A critical estimation of scholarly writings reveals plainly not only the qualitative but also the quantitative differences in the acceptance of the Alexander, even though the available textual sources remained immutable (Narain 1965, 155). The modern scholarships have only a small number of inscriptions, numismatic evidences and random comments from historians that are contemporaneous. Few scholars judge Alexander the Great as a conqueror and tyrant, despite the fact that many other scholars react against this negative tendency, transforming him to a civilizer liberator of the Hellenistic world. The result is that a series of irreconcilable version of Alexander are presenting but no an uniform or coherent picture. S. Bosworth 1986, 1. Although much was written about the life and the seizures of Alexander during his reign, these contemporary works has not survived in their entirety to the present day. What remains of them are to be found quoted or paraphrased by much later authors in their own histories of Alexander. It is not until several centuries after the Alexander‟s death that modern historiography gets a connected narrative of the reign by Diodorus Siculus (1st century B.C.), Quintus Curtius Rufus (1st century A.D.), Plutarch (1st century B.C. – 1st century A.D.), Lucius Flavius Arrianus (2nd century A.D.) and Justin (3rd century A.D.), who epitomized Pompeius Trogus‟ history of the world (1st century A.D.). S. Stewart 1993, 9.
Alexander was born in July 356 B.C. at Pella, the capital of the Macedonian kingdom and was the son of the Philip II, the king of Macedon (S. Sheppard 2008, 49. Worthington 2012, 23), and his fourth wife, Olympias, the daughter of Neoptolemus I, king of the Molossian kingdom of Epirus in north-west Greece (Cartledge 2004, 13). In his childhood, Alexander was tutored by the strict Leonidas, whose methods did not meet with the expected success. In contrast, Alexander‟s education under Aristotle was more creative and substantial (Romm 1989, 566-567), bringing the first into close contact with Greek culture (Geus 2003, 232).
With Greece and Thrace in order, Alexander invaded Persia in 334 B.C. with approximately 50.000 soldiers, drawn from Macedon and various Greek city-states (Arrian, Anabasis, I.17.11). He crossed the Hellespont, symbolically casting a spear into Asian soil before he disembarked to show he regarded Persia as “spear-won” territory, and then immediately went to Troy to sacrifice at the tomb of his hero and ancestor Achilles (Stewart 1993, 78. Sheppard 2008, 100-101. Fredricksmeyer 2012, 343). Soon after Alexander advanced to the Granicus River in Phrygia, where he defeated a Persian army (S. Sheppard 2008, 125-128), the first of the three major pitched battles between Alexander and the prime forces of the Persian Empire, he proceeded along the Ionian coast, dealing with any resistance and freeing Greek cities from Persian rule, in accordance with one of the reasons for the invasion that he had promised before to the League of Corinth (Cartledge 2004, 112). In 333 B.C., Alexander detoured to Gordium, where he untied the famous Gordian knot. The symbolism of Alexander‟s act was obvious, for it was written that whoever cut the knot would conquer Asia. According to the story, Alexander proclaimed that it did not matter how the knot was undone and hacked it apart with his sword. In the same year, Alexander journeyed south, where he was met by Darius‟ significantly larger army in Issus, which he easily defeated, causing the Great King to panic. Despite his overwhelming numerical superiority and initial advantage of surprise, Darius grew so demoralized and fearful for his life that he fled the battlefield, leaving behind among the camp followers who fell into Alexander‟s hands his own wife, his two daughters and his mother. Alexander treated them with the respect out of consideration, which demonstrated his continued generosity and kindness towards those he conquered. S. Sheppard 2008, 135-147.
- The Battle of Issus was quite certainly significant from the point of view of the morale of Alexander and his troops. Rather than pursue Darius (S. Syropoulos 2013, 484) after the battle, the Macedonian king announced his attention to go to Egypt, which he reached in 332 B.C., while he proceeded to take possession of Syria and most of the coast of the Levant and after being distracted for some time.
