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  Macedonians, who after all had expert knowledge of horses, were amazed

  and his proud father, Philip, was said to exclaim: ‘My son, seek thee out a

  kingdom equal to thyself; Macedonia has no room for thee!’ Bucephalus

  was then given to Alexander as a gift by his father’s Greek companion

  Demaratus of Corinth, having bought it for the record sum 13 talents at a

  time when the average mount cost just one fifth of a talent. Bucephalus

  was Alexander’s favourite charger throughout his mission east, right up to

  India, where it died at an exceptionally old age for a horse. The association

  of famous personalities with exceptional horses is a popular topos in

  ancient biographies. Nonetheless, with the exception of the amazing claim

  that the horse ate human flesh (alluding to the myth of Heracles and the

  man-eating mares of Diomedes), the authenticity of the taming of

  Bucephalus cannot really be doubted. It was probably first related by

  Chares, Alexander’s court-marshal.84

  In 343/342 Philip employed a new preceptor for Alexander: Aristotle.

  He educated Alexander for two years, until 340. The place selected for

  their studies was near Mieza, to the south of Macedonia at the foot of

  Mount Vermion. This academy also served as a garden shrine to the

  Nymphs, with benches and cloisters, and it had already become a tourist

  attraction by Plutarch’s times. The encounter of the most famous of the

  Greek philosophers with a pupil who would become the greatest military

  leader of antiquity is the ideal stuff of legends, and, indeed, very much was

  made of this episode in the medieval perception of Alexander’s life

  history. However, in 343/342 Aristotle had not yet written the great works

  that would ensure him unrivalled renown over the centuries and so at that

  stage he was merely one of many intellectuals active in Greece at the time.

  Therefore it would not have been because of his academic status, or rather

  not only for this reason, that he was selected to be Alexander’s tutor from

  84 Diod., 17.76.6; Plu., Alex. , 4.8-6.8; Plu., mor. , 179d, 331b, 342b-c; Chares, ap.

  Gel., 5.2.1-3; Plin., Nat. , 8.154; Ps.-Callisth., 1.13, 15, 17, 19; EGen., b208; EM, s.v. bouk◊faloj. Brown 1977, pp. 77-78; Lane Fox 1973, pp. 47-48; Baynham

  1995, pp. 5-9; Stoneman 1997, p. 15; Hamilton 1999, pp. 13-16; Nawotka 2003,

  pp. 26-31, 132-133.

  40

  Chapter I

  among other Greek luminaries (including Isocrates) willing to be

  employed by the generous ruler of Macedonia. Working in Aristotle’s

  favour was family tradition, for his father, Nicomachus, had been the

  physician of King Amyntas III. Therefore we have reason to believe that

  Aristotle was more trusted by the Macedonian court than most other Greek

  intellectuals. Someone having such close family connections with the

  court and Macedonia in general would not also have raised concerns

  among the Macedonian barons, whose opinions Philip had to take into

  consideration. According to an attractive though not confirmed by any

  sources hypothesis put forward by Werner Jaeger, Philip’s selection of

  Aristotle to become his son’s tutor was due to the philosopher’s ties with

  Hermias of Atarneus. This former student of Plato’ Academy had

  succeeded Eubulos (who had been murdered) to become the tyrant of

  Atarneus and Assos in Mysia and Erythrai in Ionia and there built a small

  state independent of the Great King of Persia. He invited to Assos a group

  of philosophers from Plato’s school. Among them was Aristotle, to whom

  Hermias gave away his adopted daughter Pythias. Before he was arrested

  by the Greek commander Mentor on the orders of Artaxerxes III in 341,

  Hermias had entered into secret negotiations with Philip of Macedonia as a

  possible ally against Persia. Werner Jaeger suggests that Aristotle’s

  departure from Assos to Pella may have been associated with these secret

  negotiations.85 Of course this is just a hypothesis and it is at least equally

  likely that Philip’s decision to employ Aristotle was based on the

  philosopher’s high qualifications as a scholar and mentor.86

  Regardless of whether or not Aristotle had participated in those secret

  political negotiations, his task in Macedonia was to educate Alexander. In

  4th-century Greece there was no royal route to philosophy and therefore we

  may assume that the young prince’s curriculum was no different to that of

  other boys from good homes. Isocrates, who had been greatly disappointed

  by the fact that not he but Aristotle had been selected for the post, wrote a

  letter to Alexander accusing his tutor of, indeed, not teaching ‘practical’

