Why Alexander the Great?

People repeatedly ask me: Why are you so interested in Alexander the Great? Why Alexander? What makes him so unique? As it sounds foolish to say, "I don't know," I seriously thought about the matter.

As can be expected, the answer is not simple. The same as when being asked, why do you love your wife or love your husband? There is not a clear-cut reason; in fact, there are several or several combinations. So too when it comes to my friend, Alexander the Great, for I consider him a friend, someone I know intimately, although he lived two thousand three hundred years ago!

To say the least, he is a fascinating figure. We know his actions rather well from what has been written by ancient historians but not his personality, which modern historians try to unravel to the bone with sometimes the most absurd assumptions. In my mind, however, this is the most intriguing side that keeps me digging ever deeper.

I can't remember when or how exactly my passionate interest in Alexander the Great started. I may not have heard of him until my first years in high school, and that is about when I craved everything Greek and Roman.

The walls above my bed were filled with pictures from calendars showing remains of temples and theaters from all over the ancient world – I knew them by heart and still do.

Those were the days when Ben-Hur raced from one movie theater to the next, with me in his wake! I lost track of how many times I watched the movie. It was not only the story as it was not particularly exciting, but the setting, the landscapes, the chariots, the circus, the furniture, the ships and galleys, the uniforms and marches of the Roman soldiers, the hair-dresses and outfits of the ladies, the superb music by Miklos Rosza, etc. To me, it simply meant a trip back in time.

The World Fair of 1958 further fueled my interest in antiquity as treasures from across the borders were laid out at my doorstep. The entrance to the Fair was just one block away from my home, and it was utterly exciting to have all those faraway countries within reach. It was my worst school year, but that was a small sacrifice compared to the unique exhibitions each country proudly presented. I think I never missed any free event over the six months the Fair lasted, for I might never visit any of those countries, but at least I saw the part that came to me!

Alexander must have popped out somewhere amidst all those events, a hero if ever the world has seen one. Imagine a sixteen-year-old man receiving the seal of Macedonia from his father to rule the country in his absence. Imagine him again at twenty when his father is assassinated, and he has to take charge of Macedonia and all of Greece as well. Philip II was the Hegemon of all Greeks according to the treaty signed in Corinth a few years earlier. If Alexander wanted to walk in his father's footsteps, i.e., to free the Greek cities of Asia Minor from Persian rule, he needed that title. With it came the contributions from all the participating city-states, including more soldiers. Not even in those days would such a young lad be trusted by the elderly or the politicians, so Alexander had to prove himself. He marched his army north and south through Greece to show his competence with such zeal, speed, and victory that two years later, nobody doubted that he could invade Asia. This was planned by his father and approved by the members of the Corinthian League.

So, at twenty-two, Alexander left Macedonia appointing his trusted general Antipater as regent. At the same time, he sets out with an army of about 40,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry to cross the Hellespont into Asia. The gods are with him all the way! The Persians don't take Alexander seriously or even bother to stop him from ferrying his army across. The first opposition happens in a lost corner of Asia Minor, on the banks of the River Granicus. Darius III, King of Persia, King of Kings, does not even bother to be present in person and delegates the attack to a mercenary, a Greek on top of that, called Memnon. Well, Memnon is defeated, and Alexander marches on, taking one city after another, one port after another, all along the coast of today's Turkey.

Amazingly, it takes King Darius more than a year before facing Alexander in person, this time at the tiny Pinarus River near Issus. The Persian army is enormous compared to the Macedonian, but it is outmaneuvered after the first minutes of the battle. Isn't that enough to trigger your interest, your respect, your admiration for this young man? Who is there today at twenty-three to boost such accomplishments, such leadership, and such audacity? How can I not admire such a personality?

King Darius panics and turns around, leaving the Issus' battlefield head over heels… shame on him! Two years later, both kings will meet again in decisive combat on Persian soil near Arbela, a place we know as Gaugamela. This really does the trick, as far as I'm concerned. It is a fight worthy of David and Goliath, where Alexander, with his 50,000 men, stands up against Darius' troops, the number of which may be exaggerated to 500,000 but must have counted at least 250,000 – five times more than Alexander's! The guts alone! The odds may have been against Alexander, but the gods were not, and here too, he is victorious as Darius once again flees into the backcountry. Tactically speaking, this battle was such a remarkable prowess that it still is being taught at West Point Military Academy! And speaking of guts, do you realize that Alexander attacked an empire ten times bigger than his home country?

