pretext toaccede to his suggestion [to enroll him among their gods]; for, once Zeusthrough his most authoritativeoracle had recognized Alexander as his son, novalid objection could be offered to his deification even by men who, in thisgeneral age of indifference,retainedtheir faith in supernaturalpowers or theiraversion to religious change."29 Nock comments: "Acknowledged by the god

25 Alexander's inheritance,that of Greeks in general, included his tutor Aristotle's statementthat all barbarians,especially those of Asia, were slaves by nature and Plato's statementthat allbarbarianswere enemies of the Greeks by nature. See further my paper, "Alexanderthe Greatand the Barbarians" n Classical Studies Presented to Edward Capps (Princeton, I936), pp.298-305.

26 Alexander subsequentlybecame the suzerain of Indian rajahs, etc., but it is not the pur-pose of this paperto make a catalogue.27 ArrianIII, I, 5.28 Arrian III, 3, 5 (Chinnock's translation throughout); Diodorus XVII, 49, 2; Justin XI,

iI, 2; CurtiusIV, 7, I6; Plutarch26, 6 (Perrin'stranslation,Loeb edition, throughout).29 William S. Ferguson, "Legalized Absolutism en route from Greece to Rome," AmericanHistorical Review, XVIII (19I2), 29-47.


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Extraordinary deas of Alexanderthe Great 331Ammonas hisson,Alexanderetained is belief n thesupremacyf Zeus,a belief ntimate ndalmostmystical."30renticeays hat"Alexanderromnow on was declaredand declaredhimself to be of divineorigin,"31whileWilcken tates hat he salutationmust aveentered is soul ike a flashoflightning ndcausedhe deepest motion."32elles ommentshathe madethe"pilgrimageo Ammon o geta new ather."33The mostrespectablencient ourceor all this s Plutarch, ho,however,includes he statementhat Alexanderlso asked he god "whethert wasgiven to him to become he lordand master f all mankind."" his isenough o condemn he entirepassage-oneof themostdelightful its ofwriting hathassurvived-for o such houghtsanbeascribedo Alexanderat this time. The only trustworthyvidences Arrian'simple tatement:"Alexanderhen was struckwithwonderat the place,and consultedheoracle f thegod.Havingheardwhatwasagreeableohiswishes, s he him-self said,he returnedo Egypt."33arn, oo,followsArrian, ut n theendhe finds omethingdeep"n thevisit:Alexander onsultedAmmonas naturallys he had consultedApolloof Delphi.... He certainly id not go to Ammon o be recognizeds a god for the Greekworldor for anything lse;but he didnot takeeitherof the regular outes, romCyreneor Memphis, nd this fact enabledhis journey o be workedup intoanadventure.He went alongthe coast o Paraetonium,herehe received ndac-ceptedCyrene's fferof alliance, ndthence truckacross he desert. . . ThepriestgreetedAlexanders sonof Ammon;he coulddo no other, orAlexandercameto him as Pharaoh, nd,likeeveryPharaoh, asalreadyo Egyptianshesonof Amon-Re. hosewith Alexandereardhegreeting;hekingthenenteredthe inner shrinealone with the priest.Naturallymanystoriesof whatpassedbecame urrent, ut he himselfdivulgednothing xcept hathe waspleased...Laterhe disclosedhatAmmonhad toldhimto whatgodstosacrifice. . whichmeans hat . . he musthaveasked he oracle bout hesuccess f hisexpedition;but his subsequentttitude owardsAmmonshows that therewas somethingwhichwentmuchdeeperhan hat.36

If Alexanderidnotgo to Ammon o discover is origin,whydidhemake hehazardousourney?Had it beenexclusively youthful tunt,hecouldhavegonedirectlyromMemphis the wayhe returned)-dramaticenough o enable ny tripto be workedupinto an adventure.ctually,sHogarth awlong ago,37militaryonsiderationsereat the bottom f the30Arthur D. Nock, "HellenisticReligion-The Two Phases" in Syllabus of GiFfordLectures(Aberdeen, I939), p. 9.31William K. Prentice,The Ancient Greeks (Princeton, 1940), p. 238.32 Wilcken, p. 127. 33 Loc. cit. (see fn. i, above). 34 Plutarch27, 4.35Arrian IIT,4, 5.36 Tarn, I, pp. 43-44; see also II, p. 355: "Alexanderfelt the relation to be something veryserious,even perhapssacred."37David G. Hogarth, "The Deification of Alexander the Great,"English HistoricalReview,II (I887), 3I7-29.


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332 C. A. Robinson, Jr.trip. The man who had oncecrossed he Danubeagainst he Triballians ndlater was to crossthe Jaxartes gainst he "Scythians"o protecthis frontier,now wished to do the same n Egypt.It was not simplya matterof establish-ing the existenceof the Libyandesert,however,sincethis could have beendonefrom Memphis,but of going along the coastto receive he submissionof Cyrene oo, as DiodorusandCurtiusattest.38t will have been notedthatTarnrecords, n the matter-of-fact ay of an itinerary,Alexander's outebyway of Paraetonium nd Cyrene'salliancebut does not draw the conclu-sions39-a perfect llustrationof how close the Alexander tudiesoften areand yethowfarapartThe victoryat Gaugamela Arbela,33I B.C.) left open to Alexander hegloriouscapitalsof the ancientEast-Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. n thelattercity,Alexanderburned he royalpalace,40o showdramaticallyo theworld that the Achaemenid egime had in fact come to an end. What pre-ciselywas to take its placehe did not yet make clear,buthe spentsome rela-tivelyquiet weeks in Persepolis,which at least gave him the opportunity othink.4'In the midst of this,word reachedhim thatDariuswas at Ecbatana,planning to flee to Bactria-SogdiananorthernAfghanistanand RussianTurkestan)and raiserebellionn easternran.With lightningspeedAlexander etout forEcbatana,nlyto findDariusgone.In a sense,he shouldhavepursuedatonce,but he sawthe necessity fexplaininghis positionto his followers.After all, most Greeksand Mace-donianshaddoubtlesshoughtof theexpedition's riginalobjective slimitedto AsiaMinor,but afterIssus,Alexanderhadturnedautomaticallyown thePhoeniciancoast. Probably he generalpoint of view was summedup byParmenioat Tyre, when a letterreachedAlexander romDariusofferingallhis empirewest of the Euphrates nd alliance.Parmenioobservedhatif hewere Alexanderhe would accept;to whichAlexandermade the celebratedreplythat he would, too, if he wereParmenio.42ut now Alexanderwas atEcbatana,with Egypt and Mesopotamia ehindhim, and everythingaheadwaswhollyunfamiliaro theHellenicworld.Alexander, herefore, alleda halt and dismissed he Thessaliancavalryand the otherGreekallies,43s proofthat the War of Revenge-thoughnothis alliancewith theCorinthianLeague-had cometo an end. But heallowedthosewho wishedto re-enlist,and "nota few"44availedthemselvesof the

