Alexander’s missed voyage to conquer the West

Alexander always planned ahead, far ahead even. He was a true genius juggling many problems, projects, and strategies (see: Eyewitness accounts of Alexander's life). 

His most significant projects, or at least their outlines, were put on paper, as we may conclude from the to-do list the king left upon his death, as mentioned by Diodorus. We have no reason to believe Alexander’s ambition was a utopian dream. After all, conquering the then-known world in less than ten years is a superhuman achievement. Nobody before or after Alexander succeeded. Nothing could stop Alexander – except his own death. 

It has been generally accepted that Alexander aimed to conquer the western Mediterranean, and the idea is consistent with his character. However, Diodorus’ text may be a list of ideas rather than real plans, as we all would imagine. 

Besides his plan to build colossal temples and a mausoleum for his father, there was the project to build a thousand warships, larger than triremes, in Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, and Cyprus. This construction had already started while Alexander was in Babylon and alive. He planned to conquer Carthage. On the way, along the coast of Libya, he would create a string of safe havens and shipyards. Eventually, this strategy would lead him to Iberia and Magna Graecia, including Sicily, where many Greek colonists had established themselves centuries earlier. 

In the end, the Romans attacked the Carthaginians in Sicily in the First Punic War, 60 years after Alexander’s death. A second war shifted their terrain to Iberia, which was largely occupied by the Carthaginians (see: Carthage Antique, des origines jusqu’à l’invasion Vandale). We can only guess how Alexander would have handled the confrontation, especially since the power of Carthage was different in his days. 

On his way to Carthage, Alexander would need to secure the hinterland to protect his newly built harbors along the North African coast. To this effect, he conceived the construction of a road as far as the Pillars of Heracles (Gibraltar). The project materialized 2,500 years later when Mussolini built a 2,000 km-long highway, the Litoranea, running from Tunisia all the way to the Egyptian border (see: Cyrene, founded by the Greeks). We may wonder whether this was Alexander’s megalomania or far-sightedness. 

Greek immigrants searching for fertile lands and a better life had already colonized a significant part of the western Mediterranean. Around 600 BC, the Phocaeans (from modern Foça), who fled Asia Minor after a siege by the Persians, established themselves in southern France, where they founded the city of Massalia, modern Marseille. By 575 BC, these settlers founded regional colonies in Agde (Agathe Tyche), Antibes, Nice (Niké), and Monaco. 

With time, these colonists went further inland and spread all over Provence. The city of Arelate, modern Arles, occupied a strategic position where goods traveled up and down the River Rhone after they had been transhipped from Massalia. Most of those settlements are best known by their Roman names: Orange, Vaison-la-Romaine, and Glanum, although their origin was much older. 

A photographer friend of mine, Andrew Squires, explored Provence. His vision was to create images of the region, including Glanum, that translate the remains into what it once was. He published a splendid work of art as an iBook (with Apple) under the name Provence Mysterious. 

The Phoceans from Massalia, about the same time as they expanded in Provence, created circa 550 BC the trading post of Emporion, modern Ampurias, and Rhoda, modern Rossas in Spain. Both cities, connected by a long sandy beach, served as stopover ports in the Greek expansion in the western Mediterranean. Geographically speaking, Emporion occupies the southwestern end of the Gulf de Lion, opposite Massalia. 

The first colonization of Magna Graecia happened earlier than elsewhere in that part of the Mediterranean. It started in Cumae, founded around 740 BC by emigrants from Chalcis and Kyme. Spartans emigrated to Taras, later named Tarentum. It was soon followed by new colonies established by the Achaeans in Metapontum, Sybaris, and Croton. In 733 BC, Greek settlers from Corinth arrived on the small island Ortygia and founded Syracuse.

In the 6th century BC, Athenian settlers founded Thurii. Around 580 BC, colonists from Gela (Sicily), Crete, and Rhodes founded Akragas (Agrigento). 

Many of these initially Greek colonies became influential cities in their own right, creating their own towns. A good example is Sicily, where the new colonies fought the Carthaginians, the Romans, and each other seeking their own ideals (see: Syracuse rivaled Athens to be the most powerful city). 

In 535 BC, Phocaean refugees established the colony of Elea, home of the Eleatic School created by the philosopher Parmenides (see: Magna Graecia, the forgotten Greek legacy). In 433 BC, the colony of Tarentum founded Herakleia, and the Achaeans Poseidonia, Roman Paestum. 

