Historical Issue # 1
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ALEXANDRIA
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New born in Pella 356 BC, in Pella, the capital of the Ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedon. He was the son of Philip II, the King of Macedon. His mother was Philip's fourth wife Olympias, the daughter of Neoptolemus I, the king of Epirus. Although Philip had either seven or eight wives, Olympias was his principal wife for a time, likely as a result of giving birth to Alexander.
As a member of the Argead dynasty, Alexander claimed patrilineal descent from Heracles through Caranus of Macedonia From his mother's side and the Aeacids, he claimed descent from Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. Alexander was a second cousin of the celebrated general Pyrrhus of Epirus, who was ranked by Hannibal as, depending on the source, either the best or second-best (after Alexander) commander the world had ever seen. According to the ancient Greek biographer Plutarch, Olympias, on the eve of the consummation of her marriage to Philip, dreamed that her womb was struck by a thunder bolt, causing a flame that spread "far and wide" before dying away. Some time after the wedding, Philip was said to have seen himself, in a dream, sealing up his wife's womb with a seal upon which was engraved the image of a lion. Plutarch offers a variety of interpretations of these dreams: that Olympia was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb; or that Alexander's father was Zeus. Ancient commentators were divided as to whether the ambitious Olympias promulgated the story of Alexander's divine parentage, some claiming she told Alexander, others that she dismissed the suggestion as impious. On the day that Alexander was born, Philip was preparing himself for his siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidike. On the same day, Philip received news that his general Parmenion had defeated the combined Illyrian and Paeonian armies, and that his horses had won at the Olympic Games. It was also said that on this day, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus—one of the Seven Wonders of the World—burnt down, leading Hegesias of Magnesia to say that it burnt down because Artemis was attending the birth of Alexander.
Pella an ancient Greek city located in Pella prefecture of Macedonia in Greece, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia.
The city was founded in 399 BC by King Archelaus (413–399 BC) as the capital of his kingdom, replacing the older palace-city of Aigai (Vergina). After this, it was the seat of the king Philip II and of Alexander, his son. In 168 BC, it was sacked by the Romans, and its treasury transported to Rome. Later, the city was destroyed by an earthquake and eventually was rebuilt over its ruins. By 180 AD,Lucian could describe it in passing as "now insignificant, with very few inhabitants". Pella is first mentioned by Herodotus of Halicarnassus (VII, 123) in relation to Xerxes' campaign and by Thucydides (II, 99,4 and 100,4) in relation to Macedonian expansion and the war againstSitalces, the king of the Thracians. According to Xenophon, in the beginning of the 4th century BC, it was the largest Macedonian city. It was probably built as the capital of the kingdom by Archelaus, although there appears to be some possibility that it may have been Amyntas. It attracted Greek artists such the painter Zeuxis, the poet Timotheus of Miletus and the tragic author Euripides who finishes his days there writing and producing Archelaus. Archelaus invited the painter Zeuxis, the greatest painter of the time, to decorate it. He was later the host of the Athenian playwright Euripides in his retirement. Euripides Bacchae premiered here, about 408 BC. Pella was the birthplace of Philip II and of Alexander, his son. The hilltop palace of Philip, where Aristotle tutored young Alexander, is being excavated. In antiquity, Pella was a port connected to the Thermaic Gulf by a navigable inlet, but the harbor has silted, leaving the site landlocked. The reign of Antigonus likely represented the height of the city, as this is the period which has left us the most archaeological remains. Pella is further mentioned by Polybius and Livy as the capital of Philip V and of Perseus during the Macedonian Wars, fought against the Roman Republic. In the writings of Livy, we find the only description of how the city looked in 167 BC to Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, the Roman who defeated Perseus at the battle of Pydna: …[Paulus] observed that it was not without good reason that it had been chosen as the royal residence. It is situated on the south-west slope of a hill and surrounded by a marsh too deep to be crossed on foot either in summer or winter. The citadel the "Phacus," which is close to the city, stands in the marsh itself, projecting like an island, and is built on a huge substructure which is strong enough to carry a wall and prevent any damage from the infiltration from the water of the lagoon. At a distance it appears to be continuous with the city wall, but it is really separated by a channel which flows between the two walls and is connected with the city by a bridge. Thus it cuts off all means of access from an external foe, and if the king shut anyone up there, there could be no possibility of escape except by the bridge, which could be very easily guarded. The famous poet Aratus died in Pella ca 240 BC. Pella was sacked by the Romans in 168 BC, when its treasury was transported to Rome. In the Roman province of Macedonia, Pella was the capital of the third district, and was possibly the seat of the Roman governor. Crossed by the Via Egnatia, Pella remained a significant point on the route between Dyrrachium and Thessalonika. Cicero stayed there in 58 BC, but by then the provincial seat had already transferred to Thessalonika. It was then destroyed by earthquake in the first century BC; shops and workshops dating from the catastrophe have been found with remains of their merchandise. The city was eventually rebuilt over its ruins, which preserved them, but, ca AD 180,Lucian of Samosata could describe it in passing as "now insignificant, with very few inhabitants"
Hérodote
Lucian
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Aristotle
The decline of the city was rapid, in spite of colonization: Dio Chrysostom (Or. 33.27) and Lucian both attest to the ruin of the ancient capital of Philip II and Alexander; though their accounts may be exaggerated. In fact, the Roman city was somewhat to the west of and distinct from the original capital; which explains some contradictions between coinage, epigraphs, and testimonial accounts. In the Byzantine period, the Roman site was occupied by a fortified village. In modern times it now finds itself as the start point of the Alexander The Great Marathon, in honour of the city's ancient heritage. The city went into decline for reasons unknown (possibly an earthquake) by the end of the 1st century BC. It was the object of a colonial deduction sometime between 45 and 30 BC; in any case currency was marked Colonia Iulia Augusta Pella. Augustus settled peasants there whose land he had usurped to give to his veterans (Dio Cassius LI, 4). But unlike other Macedonian colonies such as Philippi, Dion, and Cassandreia it never came under the jurisdiction of ius Italicum or Roman law. Four pairs of colonial magistrates (IIvirs quinquennales) are known for this period.