38 Diodorus XVII, 49, 2 CurtiusIV, 7, 9.39 In his Appendix on Alexander'sdeification,Tarn (II, pp. 347-59, devoted to "Ammon")does not allude to Alexander'sroute via Paraetonium.40 Arrian III, i 8, iI.41 For the only important chronological problem in the entire expedition, see my paper,"When Did AlexanderReach the Hindu Kush?" Am. four. Philol., LI (1930), 22-31.42 Arrian II, 25, 2. 43 Ibid. III, 19, 5. 44 Ibid. III, I9, 6.


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Extraordinary deas of Alexanderthe Great 333opportunity. Since Tarn states that the Thessalians were "sent home" fromEcbatana,45and since all other students (I believe) have missed the signifi-cance of this-indeed, the unfolding of Alexander's extraordinaryideas inBactria depends in an odd way on these Thessalians, Parmenio's men-it isimportant to establish the fact of their re-enlistment. Their re-enlistment,along with that of other Greek allies,permits us one conclusion,and only one,that Alexander was here building an imperial army.

On the other hand, Tarn says that, with Persia finished, Alexander nowset to work, in Eratosthenes'phrase, to mix Greeks and barbariansas in aloving cup and to reconcile the Persians "both to his rule and to the higherculture which he represented."'4The appointment of Mazaeus as satrap ofBabylon, "his first appointment of a Persian,"47 s Tarn's sole evidence forAlexander's extraordinaryidea: "Mazaeus' appointment shows that he hadalreadymade up his mind" to "organisepeace" with the "immemorialcivili-zations" of Egypt, Babylon, and Persia. To which we need only reply that,so far as appointments are concerned, important administrative posts hadalreadygone to variousnationalities.48

The relationshipwith Parmenio at this time is also vital, in a curious way,to the unfolding of Alexander's ideas in Bactria. It is customary to say49thatAlexander left Parmenio behind at Ecbatana in Media on communications,but Arrian does not bear this out. Instead, Arrian says that Alexander "toldParmenio himself to take the Greek mercenaries,the Thracians, and all theother horsemen except the Companion cavalry [thus including the Thessalianvolunteers] and march by the land of the Cadusians into Hyrcania."50OnAlexander's arrivalin Hyrcania (after coming acrossDarius' murderedbody,meanwhile), there is no comment on Parmenio's absence,and Arrian writesas if nothing had been expected of him. When, however, Alexander leftHyrcania (the Caspian area) on his march toward India, Arrian says thatreinforcements came to him in Parthia out of Media, including "the Greekmercenary cavalry and those of the Thessalians who had volunteered to re-main.""5Why had not Parmenio marched into Hyrcania as ordered? How

45Tarn, I, pp. 54-55.46 Ibid. Until I found the motivation for Alexander'suniversalism (see below), I had beeninclined (e.g. in "Alexander he Greatand the Oecumene,"Hesperia, suppl. VIII [i949], 299-304)to refer to EcbatanaAlexander'sconceptionof himself as king of both Greeks and barbarians,but

the evidence proves that the idea came later.47 Tarn, I, pp. 52, 54.48 See fn. 24, above, for Caria (Ada) and Cappadocia(Sabictas). The kings of Phoeniciancities and of Cypruswere reinstatedby Alexander(ArrianII, 20, I-3). An Egyptianwas appointedgovernor of the land (ArrianIII, 5, 2).49 For example, Tarn, I, p. 55, says that Parmenio "was left in Media with some Thraciansand mercenaries as general of communications";but, as will be seen, Parmeniowas orderedtouse these very troopson an expedition.50 ArrianIII, I9, 7. 51 Ibid. III, 25, 4.


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334 C. a. Robinson, Jr.did it happen hatthe troopshe was to take intoHyrcania oinedAlexanderin Parthia?Had Parmeniobeenguiltyof disobedience nd beenarrestednthe interim?Thereis a passagen Arrian hatI have neverbeen ableto un-derstand,because t doesnot makesense;andyet, when viewedin thiscon-nection, t looks as if Parmeniohad indeedalreadybeenarrested.We wouldexpectArrian,n his account f thePhilotas onspiracy,o saythatmessengersweresentto the generalsn Mediato relieveParmenioof his commandandput him to death.Instead,Arriansaysthat Alexander ent lettersorderingParmenio's xecution o the generals n Media,"whohad beenplacedoverthe armycommanded y Parmenio."52ApparentlyArrianhasforgotten hathe has not previously xplainedwhy Parmeniowas no longer he armycom-mander.Whetheror not Parmenio's ttitude owardAlexanderwasa contributoryfactor,there occurred, mmediatelyafter the departure rom Parthia, hefamousconspiracy f Philotas,Parmenio's on, his trial by the army-thecitizens under arms-and his judicialexecution.53For safety'ssake,as allcommentators ave it, Alexander hen ordered he executionof Parmenio,which,we read,was plainmurder, he blackestmoment in his life.54Thisis, admittedly,angent o thepurposeof my paper,55utfor Clio'ssakeI mayremarkparentheticallyhat Curtiusrefersto a Macedonianaw, wherebyrelativesof conspiratorsgainstthe king must also die.56The executionofParmenio,accordingly,was judicial.57What is not tangentto this paper,however, s Tarn'scomment hatAlexander,by the executions,"hadshownhis generals hathe was master;he struckonce, with terrible ffect,and thelessonwenthome;six yearspassedbeforehe hadto strikeagain."58n actualfact, a seriousmutinybrokeout not long afterthe executionof Parmenio.