  subjects that would be of use to the prince when he became king of

  Macedonia. According to Plutarch, the subjects Aristotle selected included

  ethics, politics and medicine. He also gave Alexander a copy of The Iliad

  which he himself had revised; thus it may be said that the young prince’s

  85 Plu., Alex. , 7; Ps.-Callisth., 1.13.4; Diod., 16.52.5-8; D., 10.31-34; Did., In D. , col. 4.59-6.66. Jaeger 1948, pp. 120-122; Hamilton 1965, p. 118; Brocker 1966;

  Wilcken 1967, pp, 54-55; Chroust 1967; Plezia 1968; Green 1974; pp. 52-54;

  Badian 1982, p. 38; O’Brien 1992, p. 19; Rubinsohn 1993, pp. 1308-1309; Debord

  1999, pp. 417-419; Corvisier 2002, p. 263; Green 2003.

  86 Griffith 1979, pp. 518-522; Errington 1990, pp. 77-79.

  Childhood, Family, Macedonia

  41

  education started the conventional Greek way with literature and Homer in

  particular. It is difficult not to presume that the heroic ideology and cult of

  manly virtue ( areté) so very apparent in Alexander’s adult life had some

  connection with the education he had received from Aristotle – the author

  of a dithyrambic poem praising Hermias’ areté and heroic death cruelly

  inflicted upon him by the Persians. Other authors Aristotle instructed

  Alexander to read may have also included Pindar; for when in 335 having

  Thebes destroyed Alexander ordered Pindar’s house to be spared. In all

  probability Alexander also received elementary instruction in dialectics

  and eristics (the art of disputation). A major issue that remains unknown is

  the impact Aristotle as a political thinker had on Alexander. There is no

  evidence that as a monarch Alexander adopted his mentor’s views

  regarding the ideal state, which was inspired by the Greek model: a polis

  counting approximately 5,000 citizens. Alexander also did not heed advice

  to treat barbarians as enemies or even animals, though, in accordance with

  his teacher’s views, he did treat the Greeks living in Asia Minor as allies.

  Extant Arabic translations of Aristotle’s letters to Alexander as well as

  references to their correspondence by other authors show that the two must

  have for a long time exchanged views on political matters. There can be no

  doubt that Aristotle’s school inspired or at least consolidated in Alexander

  the conviction that Greek culture was supreme in the entire world.

  However, the Hellenisation of the East and cultural homogeneity

  stretching from the Adriatic to the Hindu Kush following Alexander’s

  conquests were no doubt an unforeseen consequenc
e of this education.

  Perhaps of greater importance than the formal knowledge passed on during

  lectures at Mieza was the personal contact Alexander had in his formative

  years with the greatest mind of the ancient world. The intellectual curiosity

  that was aroused at the time indubitably accounts for the fact that

  Alexander took learned men with him on his expedition east, gave

  instructions to pass back to Aristotle information about the plants and

  animals found there and gave financial support for Aristotle to conduct his

  research.87

  Scholars assume that Alexander’s education at Mieza was not in the

  form of private lessons but provided in the company of other young

  Macedonian aristocrats including those who would later become his

  87 Plu., Alex., 7.5-8.3. Ehrenberg 1938, p. 92; Merlan 1954; Wilcken 1967, pp. 55-

  58; Plezia 1968; Stern 1968; Bielawski, Plezia 1970; Seibert 1972, pp. 72-73;

  Green 1974, pp. 57-62; Lane Fox 1973, pp. 53-56; Bosworth 1988, pp. 20-21;

  Rubinsohn 1993, pp. 1310-1312; Thomas 2007, pp. 196-197. Plutarch devoted his

  De fortuna seu virtute Alexandri to the topic of Alexander’s arête and his cultural mission in the East.