Xerxes
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The Name Of Pella A common folk etymology is traditionally given for the name Pella, ascribing it to a form akin to the Doric Apella, originally meaning a ceremonial location where decisions were made. However, the local form of Greek was not Doric, and the word exactly matches standard Greek pĂŠlla "stone", possibly referring to a famous landmark from the time of its foundation. Another proposed etymology is that Pella originally meant "defensible citadel on a cliff", and this etymology is backed by the numerous ancient cities throughout Greece with similar name i.e. Pellana, Pallene, Palle, Pelle, Pelion, Palamede, Pellene, etc. The word Polis is most probably derived from that ancient meaning.
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Philip V Cicero
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Polybius Amyntas III
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Philip II
Philip was the youngest son of the king Amyntas III and Eurydice I. In his youth, (c. 368–365 BC) Philip was held as a hostage in Thebes, which was the leading city of Greece during the Theban hegemony. While a captive there, Philip received a military and diplomatic education from Epaminondas, became eromenos of Pelopidas, and lived with Pammenes, who was an enthusiastic advocate of the Sacred Band of Thebes. In 364 BC, Philip returned to Macedon. The deaths of Philip's elder brothers, King Alexander II and Perdiccas III, allowed him to take the throne in 359 BC. Originally appointed regent for his infant nephew Amyntas IV, who was the son of Perdiccas III, Philip managed to take the kingdom for himself that same year. Philip's military skills and expansionist vision of Macedonian greatness brought him early success. He had however first to re-establish a situation which had been greatly worsened by the defeat against the Illyrians in which King Perdiccas himself had died. The Paionians and the Thracians had sacked and invaded the eastern regions of the country, while the Athenians had landed, at Methoni on the coast, a contingent under a Macedonian pretender called Argeus. Using diplomacy, Philip pushed back Paionians and Thracians promising tributes, and crushed the 3,000 Athenian hoplites (359). Momentarily free from his opponents, he concentrated on strengthening his internal position and, above all, his army. His most important innovation was doubtless the introduction of the phalanx infantry corps, armed with the famous sarissa, an exceedingly long spear, at the time the most important army corps in Macedonia.
Philip II
Philip II
Philip II
Involved in the Third Sacred War which had broken out in Greece, in the summer of 353 he invaded Thessaly, defeating 7,000 Phocians under the brother of Onomarchus. The latter however defeated Philip in the two succeeding battles. Philip returned to Thessaly the next summer, this time with an army of 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry including all Thessalian troops. In the Battle of Crocus Field 6,000 Phocians fell, while 3,000 were taken as prisoners and later drowned. This battle granted Philip an immense prestige, as well as the free acquisition of Pherae. Philip was also tagus of Thessaly, and he claimed as his own Magnesia, with the important harbour of Pagasae. Philip did not attempt to advance into Central Greece because the Athenians, unable to arrive in time to defend Pagasae, had occupied Thermopylae.