These relentless fluxes of Greek emigrants were no secret to Alexander and his contemporaries, meaning he was well aware and informed about the western Mediterranean – something we tend to forget! 

An excellent example of the high skills and wealth in the western Mediterranean is the so-called Riace bronzes retrieved off the coast of Calabria ( see: More about Magna Graecia: a testimony from Calabria). Archaeologists disagree on whether they represent warriors, athletes, or gods. Consequently, they are called “Riace A,” created between 460 and 450 BC, and “Riace B,” between 430 and 420 BC. Let’s keep in mind that these statues are the kind of artwork that existed a century before Alexander. 

Although extensive, the above-mentioned list of Greek colonists in the western Mediterranean is far from complete but long enough to prove their impressive presence. They often were caught in the expansionist attacks of the Carthaginians and, alternatively, of the Romans. Alexander would have to face both sooner or later. With his seasoned Macedonians, he would have created a Greek/Hellenistic world instead of the Latin one Rome imposed on Western Europe. How different our world would have been!

Magna Graecia, the forgotten Greek legacy

Many, many years ago, I traveled to southern Italy off-season to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum. Unfortunately, my lodging address was much further away than what the travel brochure made me believe, and I wound up way south of Salerno. This is how I discovered the existence of sites like Paestum and Velia, once part of Magna Graecia. Until then, I had not heard of Magna Graecia, and I had no idea what it meant. When we talk about Greece, we automatically think of mainland Greece and Athens in particular but not of any colonies or overseas settlements.

[Map taken from Wikipedia]

That trip was my very first encounter with Greek civilization, even if it had been adapted and reshaped by the Romans. In those days, before the internet, color TV, and a few books with colored pictures, my perception of Pompeii and Herculaneum was based on lots of imagination. Still, I was over the moon to investigate these places by myself. It was February when no tourist in his right mind would venture to those parts of Italy, and I remember that only seven cars were parked outside Pompeii. In short, I was not disturbed or hampered by any crowd, meaning that conditions were right to get a true feeling of these antique remains. I found the same emptiness in Herculaneum, where I thought I could inhale the smell of the burnt wooden beam that had survived, much unlike Pompeii. The Archaeological Museum of Naples was nearly empty, making me feel lost till I came face to face with Alexander on the famous mosaic from the Villa of the Faun. It felt like a private audience with Alexander the Great, an unforgettable experience!

On this first “archaeological” trip, I learned many precious lessons for the future. The first lesson was to prepare a trip and inquire locally about what to see and the opening hours. Second lesson: get all the information I can about a museum before going there. I spent several hours in Naples' museum before reaching those rooms with Alexander and other precious objects I wanted to see. Third lesson: do your homework. Since then, I have done all three and never had to regret missing anything significant.

As I said, my lodging address was too far away, a good two-hour drive from Salerno over winding local roads through beautiful landscapes. But there was an advantage to this unfortunate situation since I was close to the ancient sites of Elea (modern Velia) and Poseidona (modern Paestum), my introduction to Magna Graecia. Life takes strange twists at times.

It was here that I heard for the first time how an impressive number of Greek colonies were founded all around the Mediterranean. The reasons often included famine or overpopulation at home and friction and competition between the rising city-states, which induced many Greeks between the 8th and 4th century BC to emigrate in search of new opportunities overseas. After all, the Greeks always sought business opportunities and perfectly understood the advantage of establishing good trade relations with foreign countries. Settlements varied widely from the Black Sea, including Crimea and Asia Minor, to North Africa and the Iberian and Italic peninsulas. One of the most flourishing areas was to become Magna Graecia or Great Greece, i.e., the coastal region of southern Italy, which also includes Sicily, heavily colonized by the Greeks during the 8th and 7th centuries BC.

Two types of colonies existed: one as independent city-states, the other as widely spread trading colonies. We must thank these Greek colonies for spreading Hellenistic culture, as most cities around the Mediterranean somehow have Greek roots.

Paestum was my first city to visit. It looked familiar right away since I discovered it was the setting of the well-known Sissi II movie in which the Empress of Austria, who, according to history, went to Greece to recover from tuberculosis, is walking among these temples! I have not returned there since, but in those days, the only buildings standing were the three temples: the Temple of Ceres, the Temple of Poseidon (Neptune), and the Basilica. Besides that, the main Roman roads had been exposed, with the Decumanus exiting the city at the Porta Marina in the West and the Porta Sirena in the East. At the same time, the Cardo linked the Porta Aura in the North to the Porta Giudizia in the South – all gates still visible in the existing city walls. The central Forum and part of the Amphitheater had been excavated, but that was about all.

