his3258 lecture04 alexander the great a
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Alexander the Great
Main References:
Adams, W. L. Alexander the Great: Legacy of a Conqueror.
New York: Longman, 2005.
Ashley, James R. The Macedonian Empire: the Era ofWarfare under Philip II and Alexander the Great, 359-323
B.C. Jefferson: McFarland, 1998.
Bose, Partha. Alexander the Greats Art of Strategy: the
Timeless Leadership lessons of Historys Greatest Empire
Builder. New York: Gotham, 2003.
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Bosworth, A.B. Conquest and Empire: the Reign of
Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press,
1988. ------------------. Alexander and the East: the Tragedy of
Triumph. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.
------------------, et al., eds. Alexander the Great in Fact
and Fiction. Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 2000. Carney, Elizabeth. Olympias: Mother of Alexander the
Great. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Dahmen, Karsten. The Legend of Alexander the Great
on Greek and Roman Coins. New York: Routledge,2007.
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Fildes, Alan. Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods.
Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002.
Fox, Robin Lane. Alexander the Great. London:Penguin, 1973.
Fraser, P.M. Cities of Alexander the Great. Oxford:
Clarendon, 1996.
Grainger, John D. Alexander the Great Failure: theCollapse of the Macedonian Empire. London:
Hambledon, 2007.
Hammond, N.G.L. The Genius of Alexander the
Great. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina Press,1997.
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Heckel, Waldemar. The Wars of Alexander the Great, 336-323 B.C.
New York: Routledge, 2003.
----------------------. The Conquests of Alexander the Great.Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 2008.
----------------------. Whos Who in the Age of Alexander the Great:
Prosopography of Alexanders Empire. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
----------------------, et al., eds. Alexander the Great: Historical
Sources in Translation. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. ----------------------, et al., eds. Alexanders Empire: Formulation to
Decay. Claremont: Regina, 2007.
Holt, Frank Lee. Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the
Elephant Medallions.
Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2003.
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Kurke, Lance B. The Wisdom of Alexander the Great:Enduring Leadership Lessons from the Man WhoCreated an Empire. New York: American
Management Association, 2004. Lonsdale, David J. Alexander the Great: Lessons in
Strategy. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Roisman, Joseph, ed. Alexander the Great: Ancient
and Modern Perspectives. Lexington, Mass.:D.C.Heath, 1995.
-------------------------. Brills Companion to Alexanderthe Great. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Saunders, Nicholas. Alexanders Tomb: the Two
Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror.New York: Basic, 2006.
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Skelton, Debra. Empire of Alexander the Great. New York:
Facts on File, 2005.
Stoneman, Richard. Alexander the Great: a Life in Legend.
New Haven: Yale U. Press, 2008.
-----------------------. Alexander the Great. New York:
Rougledge, 1997.
Tarn, W.W. Alexander the Great. Vol. I: Narrative; Vol. II:
Sources and Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1948.
Thomas, Carol. Alexander the Great in His World. Malden,
M.A.: Blackwell, 2007.
Wood, Michael. In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: a
Journey from Greece to Asia. Berkeley: U. of California Press,
1997. Worthington, Ian, ed. Alexander the Great: a Reader. New
York: Routledge, 2003.
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Heroes and Heroic Worship
The Great Men Theory by Thomas Carlyle, (1795-1881):
The history of mankind is but the biographies of great men.
(Cf. Tseng Kuo-fan)
Great men were just products of history (cf. Karl Marxs
communist theory: the historical current cannot be rejected)
Great men made history [created new era]
Perhaps, both = sparkplug and fuel
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Historical Background
Rise of Macedonia (in the far north)
359 B.C. Philip (II) = King of Macedonia, abrilliant soldier, a fine speaker, a man of much
personal charm with wit, a tactful diplomat + learnt
some skill [such as the phalanx from Thebes as
hostage (as a young prince)
Athens, Sparta, and Thebes -- all tried but failed to
dominating the Greek world -- now all worn out
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The Macedonians were considered the northern
barbarians
Philip said, Yes, we [the Macedonians] are crude
people. We call a spade a spade. [that is, not
flowery]
+ appeasement atmosphere among the Greekpoleis.
Philip, d. 336 -- political assassination?