Philip had married Audata, great-granddaughter of the Illyrian king of Dardania, Bardyllis. However, this did not prevent him from marching against them in 358 and crushing them in a ferocious battle in which some 7,000 Illyrians died (357). By this move, Philip established his authority inland as far as Lake Ohrid and the favour of the Epirotes. He agreed with the Athenians, who had been so far unable to conquer Amphipolis, which commanded the gold mines of Mount Pangaion, to lease it to them after its conquest, in exchange for Pydna (lost by Macedon in 363). However, after conquering Amphipolis, he kept both the cities (357). As Athens declared war against him, he allied with the Chalkidian League of Olynthus. He subsequently conquered Potidaea, this time keeping his word and ceding it to the League in 356. One year before Philip had married the Epirotes princess Olympias, who was the daughter of the king of theMolossians. In 356 BC, Philip also conquered the town of Crenides and changed its name to Philippi: he established a powerful garrison there to control its mines, which granted him much of the gold later used for his campaigns. In the meantime, his general Parmenion defeated the Illyrians again. Also in 356Alexander was born, and Philip's race horse won in the Olympic Games. In 355–354 he besieged Methone, the last city on the Thermaic Gulf controlled by Athens. During the siege, Philip lost an eye. Despite the arrival of two Athenians fleets, the city fell in 354. Philip also attacked Abdera and Maronea, on the Thracian seaboard (354–353).
Hostilities with Athens did not yet take place, but Athens was threatened by the Macedonian party which Philip's gold created in Euboea. From 352 to 346 BC, Philip did not again come south. He was active in completing the subjugation of the Balkan hillcountry to the west and north, and in reducing the Greek cities of the coast as far as the Hebrus. To the chief of these coastal cities, Olynthus, Philip continued to profess friendship until its neighboring cities were in his hands. In 349 BC, Philip started the siege of Olynthus, which, apart from its strategic position, housed his relatives Arrhidaeus and Menelaus, pretenders to the Macedonian throne. Olynthus had at first allied itself with Philip, but later shifted its allegiance to Athens. The latter, however, did nothing to help the city, its expeditions held back by a revolt in Euboea (probably paid by Philip's gold). The Macedonian king finally took Olynthus in 348 BC and razed the city to the ground. The same fate was inflicted on other cities of the Chalcidian peninsula. Macedon and the regions adjoining it having now been securely consolidated, Philip celebrated his Olympic Games at Dium. In 347 BC, Philip advanced to the conquest of the eastern districts about Hebrus, and compelled the submission of the Thracian prince Cersobleptes. In 346 BC, he intervened effectively in the war between Thebes and the Phocians, but his wars with Athens continued intermittently. However, Athens had made overtures for peace, and when Philip again moved south, peace was sworn in Thessaly. With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip turned to Sparta; he sent them a message, "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." Their laconic reply: "If". Philip and Alexander would both leave them alone. Later, the Macedonian arms were carried across Epirus to the Adriatic Sea. In 345 B.C., Philip conducted a hard-fought campaign against the Ardiaioi (Ardiaei), under their king Pluratus, during which he was seriously wounded by anArdian soldier in the lower right leg. In 342 BC, Philip led a great military expedition north against the Scythians, conquering the Thracian fortified settlement Eumolpia to give it his name,Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv( . In 340 BC, Philip started the siege of Perinthus. Philip began another siege in 339 of the city of Byzantium. After unsuccessful sieges of both cities, Philip's influence all over Greece was compromised. However, he successfully reasserted his authority in the Aegean by defeating an alliance of Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, while in the same year, Philip destroyed Amfissa because the residents had illegally cultivated part of the Crisaian plain which belonged to Delphi. Philip created and led the League of Corinth in 337 BC. Members of the League agreed never to wage war against each other, unless it was to suppress revolution. Philip was elected as leader (hegemon) of the army of invasion against the Persian Empire. In 336 BC, when the invasion of Persia was in its very early stage, Philip was assassinated, and was succeeded on the throne of Macedon by his son Alexander III.
Philip II
Olympias (c.375-316): Epirote princess, married to the Macedonian kingPhilip II, and mother of Alexander the Great. The girl who was later to be called Olympias was the daughter of Neoptolemus, the king of the Molossians, one of the greatest tribes in Epirus. They lived in the neighborhood of modern Ioannina in Greece. During Neoptolemus' reign, the tribe became more sedentary; urbanization started and we hear about scribes and other administrative officials. In 358, the Molossians became the allies of the Macedonian king Philip II (360-336); the alliance was strengthened by a diplomatic marriage. In 357, Olympias became Philip's wife. Next year, a chariot that Philip had sent to the Olympic games, was victorious. Therefore, the queen received the name Olympias. In the same summer, she gave birth to her first child: Alexander. According to the Greek author Plutarch of Chaeronea (46-c.122), these events took place on the same day . In Antiquity, people believed that the birth of a great man was accompanied by portents. They are mentioned by Plutarch: The night before the consummation of their marriage, Olympias dreamed that a thunderbolt fell upon her body, which kindled a great fire, whose divided flames dispersed themselves all about, and then were extinguished. And Philip, some time after he was married, dreamt that he sealed up his wife's body with a seal, whose impression, as be fancied, was the figure of a lion .