I was very impressed by the compact and sturdy Basilica or Temple of Hera, which counted an unusual nine columns in its façade. However, all temples had an even number of columns (another thing I learned). 

The middle temple dedicated to Poseidon (or maybe also to Hera) corresponded time-wise to the construction of the Parthenon in Athens when the purity of proportions reached its peak. No wonder this Temple of Poseidon steals the show in every way! A curious oddity used in only a few temples is the two rows of superposed columns inside the cella, where the god resides. These columns are incredibly slender and elegant, making the temple feel light. Greeks in antiquity would laugh at our admiration for these ruins, which they would have torn down without mercy, but they have not seen how the color of the travertine stone turns to golden as the material aged and hardened over the centuries. Watching the sun and shadows play with the ocher-colored colonnades set against a steel-blue sky is now a beautiful spectacle.

On the other hand, the Temple of Ceres is more austere, probably because, like for the Basilica, the construction material comes from a different quarry than the Temple of Poseidon. Smaller than the two other temples, it stands slightly aside and has the oddity of counting 6x13 columns instead of the usual proportion of 6x12. There are exceptions to every rule, even when it comes to building temples.

Poseidonia was founded early in the 6th century BC by the Achaeans. By the end of the 5th century, the city was conquered by the Lucanians, who more or less followed the customs of the early settlers. In 273 BC, however, after siding with Pyrrhus against Rome and sharing his defeat, it became the Roman city of Paestum. It continued to flourish till the 4th century AD when decline set it, and by the Middle Ages, Paestum was entirely abandoned.

The story of Elea is slightly different. Greeks from Phocaea, who fled Asia Minor around 538-535 BC after a siege by the Persians, founded it. As opposed to Paestum, Elea was not conquered by the Lucanians but fell to Rome at the same time as Paestum. More importantly, it was the home of the Eleatic School founded by the philosopher Parmenides at the beginning of the 5th century BC that included Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos – maybe even Xenophanes, but that is not proven.

The location of Velia, as I saw it, was quite striking. Early in spring, the light was gentle, and the skies were pale blue. The landscape was very green, with valleys of olive trees, fig-trees, and vines introduced by the Greeks. The mimosa bloomed, and the small mountain oranges were ripe for the picking. In the distance, the snow-capped mountains of the Apennines watched over these lands, unchanged throughout the centuries. What an excellent spot for founding a city!

High on the Acropolis of Elea stood an Ionic temple of which only the crepidoma and a few column stubs remain as most of the material was reused to build the medieval tower on top of it, commanding the view from afar. To reach the Acropolis, I remember walking over a most beautiful Greek road made of cobblestones with intermittent horizontal slabs to keep them in place and flanked on each side by a deep gutter (4th-3rd century BC). This road ends at the Porta Rosa, a magnificent example of a vaulted gate built by the Greeks and the only one found in Magna Graecia.

In the lower part of Elea, the Porta Marina was the eye-catcher. Elea was an active port that silted up in antiquity and now lies much further inland. The surprise was to find this southern city gate flooded after recent rainfall making it look like a gate to the sea. The five kilometers long city walls were built in the 6th century BC. Two centuries later, they were reinforced with sturdy towers to defend Elea against a possible attack from the Lucanians. There was no further explanation available. I located a Roman Bath, which Emperor Hadrian had built. There was also a vast Roman residence and other unidentified remains. Looking for pictures of Elea online today, I’m surprised that a Roman theater and an Asclepion have been excavated. Still, I find no traces of the aqueduct that I discovered there, partially running underground and covered by two slabs of stones between the cisterns that used to filter the water before reaching the lower city. It is all very intriguing, and I hope to return there one day.

In any case, my visit to Paestum has set my life-long love for and understanding of Greek art in motion. First in the Classical Period but mainly during the following Hellenistic era, when perfection was reached. that was never surpassed. Despite time and repeated wars, we are blessed that many buildings, statues, pots, jewelry, and other remains are still there. The many temples in Magna Graecia tend to give us the impression that the colonizers were even more Greek than the Greeks themselves!