Alexander the Great

Agnes Savill’s book, Alexander the Great and His Times, is well researched and written. I appreciated her balanced portrayal of Alexander. Some authors portray him as a saint who did nothing wrong while many others see him as a power-hungry, pleasure seeking homosexual.

This is especially true of Oliver Stone’s recent movie, Alexander the Great. I was very disappointed by his portrayal of Alexander and Hephaistion as homosexual lovers, whereas in real life they were close friends and confidants. Alexander had high moral standards and he required upright conduct of all of his generals. While Alexander did throw lavish parties for his troops, it was always after a hard battle in order to help them recover from all of the hardship and suffering they had gone through. Alexander himself seldom allowed himself to become intoxicated, knowing full well the dangers of letting his guard down.

I was impressed with Alexander mainly because of his selflessness in his ambition. While he wanted to conquer the world, his motivation was not for personal glory but for the benefit of all mankind. Alexander kept very little from the spoils of war for himself, choosing to live an austere lifestyle. However, he was lavish in his gifts, giving his generals and troops far more than he kept for himself, so that all of his generals were wealthier than he was. His sole obsession was to unite the world, bring prosperity and peace to every corner. Unfortunately, his generals did not fully buy into his dream and nearly destroyed all that he had labored for after his death.

One of the reasons many see Alexander as a megalomaniac was his insistence in being addressed as a god by the Persians and his generals when Persians were present. His reason for this was sound; the Persians expected their ruler to be a god and so to not demand such treatment would have undermined his authority among the Persians. However, when the Persians were not present, Alexander allowed his generals to address him as an equal, not requiring them to bow and address him as a god. In fact, Alexander often joked with his generals about the silliness of being addressed as a god. Alexander, then, was not a megalomaniac but a shrewd politician.

Another thing that angered his generals was that Alexander recruited Persians into his army, so that at times Persians and Greeks fought side by side. He also gave some Persians authority over Greeks, making his generals furious. This indicates that Alexander’s dream of the unity of all mankind was not fully accepted by his generals. They saw themselves as superior to the Persians, especially since the numerically superior Persian army was devastated by Alexander’s professional Greek army. Allowing Persians into the army was a shrewd political move towards the Persians, winning their loyalty, while it was not implemented shrewdly enough to appease his Greek generals.

Alexander won the loyalty and love off most every nation he conquered, usually by allowing the defeated ruler to maintain his position after Alexander left. As each newly conquered land experienced Alexander’s clemency and generosity they fell in love with him. When they experience the prosperity and freedom that Alexander brought, they remained loyal to him. Again, the love and adoration of these conquered peoples began to chafe at the generals, fearing that Alexander’s love was being drawn away from them.

The racism and selfish ambition of his generals made it difficult for them to fully understand and embrace Alexander’s vision for the world. As a result, as the army got bogged down in India, the generals refused to go any further. Furious, Alexander sent them all home, threatening to go on with his Persians. An angry revolt erupted which Alexander was forced to quash with brutality. In great mourning they army returned to Babylon through the desert.

Alexander’s death has been a point of controversy as well. Some, including Oliver Stone in his movie, portray Alexander’s death as the result of his drunken orgies and sexual deviance. However, the truth is that he died from a disease, most likely malaria or other diseased caused by bacteria in the water. The saddest part of his life is that he didn’t make arrangements for what would happen after his death. His failure to designate a successor resulted in his empire being torn apart by civil war and revolt. It is a shame that all of his hard work nearly went to waste because of his lack of foresight.

Alexander has impacted the world in several major ways, so that even the world today. First, he united the world and paved the way for equality, freedom and justice for all men. This vision was adopted by Rome and still drives us today. Second, he united the world under one language and culture, making trade, travel and cultural exchange possible across many boundaries. Third, he paved the way for Christianity by providing a common language and culture into which a worldwide religious movement could take root and flourish. Even after Rome took over the empire, Greek was still the common language throughout the whole world. This enabled the early Christians to spread the Gospel to the whole known world quickly. While the Romans provided universal peace and high quality roads, it was Alexander who paved the way intellectually by uniting the world culturally and linguistically.