Isocrates (436–338 BC), an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. In his time, he was probably the most influential rhetorician in Greece and made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works. Greek rhetoric is commonly traced to Corax of Syracuse, who first formulated a set of rhetorical rules in the fifth century BC. His pupil, Tisias, was influential in the development of the rhetoric of the courtroom, and by some accounts was the teacher of Isocrates. Within two generations, rhetoric had become an important art, its growth driven by the social and political changes, such as democracy and the courts of law. The demand for rhetorical training was so high that a number of philosophers and teachers set up their own schools to train orators. Among these were the sophists, which included such teachers as Isocrates and Gorgias. These schools proved to be a lucrative enterprise, and later attracted less reputable characters. However, unlike most rhetoric schools of the times which were taught by itinerant sophists, Isocrates defined himself with his treatise Against the Sophists.. Isocrates was born to a wealthy family (his father owned a successful flute factory) and received a fine education. He studied with Gorgias and possibly Socrates, among others. After the Peloponnesian War, Isocrates' family lost its wealth, and Isocrates was forced to earn a living.
Isocrates
I s o c r a t e s
Isocrates' professional career is said to have begun as a logographer, or a hired courtroom speech writer. Around 392 BC he set up his own school of rhetoric, and proved to be not only an influential teacher, but a shrewd businessman. His fees were unusually high, but he managed to attract more students than any other school. As a consequence, he amassed a considerable fortune. According to Pliny the Elder (NH VII.30) he could sell a single oration for twenty talents. Isocrates' program of rhetorical education stressed the ability to use language to address practical problems, cases where absolute truth was not obtainable. He also stressed civic education, training students to serve the state. Students would practice composing and delivering speeches on various subjects. He considered natural ability and practice to be more important than rules or principles of rhetoric. Rather than delineating static rules, Isocrates stressed "fitness for the occasion," or kairos(the rhetor's ability to adapt to changing circumstances and situations). Because of Plato's attacks on the sophists, Isocrates' school of rhetoric and philosophy came to be viewed as unethical and deceitful. Yet many of Plato's criticisms are hard to discern in the work of Isocrates, and at the end of his Phaedrus Plato even has Socrates praising Isocrates, though some scholars take this to be sarcastic. Isocrates saw the ideal orator as someone who must not only possess rhetorical gifts, but possess also a wide knowledge of philosophy, science, and the arts. The orator should also represent Greek ideals of freedom, self-control, and virtue. In this, he influenced several Roman rhetoricians, such as Cicero and Quintilian, and also had in influence on the idea of liberal education. On the art of rhetoric, he was also an innovator. He promoted a clear and natural style that avoided artificiality, while providing rhythm and variation that commanded the attention of the listener. Like most rhetoricians, he saw rhetoric as a method of clarifying the truth, rather than of obscuring it.
Of the 60 orations in his name available in Roman times, 21 were transmitted by ancient and medieval scribes. Another three orations were found in a single codex during a 1988 excavation at Kellis, a site in the Dakhla Oasis of Egypt. We have nine letters in his name, but the authenticity of four has been questioned. He is said to have compiled a treatise, the Art of Rhetoric, but it has not survived. In addition to the orations, other works include his autobiographical Antidosis and educational texts, such as Against the Sophists.
Leonidas Leonidas of Epirus or Leuconides, was a kinsman of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, who was entrusted with the main superintendence of Alexander's education in his earlier years, apparently before he became a student of Aristotle.
Teacher Leonidas was a man of austere character, and trained the young prince in laconic discipline. Thus, he would even examine the chests which contained his pupil's bedding and clothes, to see whether Olympias had placed anything there that might minister to luxury. There were two excellent cooks (said Alexander afterwards) with which Leonidas had furnished him,—a night's march to season his breakfast, and a scanty breakfast to season his dinner. Advice On one occasion, when Alexander at a sacrifice was throwing large quantities of incense on the fire, "be more sparing of it," said Leonidas, "till you have conquered the country where it grows." Alexander sent him afterwards from Asia 600 talents' weight of incense and myrrh, "that he might no longer be penurious" (so ran the message) "in his offerings to the gods." It may be questioned whether the rough discipline of Leonidas was not carried further than was altogether beneficial to Alexander's character.