52 Ibid. II, 26, 3.53 Arrian III, 26; DiodorusXVII, 79; JustinXII, 5; CurtiusVI, 7; Plutarch 48.54 Tarn, I, p. 64: "Parmenio's[execution] was plain murder." Wilcken, p. I64: "It is thedarkest spot in Alexander's life." Welles (see fn. I, above): "He killed his most devoted andmost deserving followers: Philotas, Parmenio, Clitus, Callisthenes."Alexander committed othercrimes, but this is the chief list of personalcrimes that can be leveled againsthim, and the onlytrue one is the murder of Cleitus. It is the historian'sduty, however, to bring out that Cleitus'murder occurredduring a long argument,when Alexander receivedmany taunts and was, more-over, drunk. The executions of Philotas and Parmeniowere judicial (in accordancewith Mace-donian law; see below). As for Callisthenes,see my paper,"The Arrestand Death of Callisthenes,"Am. lour. Philol., LIII (1932), 353-57, which shows that the fate of Callisthenes is unknown.55 I discuss the point in "Alexander the Great and Parmenio,"Am. Jour. Archaeol.,XLIX

(I1945), 422-24.56 Curtius VI, II, 20: "Meanwhilesome of the officerswho were related to Parmenio, hear-ing that Philotas was being tortured, and fearing the Macedonian law whereby relatives ofconspiratorsagainst the king were put to death, committed suicide, while others fled . . . sothat Alexanderrevoked the law." This is confirmedby ArrianIII, 27, 1-3. Curtiusgives the lawagain at VI, I0, 30-32; and VIII, 6, 28.57 Doubdess, however, Alexander could have persuadedthe army to different action, had hewished; and he owed Parmeniomuch.58 Tarn, 1, p. 64.


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Extraordinary deas of Alexanderthe Great 335We comenowto thespecialignificancefParmeniond heThessalians.Not all people, ndespeciallyerhaps armenio'superb hessalianavalry,approvedheexecutions.t is a fact hat, oonafter rossinghe HinduKush

andbefore heOxusRiver the crossing f whichpresentedifficulties),heThessalians utinied ndweresenthome.59f we askourselves ow t everhappened hat during he following wo busyyears n Bactria-Sogdiana(329-327 B.C.)-years of arousedranian ationalismndguerrillawarfare,sickness, ounds,reachery, urder-Alexanderhouldind ime oconceiveextraordinarydeasabout he inhabited orld, he oecumene, here houldwe seekhis motivation,n viewof the silence f the ancientwriters-in hefact hathe hadreada book,"orin some mmediate,own-to-eartheed? sit not likely hatAlexander as compelled y circumstanceso thinkalongrevolutionaryinesand hat heermilitary ecessitys probablyheonly hingthatwillfill thebill?Alexander evergave up anything oluntarily,nd yet the lossof hisThessaliansouldhavemeantheterminationf his entire xpeditiontthispoint.Thoughhesteady rrivalf reinforcementsromhomesasignificantfact of the expedition,e obviously ouldnot findmoreGreeks ndMace-donians t a moment's otice.Therewasonlyonethingto do,to takeachance.This is why,for the first time,he incorporatedargenumbers fAsiaticsn hisarmy,61ndcertainlyis willingnessotrusthis ownpersonalsafety, ndthesuccess f the expedition,obarbariansustbe placed t thetopofhisextraordinarydeas. ncidentally,henew roops rovedheirworth.Once military ecessity-perhapsurvivaltself-forcedAlexandero viewthe world n terms arger hanAristotle's arrow xclusiveness,ther,andequallydramatic,ew ideascameto him; together hey forma roundedpattern.Whenhe stoodat theJaxartes,lexanderhought e wasat theDon,andthereforee consideredhepeople crossheriver o beScythians,ho nfact

59 Probably the reason this has never been noticed is because of the curious way in whichArrian has preserved it. At III, 29, 5 Arrian says that Alexander, before crossing the Oxus,"selected the oldest of the Macedonians,who were now unfit for militaryservice,and such of theThessalians as had volunteered to remain in the army, and sent them back home." No mentionof a mutiny. But at V, 27, 5-in India, at the time of the army's mutiny on the Hyphasis (Beas)-Arrian includes these words in Coenus' speech to Alexander: "Of our number you did well insending back home the Thessalians at once from Bactra, because you saw that they were nolonger eager to undergo labors"-that is, Parmenio'scavalry had been mutinous. Tarn (II, p.290) took these words as partial proof against the genuineness of Coenus' speech: "The state-ment that the Thessalianswere sent home from Bactra s wrong"; they had been sent home fromEcbatana (I, p. 54).60 Tarn (II, 365), in discussing Alexander's plan of deification at Bactra,says: "Alexander,who had not only read Isocrates'Philippus...."61Arrian (IV, 17, 3) records the fact of their enlistment subsequent to his account of theembassy of Pharasmanes (see below), but he puts it in the past tense. See further my paper,"Motivationfor Alexander's Universalism"in Studies Presented to David M. Robinson, II (St.Louis,1953), pp. 830-32.