Well, so far for his campaigns, Alexander did much more than win battles. He took on the organization of the entire enterprise, working out the logistics and constantly moving his equipment and soldiers. Everyone looked up to him for guidance, for he was not a puppet king – far from it! His sheer spirit never ceases to amaze me. I read somewhere that he knew thousands of his soldiers by name. Imagine how that feels when the king knows you personally. The more reason for you to be motivated and do a proper job, as there is the gratitude when he recognizes you among your comrades, knowing how well you fought. How inspiring this must have been! 

At the height of his power, his empire stretches from Greece to India and Uzbekistan to Egypt. His army must have counted at least one hundred thousand men. One has to add the entire baggage train with its merchants, peddlers, blacksmiths, tailors, stone cutters, shipbuilders, entertainers, carpenters, cooks, masons, road builders, and whores. Alexander managed to take his dismantled ships and catapult towers with him on the road - he introduced the prefab concept eons before the word ever existed - so he could assemble them whenever needed! He moved this mass of people across scorching deserts like the Karakum and the Gedrosian, over snowcapped mountains like the Zagros and the Hindu Kush, and traversed swift-running rivers like the Euphrates and Tigris, the Oxus, and Indus. I try to picture that crowd of soldiers, horses, followers, and equipment trudging through uncharted territories! It is dazzling!

Alexander took it upon himself to organize a form of government adapted to each and every tribe and people he conquered. He founded cities at strategic trade road crossings. We all know Alexandria in Egypt, but don't forget cities like Khodjend in Tajikistan, Kandahar, Herat and Ai-Khanoum in Afghanistan, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan, to name just a handful – and those cities still exist and still prosper. His task was absolutely colossal, and he just did it! Of course, he had his engineers and craftsmen to assist him, but Alexander was the power behind it all! He decided where the city would be built, its layout, which veterans no longer fit for service would settle there, etc.

Alexander was also a visionary, one we would love to have around in our modern times! He welded the world into one country, for had he lived long enough, he would have conquered the Romans also. As part of that globalization (another modern concept, we think!), the king assimilated local gods to Greek gods and goddesses, making them recognizable to all. He stimulated intra-cultural marriages (after years away from home, all the Macedonian soldiers had children growing up everywhere in Alexander's new empire). The young boys would receive a Greek education and be trained to join his army. Much to the critics and sorrow of his fellow Macedonians, he adopted specific "Persian ways" not only because the Persians expected that from their king, but that too was part of the fusion of both cultures. 

The Macedonians were not ready to comprehend the vastness, the scale, or the grandeur of his conquests as Alexander did. He made excellent use of the dormant treasuries from the Persian Royal cities, minting vast amounts of gold, silver, and bronze coins. He paid his army lavishly, and the men spent the money as lavishly on all kinds of extravaganza and exotics. Trade flourished, and the economy was booming to a level unheard of before or after. The coins had Alexander's image stamped on them, and that was a relatively new concept, for until then, only gods were worthy of such a favor. Alexander's father, Philip II, was among the first to put his features on coinage, and now it was Alexander's turn. This started the habit of putting a king's image on coins, which we still do today! All over the empire, the Alexander coins were known and accepted. It was the euro of antiquity! And we think we invented the single currency!

Finally, we must contemplate Alexander's legacy, i.e., the impact of Greek fashion, culture, and art on the occupied territories that went into history as the Hellenistic Period. Here it is that from Athens to the Indus, the official language was Greek and remained so for several hundreds of years till Islam took over and Arabic was introduced. Alexander built the cities according to the Greek pattern with right-angled streets, including familiar buildings like temples, gymnasiums, theaters, and stadiums. Alexander's love for games, sportive competitions, and theatrical contests with playwriters and actors traveling thousands of miles is another tradition perpetrated for centuries. Architects and sculptors introduced the Hellenistic style far into the East, which is still very visible today, like in Buddha's features. And if you are familiar with the treasures of  Ai-Khanoum and Tillya-Tepe that are still traveling around the world with the exhibition on "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum in Kabul," you know exactly what I mean!   [photo source: Musée Guimet]

Our world would not be what it is, had it not been for Alexander the Great. To me, history is simply divided into two periods: before Alexander and after Alexander, instead of splitting time up in BC and AD as we do in our Western world. Whether looking at city ruins, statues, jewelry, pottery, theatre plays, or ancient writers, I'll always place them in the time frame related to Alexander. It's either something that Alexander could have known or was familiar with, or it's something that he created and shaped in such a way that we can still benefit from it today.

No other man in history has had such an impact on the world as Alexander the Great. Some did try to copy him, like Caesar or Napoleon; others simply tried to conquer the world on their own, like Genghis Khan or the Chinese Emperor Qin, but nobody reached his high standards! Nobody ever will. That is why my life is so much centered around Alexander, called the Great, and rightfully so.