Hephaestion Hephaestion (356 BC – 324 BC), son of Amyntor, was a Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "... by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets.”This friendship lasted their whole lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus. His military career was distinguished. A member of Alexander the Great’s personal bodyguard, he went on to command the Companion cavalry, and was entrusted with many other tasks through Alexander's ten-year campaign in Asia, including diplomatic missions, the bridging of major rivers, sieges, and the foundation of new settlements. Besides being a soldier, engineer and diplomat, he corresponded with the philosophers Aristotle and Xenocrates, and actively supported Alexander in his attempts to integrate Greeks and Persians. Alexander formally made him his second-in-command when he appointed him Chiliarch of the empire, and made him part of the royal family when he gave him as his bride Drypetis, sister to his own second wife, Stateira, both daughters of Darius III of Persia. When he died suddenly at Ecbatana, Alexander was overwhelmed with grief. He petitioned the oracle at Siwa to grant Hephaestion divine status, and Hephaestion was honoured as a Divine Hero. At the time of his own death eight months later, Alexander was still planning lasting monuments to Hephaestion's memory.
Roxana Roxana (meaning "magnificient star") sometimes Roxane, was a Bactrian noble and a wife of Alexander the Great. She was born earlier than the year 343 BC, though the precise date remains uncertain. She was the daughter of a Bactrian named Oxyartes of Balkh in Bactria (then Persian Achaemenid Empire, now northern Afghanistan, eastern Iran,Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), and married Alexander at the age of 16 after he visited the fortress of Sogdian Rock. Balkh was the last of the Persian Empire's provinces to fall to Alexander. Ancient sources describe Alexander's professed love for Roxana. She accompanied him on his campaign in Pakistan and northern India in 326 BC. She bore him a posthumous son called Alexander IV Aegus, after Alexander's sudden death at Babylon in 323 BC. After Alexander's death, Roxana and her son became victims of the political intrigues of the collapse of the Alexandrian empire. Roxana murdered Alexander's other widow, Stateira II, as well as either Stateira's sister Drypteis (Pl. Alex. 77.4) or Parysatis II (Alexander's third wife). Roxana and her son were protected by Alexander's mother, Olympias, in Macedonia, but her assassination in 316 BC allowed Cassander to seek kingship. Since Alexander IV Aegus was the legitimate heir to the Alexandrian empire, Cassander ordered him and Roxana assassinated around 310 BC.
Alexander’s love
Cassander Cassander (350 BC – 297 BC), King of Macedonia (305–297 BC), was a son of Antipater, and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty. Cassander is first recorded as arriving at Alexander the Great’s court in Babylon in 323 BC, where he had been sent by his father, Antipater, likely to the help uphold Antipater’s regency in Macedon, although a later contemporary suggestion hostile to the Antipatrids was that Cassander had journeyed to poison the King. Whatever the truth of this suggestion, Cassander certainly proved to be singularly noted amongst the diadochi in his hostility to Alexander's memory. Alexander IV, Roxana, and Alexander’s supposed illegitimate son Heracles would all be executed on his orders, and a guarantee to Olympias to spare her life was not respected. So too, Cassander would restore Thebes, which had been destroyed under Alexander. This gesture was perceived at the time to be a snub to the deceased King. It was even said that he could not pass a statue of Alexander without feeling faint. Cassander has been perceived to be ambitious and unscrupulous, and even members of his own family were estranged from him. He was taught by philosopher Aristotle at the Lyceum in Greece.
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Siege of Tyre The Siege of Tyre occurred in 332 BC when Alexander set out to conquer Tyre, a strategic coastal base. Tyre was the site of the only remaining Persian port that did not capitulate to Alexander. Even by this point in the war, the Persian navy still posed a major threat to Alexander. Tyre, the largest and most important city-state of Phoenicia, was located both on the Mediterranean coast as well as a nearby Island with two natural harbors on the landward side. At the time of the siege, the city held approximately 40,000 people, though the women and children were evacuated to Carthage, an ancient Phoenician colony. Alexander sent an envoy to Tyre, proposing a peace treaty, and asked to visit their city and offer sacrifices to their God Melqart. The Tyrians politely told Alexander that their town was neutral in the war, and that allowing him to offer sacrifices to Melqart would be tantamount to recognizing him as their king. Alexander considered building a causeway that would allow his army to take the town by force. His engineers didn't believe it would be possible to successfully build such a massive structure, and so Alexander sent peace envoys once more to propose an alliance. The Tyrians believed this to be a sign of weakness, and so they killed the envoys and threw their bodies over the city wall. The dissent against Alexander's plans to take the city by force disappeared, and his engineers began to design the structure. Alexander began with an engineering feat that shows the true extent of his brilliance; as he could not attack the city from sea, he built a kilometer-long causeway stretching out to the island on a natural land bridge no more than two meters deep.Alexander then constructed two towers 150 feet high and moved them to the end of the causeway. The Tyrians, however, quickly devised a counterattack. They used an old horse transport ship, filling it with dried branches, pitch, sulfur, and various other combustibles. They then lit it on fire, creating what we might call a primitive form of napalm, and ran it up onto the causeway. The fire spread quickly, engulfing both towers and other siege equipment that had been brought up.
