Alexander the Great in the Roman Empire, 150 BC to AD 600

Jaakkojuhani Peltonen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429850547
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The life of Alexander the Great began to be retold from the moment of his death. The Greco-Roman authors used these stories as exemplars in a variety of ways. This book is concerned with the various stories of Alexander and how they were used in antiquity to promote certain policies, religious views, and value systems.The book is an original contribution to the study of the history and reception of Alexander, analysing the writings of over 70 classical and post-classical authors during a period of over 700 years. Drawing on this extensive range and quantity of material, the study plots the continuity and change of ideas from the early Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages.

1
Introduction

Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC), better known as Alexander the Great, is one of those rare historical figures who has fascinated a legion of writers in both the past and the present. Not only the ancient Greeks and Romans, but also Jews, Christians, and Muslims from antiquity to modern times have written (and will no doubt continue to write) about Alexander. Opinions about him have been as varied as those who have told his story, which has been told and retold in written and oral narratives, visual presentations, paintings, mosaics, sculptures, and, of course, in more recent times, movies. Over the centuries, his figure has inspired monarchs, politicians, soldiers, travelers, painters, poets, orators, philosophers, religious leaders, and commoners.

Alexander’s life has been idealized in various ways. He has been considered a military genius whose strategy and tactics have been analyzed in great detail and an exemplar for building an empire through military conquest. He has served as a romantic figure of heroic youth as well as an archetype of the philosopher – king. His life has inspired adventurers and explorers. In addition, his reign has been seen in the religious context of providential history, revealing the power of God. However, in contrast to the role model and idol, there is another Alexander, the bloody tyrant whose reign meant universal terror and destruction, who provides an example of the wrong kind of autocracy that harms its subjects, a model to be avoided rather than emulated. In this negative role as in his positive one, Alexander has stirred emotions and his story has reverberated through the ages.

Alexander’s popularity as an admired paragon with whom modern-day people can identify has not abated in the 20th and 21th centuries. Comics, documentaries, films, novels, statues, and songs about him have inspired not only European peoples but also those of the Near East and South Asia. In the modern era, the heroic presentation of Alexander can be recognized in the equestrian statues erected in public places throughout modern Greece and the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The same heroic and idealizing portrait characterizes Andy Warhol’s Alexander series of 1982, the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden’s song Alexander the Great of 1986, and Oliver Stone’s blockbuster film Alexande r of 2004.¹

However, behind these modern portraits of Alexander there often lie modern ideological movements like nationalism. The first film about Alexander was the epic Bollywood film Sikandar of 1941, directed by Sohrab Modi. This film roused patriotic feelings by using the battle between Alexander’s invading troops and the Indian king Porus as an analogy for the Indian struggle to win independence from Britain.² The film was censored for a while in some theatres. The potential for political and ideological use of Alexander has been manifested recently in the controversies between the governments of Greece and Macedonia. Both states have promoted the legacy of Alexander and ancient Macedonia in their politics and have constructed their national identity with the help of his figure. The dispute about who has the right to use the name ‘Macedonia’, thus claiming Alexander and his kingdom as a national symbol, has festered since the birth of the modern Republic of Macedonia in 1991 (officially recognized in 1993).³

This modern-day obsession with Alexander reflects the long historical use of Alexander’s legacy. Modern-day politicians, Greek and Macedonian nationalists, movie directors and artists are merely following a 2,300-year-old tradition, one embraced by British imperialists in the 19th century, Swedish monarchs in the 17th and 18th centuries, Portuguese colonialists, and medieval epic poets.⁴

How did Alexander become such a prominent figure and a reference point? Of course, the use of historical figures’ legacies to justify and promote one’s goals has deep historical roots, and use of Alexander has historical roots, too. In Western historical thinking, because Rome extended it power and influence so far, it is normally the first port of call when attempting to trace the historical roots of a certain phenomenon. As so often when studying European cultural history, we encounter the legacy of ancient Rome and its heritage. As we know, Rome’s cultural values, religious beliefs, technological advancements, engineering, and the Latin language have made an enormous impact on European societies. In line with this, before medieval Europe became obsessed with his story, the Romans had already created the Alexander phenomenon by making him a paragon and exemplary figure. This is theme of this book, in which I will explore the very roots of using Alexander as an historical exemplum. The long historical use of Alexander as a rhetorical tool began in the Greco-Roman world. In a way, they created the myth of Alexander as a superhero. My aim is to show the scope and magnitude of this phenomenon in the ancient world. This book will give a detailed analysis of the different ways the Greco-Romans used Alexander, providing a model for future centuries.

The exemplarity of the past

Humans have a need to explore the past. People through the ages have used the past to understand themselves and others. The past is a series of events, which are arranged in a sequence and combined to form a story. People are inclined to respect these stories of the past because its events provide lessons and examples for posterity and explanations of their current status. Thus, these stories are used as a tool to justify a course of action, to strengthen a certain value system or social order, or to regulate behavior. However, stories, or as modern historians would like to say, interpretations, of the past change; those who claim to know and understand the past have the opportunity to retell its history. In retelling the story, people create the past anew. Different eras and cultures may produce a slightly different story of the past, re-emphasizing, rearranging, or reinterpreting its events. The stories reflect the value system of a given society.

