Happy Birthday Alexander!

Another opportunity to celebrate Alexander's birthday. Hip hip hooray!

Unlike us mortals, godly Alexander will celebrate his birthday forever and ever. He remains our role model, an extraordinary man, general, and king.  Humanity will always look up to him for his behavior, his charisma, and his successes.

Looking for an adequate picture of the Conqueror, I picked this cute bronze, which was displayed at the exhibition 'Alexandria: Past Futures' held at Bozar in Brussels in late 2022. He lost his horse, his dear Bucephalus, but his posture remains strong. It comes from the little-known 'Fondation Gandur pour l'Art' in Geneva, Switzerland, and dates back to between the 3^rd and the 1^st century BC.

I cannot help thinking about what the world would have become had he lived longer or were he alive today. A tall order! 

There must have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of statues of Alexander in all shapes, sizes, and materials created in countless countries over the globe. It is absolutely mind-blowing how the king and his memories stayed alive throughout the centuries.

Thank you, Alexander!

Delphic Hymns and ancient Greek music

My first discovery of Greek musical annotations happened in 2012 when I saw the Seikilos column at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. This temporary exhibition held a copy of the Seikilos Epitaph from Copenhagen that showed ancient Greek music (see: Revealing ancient Greek music, the Seikilos Epitaph). It was presented as the oldest surviving example of musical composition in the world, dating back to between 200 BC and 100 AD. At that time, I learned that older Greek music inscriptions existed but only fragmentarily, as is the case for the Delphic Hymns. 

While the Seikilos Epitaph is the only complete song we have, the Delphic Hymns are simply the oldest surviving examples so far, dating from the 2^nd century BC. These Hymns were carved on the southern wall of the Treasury of the Athenians in Delphi. They contain hymns praising Apollo, his birth, his life, and his protection of Athens and Delphi, with music to be played on a shrill-sounding flute and a golden, sweet-sounding cithara. These hymns to Apollo were performed during the Pythian Games, a major venue for musical contests that originally focused on art and dance. 

The two inscriptions from the Treasury of the Athenians, now exhibited at the Museum of Delphi, belong to a series of about fifty similar hymns from ancient Greece. A study revealed that these songs of praise or triumph were composed for the Pythian Games of 128 BC, i.e., the ritual procession of the Athenians towards Delphi. Apollo is also hailed for his help in fighting the Galatians in 189 BC, as the Romans won the battle against these Celtic tribes in Asia Minor. 

Like the Seikilos inscriptions, the Delphic Hymns hold musical symbols for the instruments and other notations for the singing voice next to the lyrics. We owe the interpretation of these symbols to Alypius of Alexandria, a musicographer who lived in the 3^rd century AD. 

I followed the history of ancient Greek music and the reconstruction of ancient instruments, mainly the lyre/cithara and the flute, from 2016 onward, with several updates after Reconstructing ancient Greek music, an impossible task? We still find it difficult to accept that Homer's epics or the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides originally were sung partially or in their entirety.

The sounds produced by ancient instruments are a far cry from today’s music, even from what is considered classical music or medieval troubadours. Modern music is mostly loud, to be heard beyond the daily noises of traffic, airplanes, and too many people attending the open-air events with screaming amplifiers. It is hard to imagine a quiet, tranquil spot in nature where we could catch the sound of a faraway flute or a string instrument floating on the wind. The basic essence of musical notes no longer reaches us.

With new discoveries and future in-depth research, we may expect to learn more about the music played in antiquity that could have been familiar to Alexander. I hope.

[Pictures from the Delphi Archaeological Museum]

Abukir, including Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion

The waters along the Egyptian Coast hold a treasure trove of statues, columns, reliefs, and other architectural elements. Flooded ancient city streets with their temples, abandoned harbors and wooden ships yield a great number of surprises. 

Centuries before the foundation of Alexandria by Alexander the Great, the Greeks had established trade centers in Egypt. The oldest was Thonis-Heracleion in the 8^th century BC (see: Heracleion, ancient Greek port in Egypt), located six kilometers northeast of Abukir. Canopus was first mentioned in the 6^th century BC and lies right next to Abukir, nowadays on the edge of modern Alexandria. 