This convinced Alexander that he would be unable to take Tyre without a navy. Fate would soon provide him with one. Presently, the Persian navy returned to find their home cities under Alexander’s control. Since their allegiance was to their city, they were therefore Alexander’s. He now had eighty ships. This coincided with the arrival of another hundred and twenty from Cyprus, which had heard of his victories and wished to join him. Alexander then sailed on Tyre and quickly blockaded both ports with his superior numbers. He had several of the slower galleys, and a few barges, refit with battering rams, the only known case of battering rams being used on ships. Alexander started testing the wall at various points with his rams, until he made a small breach in the south end of the island. He then coordinated an attack across the breach with a bombardment from all sides by his navy. Once his troops forced their way into the city, they easily overtook the garrison, and quickly captured the city. Those citizens that took shelter in the temple of Heracles were pardoned by Alexander. It is said that Alexander was so enraged at the Tyrians' defense and the loss of his men that he destroyed half the city. Alexander granted pardon to the king and his family, whilst 30,000 residents and foreigners taken were sold into slavery. There was a family, though, that Alexander gave a very high position in his government, but the only contact he ever had with them was when he spent the night with the wife of the household
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Greek travelers had actually been visiting Egypt for centuries, many of them setting up trading colonies or acting as mercenaries. Others such as the historian Herodotus and philosopher Plato came to study a culture they regarded with awe as the cradle of civilization, their knowledge almost certainly part of Alexander's education. Yet for almost 200 years Egypt had been occupied by Persia who had incorporated it into the growing empire, and assuming the Egyptian crown by right of conquest the Persian king had ruled in absentia through a satrap, exploiting its vast grain reserves and taxing its people. The Persians showed relatively little respect for the ancient traditions and were deeply unpopular, and the Egyptians' had rebelled so often parts of the country remained virtually independent. Alexander was therefore hailed as Savior and Liberator, and as the people's choice and legitimate heir he was offered the double crown of the Two Lands. Anointed as pharaoh in Memphis on 14 November 332 bc, the culmination of his coronation was the climactic moment when the high priest named him 'son of the gods' according to traditions dating back almost 3,000 years. This title deeply affected him, and Olympias' references to him being the son of Zeus must have filled his mind; indeed, there were even scenes of the king of the gods Amun ('Zeus') impregnating selected queens with the heir to the throne! In a world where the gods were perceived as living entities and were considered a part of everyday life, Alexander must now have began to believe in his own divinity as a fact rather than a simple exercise of propaganda.
Always a devout man who began each day with sacrifices to the gods, Alexander had no difficulty worshipping the Egyptian deities. Equating their gods with his own, he worshipped the Egyptian Amun as a form of Zeus. At the Memphite necropolis of Sakkara the new pharaoh offered sacrifices to the Apis bull, cult animal of the creator god Ptah, followed by Greek-style games and literary contests in which performers from all over the Greek world took part in a multi-cultural extravaganza. These kind of events mark the beginnings of Hellenism in their blending of Greek practices and local traditions, and Egypt and Greece would successfully co-exist for the next 3 centuries. Ever keen to discuss philosophy which the Greeks believed to have originated in Egypt, Alexander attended lectures given by the Egyptian philosopher Psammon. Wholeheartedly agreeing with his teaching that "all men are ruled by god, because in every case that element which imposes itself and achieves mastery is divine", Alexander also drew on his own experiences when he added that whilst god is indeed the father of all mankind, "it is the noblest and best whom he makes his own" (Plutarch).
In the two months he resided as 'living god' in the royal palace at Memphis, studying Egyptian laws and customs at first hand, he gave orders for the restoration of the Egyptians' religious centers, including the great southern temples of Luxor and Karnak, where he appears in the company of the Egyptian gods wearing traditional Egyptian regalia including the rams horns of Amun as worn by his pharaonic predecessors including Amenhotep III. Alexander's image was replicated all over Egypt in both monumental statuary and delicate relief, together his with his Greek name translated into hieroglyphs enclosed by the royal cartouche:
"Horus, the strong ruler, he who seizes the lands of the foreigners, beloved of Amun and the chosen one of Ra - meryamun setepenra Aleksandros". He then left Memphis in January 331 bc and sailed down the western branch of the Nile to inspect the Greek trading colony of Naucratis. Its land-bound position offered no scope for development, so Alexander pressed on toward the coast to reach the Egyptian fort of Rhakotis.
