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Macedonians, who after all had expert knowledge of horses, were amazed
and his proud father, Philip, was said to exclaim: ‘My son, seek thee out a
kingdom equal to thyself; Macedonia has no room for thee!’ Bucephalus
was then given to Alexander as a gift by his father’s Greek companion
Demaratus of Corinth, having bought it for the record sum 13 talents at a
time when the average mount cost just one fifth of a talent. Bucephalus
was Alexander’s favourite charger throughout his mission east, right up to
India, where it died at an exceptionally old age for a horse. The association
of famous personalities with exceptional horses is a popular topos in
ancient biographies. Nonetheless, with the exception of the amazing claim
that the horse ate human flesh (alluding to the myth of Heracles and the
man-eating mares of Diomedes), the authenticity of the taming of
Bucephalus cannot really be doubted. It was probably first related by
Chares, Alexander’s court-marshal.84
In 343/342 Philip employed a new preceptor for Alexander: Aristotle.
He educated Alexander for two years, until 340. The place selected for
their studies was near Mieza, to the south of Macedonia at the foot of
Mount Vermion. This academy also served as a garden shrine to the
Nymphs, with benches and cloisters, and it had already become a tourist
attraction by Plutarch’s times. The encounter of the most famous of the
Greek philosophers with a pupil who would become the greatest military
leader of antiquity is the ideal stuff of legends, and, indeed, very much was
made of this episode in the medieval perception of Alexander’s life
history. However, in 343/342 Aristotle had not yet written the great works
that would ensure him unrivalled renown over the centuries and so at that
stage he was merely one of many intellectuals active in Greece at the time.
Therefore it would not have been because of his academic status, or rather
not only for this reason, that he was selected to be Alexander’s tutor from
84 Diod., 17.76.6; Plu., Alex. , 4.8-6.8; Plu., mor. , 179d, 331b, 342b-c; Chares, ap.
Gel., 5.2.1-3; Plin., Nat. , 8.154; Ps.-Callisth., 1.13, 15, 17, 19; EGen., b208; EM, s.v. bouk◊faloj. Brown 1977, pp. 77-78; Lane Fox 1973, pp. 47-48; Baynham
1995, pp. 5-9; Stoneman 1997, p. 15; Hamilton 1999, pp. 13-16; Nawotka 2003,
pp. 26-31, 132-133.
40
Chapter I
among other Greek luminaries (including Isocrates) willing to be
employed by the generous ruler of Macedonia. Working in Aristotle’s
favour was family tradition, for his father, Nicomachus, had been the
physician of King Amyntas III. Therefore we have reason to believe that
Aristotle was more trusted by the Macedonian court than most other Greek
intellectuals. Someone having such close family connections with the
court and Macedonia in general would not also have raised concerns
among the Macedonian barons, whose opinions Philip had to take into
consideration. According to an attractive though not confirmed by any
sources hypothesis put forward by Werner Jaeger, Philip’s selection of
Aristotle to become his son’s tutor was due to the philosopher’s ties with
Hermias of Atarneus. This former student of Plato’ Academy had
succeeded Eubulos (who had been murdered) to become the tyrant of
Atarneus and Assos in Mysia and Erythrai in Ionia and there built a small
state independent of the Great King of Persia. He invited to Assos a group
of philosophers from Plato’s school. Among them was Aristotle, to whom
Hermias gave away his adopted daughter Pythias. Before he was arrested
by the Greek commander Mentor on the orders of Artaxerxes III in 341,
Hermias had entered into secret negotiations with Philip of Macedonia as a
possible ally against Persia. Werner Jaeger suggests that Aristotle’s
departure from Assos to Pella may have been associated with these secret
negotiations.85 Of course this is just a hypothesis and it is at least equally
likely that Philip’s decision to employ Aristotle was based on the
philosopher’s high qualifications as a scholar and mentor.86
Regardless of whether or not Aristotle had participated in those secret
political negotiations, his task in Macedonia was to educate Alexander. In
4th-century Greece there was no royal route to philosophy and therefore we
may assume that the young prince’s curriculum was no different to that of
other boys from good homes. Isocrates, who had been greatly disappointed
by the fact that not he but Aristotle had been selected for the post, wrote a
letter to Alexander accusing his tutor of, indeed, not teaching ‘practical’
subjects that would be of use to the prince when he became king of
Macedonia. According to Plutarch, the subjects Aristotle selected included
ethics, politics and medicine. He also gave Alexander a copy of The Iliad
which he himself had revised; thus it may be said that the young prince’s
85 Plu., Alex. , 7; Ps.-Callisth., 1.13.4; Diod., 16.52.5-8; D., 10.31-34; Did., In D. , col. 4.59-6.66. Jaeger 1948, pp. 120-122; Hamilton 1965, p. 118; Brocker 1966;
Wilcken 1967, pp, 54-55; Chroust 1967; Plezia 1968; Green 1974; pp. 52-54;
Badian 1982, p. 38; O’Brien 1992, p. 19; Rubinsohn 1993, pp. 1308-1309; Debord
1999, pp. 417-419; Corvisier 2002, p. 263; Green 2003.