Since 1992, underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio has been investigating the larger area of the Bay of Abukir together with the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities. In 2000, thanks to his advanced sonar and magnetic scanning technology, he discovered Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus (see: Getting around in the Nile Delta). He has founded the Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous-Marine (IEASM) and works closely with a team of archaeologists, Egyptologists, historians, geologists, geophysicists, computer engineers, and the like. He regularly shares his finds on his own website, which contains a wonderful page with pictures of his discoveries. Clicking on a picture reveals the full story of the artifact. 

[Picture from Egypt Museum by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra] 

My absolute favorite is this stunning statue, representing Queen Arsinoe II, the sister-wife of King Ptolemy II, that was discovered in the flooded ruins of Canopus.

The queen’s portrayal here is more Greek than Egyptian. She is the embodiment of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, especially thanks to the “wet look” of her dress clinging to her body. After Arsinoe died in 270 BC, Ptolemy II issued a decree that all temples of Egypt should host a cult statue of the divine Arsinoe. So much to honor one’s spouse! 

But, of course, you are free to pick your own preference and learn more about the great work done by Franck Goddio all those years. There is more than enough for future generations to discover under the sandy bottom of Abukir’s Bay.

The tomb of Alexander the Great

The tales about the tomb of Alexander are countless, varying from pure myth and wishful thinking to serious studies and well-documented analysis. 

In August 2021, I posted a summary of what was known so far: Endless fuss over the tomb of Alexander the Great. Here, I included the name of Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi, who assumed that the king’s mummy was transferred to Siwah as Ptolemy fulfilled Alexander’s wish. In her theory, she ignored the recorded visits of the Roman emperors to Alexander's tomb in Alexandria. 

Liana Souvaltzi started excavating the Temple of Amon-Ra in Siwah in 1989, but in 1995, the Greek and Egyptian governments suddenly blocked her permit without explanation. 

[Reconstruction of what the monument in the Siwa Oasis would have once looked like. Credit: Liana Souvaltzi]

In my mind, her story was one of many, like the one I posted in October 2024:  Another pertinent theory about Alexander’s Tomb that was another dead-end road.

It now transpires that I missed Liana Souvaltzi's plea published in December 2014, also in Ancient Origins, upon their invitation. The full story can be read in this article. I'm quoting a few of the key arguments hereafter, in italics.

The archaeological site is 15 kilometers west of the Ammon Temple, which is in the town of Siwa. The area where the tomb is located is named El Maraki. The tomb complex covers an enormous area of 12,000 square meters, of which 5,000 square meters were excavated.

From the size of the tomb itself, which is 51m long and has an outer width of 10.25m, it is obvious that it could only have been destined for use as a burial monument for the worship of a very important person, such as a king. The tomb sits on a rock, underneath which lies an enormous gold mine, the first found in the western desert. It consists of an entrance, corridor, and three chambers.

It is a good argumentation and certainly raises questions about the presence of Greek architectural elements in Siwah and the size/purpose of the monument. A link with Alexander is not impossible. However, although the monument she defined as a tomb was colossal, it contained no actual tomb or sarcophagus to prove Alexander's presence. 

[Cleaning up the corridor leading to the tomb. Credit: Liana Souvaltzi]

There were, however, three inscriptions referring to Alexander:

Finally, we found three different honorary inscriptions written in Greek uppercase letters. The first inscription could be dated from its text to between 290 and 284 BC. The first line of the inscription bore the name ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΑΜΜΩΝΟΣ ΡΑ (ALEXANDER AMMON RA).

The second inscription can be dated between 108 and 115 BC and is an honorary inscription and was placed by the Emperor Traianus in honour of Alexander, whom he admired and respected as a god.

The third inscription is a fragment which indicates the number of the inhabitants of the oasis and the army, which was a part of the military forces assigned to guard the royal tomb of Alexander the Great.

The discovery of these inscriptions and their meanings was announced in the course of the Italian – Egyptian Congress in Rome on 15 November 1995.

In line with the earlier and later theories that circulate on the tomb of Alexander and its whereabouts, there is the thorough destruction of this Siwah Tomb. The floors, walls, corridors, and decorative elements have been destroyed and turned into a flooded garbage dump. 

