Modern historians about Macedonia – Joseph Roisman

 

PREFACE

This book originated in an invitation to participate in the conference on the origin of the Hellenistic world that took place in Edinburgh in 2006. By most ancient and modern accounts, the Hellenistic world was the creation of Alexander’s great successors. Without denying these individuals’ contribution, I try to focus in this study on their soldiers’ input into and view of the post-Alexander era. The case of Alexander’s veterans calls for special attention both because they played a significant role in the early wars of the Successors and because they exemplified the veteran experience, which has been a neglected topic in Greek history.

I thank Maria Tsimibidou-Avloniti and Lilian Acheilara of the 16th Ephorate and the Ministry of Culture of the Hellenic Republic for giving me permission to use the image on the book’s cover.

Only Diodorus (book 18) explains that Alexander ordered the return of the exiles not only in order to gain fame (doxa) but also because he wished to have in each polis many people who would entertain goodwill (eunoia) toward him and so allow him to curtail revolutions and stases among the Greeks. In response to the proclamation of this decree at the Olympic Games, the crowd shouted their approval, welcomed Alexander’s favor, and praised his benefaction (euergesia).

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Roisman, Joseph. Alexander's Veterans and the Early Wars of the Successors. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012

Modern historians about Macedonia – Ada Cohen

 

The worship of Demeter and her daughter spread throughout the Greek world, including southern Italy. Although Demeter’s main festival, the Thesmophoria, was celebrated at different times of the year in different places, the ritual offerings were fairly similar throughout, as were the religious aspects the goddess embodied.¹⁰¹ The Thesmophoria was the most widespread Greek cult because of its connection with agriculture and fertility. In Attica this festival was distinct from the Eleusinian Mysteries, even though both centered on the rape of Persephone (and the pigs that got lost in the chasm of the earth that swallowed her up.)

 

 In Macedonia, the site of Pella, where a Thesmophorion has been excavated and where the cult of Persephone is also attested, was a premier locus of worship. The site of Dion had its own Demeter sanctuary, and there is no doubt that Macedonian women worshipped both Demeter and Persephone.¹⁰² Unlike the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Thesmophoria festival was open only to women (though some of the finds at Pella at least raised a small possibility of male participation).

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To return to the Vergina hunt, scholars have underscored the privileged status of the participants. Andronikos took their relative ages to show that “Philip II” is accompanied in the lion hunt by his Royal Pages.¹⁵⁶ Miltiades Hatzopoulos charted a graded status system by way of perceived age. The three completely nude figures on the left side of the composition — two involved in the hunting of deer, one participating in the hunting of a boar — are all Royal Pages, but the boar hunter accomplishes his graduation to a superior stage en route to manhood. The fully dressed (here only the man with nets, if we exclude “Philip” and “Alexander”) have reached that goal. Hatzopoulos considered those dressed with only a chlamys to be ephebes (between the ages of eighteen and twenty), the intermediate step in the process, undergoing intensified training in the art of warfare.¹⁵⁷ 

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Cohen,Ada.Art in the era of Alexander the Great:paradigms of manhood and their cultural traditions.Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Modern historians about Macedonia – Ory Amitay

 

 

The great importance of Alexander’s historical achievement for the development of Christianity has long been recognized. It would seem that J. G. Droysen, Alexander’s first great modern historian, embarked on his Hellenistic studies in order to understand the connection between the extension of Greekdom to the East and Christianity’s birth. The ingenious W. W. Tarn made Alexander “the pioneer of one of the supreme revolutions in the world’s outlook, the first man known to us who contemplated the brotherhood of man or the unity of mankind.” The relevance to the teachings of Christ is inescapable. This general notion was taken a step further by A. R. Anderson, who claimed that Alexander unconsciously “prepared the ground in which Christianity was to grow,” and styled him “a forerunner of Jesus, earlier representations of whom portrayed him in Alexander’s likeness.”²

 

Introduction

 

 

Herakles begat Hyllos; Hyllos begat Kleadates and he Aristomachos; Aristomachos begat Temenos, who ruled in Argos.¹ Three of the descendants Temenos went from Argos as exiles; the youngest of these, Perdikkas, became the ruler of the Macedonians. Perdikkas begat Argaios, Argaios Philippos and Philippos Aeropos; his son was Alketes and his Amyntas. Amyntas begat Alexander, who ran the stadion in Olympia and was recognized as a Greek from Argos by the Hellenodikai—the official referees of the ancient Olympic games.² This Alexander bore Amyntas and he Arrhidaios and he Amyntas, who was King.³ His son was Philippos, who subdued all of Hellas. His son was Alexander. Or so might a Macedonian serving under Alexander relate the essential history of his Royal House.⁴

A fan of Euripides—there were many in the Macedonian court, not least of them Alexander⁵—might tell a different story: Archelaos, a son of Temenos, had been exiled from Argos by his brothers. Having fled to Thrace, he won renown as a warrior, but also aroused the suspicion of the local king, who attempted to kill him off. Archelaos managed to slay the king and was once more forced to flee. Inspired by Apollo and led by a goat, he arrived in Macedonia and founded its ancient capital—Aigai (Goatville).⁶

The connection of the Macedonian Royal House with Herakles was no trifle. The story of King Alexander (‘the first’, as he is known to modern historians) is proof enough.

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The pothos of Alexander has become a familiar topic in scholarship, both ancient and modern.¹⁹ It would be difficult to deny that strong sentiment and desire always formed a part of Alexander’s motivation; one can hardly understand his striving for achievement otherwise. On the bank of the Istros Alexander had his first chance to surpass all who had come before him, and to set a precedent. No commander setting out from Greece had ever reached that far north before. Philippos had reached the river itself, but did not cross it; Alexander now had a chance to do exactly that.²⁰ The drive to pass known boundaries would become a dominant factor in Alexander’s future campaigns.

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Amitay, Ory. From Alexander to Jesus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010 (Hellenistic Culture and Society 52).