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336 C. a. Robinson, Jr.livedaroundheBlackSea.Beingbadly onfusedbout heearth'seography-though almostneverabout heimmediateerrain-itwasonlynaturalorAlexandero viewsympatheticallyhe embassy f Pharasmanes,ingof theChorasmians.2 This king,doubtlesshinking xclusivelyf his own bordertroublesndbeingready,orwhatevereason,oequate heSeaof Aralwiththe Seaof Azov,offeredo helpAlexanderonquerheareas p totheBlackSea, as it was filtered o Alexanderhrough he interpreters.lexanderthankedPharasmanesndsaidthateventually hewouldreturno Greeceandthencemakeanexpedition ithall his navalandmilitaryorces o theBlackSea,"whenhe wouldgladlywelcomehebarbarian'sid;at the mo-ment,Alexanderdded, hismindwasengrossedythedesire fconqueringtheIndians;or whenhe hadsubduedhem,heshouldpossesshe wholeofAsia." t washere, hen, n Bactria-SogdianahatAlexanderirstexpressedhimself, sfaras we nowknow,on thesubject f awestern xpedition,hat sto say,on thesubject f worldconquest.63he topichasbeen ongdebated,butit hasalmostalways64evolved round ertainMemoranda65hatwerepresumablyoundamongAlexander'sapers fter isdeath.TheMemorandaaredemonstrablyalse,66s Tarnhasvaliantlyhown,67ut hehasfailed ostudy the situation n Bactria orevidence,which,nevertheless,upportsnottheMemoranda ut theidea embodiedn them.68

About this sametimeAlexander arriedhis policyof cooperationwiththebarbarian orld a stepfurtherbyordering hat30,ooonativeyouthsbetaughtthe Greek languageand trainedin the use of Macedonianweapons69-apolicyso unpopular70hatthearrival f theyouths ouryears atercontributedto the army'srevoltat Opis on the Tigris.Next he marriedRoxane,7"hef2Arrian IV, I5, 4-6. The extraordinary gnorance of geography, which would have beenimpossible in Arrian's day, points to the genuineness of the source for this simple passage.ToAlexander, as to everyone else, the world meant essentially the Persianempire, that is to say,Asia-an Asia which ended not far beyond the Indus River, where one meets Ocean, the easternlimit of the world. Alexander's deas developedas his expeditionprogressed,and in India (ArrianV, 26, i) the knowledge of a larger world brought him other ideas, but ideas that were stillrelativelysimple and, perhaps, a little naive.63Arrian (IV, 7, 5; Alexander is in Bactria) probably expresses only his own judgmentwhen he speaks of Alexander'splan to "sail right round Libya as well as Asia and hold themboth in subjection, as indeed Alexander designed" and to add "possessionof Europe to that ofAsia and Libya."64 An exception is my paper, "Alexander'sPlans,"Am. Jour.Philol., LXI (1940), 402-12.65 DiodorusXVIII, 4, i-6.66 Even so, Schachermeyr eturns to the argument,"Die letzten PlaneAlexandersdes Grossen,"

Jahreshefte des dsterreichischen archdologischen Instituts, XLI (1954), 118-40.67 Tarn, II, pp. 378-98. Pearson (p. 454, see fn. I0, above) merely follows Tarn: "The im-portant conclusion that can be drawn is that documents as well as letterswere fabricatedor in-vented in the second century B.c." ApparentlyPearson'spurpose is to set up an "analogy"fora faked Royal Journal (see fn. I2, above).68 Tarn's Appendix (see fn. 67, above), as he himself states in his Preface, is substantiallythe same as his earlier article, "Alexander'sPlans," Journal of Hellenic Studies, LIX (I939),

124-35-69Plutarch47, 3. 70 ArrianVII, 6, i. 71 Ibid. IV, I9, 5.


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Extraordinary deas of Alexander he Great 337beautifulaughterf theBactrianaron,Oxyartes,hichwasquickly ressedup by legendas a wonderfulovestory.Obviously,t wasa politicalmove,72designedo placateranianationalism-but,gain,t is the irst ndicationenowhaveof Alexander'sdeasconcerningacemixture.t is notthatAlex-anderplanned deliberate ellenizationf theEastor abarbarizationf theGreeks nd Macedonians.hosewho wishedwere reeto pursue heirownnationalife-and they would nevitably epresenthe overwhelming a-jority-butbeside his herewas o develop new ifebased n an nterchangeand mixture f customs ndblood.Herewas to be thedriving orceof theempire, new attitudeoward heworld-anecessaryorrection,think, oTarn's stimatef Alexander'smpire: But hetrueunifyingorcewas ack-ing;therewasno commondea, r deal."73Wemaynoteparentheticallyhaton hisreturn o Susa n 324B.C., Alex-andermarried daughter f Darius, o legitimize is own rule.74 nd, toplacehisstamp f approvaln racemixture, lexandertthesame imegavepresentso thoseof his men, overio,ooo n number,whohad alreadymarriedor takenup moreor lesspermanentlyithanAsiatic irl.75 he widely-heldnotion,however, s thatio,oooGreeksandMacedonians ow marriednatives,and t seems mpossibleo correctt.Tarn, orexample,ays hat"one ecallsthatuniqueeventin historywhen Alexandernduced o,oooof his troops omarryheirnative oncubines."" elles ays hatAlexanderfeltno com-punctionn stagingmixedmarriagesor hisMacedoniansndGreeks n ascalewhichSchachermeyrompareso cattlebreeding."77t wasonlytheeconomicondition f Alexander's en (whateverheirotherstatus) hatwaschanged t Susa;andwe,forourpart,mustnot be surprisedhat allthoseGreeks ndMacedoniansoundgirlsduringhemanyyearsn Asia. tis more o thepoint o noteofficialolicyn themaking.To returno Bactria-Sogdiana,lexanderndicatedn variousways,hen,thatheproposedo become ingof thebarbarianss wellasoftheMacedon-