- The Egyptians welcomed him as a liberator, since they had suffered cruelly under the Persian yoke, and Alexander in turn flattered Egyptian national sentiment, doing conspicuous honour to their gods, while the Persian satrap, Mazaces, surrendered the country to him. During his stay in Egypt, he founded Alexandria (the first city of that name), a major centre for the dissemination of Hellenic civilization and culture throughout the Middle East and the Roman world, and he also visited the Oracle of Zeus Ammon at the oasis of Siwah, in the western desert of Egypt bordering on Libya, a visit that was a key turning point in his pretensions to personal divinity. Almost the majority of the ancient sources agree that what Alexander really wanted from his visit to Ammon was confirmation of his divine patronage and his right to rule the world. Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 27. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, XVII.51.3. Justin, Epitome, XI.11.10. Curtius, Life of Alexander the Great, IV.7.28. S. Worthington 2012, 331. Alexander had now completed the first stage of his grand strategy. He had firmly secured the whole of the east Mediterranean seaboard, and in summer 331 B.C. he marched eastward in pursuit, again, of Darius. The Great king was still alive, and had managed to regroup his forces by gathering reinforcements. Leaving Egypt in 331 B.C., Alexander marched eastward into Mesopotamia (now northern Iraq) and met Darius in the Battle at Gaugamela, the old capital of the Assyrian Empire, where again defeated him. Darius once fled the field, and Alexander chased him as far as Arbela, while marched to occupy the important palace capitals of Babylon, Susa and especially Persepolis. The last was the symbolic heart of the Persian Empire, and as Alexander prepared to leave it, five months after, at early spring 330 B.C., the palace burned to the ground (Briant 2010, 14).
During his time in Asia, Alexander did not only take the Persian title “king of kings” but also adopted some elements of Persian dress and customs. After the visit to Siwa in 332 B.C., Alexander called himself son of Zeus and to make matters worse in 327 B.C. at Balkh attempted to enforce the Asian custom of proskynesis (genuflection), a fact that cost him the sympathies of his countrymen. Both of these actions can only be connected to his belief in his own divinity, reflecting the dramatic change of his personality (Brunt 2012, 59). In addition, the integration of Persians into his army caused dissatisfaction, and because of growing discontent against him and thems, Alexander grew suspicious of those who were close to him. Thus, at Phrada (modern Farah in western Afghanistan) in 330 B.C. he had Philotas executed and his father Parmenion assassinated. The execution of Philotas and the murder of his father, Parmenion, shed an unfavourable light on Alexander character and on relationships of his younger Macedonian generals. S. Heckel 2012, 370.
- The invasion of India
- After his marriage to the Bactrian noblewoman Roxana, Alexander turned to the Indian subcontinent. However, the Indian campaign is characterized by the excessive slaughter of local people and it is the bloodiest part of Alexander‟s entire expedition. In spring 327 B.C. Alexander marched from Bactra through the Hindu Kush (an 800 km long mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan) and advanced towards the plain of the Indus. He split the invasion force into two, one half under the command of Hephaestion and Perdiccas, which was to march to the Indus via Hindu Kush and secure the main communications route, and the second under himself, which marched east through Laghman (eastern Afghanistan) into the Swat (north of the modern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan) (Narain 1965, 156. Khan 2013, 232). In the winter 327/326 B.C., Alexander faced the Aspasians of Kunar valleys (in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan), the Gouraians of the Guraeus valley (northwestern Pakistan) and the Assakenians of the Swat (located close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border) and Buner (province of Pakistan) valleys (Malden 1880, 228), while in spring 326 B.C., the Macedonian forces met at the Indus, and after bridging it, moved to the capital Taxila (in Pakistan) (Arrian, Anabasis, IV.23.1). When news came that a neighboring prince, Porus, refused to yield to Alexander, the Macedonian king set out immediately to meet him and the two sides did Battle at the Hydaspes River (modern Jhelum River that flows in India and Pakistan) (Sheppard 2008, 202-213). Alexander crossed the river against no small adversity, and once on its opposite bank quickly and decisively defeated Porus (Arrian, Anabasis, V.8.4. S. Bosworth 2012, 239).
Not long after, Alexander left Susa, and by summer 324 B.C. he was at Opis (not far from modern Baghdad, the capital of the Republic of Iraq), where he announced the discharge of his wounded and veterans (Tarn 2012, 281). His troops misunderstood his intention and they refused to be sent away and criticized his adoption of Persian customs (Bosworth 2012, 293). Alexander faced the men‟s refusal to back down for three days, until finally he began to transfer Macedonian military titles and commands to Persians. Despite the fact that Alexander did not utilize the people who comprised his recently founded empire as subjects, but as equal members, there had never been the artificiality of peer participation of all in the upper step of administration. Conversely, Alexander believed in the cultural superiority of only two nations of his empire, the Macedonians and the Persians. S. Syropoulos 2013, 486. The Macedonians quickly gave in, and to celebrate the end of the mutiny and his forgiving them, he held a great banquet of reconciliation and prayed for concord (Worthington 2012, 210-211). From Opis Alexander travelled to Ecbatana (in the east of Iran), where his closest friend Hephaestion died. Alexander ordered various honors for him, as well as a decree for public mourning. In early 323 B.C., Alexander and his army arrived at Babylon, despite various warnings and portents that indicated his life was in danger (Arrian, Anabasis, VII.16.1, 24.1-3).
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