Queen Olympias
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Alexander the Great, r. 336-323 B.C. (age 20 -- 33
d.) [13 years of reign]
During his expedition to the east, two things were
always with Alexander the Great:
(1) HomersIliad(Achilles was said to be
Alexanders hero or idol), and
(2) A dagger under his pillow
Symbolized his passionate yet warlike
nature/character
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Similarities with Achilles, yet with wit, for
instance, he used wit to tame a newly
caught wild horse
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The impetuous ambitions of Alexander theGreat:
1. Charging across the river to fight the Persianarmy without his own main army to back up;
2. Whenever he heard Philip, his father, had
taken any town of importance, or won anysignificant victory; instead of rejoicing at italtogether, he would tell his companions that hisfather would anticipate everything, and leave himand them no opportunities of performing greatillustrious actions.
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Alexanders conquest of Persia (334-332 B.C.)
In 333 B.C., after Alexander defeated the
Persian army in a battle, the Persian king sentan envoy to ask for peace, giving Alexanderhalf of the empire + his only daughter, theheiress/princess to be wife of Alexander; yet,when Alexander read the letter to his council,his general Parmenio said that if he wereAlexander, he would accept. So would I,
replied Alexander,if I were you [Parmenio],
and rejected the compromise.
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In 332 B.C., Alexander took Egypt, and was greetedas the son of Zeus (that is, a living god), and builtAlexandria.
330 B.C. invaded Afghanistan
327 B.C. invaded India (war elephant)
323 B.C. (June 10) on his return trip, died of swampfever in Babylon
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Arguments:
[Negative] Alexander the Great might have caused
the decline and fall of the Greekpolis -- byexhausting the energy of Greece; and hisfoundation (military power and troops) might havebeen laid by his father, Philip II of Macedon.
[Positive] On the other hand, Alexander definitelywitnessed the rise of Macedonia, and he has startedthe idea of cosmopolitanism, and the Hellenistic
[cf. Hellenic] Age.
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[Negative] Alexander the Great was opposite toAristotle, his mentor. Aristotle loved thepolis to be
small, but Alexander built a big empire. Aristotlepreferred the cultured Greek to rule over theforeigners, but Alexanders satrapy was highlyautonomous with foreigners ruling.
[Neutral] Arrian, a Roman historian, thought thatAlexander the Great was a warrior king, and hismilitary achievements were great. But Arrian
thought that Alexanders eastern expedition waswrong, which got the eastern problems instead.
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On the other hand, Plutarch, another Roman
historian, believed that there were twobroader meanings in Alexanders eastern
expedition: 1. Alexander the Great was a
philosopher-king; 2. The goals for
expedition made Alexander a philosopher --
that he was not for his own luxurious glory
or wealth, but for the peaceful cosmopolitan
society of human beings.
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[Negative] 20th century historians: A.R.
Burn, E. Badian, and Ulrich Wilckenbelieved that Alexander did not aim atcosmopolitanism. He was only an ambitiousadventurer.
[Positive] On the contrary, W.W. Tarn andJ.F.C. Fuller believed that Alexander the
Great was a philosopher-king, and he was anideal believer in cosmopolitanism.
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Alexander as a traitor
Alexander destroyed the smallpolis
Alexanders aim in the eastern Expedition
was ambitious, impetuous, adventurous
Consequence: mutually affected with the east,
but to some historians, the highly cultured
Greeks were barbarized
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Alexander as an innovator
Alexander united Greece and created anunprecedented empire (over 3
continents), and started the Hellenistic
Age
Alexanders aim was related to the philosopher-king
ideal, cosmopolitanism, and necessity
Hellenized the world, that is why Greek history was
from Hellenic to Hellenistic then
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Significance:
[Positive]
1. Created a big empire ruling over 3 continents;
2. A break-through in the idea of cosmopolitanism
(including the satrapy, etc.), at least, it was a kind of
fusion;
3. Greek influence over the east (all the way toIndia; his coins were found in India), thus,
Hellenistic;
4. According to W.W. Tarn, Alexander the Great
was a contributor or promoter of the unity of mankind
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[Negative]
1. Even though he won on horseback [byconquests], he could not rule the empire for long
[soon he died, and his empire scattered];
2. Alexander by draining off so much Greek
man-power so far into the east, Alexander weakenedGreece, and ultimately even Greek resistance at
home to Roman aggression later;
3. Alexander destroyed the spirit (small,
exclusive, oneness, etc.) of thepolis
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