86 Griffith 1979, pp. 518-522; Errington 1990, pp. 77-79.
Childhood, Family, Macedonia
41
education started the conventional Greek way with literature and Homer in
particular. It is difficult not to presume that the heroic ideology and cult of
manly virtue ( areté) so very apparent in Alexander’s adult life had some
connection with the education he had received from Aristotle – the author
of a dithyrambic poem praising Hermias’ areté and heroic death cruelly
inflicted upon him by the Persians. Other authors Aristotle instructed
Alexander to read may have also included Pindar; for when in 335 having
Thebes destroyed Alexander ordered Pindar’s house to be spared. In all
probability Alexander also received elementary instruction in dialectics
and eristics (the art of disputation). A major issue that remains unknown is
the impact Aristotle as a political thinker had on Alexander. There is no
evidence that as a monarch Alexander adopted his mentor’s views
regarding the ideal state, which was inspired by the Greek model: a polis
counting approximately 5,000 citizens. Alexander also did not heed advice
to treat barbarians as enemies or even animals, though, in accordance with
his teacher’s views, he did treat the Greeks living in Asia Minor as allies.
Extant Arabic translations of Aristotle’s letters to Alexander as well as
references to their correspondence by other authors show that the two must
have for a long time exchanged views on political matters. There can be no
doubt that Aristotle’s school inspired or at least consolidated in Alexander
the conviction that Greek culture was supreme in the entire world.
However, the Hellenisation of the East and cultural homogeneity
stretching from the Adriatic to the Hindu Kush following Alexander’s
conquests were no doubt an unforeseen consequenc
e of this education.
Perhaps of greater importance than the formal knowledge passed on during
lectures at Mieza was the personal contact Alexander had in his formative
years with the greatest mind of the ancient world. The intellectual curiosity
that was aroused at the time indubitably accounts for the fact that
Alexander took learned men with him on his expedition east, gave
instructions to pass back to Aristotle information about the plants and
animals found there and gave financial support for Aristotle to conduct his
research.87
Scholars assume that Alexander’s education at Mieza was not in the
form of private lessons but provided in the company of other young
Macedonian aristocrats including those who would later become his
87 Plu., Alex., 7.5-8.3. Ehrenberg 1938, p. 92; Merlan 1954; Wilcken 1967, pp. 55-
58; Plezia 1968; Stern 1968; Bielawski, Plezia 1970; Seibert 1972, pp. 72-73;
Green 1974, pp. 57-62; Lane Fox 1973, pp. 53-56; Bosworth 1988, pp. 20-21;
Rubinsohn 1993, pp. 1310-1312; Thomas 2007, pp. 196-197. Plutarch devoted his
De fortuna seu virtute Alexandri to the topic of Alexander’s arête and his cultural mission in the East.
42
Chapter I
closest companions. Indeed, the young prince was surrounded by well-
born Macedonians of his own age who were his playmates. But he was
also accompanied by older boys who Philip selected so that through their
(aristocratic) behaviour and advice they would help his son enter the adult
world. At the Macedonian court Philip must have run an institution of
sorts comprising ‘royal boys’ (pages). They were the descendants of
aristocratic dynasties who were brought up among the king’s entourage,
frequently carrying out tasks normally reserved for personal servants – on
the basis that to be able to give instructions well one should first learn to
listen to instructions. Indeed graduates of this school later became hetairoi
and army commanders. However, while they still served as royal boys at
the royal court, they remained, in a sense, hostages ensuring the loyalty of
their aristocratic families. Among the young Macedonians sent to Mieza to
be together with Alexander educated by Aristotle there may have been his
closest friend Hephaestion. Other contemporaries who the sources claim
were brought up alongside Alexander included: Cleitus the Black,
Perdiccas and the sons of Aristotle’s friend Antipater. It is perhaps
therefore not surprising that Alexander’s companions on his expedition
east were not only military commanders but also people with intellectual
interests: they kept journals, grew exotic plants, studied the languages of
the east and learnt about the spiritual world of India.88
88 Wilcken 1967, p. 55; Green 1974, pp. 55-57; Lane Fox 1973, pp. 51-54; Heckel
1986, p. 302; Heckel 1992, pp. 205-208; Thomas 2007, pp. 126-127; Heckel
2009a, p. 71.
CHAPTER II:
THE HEIR TO THE THRONE
1. At his father’s side
By 340, when his education at Mieza was drawing to an end, Alexander
probably had already acquired the features and posture remembered by his
contemporaries and subsequent generations. Later, after he had ascended
to the throne, Alexander nurtured a ‘canonical’ image of his person by
commissioning works from the epoch’s greatest artists: sculptures by
Lysippus, paintings by Apelles and gem engravings by Pyrgoteles. Today
credence is no longer given to the existence of an artistic monopoly
allegedly granted to these artists by their most famous patron; nonetheless
their works did form a canon of how Alexander was visualised and this
image has been reproduced over the centuries.1 For many years after the
great Macedonian’s death the mere sight of his statue made Cassander,
who remembered him well, shake with fear. Therefore it is safe to assume
that the portraits made during his life accurately captured his characteristic
features.2 Although none of these works have survived, their countless
copies as well as Plutarch’s portrayal and mentions in the works of various
other authors allow us to visualise the king’s external appearance.
