Was Alexander the Great Greek?

 

The question regarding the Greek identity of Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians has been decisively answered by history, archaeology, and ancient written sources.

1. Lineage and Language Alexander belonged to the Argead dynasty, who traced their ancestry back to Argos in the Peloponnese. The language of the Macedonians was a Doric dialect of Greek, as evidenced by thousands of inscriptions found in Macedonia (such as the Pella Curse Tablet).

2. Participation in the Olympic Games In antiquity, only Greeks were allowed to participate in the Olympic Games. As early as the reign of Alexander I (an ancestor of Alexander the Great), the Macedonian kings were admitted to the games after proving their Greek lineage.

3. The "Pan-Hellenic" Mission During his campaign against the Persians, Alexander did not present himself as a mere Macedonian conqueror, but as the Hegemon of the Panhellenic Alliance. In his famous dedication after the Battle of Granicus, he wrote: "Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians...".

4. Education and Culture Tutored by Aristotle, Alexander was an enthusiast of Homer’s Iliad. He spread Greek culture and the Greek language to the depths of Asia, establishing the Hellenistic world that influenced Western civilization for centuries.

Historical Fact

In 2011, more than 370 leading classical scholars from around the world sent a letter to the President of the United States, confirming the Greek identity of Macedonia.