The power of historical examples has been particularly strong in cultures of the past. In the premodern world, the exemplarity of the past was considered self-evident; it was seen as a source of wisdom, for both individuals and society. The stories dealing with historical events and personae were considered a storehouse of moral codes and lessons in ethics for kings, religious officials and monks, soldiers, and peasants. The Ciceronian trope of historia magistra vitae (‘history as a teacher of life’)⁵ dominated Western thinking until the turn of the 19th century. The paradigm shifted after 1850 with the increasing popularity of positivist theories. Famously, the historian Leopold von Ranke announced that the historian’s task was primarily to recount, while not judging, the past for the benefit of future generations. The aim of like-minded 19th-century historians was to make history an objective and empirical field of science. Such professional historians were no longer simply moral instructors, but attempted to follow the path of the natural sciences: “One just learns history from history.”⁶

Even though modern historical theory does not prefer writing history in order to provide moral exempla, the idea itself has not been rejected altogether. To varying degrees, even modern historians argue that history can teach us lessons and provide exempla of life for modern communities. Since we live in a globalized world where mankind tries to find solutions to worldwide problems, historical knowledge and understanding has been recommended, by some historians, as a tool for solving these problems, since it enables man to learn from the mistakes of the past.⁷ As Jared Diamond writes, “The past offers us a rich database from which we can learn, in order to keep on succeeding.”⁸ However, the question of using and abusing history is a difficult one. The idea rests on the belief that ‘true’ and ‘false’ presentations of the past can be detected and that wrong uses of history can be separated from right ones. In addition, the critique of ‘history as a teacher of life’ does not diminish the fact that, outside the academic world, history has been used continuously as a teacher ever since the foundation of the first civilizations.⁹

If we appreciate that, at least to some extent, authors throughout history have embraced the idea of ‘history as a teacher of life’ and as a source of exempla, we may ask which historical figures were seen as admirable or exceptional enough to be used for these purposes? Obviously, contemporary values dictate which persons are admired or deplored and whose stories and lives will be retold and reinterpreted. Different eras see different things as exemplary, but a consistent and universal feature is that those who are believed to be exceptional are put up on a pedestal. People have been set up as paragons and icons to represent ideals and function as models for a certain stage of life, gender, or set of values. These individuals may be worshipped and venerated during their lifetime, but it is subsequent generations that decide the value of their legacy, whether they will be posthumously mystified, glorified, or vilified. Stories of their lives are retold, and their visual portraits become known to all.

Not only has the posthumous mystification and heroicizing of well-known people continued into our own times, but mass media and popular culture have arguably assisted it. We need only list James Dean, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain. Their relatively short-lived but meteoric careers were ended by an early or tragic death, but only after their deaths did they become immortal, iconic figures. They were idealized by 20th-century popular media journalists, biographers and documentarists, advertisers and promotors. Furthermore, there have also been political and military figures among the ‘modern immortals’. One of the best examples is the Argentine communist leader Che Guevara, who also died young and became a symbol of youth, rebellion, and the fight for justice. His visual portrait (based on the picture taken by Alberto Korda in 1960) is not only known in popular culture, but is still used by those fighting for a political cause. The same mechanism seems to apply to 20th-century pop stars and politicians. Whatever the commercial or propagandistic motives of modern media, we are still witnessing a similar phenomenon to the heroicizing of historical figures.

Historical consciousness – whether based on orally transmitted stories or written sources – is saturated by historical individuals. If we think about historical events, eras, wars, values, and dialogues, there is always an individual who comes to mind, a figure who gives a face to the story or phenomenon. Over the centuries, historical narratives have often been viewed from the perspective of major actors in politics, war, art, music, religion, and science. The fates of peoples, polities, and cultures are perceived to have been shaped by them. From the first cultures of which we have records of named individuals, in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the deeds of mighty individuals have dominated their histories, mythical or otherwise. The actions of pharaohs and kings dominate the inscriptions and reliefs of Egypt and Assyria, reflecting the royal ideology at the core of their societies. Later, in Greco-Roman antiquity, the spotlight still fell on great men of the past. In the view of the Greeks and Romans, important and influential men exerted a major influence on the world and therefore their lives and deeds merited study.¹⁰ From Herodotus and Thucydides historiographical narratives were formed around the lives of monarchs and political leaders whose actions allegedly changed the course of history. In the field of science, the illustrious lives of philosopher – scientists were celebrated and anecdotes of their lives used as guides for behavior. Famous sculptors and painters were regarded as emulated and venerated masters. Also, in Near Eastern cultures spiritual leaders like Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, and Jesus were regarded as great men whose lives were studied and imitated.¹¹

The writing of Alexander the Great’s history should be seen in the context of both the accepted exemplarity of the past and the recognized central role of illustrious men in history. Firstly, a person had to be appreciated as a legend and idealized to fit the idea of a great man, so he could be used as an exemplar supporting certain social mores and a value system. As we shall see, Alexander provided excellent material to function in this way in Greco-Roman culture, which in turn would have an enormous impact on later cultures. The various uses of Alexander the Great as a figure of interest began in the Hellenistic kingdoms soon after his death and continued from the end of the Roman Republic to the Imperial period, persisting even after the Christianization of the Empire.¹² The use of Alexander’s character gives us a good insight into how one individual can offer many rhetorical possibilities to authors representing different groups, identities,¹³ and ideologies in the ancient and modern world.

The task and the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Alexander in an empire of Romans, Greeks, and Jews
• 3 Alexander as a model of behavior
• 4 Alexander in relations of power and influence
• 5 Alexander in Christian apologia
• 6 Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Primary sources
• Appendix 2: Chronological distribution of the data
• Bibliography
• Index