72 Plutarch 47, 4: it was also "thought to harmonize well with the matters which Alexanderhad in hand."73 Tarn, I, p. 141.74 Arrian VII, 4, 4. To Hephaestion and the rest of his Companions,continuesArrian,Alex-ander "gave the choicest daughtersof the Persiansand Medes,to the number of eighty.... Thisappeared the most popular thing which Alexander ever did"; the weddings were celebrated at abanquet, Arrian adds.75 Arrian VII, 4, 8; Plutarch 70, 2. Alexander, says Arrian, "also ordered that the names ofall the other Macedonianswho had marriedany of the Asiatic women should be registered.Theywere over io,ooo in number;and to these Alexandermade presentson account of theirweddings."Plutarch: "At Susa Alexander brought to pass the marriage of his Companions, took to wifehimself the daughterof Darius . . . and gave a general wedding feast for those of his Macedonianswho had already contracted other marriages.At this feast, we are told, nine thousand guestsreclinedat supper."76 Tarn, II, p. 329; see also I, p. i i i77 Loc. ci., see fn. i, above.


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338 C. A. Robinson,Jr.ians.Thatis whyhenowoccasionally orePersiandress,78 hichwassimplerthanthe Median; or it was a dramaticwayof impressinghesethoughtsonothers-including the Greeks,who neededto be reminded hattheirspecialpartnershipwith him had ended.It was evenearlier,according o Plutarch,that Alexander"listened o the teachingsof Psammonthe philosophernEgypt,and acceptedmostreadily his utterance f his, namely, hat all man-kind areunderthe kingshipof God,since in everycasethatwhich getsthemasteryand rules is divine.Still morephilosophical, owever,was his ownopinionand utterance n thishead,namely hatalthoughGodwasindeedacommon atherof allmankind, till,He madepeculiarlyHis own thenoblestandbestof them."79

Finally, thereis one othert'hingof the firstimportancehathappenedatBactra.This is the famousbanquet n 327B.c.,80duringwhichthesubjectofproskynesiswas discussedandwith it, the desirability f payinghomagetoAlexanderas a divine personage.81nevitably, his extraordinaryroposalproducedvariousaccounts n antiquityand, in turn, an extensivemodernliterature.82We must, as always,carefullydistinguishhe sound ancientevi-dence fromthe unsound.This will give us the pictureof the banquet tself,so far as it can now be recovered.To discoverAlexander'smotive s anothermatter;but it will be simpler,once we see thattoastsand the difference e-tweenMacedonian nd Greekmethodsof drinkingone'shealth-all leadingto theworshipof Alexander's aemonand the establishmentf anAlexander-cult-have nothingwhatever o do with it.83According o Arrian,an arrangementwas made betweenAlexanderandthe sophists n conjunctionwith the most illustriousof the PersiansandMedesthat the topic of proskynesis houldbe mentionedat a banquetatBactra.Anaxarchusommencedhe discussion y saying hatAlexanderwouldmuchmorejustlybe deemeda god thaneitherDionysus r Heracles. . . He added

78 ArrianIV, 7, 4; Plutarch (45, I-2) places the change of dress in Parthia,at any rate, afterthe departure rom Ecbatanaand the deathof Darius.79 Plutarch 27, 6.80 In "The Seer Aristander,"Am. four. Philol., L (I929), I95-97, I showed that Callisthenes'History certainly extended into the year 328 B.C., and on p. 70 of my Ephemerides (fn. ii,above) that it very probablyextended into the early springof 327 B.C., thus includingthe banquetat Bactra.81 Arrian IV, I0; JustinXII, 7; Curtius VIII, 5; Plutarch54. There is a lacuna in Diodorus atthis point, but it seems clear from the table of contents of Book XVII that he wrote of the banquet.82 See Tarn, I, pp. 79-80; II, Appendix 22; and my paper, "Alexander'sDeification,"Am.Jour.Philol., LXIV (I943), 286-301.83 See, however, Grace H. Macurdy,"The Grammarof Drinking Healths,"Am. Jour.Philol.,LIII (1932), i68-71i; Lily Ross Taylor, "The 'Proskynesis' and the Hellenistic Ruler Cult,"journal of Hellenic Studies,XLVII (I927), 53-62; The Divinity of the RomanEmperor(Middle-town, I93I), reviewed by Arthur D. Nock, Gnomon, VIII (I932), 513-I8; furtherreferenceswillbe found in the studies mentioned in fn. 82, above.


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Extraordinary Ideas of Alexander the Great 339that the Macedonians ightwith greaterusticegratify heirking withdivinehonors, ortherewas no doubtabout his,thatwhenhe departedrommentheywould honorhim as a god.How much morejust thenwould t be to rewardhimwhilealive, hanafterhis death,when it wouldbe no advantageo himtobehonored.After Anaxarchushad spoken, continuesArrian,thosewho were privyto the plan applaudedhis speechand wishedat once to begin the ceremonyof proskynesis.Most of the Macedonians, owever, were vexed and keptsilence,but Callisthenes pposedhim in a vigorousspeech.ThusCallisthenesreatlyannoyedAlexander ut spoke heexactsentimentsfthe Macedonians. henAlexander erceivedhis, he sent to prevent heMace-donians rommakinganyfurthermentionof the ceremonyf proskynesis.utafterthe discussionilence nsued;and thenthe mosthonorablef the Persiansarose n dueorderandprostratedheirbodiesbeforehim. Butwhenone of thePersianseemed o haveperformedheceremonyn anawkwardway,Leonnatus,a Companion,aughedat his posture s mean.Alexander t the time wasangrywithhim for this, but wasafterwardseconciledo him."84