Whatever promising tracks scholars and archaeologists investigate to find the last resting place of this great conqueror, they are stopped in their efforts at one point or another. Poor Alexander! He deserves so much more attention, care, and respect.

Roman glassware, as good as new

I have always been fascinated by Roman glassware in all its shapes, forms, and colors (see: The beauty of ancient glassware). 

Yet, I never came across glassware that survived in such pristine condition as that retrieved from the Cape Corse shipwreck in 2023. It lies on a Roman commercial route connecting Luna (modern Luni, Italy) to Massalia (modern Marseille), between Cape Corse in Corsica and the island of Capraia in Italy. It is the second known find with a cargo of almost exclusively glass, either in its raw state as blocks of various sizes or in the finished product of blown glass tableware. 

[Picture from Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subacqueo]

The ship sank around 100 AD, and although it was discovered in 2013, we had to wait ten years for an international team of researchers to explore the wreck with two underwater drones. This modern equipment allowed them to retrieve the major part of its precious cargo using a very delicate claw system. 

A few thousand glass artifacts have been recovered, including drinking glasses, bottles, plates, cups, small bowls, and an ointment jar; also two bronze basins and several amphorae of different type such as oriental, the Beirut type, and four Gallic vessels. Combined with the raw glass, this find led the archaeologists to believe that the ship must have originated from a port in the Middle East, possibly Lebanon or Syria, and was headed towards the coast of Provence in Southern France. 

The Syrians were probably the first to have mastered the art of glass blowing as early as the 1^st century BC. Craftsmen from Sidon, Aleppo, Hama, and Palmyra developed the technique of using a blowpipe to shape molten glass, which allowed them to create objects faster than from cast glass. As a result, Syria became one of the most important glass production centers in the world, before, during, and after the Roman Empire. 

The main trade route started in Antioch (modern Antakya in Turkey) to supply the markets of Alexandria, Byzantium, and Rome, which, in turn, had steady connections with Massalia.

The question remains, how these thousands of glass objects were still undamaged and survived in such good conditions after resting at the bottom of the Mediterranean for two thousand years.

What Alexander really looked like.

Over the centuries, endless theories have circulated about the real appearance of Alexander. Statues, busts, paintings, and sketches have depicted Alexander as imagined by their creators, just as ancient and modern authors have described their version of Alexander. 

It is inevitable since Alexander became a legend during his lifetime. The legend took a life of its own, and still does today. 

[Picture from Wordscene]

I have just read an article on the Greek Reporter, “Beyond the Busts: Unveiling Alexander the Great’s True Face” by Paula Tsoni.  A very promising title that misleads the reader in many ways. The most absurd theory is the one quoted towards the end, reading: 

"A fresco depicting a hunt scene at the tomb of Philip II, Alexander’s father, at the archaeological site of Aegae is the only known surviving depiction of Alexander produced during his lifetime in the 330s BC."      …

"A most disruptive theory is proposed by Greek-French academic Byzantinologist Helene Glykatzi-Ahrweiler, who has herself been identified by the 2008 show Great Greeks as one of the 100 greatest Greeks of all time. In her 2018 book published by Gutenberg, the famous scholar suggests that the tomb in Aegae is, in fact, Alexander’s, and not his father’s. This would explain why the young king was depicted in the famous fresco inside that tomb."

First of all, it has been clearly demonstrated that the tomb in Vergina, ancient Aegae, belongs to Philip II and not to Alexander, who was entombed in ancient Alexandria. The latest confirmation of Philip’s presence in the Vergina tomb has been established by studying the adjacent tomb that turned out to be Cynane’s, Philip’s daughter (see: Cynane buried next to her father, Philip II). 

Secondly, stating that the hunting scene in Philip’s tomb (which is unclear) is “the only known surviving depiction of Alexander” is not correct. It has been established that the ivory heads recovered from a Macedonian funerary couch in Vergina belong to Philip and Alexander. Greek archaeologists agree that the Alexander head is the only one made during Alexander’s lifetime. 

There have been repeated tentative efforts to recreate the Macedonian King’s face, even showing occasional look-alikes. A lot of wishful thinking, no doubt, but not very realistic. 

