Alexander the Great and the birth of the modern world (original) (raw)

Alexander the Great and the History of Globalization

Alexander the Great is often understood to be the first statesman to attempt a " universal state, " owing in large part to his philosophical education under Aristotle. This picture of Alexander informs many of his depictions in popular culture, and influences his appropriation in contemporary discourse on globalization. I argue here that Plutarch's Life of Alexander offers an alternative view of Alexander's political action, one that explains his imperial ambitions by focusing on his love of honor (philotimia) and the cultural indeterminacy of his native Macedon, rather than his exposure to philosophy. Plutarch's portrayal of Alexander provides a useful model for the study of globalization by showing how political expansion can arise from and give rise to indeterminate political identities.

Alexander the Great in Current Scholarship

History Compass, 2009

Interest in Alexander the Great has never flagged from the time of his death until the present day. The bibliography of Alexander the Great continues to grow at near exponential rates. He was a commander of outstanding ability whose legacy was a world forever changed. However, plagued by a dearth of contemporary sources, scholars still debate his goals, his methods, and his true legacy. Did he envision and work towards a world where the races would be fused into one? Or was he an insatiable conqueror whose values were those of a Genghis Khan or a Tamarlane? Was his empire built on expediency or was it an attempt at a new world order under an absolute monarch. Finally, did Alexander order his own deification, and was this the result of practical administrative and political calculations, or was it the consequence of growing megalomaniacy. All of these interpretations have modern scholarly adherents, although some have come to dominate most current scholarship.

From the mediterranean to universality? The myth of Alexander, yesterday and today

Mediterranean Historical Review, 1999

Few myths have had as widespread a diffusion among different civilizations as the legend of Alexander the Great. From its beginning during Alexander's lifetime, the myth aimed at illustrating special rights to universal sovereignty. For this very reason, it was of longlasting interest to various figures in Mediterranean history who, for political, ideological or religious motives, made claims to worldwide authority. But since Alexander had built his own image not as the hero of a conquering civilization, but as a universal figure mediating between various peoples, his myth could never be appropriated, and remains one of the transcultural bridges our time so dramatically needs.

"Before and after of Alexander", in Historiographical Alexander (Dublin June 2016)

Alexander is the only one character in the Universal history that cannot be explained in his social and historical context, given that he is regarded as a man ahead of his time, a man, indeed, who has nothing to do with his own people. Because of his excepcionality, we are predisposed to study this topic adopting a biographical approach, rather than a social-historical one. Therefore, the number of studies about Alexander is so vast that it is almost impossible for the researchers to know everything that is published about him. Other logical consequence of the fact that Alexander is considered as a turning point of the history of mankind is that experts from many different fields have felt the need of writing about him. In conclusion, Alexander scholarship remains largely untouched by the influences which have transformed history and classics since 1945. Alexander historians do what Alexander historians have done for more than a hundred years: try to discover the facts about Alexander the Great. Scholars have to stop regarding Alexander of Macedonia as the origin of everything, in both light and darkness.It may be true that Alexander changed the world, but what is unquestionable is that the world has changed the image of Alexander more times than he did it.

THE ECONOMICS OF UNHEAVAL: ALEXANDER THE GREAT IN THE EAST

The conquests for Philip II and his son, Alexander III, have traditionally been greeted a fair degree of romanticism in modern scholarship through a process of accretion of earlier laudatory sources. Philip's career in Europe has often been termed 'responsible for uniting the Greeks' and Alexander's campaign in Asia hailed as the 'catalyst that spread Hellenic culture east'. Admiring scholars such as WW Tarn promoted the notion of vision of 'a brotherhood of man' encompassing the Persian population and Hellenic invaders, breaking down the Greek-barbarian divide still perpetuated by Aristotle. Ancient commentators such as Plutarch pondered the 'philosophical commonwealth' of Alexander. But the theme of the years either side of Alexander's death was fear and instability, both in Greece and in Asia. If reviewed dispassionately, ancient sources point a rather more complicated picture, which undermines these notions. Alexander's treatment of Greeks, both in Greece itself and on campaign, led to continuing national divides which were only widened by his campaign. The administration of the Persian Empire late in his conquest was never the homonoia some imagine he intended. This paper intends to outline, using ancient sources, modern scholarship, epigraphic and archaeological evidence, the upheaval caused both in the campaign years and in the decades that followed, in Greece, Macedon and Persia. It covers the choices the dispossessed campaign soldiers had to make, the drain on the economies by the Hellenistic armies and the resulting economic upheaval. Above all it serves to illustrate that Alexander never had more than immediate conquest in mind and operated through a 'reactive' system of flawed statecraft. The resulting questions that need to be asked: Did Alexander consciously spread Hellenic culture, or did he handcuff it? Did he unite the Graeco-Persian world, or, in fact divide it?

Alexander the Great’s Place in History (Illustrated Book Fragment)

Academia.Edu (© R. Schleyer, M.A.), 2023

The summation of a little-known text in Afrikaans by a long-deceased South African professor of Greek is here machine-translated and edited to demonstrate an important theme—that the notorious pathos of the sensuous heathen Alexander the Great constituted a precis of Universal History and determined, by bloody example and determinative effect, the main directions of Mankind in early preparation for the destined institution of the City of God.