referred to by both Herodotus and Thucydides, close to Lake Mareotis where a narrow ridge divides its waters from the sea. Consulting Homer he had arrived on the coast at a site mentioned in the Odyssey: "Out of the sea where it breaks on the shores of Egypt rises an island from the waters: the name men give it is Pharos" (Odyssey IV.354-355). Noting that Homer was a clever city planner as well as a great poet, Alexander observed the deep waters of its well-sheltered, natural harbor and an uncanny similarity to the impressive location of Tyre. As Arrian says "he was immediately struck by the excellence of the site, and convinced that if a city were built upon it, it would certainly prosper. Such was his enthusiasm that he could not wait to begin the work and himself designed the general layout of the town, indicating the position of the market place and the temples and which gods they should serve, the gods of Greece and Egypt, and the exact limits of the defenses". Working with the architect Deinocrates of Rhodes, the stonemason Numenios and a technical adviser named Hyponomos, Alexander also planned the site of the royal palace and even worked out a complex system of underground drains and sewers In Alexander's haste there were no immediate means of marking out the ground until it was suggested they use barley flour from the soldiers' rations. This they sprinkled on the ground as the king led the way along his imagined roads and avenues, laid out in the form of a Macedonian military cloak (chlamys) as his architects trailed along behind. When a great flock of birds descended and ate all traces of his new city, Alexander's initial fears were allayed by his soothsayer Aristander who pronounced that the city would flourish, producing abundant resources which would nourish its people.
Whilst planning his gateway into the Mediterranean, Alexander also received the welcome news that Cyprus, Rhodes and Phoenicia and the Aegean islands of Tenedos, Lesbos, Kos and Chios had all come over to his side. As their former pro-Persian leaders were delivered to him for judgement, Alexander dispatched them south to the Greek garrison at Aswan, accompanied by Callisthenes whom Alexander sent southward to investigate Aristotle's theory that the annual Nile flood was a result of rains to the south.
Having selected the optimum location for Alexandria, the king then set out west along the coastal road to Paraetonium (Mersa Matruh) in late January 331 bc. Leaving the main body of the army in Egypt, his military escort included his friends and Companions together with local guides, and as they advanced 200 miles along the coast toward Libya they received envoys from the Greek colony of Cyrene offering their allegiance, together with lavish gifts including 300 horses and a golden crown.
Alexander then turned south to follow the ancient caravan route through the Northern Sahara, which connected the Mediterranean coastline to central Africa via the all-important network of oases. The major oasis at Siwa was also home to the world renowned Oracle of the god Amun (the Libyan form of Ammon) described in Herodotus' Histories (II.31-32) which Alexander, like many other famous men before him, intended to consult. After only a few days crossing the sands, the party ran out of water and were only saved by a sudden violent rainstorm, interpreted by the expedition historian Callisthenes as divine intervention. Their sojourn was then interrupted by one of the regular terrifying sandstorms sweeping up from the south to obliterate any recognizable landmarks, and with the track indistinguishable from desert and the landscape featureless as far as the eye could see, the guides employed for the journey were soon lost. Mindful that hostile Persian forces of Cambyses had been obliterated in exactly the same circumstances in their attempts to reach Siwa two centuries before, his companions had been unable to dissuade Alexander from undertaking the perilous journey. "Fortune, by giving in to him on every occasion, had made his resolve unshakable and so he was able to overcome not only his enemies, but even places and seasons of the year" says Plutarch. And indeed, disaster was once again averted when two black ravens miraculously appeared, Alexander exhorting his colleagues to follow them as they must have been sent by the gods to guide them. Callisthenes records that the ravens limited their flight to accommodate the party, even cawing loudly if their charges deviated from the correct path. Ptolemy says that their guides took the form of two snakes, and whilst unsure which, Arrian confesses that "I have no doubt whatever that he had divine assistance of some kind".
And so the myth of Alexander had begun, and gained momentum as tales spread of his supernatural powers which could summon divine guardians at will. It was also becoming increasingly plausible to those around him that he might even be that he claimed to be, the son of god himself. His divinity would be confirmed once and for all by consulting the Oracle, his need for self-validation explaining the risks he had taken on the perilous desert march.
As the exhausted men entered Siwa, their eyes would have been filled with the beauty of its lush, fertile oasis. Shady groves of palms and fruit trees bordered waters which gushed forth in abundance from subterranean springs and here in the mystical surroundings of the Spring of the Sun they refreshed themselves. With no prior knowledge of their arrival, immense curiosity and excitement must have greeted the Greek soldiers emerging weary from the desert, at their head the first pharaoh ever to complete the dangerous journey.