At this point in his accountArrianpasses o another ource.So far aswecan tell from his method of work,85 he accountup to this point has beenbased on Ptolemy and Aristobulus,hence on Callisthenesand the RoyalJournal, ndtherefore his is all we know forcertainof thebanquet.Arrian'snext words are: "The following accounthas also been given." We knowfrom his Preface hat suchwordsarehis signalthat he is no longer ollowingPtolemyand Aristobulus.And, indeed,we can check him here, for "thefol-lowing account" lsoappearsn Plutarch,who gives as his source he courtchamberlain,Chares,a well-known iar.The "followingaccount"has to dowith theguestsdrinking roma goblet,performinghe act of proskynesis, ndthenreceivinga kissfromAlexander. t endswith Callisthenes pproachingAlexander or the kiss, without having first prostrated imself.Alexander,accordingly,would not permithimselfto kiss him; whereupon he philoso-phersaid,"Well, then,I'll go awaythe poorerby a kiss."If we cannotagreethatmodernscholarship as established reasonablysoundway of occasionallyhecking he sourcesbackof ArrianandtheotherAlexander-historians,henwe mustadmitChares' tory, he variantaccountsof the visit to the oracleof Ammon, and,indeed,a massof floatinggossip.Iacceptas evidencesolely that part of Arrian'saccountwhich is basedonPtolemyandAristobulus.

We have, then, a pictureof a banquet,at which it was proposed,withAlexander'sapproval, hat peopleshould prostrate hemselvesbeforehim84 Arrian IV, 12, 1-2.85 See fn. 8, above, and p. I3 of my study mentionedin fn. ii, above.


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340 C. A. Robinson, r.andregard imas agod.This sdramaticnoughnitself, ndwemustnowtrytodiscover lexander'sotive.Wilcken ays hatAlexanderertainlynewrom isPersianourtiershathePersiansegardedheproskynesisimply s anexpressionf thedeepesteverenceortheir ord.Butashe wasnaturallyamiliarwiththeGreek onception,t wasa dangerousnder-taking to promote the levellingof his subjectsby an attemptto establishamongMacedoniansndGreeksa customwhichthePersiansollowedn his caseas amatterof course. . . His purpose . . wasto express heequalposition f thePersianswiththeMacedoniansndGreeksbymeansof thiscommon ourt ere-monial.88According to Wilcken, then, Alexander's motive was to raise the position ofthe Persians by introducing a ceremony which meant, however, somethingentirely different-divinity-to Greeks and Macedonians.

Tarn explains the matter as follows:Alexanderknew perfectlyhow Greeksmust interpretprostration, ndmust there-fore have intendedto become a god, and as Greeks,Macedonians, nd Persianswere all involved, it can only mean that he intendedto become,officially,he godof his empire;he was doing rathermore than feeling his way. His reasonswereentirelypolitical; the thing was to him merely a pretencewhich might form auseful instrumentof statecraftand become,he thought,a considerable elp to hispolicy of fusion; also, among other things, he had to settle how the autocratofAsia, without playing the autocrat,could get a juridicalstanding in those freeGreek cities in whose handslay his empire'saccessto the Aegean. What put theidea of becoming a god into his head seemsclearenough. It had beenput there,long beforehe crossedto Asia, by the two chief politicalthinkers of his youth,his tutor Aristotle and Isocrates; or Isocrateshad said to Philip that, if he con-queredPersia,nothingwould be left him but to becomea god, and Aristotle,notcontentwith telling Alexander hat he had no peer, had said, with Alexander nmind, that the supremerulerwhen he camewould be as a god amongmen.87

Our problem,obviously, is to discoverwhat brought the idea of deificationout of Alexander's head at Bactra.Does it seem likely, as Wilcken suggests,that Alexander had the Persians so much on his mind at this time that he wasready to offend the Greeks and Macedonians? Is Tarn's explanation anymore satisfying, that western affairs were so much on Alexander's mind atthis time that he was willing to risk trouble with his generals in order toobtain "a juridical standing" in far-away Greece? He was having troubleenough with his generals,as it was.Alexander's motive, whatever it was, must be sought in the immediatebackground of the days in Bactria-Sogdiana;and it seems equally sensible tosuggest that the motivation must have been a strong one. These were days,ofcourse, of extraordinaryideas; but it had also been a period of continuous

86 Wilcken, pp. I68-69. 87 Tarn, 1, pp. 79-80.


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Extraordinary Ideas of Alexander the Great 34Iguerrillawarfare.Moreover,t was a time of continuingopposition o Alex-ander:the tragediesof Philotas,Parmenio,and Cleitus;88he mutiny of theThessaliancavalry; he resistance f the seer Aristander nd Callisthenesothe crossingof the Jaxartes,which barelysurvives n Arrianand musthavebeen but a part of widerhostilityto Alexander.89 ll this lay in the back-ground.Nor, incidentally,would it be downed; for the Macedonian pposi-tion at the banquetwas soon followed by the conspiracy f the Pages,whosaid, so ArrianquotesPtolemyandAristobulus,hat"Callisthenes adinsti-gated them to make the daringattempt" gainstAlexander.90heermilitarynecessity-thebusiness f getting on withone'sgeneralsand immediate irclesurelyamounts o that-was as presenthereas at the timeof the Thessalianmutiny; and it requiredas drastic reatment.Mutinouscavalry ouldbe re-placedwithlocalcavalry-but what to do with an uncertain fficer orps?Wehave no ancientevidence or thisor anyotherexplanation, bviously;but itseems clearthat Alexanderdecided to abandon he comradely elationshipwithhisofficers,whichhadlong characterizedheMacedonianmonarchy,ndto putan endto wavering upport ndpossibleplotsbybecominganautocrat.Or better, o put it in Greek erms,he decided,n thiscenturyof religiousn-differencewhich had alreadyraised iving men to divinestatus,to becomea god.The ideafell throughatBactra, utin theyearbeforehis deathAlexanderwas in fact deifiedby the Greeks.9"n whoseinitiative t is not known.92 f