The question about Alexander’s real face already arose in 2016, when I wrote about a hoard found at Mir Zakah in north-eastern Afghanistan (see: Alexander’s real face). The hoard had been hidden in a well for over two thousand years and contained an estimated 550,000 coins. One of them showed Alexander with wide-open eyes, a crooked nose, and wild curls on the obverse and a tiptoeing elephant on the reverse. This is Alexander as he saw himself - invulnerable, verging on godhood, immortalized in the moment of his triumph after his battle against Porus on the Hydaspes in India in 326 BC. 

Osmund Bopearachchi was the first to recognize the medallion, and together with Frank Holt, he wrote a book on the subject, “The Alexander Medallion, Exploring the Origins of a Unique Artefact.” This information is ignored by or unknown to the eminent Greek-French academic Byzantinologist Helene Glykatzi-Ahrweiler, used by the Greek Reporter!

[Picture of the coin is from The Hindu]

An alabaster bust of Alexander

Alexandria, founded by Alexander in 333 BC, remains largely hidden under the modern city. Occasional excavations occur, mostly in the Al-Shatby suburb, which was occupied from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. This neighborhood is perhaps better known as the Shallalat Gardens, where parts of the ancient city walls and a statue of Alexander were recently discovered (see: Magnificent Alexander statue found in Alexandria). It is believed that the Royal Quarters were located underneath these Gardens.

The Al-Shatby neighborhood was an ancient residential and commercial zone, a trade center during Ptolemaic rule. It held a lively market selling amphorae, pottery, and plates produced locally. The workshops were specialized in creating statues, statuettes, and amulets for the warriors. 

[Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities]

The place made headlines recently when an alabaster bust of Alexander was unearthed. Alabaster was highly esteemed in ancient Egypt, where it was used for various sacred and sepulchral objects. The picture of the Alexander bust looks promising, but no information about its size or the context in which it was found. Since molds for statues in his effigy are mentioned in the same context in the article by Ancient Origins, we might assume archaeologists are pointing toward local workshops. 

Studies revealed a main road (perhaps the Canopic Road?) and adjacent streets connected to a sewage system. A sophisticated network of wells was discovered; also, water tanks were used to collect and store rain, floodwater, and groundwater to be used in case of droughts. 

So far, the main discovery is the necropolis complex holding tombs of people who migrated from Greece, Macedonia, Crete, and Asia Minor. A vast underground multi-chambered complex has been exposed with a large Hypogeum A, and two smaller Hypogeums. Hypogeum A yielded many sculptures, coins, glass artifacts, and plenty of pottery, especially a type of hydria (water jar with two opposite horizontal handles and one vertical one) typical for Alexandria. This is the city’s oldest archaeological site, dating back to the late 4^th-3^rd century BC. 

It remains extremely difficult to get a comprehensive overview of Alexandria as built by Ptolemy I Soter and his successors. The Great Library is best known from literary descriptions (see: Alexandria, the first Renaissance); the same applies to the famous Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (see: Not all Seven Wonders of the World are the same).

Alexandria’s Graeco-Roman Museum finally reopens

We are all familiar with the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which holds many treasures from the Egyptian dynasties, including the world-famous gold mask of Tutankhamun. 

However, few people are aware of the Graeco-Roman Museum with its 40,000 artifacts from the Greek and Roman eras. It has been closed since 2005 for renovation and finally reopened. It covers artwork from before the foundation of Alexandria by Alexander in 331 BC, the ensuing Ptolemaic Dynasty that ended with Cleopatra in 30 BC, and the Roman occupation up to the Muslim conquest of 641 AD. 

The newly arranged collection is presented in an up-to-date manner, as shown in this short video.

The most recent statues and artifacts to enter this museum are those recovered by Franck Goddio and his team during underwater excavations in the broad Nile estuary, particularly from Thonis-Heracleion. 

Noteworthy is, for instance, the stele discovered at Thonis-Heracleion in 2000, displayed next to its twin, uncovered in Naucratis in 1899. It is quite unique to find two identical inscriptions holding a decree of Nectanebo I. They state that the pharaoh raised subsidies for the temple using the taxes levied from Greek trade and manufacturing in Thonis and Naucratis. The steles also confirm that Thonis and Heracleion were respectively the Egyptian and the Greek names for the same town “at the entrance of the sea of the Greeks”. 