Anxious to visit the Oracle as soon as possible, Alexander then went immediately to the temple of Amun, its location on the high rock outcrop of Aghurmi deeply impressing him. Plutarch says that according to his sources, Alexander was met by the Siwan high priest who greeted him with the words "O, paidion", "Oh, my son", but mispronounced the Greek as "O, pai dios" meaning "Oh, son of god", much to Alexander's delight and amazement. The small number of his party waited in the temple forecourt, and after the high priest announced to all present that the god was content, they could proceed with their questions. One of the Macedonians asked the Oracle whether they might give their king divine honors, to which the reply came "This would please Ammon". Then in his capacity as pharaoh and high priest of all the gods, Alexander was led into to the heavily-scented darkness of the inner sanctuary to put his questions personally to the god himself. When he finally emerged into the daylight, he was met by his friends anxious to know exactly what had transpired. Alexander would only say he had been given 'the answer his heart desired'. That the main subject discussed had been the nature of his divine paternity seems the most likely, since he was adamant that the only other person he would tell these 'secret prophecies' to would be his mother, and as he told Olympias in a letter this would only be face to face on his return to Macedonia. Plutarch states that Alexander also asked if his father Philip II's murder had been avenged, whereupon "the high priest asked him to choose his words more carefully, for his father was not a mortal". He may also have sought divine approval for his new Egyptian city, whose viability as a trading center would also have been confirmed by his checking the age-old caravan routes to the Mediterranean which passed through Siwa.
Whatever his questions had been, Alexander was sufficiently satisfied with the answers to present magnificent offerings to the Oracle, and over the remaining eight years of his life would send frequent gifts to its priests, together with more questions. Always eager to receive its answers, Alexander, with his unshakable faith in oracles, would also act on their advice, whether it suited his purpose or not. According to his general and biographer Ptolemy, Alexander then returned to Memphis along the direct route via the Qattara Depression. On arrival he made sacrifices to Zeus-Amun, held a great parade of troops and received 500 Greek mercenaries and 400 Thessalian cavalry sent from his regent Antipater back in Macedonia.
He then made final arrangements for the governing of the Egypt in his absence. Arrian says that Alexander had been deeply impressed by Egypt "and the general strength of the country, but the fact this had been greater than he expected, induced him to divide the control of it between a number of his officers, as too unsafe to put it all in the hands of one man". Following Aristotle's advice that a king must hold an even balance between all parties he therefore appointed a combination of Egyptians, Macedonians and Persians to rule Egypt along traditional lines. Alexander left Egypt in the spring (mid-April) of 331 bc a changed man. Although he would never return alive to see the city he had founded, it would eventually be his final resting place when his embalmed body was returned there for burial only 10 years later.
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Alexander's body was placed in a gold anthropoid sarcophagus, which was in turn placed in a second gold casket. According to Aelian, a seer called Aristander foretold that the land where Alexander was laid to rest "would be happy and unvanquishable forever Perhaps more likely, the successors may have seen possession of “. the body as a symbol of legitimacy (it was a royal prerogative to bury the previous king). At any rate, Ptolemy stole the funeral cortege, and took it to Memphis. His successor, Ptolemy II Philadelphia, transferred the sarcophagus to Alexandria, where it remained until at leastLate Antiquity. Ptolemy IX Lathyros, one of the last successors of Ptolemy I, replaced Alexander's sarcophagus with a glass one so he could melt the original down for issues of his coinage. Pompey, Julius Caesar and Augustus all visited the tomb in Alexandria, the latter allegedly accidentally knocking the nose off the body. Caligula was said to have taken Alexander's breastplate from the tomb for his own use. In c. AD 200, Emperor Septimius Severus closed Alexander's tomb to the public. His son and successor, Caracalla, was a great admirer of Alexander, and visited the tomb in his own reign. After this, details on the fate of the tomb are sketchy. The so-called "Alexander Sarcophagus", discovered near Sidon and now in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, is so named not because it was thought to have contained Alexander's remains, but because its bas-reliefs depict Alexander and his companions hunting and in battle with the Persians. It was originally thought to have been the sarcophagus of Abdalonymus (died 311 BC), the king of Sidon appointed by Alexander immediately following the battle of Issus in 331.However, more recently, it has been suggested that it may date from earlier than Abdalonymus' death.
At Issus in 333 BC, his first confrontation with Darius, he used the same deployment, and again the phalanx at the center pushed through with the advantage of its long pikes. This enabled Alexander to personally lead the charge in the center against Darius, causing him to flee and his army to rout. At the decisive encounter with Darius at Gaugamela, Darius had equipped his chariots with scythes on the wheels to break up the phalanx and his cavalry with pikes. Alexander arranged a double phalanx, with the center advancing at an angle, parting when the chariots bore down and then reforming. The advance was successful and broke Darius' center, causing the latter to flee once again. When faced with opponents who used fighting techniques he was unfamiliar with, such as in Central Asia and India, Alexander was quick to adapt his forces to his opponents fighting style. Thus, in Bactria and Sogdiana, Alexander successfully used his javelin throwers and archers to prevent outflanking movements, while massing his cavalry at the center. In India, when confronted by Porus' elephant corps, the Macedonians were victorious by opening their ranks to envelop the elephants and using their sarissas to strike upwards and dislodge the elephants' handlers.
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