Alexander the Great

Phillip II and his son Alexander the Great created the Macedonian empire that stretched from the Danube to the Indus. After Alexander's death, his generals dismantled the empire and established their own rule over certain territories. Their names and deeds are preserved in the sources together with a few mentions of their wives, mothers, sisters, or daughters. In the background of it all, women played important roles that are frequently overlooked by the sources due to their gender. They were mostly used by men to ensure alliances, but some were ambitious enough to strive for leadership. This article will portray the lives of these notable women who used their influence to gain power, or were used by others to secure their own position. Most influential are Olympias, Kleopatra, Antipater's daughters, Kynane, Adaia-Eurydike, Thessalonike, Barsine, Roxane, Apama, Amastris, Stratonice, Berenike, Arsinoe II, and the hetairai. The article will determine the importance of these women and the role they played in the world of ambitious men.

Alexander the Great was one of the most significant historical personalities over the medieval centuries. By default, his faithful and companion of adventures steed, called Bucephalus, also was. In this article we introduce into the transformation made by the art of the miniature in the aesthetic representation of this horse, changing from a horse with great peculiarities (in what concerns its savagery and its unorthodox). In this article, we have focused exclusively on the phenomenon of Bucephalus-unicorn, being this one a representation full of a strong chivalric symbolism, and after which different analogies and aesthetic projections came.

This is the pdf presentation for the Ancient Origins webinar given by Andrew Michael Chugg on the subject of Where is the body of Alexander the Great? at 7pm UK time or 2pm US Eastern time on Saturday 18th April 2020.  A recording of the webinar should be available via this link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/5144408604509717519

Tales and traditions about Alexander the Great were popular throughout the Greco-Roman world. These sources present wide-ranging accounts of Alexander and his character, with the aim of delivering messages on numerous subjects, including power and its limits. Rabbinic literature also presents more than one perspective on Alexander. The earliest rabbinic narratives about Alexander take the form of two passages in the Jerusalem Talmud: Avodah Zarah 3:1, 42c and Baba Metzi‘a 2:4, 8c. In this paper, I re-evaluate these two talmudic tales and Genesis Rabbah 33:1 to demonstrate that they use the figure of Alexander to criticize Rome, specifically to refute the Roman illusion of unlimited power and its claim to a superior legal system, which in practice justified enriching the emperor’s coffers over protecting the lives of ordinary people. While scholars have viewed the mention of Alexander as a symbol of the Hellenistic world, and even the Greco-Roman world, the placement of these tales in a context that criticizes Rome is rarely considered.

Even after two millennia, the mysterious and premature death of Alexander the Great remains unresolved. It appears, however, that the Puranas, the ancient Indian Sanskrit texts, hold solemn secrets which could settle the archaic mystery surrounding Alexander’s premature death.A popular myth in the Puranas recounts the history of the Greek conquest of the Indus Valley and unveils the covert strategy that led to the rapid return march and the early death of Alexander. The Murder of Alexander the Great: Book 1—The Puranas details the evidence to illustrate that Alexander the Great appears in all the Indian epics and the Puranas as a mythological emperor.The second volume, The Murder of Alexander the Great: Book 2—The Secret War, reveals the secret Indian strategy that led to the submission and subsequent murder of Alexander. With fresh and firm evidence available from the Indian Sanskrit texts, the book solves the epic murder mystery and finally names the assassin and his secret weapon.

While the majority of scholars still prefer to reconstruct the battle at Granicus in 334 BC as a heroic attack across the riverbed, this article seeks to challenge that approach by rehabilitating the account found in the universal history of Diodorus Siculus. I will argue that Alexander followed the advice of his military advisors, fighting the Persians in open terrain , and that Granicus is only the first of a series of exaggerations orchestrated by the official court historian, Callisthenes. So, in a broader sense, the study will challenge our understanding of the great Macedonian king as a military commander.