88 Cleitus'murder is described n ArrianIV, 8.89 This is discussedon p. 292, fn. 20, of my papermentionedin fn. 82, above.90Arrian IV, I4, i. Truesdell S. Brown does not advance the study of Alexander when hesays that the Pages "steadilyrefused to implicate Callisthenes" n "Callisthenesand Alexander,"Am. lour. Philol., LXX (I949), 225-48.91Tarn (II, p. 370) says that Alexander "issuedto the cities of the League a decreeorderingthem to receive back their exiles (which he had no constitutionalpower to issue) and also [myitalics] a request for his own deification (which probably came first)." At the word "League"Tarn gives a reference to Diodorus XVIII, 8, 4. Tarn's sentence makes it appear that Diodorusis also evidence for Alexander'srequest for deification,whereas the passagedeals exclusively withhis decreeorderingthe return to theircities of the exiles who swarmed over Greece.92 Tarn, I, p. II4: "Alexander'srequest for deification was seemingly brought before theLeague States by his partisans in the several cities, but certainly the initiative came from himand not from the Greeks; Hypereides'evidence seems conclusive, and in any case Athens (forinstance), irreconcilablyopposed to the exiles decree, would not of her own motion have con-ferred on Alexander the means whereby he could carry that decree into effect without a formalbreach of the Covenant" of the CorinthianLeague. In his fn. to this, Tarn again says that theHypereidespassage "is evidence that the request came from Alexander."Since there is not a shredof evidence for this, I give the entirepassage,so far as it has survived: "But when the Areopaguspostponed ts statementon the groundsthat it had not yet discoveredthe truth,you [Demosthenes]conceded in the Assemblythat Alexandermight be the son of Zeus and Poseidon too if he wished. . . wished . .. to set up a statueof Alexander, the king and god invincible ... Olympias. . . an-nounced to the people . . ." (Hypereides Against Demosthenes, Frag. VII [VIII], cols. 31, 32,Loeb edition, Burtt'stranslation).Not an ancientsource--though lacunae exist in Arrian and else-where- says that Alexanderhimself ordered his deification; ndeed, the references o his deificationeither represent heated party oratory or are late and poor. For example, Deinarchus AgainstDemosthenes, 94 (Loeb edition, Burtt'stranslation): "At another time Demosthenessaid that thepeople must not question the grant of divine honors to Alexander"; for what Demosthenes in fact


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342 C. a. Robinson, Jr.the Greeks hemselveshought t up, Alexanders excludedand we have noproblem;we mustinquire,however,whether t is likelythatAlexander entthe request.Wilckenand Tarn say that he did. In explaining t, Wilckendrops the Persianpoliticalmotiveand indeedshifts his whole ground to apsychologicalnalysis:Thisconsciousnessf a divine onship adalways emainedn hismind.Possessedbyit, elevated yhisfabulousuccessesnd n expectationf hisplans orworld-sovereignty, e now took the decisive tepof goingfurther han thesespecialrevelations,ndof requiring ivinehonoursromtheGreeks f the CorinthianLeague. t is a mistaken iewof Alexander'sharactero bar outthisinnerre-ligiousexperiencendtoassume hat hedemandwasa purelypoliticalmove, heonlyobject f whichwas to lifthimas a godabove hestipulationsf theCorin-thianLeagueand to subjectheautonomous reekcitiesandtheir ands o hisdivine will.9Tarnsticksto the Greekpoliticalmotive,butnow circumscribest:9' "Deifi-cationshowedthat he meantto standabovepartiesand factions... . Hisdeification,herefore,n 324 B.C., like his preliminary ttemptat Bactra,wasentirelya politicalmatter,but thistime limitedto the citiesof the LeagueofCorinth."5Sincethe idea of deification ccurredo Alexander t Bactra,t is difficultnot to ascribe o him his actualdeificationn 324B.C. On the otherhand,whysaid (even though Deinarchusprovesnothing as it is), see Hypereidesabove. AthenaeusVI, 25IB(Loeb edition, Gulick'stranslation),in speakingof an Athenianenvoy who had been bribedby thePersianking: "I wonder, for my part, how the Athenianscould have let him go without bringinghim to trial, seeing that they fined Demades ten talentsfor proposinga decreenaming Alexandera god." Aelian VariaHistoria,V, I2 says substantially he same.93 Wilcken, . 212.

94 Tarn has to circumscribe t, becausehe wishes to show that Alexandersought deification inorder to legalize his exiles decree; that is to say, since the exiles decreewas addressedto the citiesof the CorinthianLeague, the request for deificationwould be limited to them. As alreadymen-tioned, Tarn says that at BactraAlexander planned to become the god of his empire;he does notexplain why the Conquerorof India should suddenly become so much more modest. See fn. 95,below.95 Tarn, II, p. 371. Ferguson,on p. 32 of his article mentioned in fn. 29, above,states:"Whenthe Greek cities had placed Alexander in their circles of deities he was at once free from all thetreaty obligations accepted by him at the Congress of Corinth, and his first effort in his newcapacity was to rid his realm of all its homeless and lawless men by requiring every city to re-ceive back its exiles. What a gain to the world that this problem could be finally attacked vigor-ously yet legallyl" Alexander, then, deified himself in order that he might legally recall theexiles, a step forbidden him by the Covenant of the CorinthianLeague. As Tarn expresses it(I, pp. II2-13): the recall of the exiles was "a breach of the Covenantof the League of Corinth,which forbade interferencewith the internal affairs of the constituentstates. . . . The Covenantbound Alexander of Macedon; it would not bind Alexander the god; the way therefore to exer-cise authority in the cities was to become a god." Since no ancient evidence connects the exilesdecree and Alexander's deification-and since, moreover, there is no ancient evidence that Alex-ander initiated the request for his deification (see fn. 92, above)-we are merely setting up astraw man when we say that Alexander must have requested his deification in a limited area inorder to make legal an action in that area. There is no connection whatever between deificationand the exiles decree, except in point of time; and accordingly the decree does not bear on thesubject of this paper. My conclusion-admittedly an assumption where only assumptions arepossible-is that Alexander, faced with the problem of 20,000 exiles, simply cut the Gordian knotand decreed theirreturn to theircities.


