Lives by Plutarch - 9 - Alexander
Alexander
Quote
"For Alexander is as kind in victory as he is terrible in battle."
Notes
Alexander is the son of King Philip of Macedonia, a kingdom north of Greece. Before his birth, his mother, Olympias, has a dream that her womb is struck by lightning. Other stories like this seem to indicate that the gods have marked ALexander out for an extraordinary life.
He grows up with a strong desire for recognition which, Plutarch says, "gives his mind a certain dignity beyond his years." He isn't interested in wealth, but fame. And he is afraid his father, who's having lots of success on the battlefield, won't leave anything else for him to conquer.
While Alexander is still young, Philip gets a new horse, Bucephalas, but no one can tame it so he says they'll have to get rid of it. Alexander chides Philip and his men and says that he (Alexander) can tame the horse. Philip is taken aback but gives him a chance, and Alexander does tame the horse. Philip is impressed and says, "Son, you had better try to find a kingdom you fit: Macedonia is too small for you."
Philip hires lots of high-quality tutors for Alexander, including Aristotle. He resettles Aristotle's hometown (which Philip had previously conquered) and sets up a resort where the two of them can study. At one point, Alexander gets upset at Aristotle for publishing his "secret teachings". Alexander complains and says, "How am I supposed to stand out from everyone else if the ideas which constituted my education become common property? I would rather be distinguished by my knowledge of these excellent teachings than by my power." Still, Alexander loves learning and reading. He especially loves reading the Iliad.
As he grows up Alexander starts leading successful military campaigns and getting more popular. Meanwhile, Philip is losing it. He's getting trouble with his many wives and starts losing the respect of his son. At one point he falls over drunk trying to attack him.
Philip soon gets killed, allegedly by Olympias, Alexander's mother, and Alexander becomes the new king. With Philip's death, many of Macedonia's surrounding colonies and places they've conquered are unhappy and gearing up to revolt, so Alexander has his work cut out for him right away to stop them and demonstrate his strength.
He defeats the Greeks early on, and he shows kindness in his victory. For example, his soldiers attack and rape one woman named Timocleia, but she eventually gets the better of them and pushes one down a well. They bring her before Alexander as a prisoner but he can see by the way she carries herself that she is a woman of dignity. He talks with her and says she and her children can have their freedom and leave.
This is also where he meets the Greek cynic philosopher, Diogenes. He asks Diogenese if he wants anything and Diogenes replies, "Yes, move aside a little, out of my sunlight." Alexander is so impressed and says, "if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."
He decides to conquer the Persians next and after some arduous battles and river-crossings, he defeats them. Darius flees back to Persia to regroup. They capture Darius' wife and daughters, but Alexander treats them with kindness and dignity.
The Persians have tons of wealth which Alexander and his men capture. But Alexander doesn't let wealth get the better of him. He shows self-control when it comes to food, sex, and wine, and he's aware of the temptations they offer. He says there is "nothing better than sleep and sex for reminding him that he is not a god." Plutarch adds this is "presumably on the assumption that both tiredness and pleasure arise from the same flaw in our nature." However, he does indulge in self-glorification and flattery from his men at their dinnertime conversations.
Alexander is at least partially aware of his legendary status. He visits the shrine at Ammon and the prophet there says that he is the son of a god. But he is also using these legends to boost his reputation and help him dominate others.
Darius comes out with an offer of friendship to Alexander, but he refuses. Darius' wife dies and he is devastated, but he also hears how well she was treated under Alexander, which adds to his respect for him.
Alexander is preparing for another battle against the Persians, and some of his advisors say they should attack them at night because the Persians have so many men. But Alexander doesn't want to give Darius any possible excuses to explain away a loss. Since Darius has near infinite resources, he can only be beaten if they destroy his confidence and pride. And to do that they have to beat him in broad daylight, no tricks or surprises. Alexander sleeps soundly that night having resolved what he must do. And when the battle comes he wins it. Darius gets away again, but Alexander is now proclaimed king of Asia.
They march into Persia and Alexander sees a statue of Xerxes that was knocked over. He talks to it as if he's talking to Xerxes and he actually shows great respect for the former king of the land he's just taken over. Alexander shows kindness and generosity to his men and to all the people he rules over. He was "born generous and becomes even more so as his affairs prospered." He's also getting advice from Olympias, his mother, reminding him to show kindness to his friends.
Alexander isn't tempted by luxury and he lightly reprimands others for it. He says he finds "it astonishing that people who had fought so many major battles could forget that working for others makes for a better night's rest than being worked for by others." And, he says, "there's no point in winning unless we avoid imitating the losers," a reference maybe to how the Persians had indulged too much in luxury(?).
Some people do want the luxury though and they resent the constant military activity they have to be a part of. But it's hard not to love Alexander. He's a strong leader who works and fights alongside his men. In one instance when they're travelling through a desert, a small amount of water is offered to him, but he refuses it so he can remain in solidarity with his men.
Alexander believes that Persians and Macedonians will get along more if there's some fusion between their cultures, so he personally takes on more Persian customs and clothing. He believes this is a better route than using force. He also marries a Persian to further signal the bond. Overall he treats women very respectfully, a contrast with other rulers who do lots of raping and pillaging.
There's more disgruntlement and problems with a few of Alexander's higher ranking officers and friends. One of them, Philolas, starts talking shit about Alexander with his (Philolas') girlfriend. Alexander finds out but does nothing with it for the moment. Philolas is later suspected in a a plot on Alexander's life and he's killed. Alexander also kills another officer in a drunken fight and immediately regrets it. More rumours of plots to kill Alexander spread around.
They continue on to India and meet with a friendly ruler named Taxiles. He doesn't want to fight with them and freely offers gifts of his vast amounts of wealth. Alexander likes Taxiles and replies, "Do you really think these welcoming words of yours can avert a battle arising from our meeting? No, I won't let you prevail. I shall fight to the bitter end, pitching my generosity against yours, to make sure that you don't get the better of me in kindness."
They do see fighting with other kingdoms in India, including armies with war elephants. Alexander is badly wounded in one of the battles. Rumours of his weakness leads some of his governors to revolt and abuse their power. So he goes back to deal with that, and he personally kills some of the rebelling governors. At the same time, he also shows honour and love to his friends who remained loyal. He deeply grieved the loss of his close friends and honoured them with grand funerals and memorials.
Alexander starts seeing bad omens all over and is overcome with superstitious feelings. Plutarch says, "contemptuous doubt of the supernatural is terrible, but superstition is terrible as well." He contracts a disease and slowly dies from it. There are rumours that he was poisoned, but there are no signs of poisoning on his body.
Extras
Plutarch on his method of writing biography:
"I am not writing history but biography, and the most outstanding exploits do not always have the property of revealing the goodness or badness of the agent; often, in fact, a casual action, the odd phrase, or a jest reveals character better than battles involving the loss of thousands upon thousands of lives."