Another striking addition from Thonis-Heracleion is the statue of a Ptolemaic queen, 2.20 meters high, made of black granodiorite and dated to the 2^nd century BC. It is attributed to either Cleopatra Selene II (185-180) or Cleopatra III (116-115 BC) and is executed in a mix of Greek and Egyptian styles. Alternatively, it could represent Cleopatra Thea, the queen consort of three Syrian kings of the Seleucid Empire between 150 and 125 BC. 

A new acquisition of the Graeco-Roman Museum is the so-called Neilos-bust, an astonishingly well-preserved rendition of the god of the Nile in greywacke (a variety of hard sandstone). It was found in the temple area of the Nile’s Canopus. 

In-depth research by Franck Goddio revealed that Graeco-Egyptian statues in this dark Egyptian stone were probably made in specialist workshops in Alexandria. The Nile bust is of particularly high-quality greywacke. 

Of an entirely different order is the Naos of the Decades, a small chapel-like shrine for statues of the divinities at the most sacred place of the temple. During Franck Goddio’s underwater exploration of the Bay of Abukir, he discovered walls of this exceptional naos, parts of which were already at the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria and the Louvre in Paris. 

The Naos of the Decades was a shrine to Shu, the god of air, which predated the Ptolemaic era by more than fifty years. The most remarkable feature may well be the calendar engraved on the outside surfaces of its walls. The Egyptians divided the year into sections of ten days or decades, 36 in all - represented here by 36 squares - making a total of 360 days. A 37^th square was added for the five days to complete the year. Each square showed a text of an astrological nature about the influence of the stars and Shu on daily life during the specific period of ten days. One such text tells how Shu created the sky and the stars and placed himself between the sky and the earth to separate them. 

The Greek sphere of influence did not die with Alexander. In the first stage, it lived on as Hellenism from the Mediterranean to India, after which Greek art and customs gradually fused and mixed with those of the newly formed kingdoms and civilizations. In Egypt, Hellenism officially ended with the death of Cleopatra, when many concepts and ideas were continued by the Romans. The Parthian and Bactrian Kings did the same in the East. Greek remained the lingua franca in antiquity and helped to spread Christianity until the Islamic conquest in the 7^th century AD took over.

[Pictures from Franck Goddio's site]

Another pertinent theory about Alexander’s Tomb

All accounts on the whereabouts of Alexander’s Tomb agree up to and including Ptolemy X, who, in 89 BC used the King’s golden sarcophagus to wipe up his financial situation. He replaced the coffin with a translucent alabaster one. 

It has been documented that Cleopatra and several Roman emperors visited the tomb. Caligula and Caracalla did not shy away from taking some of Alexander’s regal attributes, nor did Aurelian and Diocletian in the 3^rd century AD. 

Alexander’s remains were saved from the disastrous tsunami that flooded the North African coast in 365 AD. They were moved to a safe location until the new Christian Emperor Theodosius decided that the cult of Alexander was a threat to his dogma. In the early 5^th century the tomb disappeared from the radar. 

Andrew Chugg in his book The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great links the disappearance of Alexander’s corpse to the first appearance of St Mark’s tomb when in 828 AD, the Saint was abducted by the Venetians. ‘San Marco’ was placed in a tomb in the crypt of the Basilica built for that purpose in 1094 – or was it Alexander? 

Alexandre Schoedler-Tziamouranis has followed another track using Arab writings. He picked up the account of Hassan-Al-Wassan, also known by his Roman name Leonis Africanus, published in Venice in 1551. He stated having seen the body of Alexander in the crypt of a small chapel.

Another source is found in the 16th century’s description of Luis del Marmol de Carvajal, a Spanish geographer, trader, and historian also known as Claude Marmal. While in Alexandria, he actually saw the embalmed Alexander in his sarcophagus in a place close to the church of St. Mark.

The next witness is said to be George Sandys, a geographer and emissary who saw Alexander’s mummified body and sarcophagus in the same crypt in 1621. The tomb's guardians told him that in 954 Alexander was visible at the mosque Dûl-I-Qarnaïn-Nabi. In the Quran, to this day, Alexander is considered a prophet. From that mosque, Alexander was moved to another mosque and again to where Sandys saw him. 