Perhaps Alexander’s external feature that contemporaries found most
striking was his height, which belied his heroic fame and the expectations
of those who already knew how great he was. ‘Being admitted to the tent
and invited to be seated, they had fixed their eyes on the king’s face,
because, I suppose, to those who estimated spirit by bodily stature his
moderate size seemed by no means equal to his reputation.’ Curtius
Rufus’s words describing the reaction of Scythians on seeing Alexander
can certainly also apply to many others who had first heard of the
Macedonian’s achievements and only later saw him in person. This
ancient author claims a similar impression was made on Queen Thalestris
1 Plu., Alex. , 4.1; Plu., mor. , 335a-b; Arr., An. , 1.16.4; Cic., Fam. , 5.12.7; Hor., Ep. , 2.1.237-241; V.Max., 8.11, ext. 2; Plin., Nat. , 7.125
2 Plu., Alex. , 74.6. Bosworth 1988, p. 20; Hamilton 1999, pp. 206-207.
44
Chapter II
of the Amazons, who had also expected the greatness of the famous leader
to be matched by an appropriately great physique.3 Some historians in
good faith assume that Alexander was of average height and therefore – on
the basis of measurements of skeletons found in contemporary
Macedonian graves – estimate that he was approximately 1.7 tall. But this
must be an exaggeration for the sources leave us with no doubt: Alexander
was short, to the extent that when he sat on the captured throne of (the tall)
Darius III, a table had to be provided for him to rest his feet on. On the
other hand, thanks to physical exercise Alexander developed a strong and
muscular body.4
A feature of Alexander’s posture that has frequently been noticed and
imitated is his raised head with the neck slightly skewed to the left. That is
indeed how Lysippus presents him, but the very fragmentary references in
historical sources do not allow us to establish whether this was a symptom
of some illness or simply a manner adopted over time by Alexander. It is
thanks to Plutarch and the polychromy on the so-called ‘Alexander
Sarcophagus’ that we know he had a fair complexion with ruddy cheeks,
neck and chest. Citing Aristoxenus, the 4th-century peripatetic philosopher,
Plutarch states that Alexander’s body and breath had a pleasant smell. This,
historians interpret as being a reflection of the tradition that Alexander was
of divine or heroic status, for the ancient Greeks believed that pleasant
scents were a characteristic attribute of both gods and heroes. The images
on the Alexander Mosaic, on coins and in the form of sculptures all show
Alexander to have a straight nose, a slightly protruding jaw, full lips and
eyes deep set beneath a strongly pronounced forehead. Alexander’s hair,
which according to Aelian was fair but in the Alexander Mosaic appears to
be brown, was combed back above the forehead with a centre parting so
that it fell to the sides like a lion’s mane. According to the unverified a
nd
late tradition of the Alexander Romance, Alexander had heterochromic
eyes, one being light in colour and the other dark. This same source
maintains that he had sharp teeth, like those of a snake. Such features
served to stress the legend of Alexander’s superhuman nature.5
Contemporaries were struck by the fact that the young ruler had a
smoothly shaven face, in sharp contrast to the Greek tradition of adult men
3 Quotation is: Curt., 7.8.9. Curt., 3.12.16, 6.5.29; Diod., 17.37.5.
4 Stewart 1993, pp. 72-73. Diod., 17.66.3; Curt., 5.2.13-15; It. Alex. , 14.
5 Plu., Alex. , 4.1-4; Plu., mor. , 55d, 335a-b; Plu., Pomp. , 2.1 ; Plu., Pyrrh. , 8.1 ; Ael., VH, 12.14 ; Ps.-Callisth., 1.13.3; Iulius Valerius, Res gestae Alexandri
Macedonis, 1.7; S. Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 21.4; Johannes
Tzetzes, Ep., 76; idem, Chiliades, 11.368. Bieber 1964, pp. 50-55; Bosworth 1988, pp. 19-20; Killerich 1993; Stewart 1993, pp. 72-78; Hamilton 1999, pp. 11-12.
The Heir to the Throne
45
having beards. In the 4th century the lack of a beard had the unequivocally
negative connotation of a shamefully passive homosexual lover. Such an
image was particularly ill-suited to the image of leader and conqueror;
therefore it is unsurprising that in c. 330 a Greek vase painter from Apulia,
unaware of how the Macedonian king really looked, depicted him as a
bearded warrior. Yet, although indubitably aware of the negative
associations, Alexander consciously decided to look the way he did, to
demonstrate – as he did more than once in his life – that the social canons,
customs and general outlooks held by ordinary mortals did not apply to
him. His role model and point of reference was an ancestor on his
mother’s side: Achilles. In the 4th century Achilles was presented in Greek
art as a young and beardless hero. The rhetorician Polyaenus (perhaps in
an attempt to rationalise this aesthetic decision) even claims that
Alexander ordered his soldiers to shave their beards so that the enemy
would not be able to catch hold of them.6 Like with other aspects of