  42

  Chapter I

  closest companions. Indeed, the young prince was surrounded by well-

  born Macedonians of his own age who were his playmates. But he was

  also accompanied by older boys who Philip selected so that through their

  (aristocratic) behaviour and advice they would help his son enter the adult

  world. At the Macedonian court Philip must have run an institution of

  sorts comprising ‘royal boys’ (pages). They were the descendants of

  aristocratic dynasties who were brought up among the king’s entourage,

  frequently carrying out tasks normally reserved for personal servants – on

  the basis that to be able to give instructions well one should first learn to

  listen to instructions. Indeed graduates of this school later became hetairoi

  and army commanders. However, while they still served as royal boys at

  the royal court, they remained, in a sense, hostages ensuring the loyalty of

  their aristocratic families. Among the young Macedonians sent to Mieza to

  be together with Alexander educated by Aristotle there may have been his

  closest friend Hephaestion. Other contemporaries who the sources claim

  were brought up alongside Alexander included: Cleitus the Black,

  Perdiccas and the sons of Aristotle’s friend Antipater. It is perhaps

  therefore not surprising that Alexander’s companions on his expedition

  east were not only military commanders but also people with intellectual

  interests: they kept journals, grew exotic plants, studied the languages of

  the east and learnt about the spiritual world of India.88

  88 Wilcken 1967, p. 55; Green 1974, pp. 55-57; Lane Fox 1973, pp. 51-54; Heckel

  1986, p. 302; Heckel 1992, pp. 205-208; Thomas 2007, pp. 126-127; Heckel

  2009a, p. 71.

  CHAPTER II:

  THE HEIR TO THE THRONE

  1. At his father’s side

  By 340, when his education at Mieza was drawing to an end, Alexander

  probably had already acquired the features and posture remembered by his

  contemporaries and subsequent generations. Later, after he had ascended

  to the throne, Alexander nurtured a ‘canonical’ image of his person by

  commissioning works from the epoch’s greatest artists: sculptures by

  Lysippus, paintings by Apelles and gem engravings by Pyrgoteles. Today

  credence is no longer given to the existence of an artistic monopoly

  allegedly granted to these artists by their most famous patron; nonetheless

  their works did form a canon of how Alexander was visualised and this

  image has been reproduced over the centuries.1 For many years after the

  great Macedonian’s death the mere sight of his statue made Cassander,

  who remembered him well, shake with fear. Therefore it is safe to assume

  that the portraits made during his life accurately captured his characteristic

  features.2 Although none of these works have survived, their countless

  copies as well as Plutarch’s portrayal and mentions in the works of various

  other authors allow us to visualise the king’s external appearance.

  Perhaps Alexander’s external feature that contemporaries found most

  striking was his height, which belied his heroic fame and the expectations

  of those who already knew how great he was. ‘Being admitted to the tent

  and invited to be seated, they had fixed their eyes on the king’s face,

  because, I suppose, to those who estimated spirit by bodily stature his

  moderate size seemed by no means equal to his reputation.’ Curtius

  Rufus’s words describing the reaction of Scythians on seeing Alexander

  can certainly also apply to many others who had first heard of the

  Macedonian’s achievements and only later saw him in person. This

  ancient author claims a similar impression was made on Queen Thalestris

  1 Plu., Alex. , 4.1; Plu., mor. , 335a-b; Arr., An. , 1.16.4; Cic., Fam. , 5.12.7; Hor., Ep. , 2.1.237-241; V.Max., 8.11, ext. 2; Plin., Nat. , 7.125