[Picture from Anabasis, Source jeanclaudegolvin.com]

Alexander may well have a special god looking after him because, in the 18^th century, he was found safely hidden in underground tunnels in Alexandria. This seems to be the site where the French diplomat, Octave Borelli came to see the tomb in 1898. After a diplomatic meeting at the consulate, he was led to the basement where he allegedly caught a glimpse of some gold through a crack in the wall. This most certainly was not the gold of his sarcophagus since Ptolemy X had removed it. Somehow Borelli managed to dig deeper inside the basement where he recognized the body of Alexander the Great, his shield, and other artifacts and gifts (maybe this is the gold Borelli saw?) The tale sounds too good to be true! 

Alexandre Schoedler-Tziamouranis’ account mentions that Borelli returned several times to sketch the tomb and take notes with the intention of bringing Alexander to France. Unfortunately, in 1911, before he could materialize his plans Borelli was murdered. He had not shared the location except with one close friend, whose descendant Alexandre Schoedler-Tziamouranis met. Thanks to this descendant, he had all the pertaining information to locate Alexander’s tomb, which he did with the help of an archaeologist in 2020. 

Apparently, Alexander's sarcophagus had not moved from the consulate’s basement since the early 20^th century, but the consulate no longer exists. It has been replaced by a residential building whose owner refuses access or any excavation to be carried out. 

The above is widely based on an article Alexandre Schoedler-Tziamouranis published in the Greek Reporter in November 2022. 

There may be some truth in this theory, but Alexander’s tomb always eludes us. That is the case for the tomb of St Mark in Venice which may hold the body of Alexander and where the church refuses to open the tomb to have it analyzed. It is again the case in this basement in Alexandria where the owner refuses entry. 

A previous claim was made ten years ago when the crypt of an early Christian church in Alexandria yielded a richly decorated mausoleum that was attributed to Alexander based on the inscription reading “King of Kings, and Conqueror of the World, Alexander III”. That story was never updated (see: New speculation about Alexander’s tomb). 

And let us not forget the ongoing excavation project in Alexandria’s Shalallat Gardens where a beautiful statue of Alexander was unearthed in 2017 (see: Magnificent Alexander statue found in Alexandria)

One may wonder what hidden reasons are keeping Alexander hidden over the centuries.

A few words of praise for Oliver Stone’s vision of Alexander

Oliver Stone received loads of criticism for his Alexander movie, revisions, and comments as if he had it all wrong. Well, nobody from Alexander’s lifetime is still alive to contest what’s right or not. 

As said in my earlier blog post about Stone’s book Responses to Oliver Stone’s Alexander, it is so much easier to point out the shortcomings than to consider the author’s considerable merit. The critics seem to forget that Alexander’s life was far too complex, too active, too magnanimous, and too genial to be told in a movie of three hours for a public largely unacquainted with history or Alexander the Great. 

At the end of his book, Oliver Stone added a highly interesting chapter “Afterward”, an excellent explanation and justification for his vision of Alexander. I can only admire his stamina.  I saved this text from some link back in 2006 and had a fresh look at it today. It is striking to read how, nearly twenty years later, Stone’s approach to Alexander is still so close to the truth! 

His plea for humankind to understand Alexander is worthy of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator. Here is an excerpt worth reading:

The response is in what Alexander did, and not his motives, which I suspect were something like most of ours: highly ambivalent, at times glorious, at times wretched. I sometimes feel professional historians, generally apart from the human give and take of the marketplace, expect too much from their leaders -- requiring them to act from abstract principles in a world harsh with chaos, greed and infighting. We can certainly say in Alexander’s defense that he kept the expedition marching eastward for 7 more years after Babylon, with a greatness of vision that could motivate a 120,000-man army. By leading from the front and sharing the burdens of his men, he showed himself above the comfort lines of materialism, and as a known foe of official corruption, he set high standards by punishing those found guilty of stealing, raping, plundering (including his school friend Eumenes). From all accounts written of Alexander, we see time and again, his great passion, pain, and self-torture in incidents such as the murder of Cleitus, the burning of Persepolis, the mutiny in India, the kissing of Bagoas in front of his men, and the bestowing of official acceptance on Asian men and womenfolk. There is no ancient ruler, outside of legend, that I have ever heard commit such potentially self-incriminating actions. This is, of course, one of the reasons his name continues to endure – who was ever remotely like him? ‘In the doing, always in the doing’, Alexander. 