Auf seinem Zug durch Asien begegnet Alexander einer Reihe von Frauengestalten. Bereits ein oberflächlicher Vergleich ihrer Darstellung bei den unterschiedlichen Autoren zeigt Übereinstimmungen, aber auch wesentliche Unterschiede in der Überlieferung. Ein solcher Vergleich soll hier am Beispiel der Rhoxane erfolgen. Durch die Gegenüberstellung der Quellen wird beispielhaft deutlich, wie differenziert und manipulativ die Darstellung der Frauen im Umfeld Alexanders in den Quellen ist und wie weit die unterschiedlichen Überlieferungen inhaltlich auseinander gehen. Zudem ist auch die Interpretation der Stellen in der Sekundärliteratur besonders spannend.

Questo volume è dedicato al palazzo senatorio Vizzani Sanguinetti, che sorge nella nota via Santo Stefano di Bologna e fu voluto da una donna illuminata: Elisabetta Bianchini vedova di Camillo Vizzani con i fi gli: Camillo, Giasone e lo storico Pompeo. Fu eretto dopo la metà del Cinquecento e al suo interno si trovano, tra le altre, opere di Tommaso Laureti, Lorenzo Sabatini, Giulio Cesare Pietra, Orazio Samacchini.

This paper explores the polarized depiction in Arrian's Anabasis of two Indian kings named Poros and argued that this depends on an original character study of good and bad kingship penned by Ptolemy I as he was establishing and legitimating his control over Egypt during the wars of the diadochoi. By using the Poroses to characterize good and bad kings, Ptolemy was able to centre on disloyalty and dishonour and, in so doing, highlight Ptolemy’s own proper kingship in direct contrast to those of his “bad” fellow diadochoi such as Kassandros.

Demostene e Alessandro, ovvero la lotta delle poleis greche per la loro indipendenza: questo è il grande tema di fondo che motiva l'orazione Sul trattato con Alessandro, confluita nel corpus demostenico. Non si conosce però la paternità e la datazione di questo testo assai difficile, che coniuga insieme fortuna di Demostene e leggenda di Alessandro. Nel progredire della discussione emerge tuttavia la centralità del discorso nella propaganda politica della prima età ellenistica, con attenzione volta alla strumentalizzazione del passato più recente.

Edouard Will et Claude Orrieux ont une formidable expression : « Tous ces phénomènes de contacts, d’échanges, de contaminations, de syncrétismes ont été abondamment étudiés, mais la nature de la documentation est telle que ce que l’on saisit, le plus souvent, ce sont des résultats, mais non les processus qui ont conduit à ces résultats, qu’il serait pourtant essentiel de pouvoir analyser. » Il n’est aucunement question dans les développements qui vont suivre de prétendre réussir là où les plus grands se sont arrêtés. Ce mémoire entend modestement tracer une ligne directrice, et épurée, de la thématique de la légitimité lagide. Il ne s’agit donc ni d’entrer dans les plus sinueux détails des oppositions historiographiques, ni de s’attarder sur des développements qui demandent une vive expertise. À l’aide de l’ensemble des sources évoquées plus haut, et évidemment de travaux plus récents, il est ainsi question de voir sur quels principes reposent la légitimité des premiers rois lagides et aussi d’analyser la manière dont les rois pérennisent leur place de souverains d’Égypte. Quelle est la nature de la monarchie ptolémaïque et par quels biais s’est assise la légitimité de ses premiers représentants ?

Les Lagides ont un double visage, tantôt pharaon, tantôt βασιλεύς. La nature de la monarchie ptolémaïque se trouve dans la coexistence de ces deux modèles que Sôter et ses successeurs utilisent sans jamais ambitionner de les fusionner. Si Ptolémée Ier construit les bases de l’idéologie royale ptolémaïque, ce sont ses successeurs qui lui donnent sa pleine amplitude. Alexandrie brille dans le monde, à l’instar du phare qu’elle abrite : les Ptolémées passent pour les plus grands rois du monde, les plus riches et les plus puissants, jusqu’à la fin du IIIe siècle av. J.-C.