Poor Alexander!
It seems that 2,500 years after his death, we are still fighting over his body.
He certainly does not deserve this!
It took me a while to sift through the
different theories exposed by the author of the Empedotimos blog, which are evidently not entirely absurd but cannot be taken at face
value either. History can be explained in many different ways, and the author picked
his own choice, making his viewpoint quite clear, but that does not mean we
have to agree with him. Comments left on both his posts in August
and September
clearly prove that I am not the only skeptic here, and I thank "Redumbrella" for
bringing this to my attention.
So I started digging again into those dark and
complex days that followed Alexander's death in Babylon
To begin with, Curtius Rufus and Justin
state that Alexander's last wish was
that his body would be taken to Ammon. Also, Diodorus
and possibly Trogus (Justin) wrote
this, as well as the Alexander Romance. Whatever the "Macedonian" twist
today's Greeks want to give to the story, Alexander's request is entirely consistent with what we know of his personality and
beliefs at the time of his death. As the "son of Ammon," he definitely accepted
Ammon's authority, which is sustained by his request for Hephaistion's worship. It is, therefore, absolutely possible that Alexander
did ask to be buried in Egypt
Meanwhile, Alexander's half-witted half-brother Arrhidaeus
had been proclaimed king together with the newly born Alexander IV by Roxane. Upon Alexander's death, Perdiccas was underway to Macedonia
Diodorus indeed states that Arrhidaeus spent two years preparing the
catafalque for Alexander (as referred
to by Empedotimos). Still, since the funeral procession reached Syria in the
winter of 322/321 BC after moving literally at a crawling pace, it must have
left Babylon
in the summer of 322 BC at the latest. That substantially reduces the time to build a tomb for Alexander in
Amphipolis.
It is clear that the entire trip from Babylon to Egypt Egypt and wanted it to come to Macedonia Egypt Macedonia
And then there is the legend or prophecy that
the Macedonian kingship would end when the king was not buried at Aegae.
Aelian, in his Varia Historia", tells us about Aristander
of Termissus, who had been Alexander's faithful soothsayer. Aristander,
after seeing the king's body unburied for thirty days, addressed the Assembly
of Macedonians, stating that both in life and in death, Alexander had been most fortunate and that the gods told him that
the land that would receive his body, "the former habitation of his soul,"
would be blessed with the greatest good fortune. Aelian continues to tell us how Ptolemy
"stole" the body and how Perdiccas
chased him to recover it.
We must be aware that in the winter of 322-321
BC, Perdiccas and a major force of veterans
were in Pisidia, about 1,100
km away. This meant the news that the funeral
cortege bifurcated to Egypt Egypt
Aelian's account makes sense as Ptolemy had enough time
to make a likeness of Alexander, clad
in royal robes, to be laid in one of the Persian carriages, arranging the bier
with sumptuous gold, silver, and ivory. Alexander's real body was then sent ahead in secret. When Perdiccas arrived, he obviously thought he had found the real
prize and stopped his march. It was too late to go
in pursuit when he realized the trick. How much this story is true remains debatable, but I find it
strange that the author of Empedotimos did not mention it – unless I missed it
(my Greek is only basic, and the provided English translation is not the best …). At
least we know that a 'fake' Alexander
was made, but we can only speculate what happened afterward.
Probably Perdiccas got so mad that he
destroyed it after recuperating the precious gold and silver, of course.
Pausanias' version is entirely coherent with
the overall situation where Ptolemy
demanded the catafalque to be handed over to him. Ptolemy then went to bury Alexander's mummified body according to Macedonian rites in Memphis
Please note that Plutarch mentions the arrival of embalmers about one week
after Alexander was declared dead and
that the body lay uncorrupted for days; Curtius
says that the body had a lifelike appearance. This clearly confirms that Alexander was not cremated but embalmed.
Perdiccas did not accept Ptolemy's attitude and went to war against him, taking Philip-Arrhidaeus and the young infant Alexander IV with him to add more weight to his campaign. As we know, Perdiccas' attack ended in failure; his officers mutinied and stabbed him to death. The men then asked Ptolemy to take over the Regency of
Macedonia, but for
unspecified reasons, Ptolemy declined. However, he appointed Peithon, one of the bodyguards of Alexander the Great and
later satrap of Media, to be co-regent with Arrhidaeus
and sent the party back north.
In turn, Strabo,
the geographer who lived in Alexandria
for several years, asserts that the body of Alexander
was entombed in Alexandria, Macedonia
My way of thinking may not be convincing, but
neither are any previous theories I came across, even though they were
expressed by academics…
Very nice summary,
ReplyDeleteone note is that the blog's author actually mentions the trick that Ptolemy did with exchanging Alexander's body, in order to slow down Perdicas. He actually refers to this in order to explain that Ptolemy was capable of doing the same later on, in his attempt to send the body to Macedonia.
From that piece in Aelian, I still do not understand if the golden funeral cortege was taken by Ptolemy or it was left with the fake Alexander. Aelian says that the fake body was left on one of the "Persian carriages", but that would have been enough for Perdicas to examine the body immediately, identify the trick, and continue his march immediately. I also assume that Perdicas new that Ptolemy was interested in the body, not the gold of the funeral cortege. So, is it correct to assume that the actual funeral cortege was what was left behind (with a fake body inside), and if so, what happened to it? It sounds that it was anyway to heavy for Ptolemy to carry it all the way to Egypt, with Perdicas chasing him.
Thank you for correcting me on Ptolemy's exchange of funeral carriage. I should not given up on learning Greek! :-)
DeleteThe way I read Aelian, the carriage found by Perdiccas is fake with the fake body of Alexander. Perdiccas had no idea what it looked like since he was not in Babylon when it was constructed and I can image that he did not immediately look inside for this must have felt like entering a sacred shrine. The very idea of creating an imitation carriage definitely did not cross his mind. Philip-Arrhideus, must have joined Ptolemy in the plot to make it work (his reward being nominated co-regent, although I wonder by what power Ptolemy could do this). Ptolemy took the real funeral carriage to Egypt along less traveled routes.
A point that has not been raised so far is the Greek inscription found on the island of Paros showing a chronology of event up to 263 BC. In its entry for 321-320 BC the Parian Marble clearly reads "Alexander was laid to rest in Memphis"
This is an interesting point of view:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newsbomb.gr/global/news/story/491941/amphipolis-puzzles-the-possibility-of-the-tomb-to-be-looted
At last we are receiving news from people with more common sense!
DeleteAll this hush-hush business from the Greek authorities has fueled many wrong assumptions which could have been cleared from the onset.
Thanks for sharing this link!
Hi, pleasure to read your very interesting point of view.
ReplyDeleteAs for macedonian rites: the traditional macedonian burial, which insisted in crimating the body preserving the bones
Macedonian burial rite is indeed to cremate the body. But what Pausanius means was done here in Egypt is obscure for IF the body was cremated none of the Roman emperors would have seen a mummified Alexander.
Delete