Conquest is also a form of evolution. If Alexander had a smaller vision, he would’ve retreated long before to Babylon and consolidated his empire. He would’ve brought his mother, his sister and his entourage to the Persian Court. He would’ve made a stronger, more patient effort to combine Macedonian and Persian custom. This unification of cultures would’ve been the lifetime challenge for any emperor, and would’ve certainly changed the course of history. Why did he not? 

I see Alexander more as an explorer, like many others of such a nature, not quite knowing what’s going to come up on the horizon, yet boldly reaching for the new electrical charge of change. He stayed in motion until the end, and never returned to his Rome, London, Paris, Berlin, or Mongolia, as other conquerors have. He comes across in many ways as a man who was making it up as he went along -- from Babylon through Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and back to Babylon -- where in the end, he remained unsatisfied, dreaming of his expedition to the West. I would call him not an imperialist as present fashion would have it, but rather a ‘proto-man’, an enlightened monarch naturally in search of one land, one world -- the unity, so to speak, of the womb. Given that Alexander might’ve had a longer lifetime to develop this experiment, his empire might’ve yielded perhaps six or seven centers -- such as Babylon, Alexandria, Athens, Carthage, Rome, South Spain, a world with nerve centers that supposes, to a surprising degree, the global world centers we have today – but with one world government, centered on enlightened monarchy, or, barring that, some form of governing body. 

In unconsciously pursuing this ‘one world’ concept, under the guise of a personal quest, the Alexander of the drama we created would have to be a man who believed he was the right force to bring the world into a greater sense of unification and prosperity, that he was a step in the evolutionary process. And given the cataclysms possible, I do think Alexander ruled extraordinarily well for 12 years over men, both noble and bestial, in a social fabric that not only maintained itself, but greatly expanded in terms of culture, scientific discovery, and economic progress. It’s so easy to dismiss this great effort, I think too easy, to declare it broken after 12 years of rule. But can we say it really broke apart? Even if dissolved in four parts, the basic communal energies remained in place, and his creation culminated shortly, within 150 years, in the burgeoning Roman Empire.

I cannot agree more!

Alexander’s presence in Venice – Part 1, his tomb

It should not come as a surprise to find traces and testimonies of the glory of Alexander in Venice, Italy, centrally located between East and West. It is remarkable though that it dates to so many centuries after his death! 

The first time I heard of Alexander being linked to Venice was in Andrew Chugg’s book, The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great. During his investigation, the author found a stone in the Cloister of Sant’Apollonia displaying a well-preserved relief of a Macedonian star together with remains of military panoply. 

In his next book, The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great Chugg develops his findings leading to the time where the worship of Alexander as the Founder of Alexandria is curiously overlapped by St Mark, the Founder of the Alexandrian Church shortly after 391 AD. This coincides with the disappearance of Alexander’s corpse and the first appearance of St Mark’s tomb. In 828 AD, the corpse of St Mark was abducted by the Venetians, who on 8^th October 1094 placed it in a tomb in the crypt of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. Because of the repeated flooding, the tomb became at risk in its downstairs crypt, and in 1811 it was moved to the high altar on the main floor where it still stands today. 

The key question is: are these remains indeed those of St Mark or could they belong to Alexander the Great, swapped somewhere back in the obscure days of the 4^th century AD? 

A simple visual examination could give enough clues to assert whether or not this body is Alexander’s, based on the wounds he received during his life. Another possibility would be a facial reconstruction that would faithfully disclose the face of either Mark or Alexander. A stunning thought! But the Church does not allow any access to the corpse or any form of examination whatsoever. 

[Cloister of Sant'Apollonia, shield with Macedonian star and remains of panoply]

Returning to the artifacts at the Cloister of Sant’Apollonia, they were recovered when the corpse was moved from the crypt to the present location in the Basilica. One stone of 140x120x30 cm displays a Macedonian shield of 70 cm in diameter, i.e., life-size. Besides the typical relief of the 8-pointed starburst shield, the relief shows a Macedonian sword, the kopis, and a pair of greaves. How or why it ended up at the Cloister remains a mystery despite Chugg’s insistence on an independent thorough examination of the stone! 