  2 Plu., Alex. , 74.6. Bosworth 1988, p. 20; Hamilton 1999, pp. 206-207.

  44

  Chapter II

  of the Amazons, who had also expected the greatness of the famous leader

  to be matched by an appropriately great physique.3 Some historians in

  good faith assume that Alexander was of average height and therefore – on

  the basis of measurements of skeletons found in contemporary

  Macedonian graves – estimate that he was approximately 1.7 tall. But this

  must be an exaggeration for the sources leave us with no doubt: Alexander

  was short, to the extent that when he sat on the captured throne of (the tall)

  Darius III, a table had to be provided for him to rest his feet on. On the

  other hand, thanks to physical exercise Alexander developed a strong and

  muscular body.4

  A feature of Alexander’s posture that has frequently been noticed and

  imitated is his raised head with the neck slightly skewed to the left. That is

  indeed how Lysippus presents him, but the very fragmentary references in

  historical sources do not allow us to establish whether this was a symptom

  of some illness or simply a manner adopted over time by Alexander. It is

  thanks to Plutarch and the polychromy on the so-called ‘Alexander

  Sarcophagus’ that we know he had a fair complexion with ruddy cheeks,

  neck and chest. Citing Aristoxenus, the 4th-century peripatetic philosopher,

  Plutarch states that Alexander’s body and breath had a pleasant smell. This,

  historians interpret as being a reflection of the tradition that Alexander was

  of divine or heroic status, for the ancient Greeks believed that pleasant

  scents were a characteristic attribute of both gods and heroes. The images

  on the Alexander Mosaic, on coins and in the form of sculptures all show

  Alexander to have a straight nose, a slightly protruding jaw, full lips and

  eyes deep set beneath a strongly pronounced forehead. Alexander’s hair,

  which according to Aelian was fair but in the Alexander Mosaic appears to

  be brown, was combed back above the forehead with a centre parting so

  that it fell to the sides like a lion’s mane. According to the unverified a
nd

  late tradition of the Alexander Romance, Alexander had heterochromic

  eyes, one being light in colour and the other dark. This same source

  maintains that he had sharp teeth, like those of a snake. Such features

  served to stress the legend of Alexander’s superhuman nature.5

  Contemporaries were struck by the fact that the young ruler had a

  smoothly shaven face, in sharp contrast to the Greek tradition of adult men

  3 Quotation is: Curt., 7.8.9. Curt., 3.12.16, 6.5.29; Diod., 17.37.5.

  4 Stewart 1993, pp. 72-73. Diod., 17.66.3; Curt., 5.2.13-15; It. Alex. , 14.

  5 Plu., Alex. , 4.1-4; Plu., mor. , 55d, 335a-b; Plu., Pomp. , 2.1 ; Plu., Pyrrh. , 8.1 ; Ael., VH, 12.14 ; Ps.-Callisth., 1.13.3; Iulius Valerius, Res gestae Alexandri

  Macedonis, 1.7; S. Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 21.4; Johannes

  Tzetzes, Ep., 76; idem, Chiliades, 11.368. Bieber 1964, pp. 50-55; Bosworth 1988, pp. 19-20; Killerich 1993; Stewart 1993, pp. 72-78; Hamilton 1999, pp. 11-12.

  The Heir to the Throne

  45

  having beards. In the 4th century the lack of a beard had the unequivocally

  negative connotation of a shamefully passive homosexual lover. Such an

  image was particularly ill-suited to the image of leader and conqueror;

  therefore it is unsurprising that in c. 330 a Greek vase painter from Apulia,

  unaware of how the Macedonian king really looked, depicted him as a

  bearded warrior. Yet, although indubitably aware of the negative

  associations, Alexander consciously decided to look the way he did, to

  demonstrate – as he did more than once in his life – that the social canons,

  customs and general outlooks held by ordinary mortals did not apply to

  him. His role model and point of reference was an ancestor on his

  mother’s side: Achilles. In the 4th century Achilles was presented in Greek

  art as a young and beardless hero. The rhetorician Polyaenus (perhaps in

  an attempt to rationalise this aesthetic decision) even claims that

  Alexander ordered his soldiers to shave their beards so that the enemy

  would not be able to catch hold of them.6 Like with other aspects of