How ‘Great’ Was Alexander?

[MegaArgus1]

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/a...alexander3.php

How ‘Great’ Was Alexander?
By: Professor Ian Worthington (University of Missouri-Columbia)
The Ancient History Bulletin 13.2 (1999) 39-55


Alexander’s autocratic nature and its adverse impact on his army have been illustrated many times, but it extended beyond the men with him to the Greeks back on the mainland. One example is his Exiles Decree of 324, which ordered all exiles to return to their native cities (excluding those under a religious curse and the Thebans).[42] If any city was unwilling, then Antipater was empowered to use force against it (Diod. 18.8.4). The context was no doubt to send home the large bands of mercenaries now wandering the empire and which posed no small military or political danger if any ambitious satrap or general got his hands on them. The decree was technically illegal since it clearly flouted the autonomy of the Greek states, not to mention the principles of the League of Corinth, but Alexander cared little about polis autonomy or the feelings of the Greeks. Although the Athenians refused to receive back their exiles (Curt. 10.2.6-7), resistance, to coin a phrase, was futile: Alexander was king, the Macedonians controlled Greece, and the final clause of the decree on coercing Greek cities would not be lost on them. The flurry of diplomatic activity to the king over the decree proves this, even though outright rebellion was not planned at that stage.[43] His death altered the situation dramatically, and only one state, Tegea, actually implemented the decree.[44]

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/a..._gaugamela.php

Anabasis of Alexander: The Battle of Gaugamela (Book III, 7-16)
By: Arrian (Lucius Flavius Arrianus)
Translated By: E. J. Chinnock

Alexander arrived at Thapsacus in the month Hecatombaion,[1] in the archonship of Aristophanes at Athens; and he found that two bridges of boats had been constructed over the stream. But Mazaeus, to whom Darius had committed the duty of guarding the river, with about 3,000 cavalry, 2,000 of which were Grecian mercenaries, was up to that time keeping guard there at the river. For this reason the Macedonians had not constructed the bridge right across as far as the opposite bank, being afraid that Mazaeus might make an assault upon the bridge where it ended. But when he heard that Alexander was approaching, he went off in flight with all his army.
n the left, opposite Alexander's right, had been posted the Scythian cavalry, about I,000 Bactrians and 100 scythe-bearing chariots. In front of Darius's royal squadron of cavalry stood the elephants and fifty chariots. In front of the right wing the Armenian and Cappadocian cavalry with fifty scythe-bearing chariots had been posted. The Greek mercenaries, as alone capable of coping with the Macedonians, were stationed right opposite their phalanx, in two divisions close beside Darius himself and his Persian attendants, one division on each side.

[ioan assen]

Presentday Macedonian have no direct, continuous cultural connection with Alex. Your connection to him is similar to mine to Orpheus. Yes we have connection trough the contribution of the native to the formation of the Bulgarian nation in 9th century, but I think the direct link is to Boris, Simeon, Samuel and not Alex.

[MegaArgus1]

Presentday Macedonian have no direct, continuous cultural connection with Alex. Your connection to him is similar to mine to Orpheus. Yes we have connection trough the contribution of the native to the formation of the Bulgarian nation in 9th century, but I think the direct link is to Boris, Simeon, Samuel and not Alex.

the sources say that the ancient macedonians were not greeks ...there is no ancient source saying that they were greeks other than the culture was hellenic......your provocations are counter productive and are driving our two populations further apart

[Xenomorph]

As he was in power for such a short time, it's impossible to say what he would have been like. Given his admiration for Persian tolerance, he may have become a Hellenic Cyrus. Or he might have become drunk with power and become a Nero; who knows?

[Bobby Six Killer]

Macedonianicsm?

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http://www.iranchamber.com/history/a..._hellenism.php

"It is important to look at other regions in the Persian empire that were non-Persian and have an understanding of why this once rich and powerful region handed the Empire over to the Greeks and Macedonians with no major resistance."

If Macedonians were Greeks there is no need to say Greeks and Macedonians but simply Greeks.

[MegaArgus1]

I didn't know that Aristotle was Macedonian...the author of the text distinguishes macedonian and greek philosophers

http://www.iranchamber.com/religions...es/magians.php

Magians (Old Persian Maguš)
Experts in Iranian religious -probably: oral- traditions;
Perhaps belonging to a Median tribe. They are to be distinguished from the priests.
By: Jona Lendering


The famous Macedonian philosopher Aristotle (384-322), who had not spent a part of his life in Persia's western territories for nothing, felt himself forced to state explicitly 'that the Magians neither know nor practice sorcery' (The Magian, fr.36 Rose).

[MegaArgus1]

i have heard over and over again that the macedonians were dorians but this say that it was not so..if macedonians were dorians then Herodotus would say simply dorians

Histories of Herodotus
A history source of Persian Empire of Achaemenian era
By: Herodotus (c. 484 - 425 BCE); Translated by: George Rawlinson
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/h...tory_book8.php

"These were Dorians and Macedonians all of them (except those from Hermione), and had emigrated last from Erineus, Pindus, and Dryopis. The Hermionians were Dryopians, of the race which Hercules and the Malians drove out of the land now called Doris. Such were the Peloponnesian nations."

[ioan assen]

the sources say that the ancient macedonians were not greeks ...

the same is said explicitdly about the thracians yet no bulgarian claims that he is a direct descedant of Orpheus, Spartacus and Zalmoxis. Yes they are our indirect ansestors, because they were not Bulgarian.

there is no ancient source saying that they were greeks other than the culture was hellenic......

the sources are quite mixed actually on the macedonians thats why I think most historians regard the Macedonians as people who were some kind of Thraco-illyrian mix that were later hellenized.

your provocations are counter productive and are driving our two populations further apart

its not my intention to do so. I m just pointing out the shortcomings of the obsession of presentday Macedonians with Alex. I cant imagine Bulgarians building enormous statues of Orpheus or big temples of Zalmoxis - yet we will have the same grounds to do so.

[MegaArgus1]

the same is said explicitdly about the thracians yet no bulgarian claims that he is a direct descedant of Orpheus, Spartacus and Zalmoxis. Yes they are our indirect ansestors, because they were not Bulgarian.

the sources are quite mixed actually on the macedonians thats why I think most historians regard the Macedonians as people who were some kind of Thraco-illyrian mix that were later hellenized.

its not my intention to do so. I m just pointing out the shortcomings of the obsession of presentday Macedonians with Alex. I cant imagine Bulgarians building enormous statues of Orpheus or big temples of Zalmoxis - yet we will have the same grounds to do so.

-greeks say ancient macedonians 2500 years ago were greeks so we cannot call ourselves macedonas which is not right for two reasons the first is that the history showes that ancient macedonians were not greeks and the second is that even if they were that is not prerequisite for us to identify ourselves as macedonians not ethically not legally

-i know your inteniton is to make some other Vojniks but you succeed in making the gulf between our two nations bigger