The material itself holds its secret. An early analysis in 1998 established that the bloc must have belonged to a large Hellenistic monument dated to the 3^rd or early 2^nd century BC. The article from “La Rivista di Engramma” n. 76, December 2009, describes it as decoration for a Roman commemorative, honorary, or funerary monument honoring Alexander the Great from the 1^st century BC. It also defines the stone as Aurisina, after a marble quarry about 15 kilometers from Trieste. This origin is hard to reconcile with a sarcophagus imported from Alexandria. 

For now, the mystery remains intact.

[Continue reading Alexander's presence in Venice - Part 2, from Constantinople]

Inventions by Hero of Alexandria

The best-known works by Hero of Alexandria are his Pneumatica and Mechanica in which he described how “Automata” actually works. “Automata” is a Greek word meaning as much as “self-moving”, “self-acting” or “self-willed” which is familiar in our modern world. It may be debated whether the inventions were truly his or if he collected them from other sources available at the Library of Alexandria.  

[Reconstruction inside of Alexandria's Library]

Hero lived in the 1^st century BC, and his Pneumatica was widely read far into the Middle Ages. More than 100 manuscripts have survived, illustrating how ancient texts can live a long life. The earliest surviving copy is kept in the Bibliotheca Marciana in Venice, Italy, and dates from the 13^th century, i.e., 1400 years after it was initially written! 

The inventor’s Mechanica has survived thanks to one single Arabic translation made between 862 and 866 AD, preserved at the Library of Leiden University, the Netherlands. 

His most striking invention, in my eyes, is his steam engine, which I already developed in a separate post, A steam engine in antiquity. 

Another of his inventions is a coin-operated dispenser for Holy Water in Egyptian temples. Worshippers who visited the temple needed this water for their ritual washing. Dropping a coin into the slot of the dispenser would set a chain reaction into motion. The weight of the coin would tilt a metal lever which would open a valve through which the water flowed into the cup held by the worshiper. As the coin slipped off the lever, the valve was closed. This invention eventually led to the modern vending machine. 

Hero took his ingenuity one step further when he conceived a series of mechanisms for the Greek theater. He orchestrated a mechanical puppet show using a system of ropes, knots, and simple machines operated by a rotating cylindrical cogwheel. To add the sound of thunder, he used metal balls released at timed intervals onto a hidden drum. 

Another marvel Hero described in detail is the automatic temple door opener (see: Automatic doors, a 2,000-year-old invention), another way for the priests to collect money. 

He also invented the first wind-powered organ using a small wind wheel, probably not unlike the windmills used by the early modern colonists in Australia and the American Far West. The wind wheel powered a piston and forced air through the organ pipes creating sounds resembling a flute.

This mechanism includes the ‘hydraulis,’ which first appeared in Alexandria also, said to have been built by Ctesibius. It was operated by compressed air channeled through a container of water to equalize the pressure. A row of pipes of different lengths produced the sound. More control was acquired with the keyboard-wind instrument as replicated at the Museum of Dion, Greece (see: Close encounter with an ancient Water-Organ). 

I’d like to pick out one more of Hero's inventions from a list that may have counted up to 80, the syringe. The device is much larger than the one we know today since its purpose was entirely different. It was used to control the delivery of air or fluid with precision. Yet the principle of the antique version is the same: the plunger forced the liquid or air out in a controllable quantity. Something to remember next time we get an injection!

We will never know if the concept of creating a center of knowledge in Alexandria was Alexander’s idea or a later addition by Ptolemy. In my opinion, the concept was too vast for Ptolemy while it would perfectly fit Alexander’s thrive to melt East and West together as initiated at the Susa Wedding. 

We cannot imagine the impact of the Museum of Alexandria and its Library on the world’s history. Philosophers, mathematicians, botanists, writers, poets, historians, physicists, anatomists, astrologists, investors, and engineers from all over the then-known world would mingle and exchange their scholarship and wisdom. No other city in the world has ever reunited so many bright minds, not even in the Renaissance. Today’s digital world is the first to come close to attaining this level of universality.