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Extraordinary Ideas of Alexander the Great 343should he attemptat Bactrabe describedo fully by the Alexander-historiansand the actualdeification n 324B.C. be omittedentirely?The banquetof re-conciliationat Opis,96 ollowing the mutinyof the entirearmy,97gave theAlexander-historiansn excellentopportunityo alludeto Alexander's ctionand even to embellish t. It is also tempting,making an analogywith Bactra,to say that differenceswith his men once again led Alexander o demanddeification;but in that event we wouldhave been informedabout ts -effecton the army rather han on Greece,andthis would hold for any theoryad-vanced.Sincethere s no evidence hatAlexander equested is deificationn324 B.C., we must conclude hat the initiativeoriginated n the land where itwas debated,Greece,a land not unknownfor its flattery.This ties in withArrian's tatement hat on Alexander's eturn o Babylon here"arrivedm-bassiesfrom Greece,the membersof which, with crowns upon their ownheads, approachedAlexanderand crownedhim with golden crowns,as ifforsooth hey had come to him as specialenvoysdeputed o pay him divinehonors."98t is pureassumption,withouta shredof evidence, hatAlexanderasked the Greeks-and even more specifically, is allies of the CorinthianLeague-to deify him. Greeksdid not haveto be told how to hail the Con-querorof India.

At any rate,the genesisof everyone of Alexander's xtraordinarydeas sto be discovered y the time he left Bactria.This is important, n accountofour sources.Callistheneswas not arresteduntil justbeforethe departure, twhich time, of course,hisHistory ameto an end; and if onethingis certainabout the Alexander-history,t is that Callisthenes'History,basedon theRoyal Journal,was the ultimate sourcefor two other primaryhistorians,Ptolemy and Aristobulus,whomArriannames as his chief sources.On thereturn o Mesopotamia,o be sure,someof Alexander'sdeaswereexpoundedmore fully-sudden death ended any real development-but by Susa andBabylonour sourceshavebecomeconfusedandoftencontain tatementshatareprojections ackwardrom Stoicismandother aterthought.99

96 See Tarn, II, Appendix 25 ("Brotherhoodand Unity") and his earlierpaper, "Alexanderthe Great and the Unity of Mankind,"Proceedingsof the BritishAcademy,XIX (I933), 123-66.Alexander's prayerat the banquet for partnership n the empire and for unity and concord in ajoint commonwealth, where all peoples were to be partnersrather than subjects,marks a revolu-tion in human thought, as Tarn brilliantlyshows.97 Arrian'saccount of the mutiny (VII, 8, I-3) does not make sense, for he suggests that theold and maimed soldiers so resented honorable discharge that they led the others in revolt.Justin (XII, II, 5) not only makes sense but shows the seriousnessof Alexander'spredicament:the temper of the soldiers was such that the younger ones insisted that they be allowed to returnhome with their elders. Almost the entire account that Justin gives of Alexander'sexpedition isworthless, though he occasionally touches a good source; see my paper, "Justin,"Am. lour.Philol., LIII (I932), 357-59.98 Arrian VII, 23, 2.99 This was once vigorouslydebated by M. H. Fisch, "Alexander and the Stoics,"Am. Jour.Philol., LVIII (I937), 59-82, I29-5I; and Tarn, "Alexander, Cynics and Stoics," Am. lour.


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344 C. A. Robinson, Jr.To understandAlexander,hen,we need not go beyondBactria.Eachof

his extraordinarydeas-on worldconquestandhis own relation o the state,the use of barbariansn administrationnd army, he foundationof cities,acommon culture,the fusion of races,personaldeification-is rooted,more-over, n Arrian. f these ideasaddup to a new attitude oward he world-toa dreamof universalism,s we mightdescribet-it contributesittleto ourunderstandingf Alexander o brushthemoff on the groundthatnot evenin our day can they be attained"exceptby submissiono the unchallengedrule of a world conqueror."1"'quallyout of place n this connections anundueemphasison Alexanderas one who was not "acomfortabler attrac-tivecharacterwith whomto spenda quietevening.He was actuallya personof 'kriegerischeKraftundBrutalitit.'101 As forAlexander'srimes,we mayadd,JohnH. Kentonce referredo Macaulay'serdicton Cliveandmen whoare raisedabove the ordinary:"Theirbad actionsought not, indeed,to becalledgood;but theirgoodandbad actionsoughtto be fairlyweighed.' 02The realquestionwe have to askis,how did Alexanderhimselfthinkthathe wasto bringhisideas ntobeing? Schachermeyr ustsurelyberightwhenhe answers,"autocratically,"or there s no evidence hatAlexander ver in-tendedto abdicaten favorof a democraticederation,or example.Ideas,however,havea way of growing.In fact,Alexander'sdea of cooperatione-tweenpeoplesbecame he basis of the Euthydemidkingdom n BactriaandIndia"0' nd,on the philosophicalide,was pickedup by Zeno and St. Paultoconstitute standing hallengeo allposterity.BrownUniversity

PhiMl.,LX (1939), 41-70. Fisch was also disturbed hat Tarn, during yearsof study,had changedhis mind concerningAlexanderon various points-a chargeto which I am eager to plead guilty100Paul MacKendrick, n his review of my Alexander in Am. lour. Archaeol.,LIII (0949),88-89.10I Welles, see fn. x, above.102 In his review of my Alexander in Classical ournal,XUII (1948), 498-500.103 William W. Tarn, The Greeksin Bactriaand India (Cambridge,1938), chaps. iv-vs andConclusion.

Robinson -- Alexander's Ideas

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