Greek history Alexander the immortal A new exhibition at Amsterdam’s looks at the enduring legacy of Macedonia’s most famous son

lexander III of Macedonia Greeks, Macedonians were still violent (r. 336–323 BC) (Fig 1) barbarians living on the edge of the owes his epithet ‘the Great’ civilised world. Nevertheless, under to the vast swathe of ter- the rule of Philip II (359–336 BC), the Aritory that he conquered, stretching large northerly kingdom had exploded from Greece in the west to lands into military and political importance, beyond the River Indus in the east. subduing the city-states to the south, !is conquest of much of the known and imposing control over lands lying world was achieved in little more than west of the Hellespont and south of 11 years, following Alexander’s acces- the Danube. Macedonians were also sion to the throne of Macedonia in 336 proving the equals of their Greek BC, aged 20. neighbours intellectually, and in 343 !e exhibition features treasures BC Philip arranged for his son to be from the Russian State Hermitage col- tutored by Aristotle (384–322 BC). !e lection, and has been adapted from opportunity for Aristotle was too great an exhibition held in St Petersburg in to refuse, not only because Alexander 2008. It endeavours to provide a pic- was described as a quick pupil who was ture of Alexander the man, and the eager to learn, but also because Philip 2 great cultural and artistic changes that had destroyed his native town, Stageira followed in the wake of his conquest of in Chalcidice, not long before; once Fig 1. Fine-grained with his dagger under his pillow, the Persian Empire. Aristotle agreed to teach Alexander marble portrait of declaring that he esteemed it a perfect !e exhibition begins with the myth and his boyhood companions, the Alexander which shows portable treasure of all military vir- the characteristic of Alexander and his heroic deeds Macedonian king promised to rebuild tilted head and tue and knowledge’. Once across the as depicted in paintings, tapestries the town and free the citizens from mane-like hair. Hellespont, it was therefore Troy that th and decorative arts from the 17 to slavery or exile. A 1st century AD became the #rst goal of Alexander. the 19th centuries (Fig 3). !e exhibi- !e majority of the exhibition is Roman copy, probably On reaching the site of the ancient tion then moves on to what is titled devoted to the anabasis of Alexander, from Asia Minor, from city, steeped in Homeric myth, where ‘Alexander’s Reality’, focusing on his the great campaign against the might of a Greek original of the hero Achilles had won undying native land of Macedonia, his teach- the Achaemenid Empire and the jour- 175–150 BC. fame before meeting his long proph- ers, his heroes and his ideals. To the ney to the East. !e military campaign esied early death, Alexander made Fig 2. The Courage had been planned by his father just of Poros, by Bernard 1 before his assassination by Pausanias, Picart (1673–1733). 3 one of his bodyguards, at the theatre in The engraving Aegae. Under Alexander the invasion depicts the Battle of Persia would develop into an unpar- of the Hydaspes, alleled campaign of conquest lasting and Alexander’s hard more than a decade. Treasures pro- won victory against duced in the far-"ung regions of the Poros in 326 BC. 70.6 x 55cm. vast empire of the Persian King Darius III are on display in the Amsterdam Fig 3. Bronze table Hermitage, from Egypt in the west, clock, featuring a Sogdiana and in the north, to seated Alexander India in the east. Visitors can follow reading from a scroll, the route of his celebrated journey (Fig with weapons behind 6) on interactive maps and computers. his throne. After an According to Alexander’s biogra- original timepiece by Pierre Thomire, pher Plutarch, the young Macedonian (c. 1830–40). H. 70cm. king ‘constantly laid Homer’s Iliad…

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Fig 4. Black-figure 6 hydria depicting Achilles with the Body of Hector. Leagros Group, The Antiope Painter, Attica, c. 510 BC. H. 49cm.

Fig 5. Iron helmet with silver decoration. Possibly from Melos, Greece, 360-300 BC. H. 22cm. Persian army personally directed by 7 King Darius took place late the fol- Fig 6. Map outlining the campaigns that lowing year in south-west Asia Minor took Alexander from on the River Issus. Despite raising a Greece to India. vast army, which, according to ancient sources numbered as many as 600,000 Fig 7. Gold figure of men (the actual number was probably a Persian horseman closer to 100,000), the result for the th th with bow. 5 –4 Persians was similar to that of the pre- century BC. H. 3.6cm. vious spring. "e elite Companion cav- sacri!ces at his hero’s shrine. At the Fig 8. Limestone relief alry of the Macedonians cutting into same time Alexander’s friend and lover, fragment depicting a the heart of the Achaemenid forces, Hephaestion, honoured Patroclus, who member of the Persian forcing the Great King to %ee the !eld, had shared a similarly close bond with royal bodyguard. leaving his bodyguard to be butchered Achilles (Fig 4). From Iran, c. 500 BC. H. and army routed (Fig 8). Following the "e !rst encounter with the Persians 22.3cm. took place on the River Granicus in 8 north-west Anatolia. According to Alexander’s biographer Arrian (c. AD 85–160), the Macedonian cavalry was crucial to the victory, smashing into the centre of the Persian line. As was usual throughout his battles, the Macedonian king was in the thick of the !ghting when: ‘Rhoesaces rode up to Alexander and hit him on the head with his scimitar, breaking o# a piece of his helmet… Alexander struck him to the ground, hitting him in the chest through the breastplate with his lance. At the same moment, and coming at Alexander from behind, Spithridates had already raised alo$ his sword against the Macedonian king, when Cleitus, son of Dropidas, anticipated his blow, cutting o# the Persian noble- man’s arm, scimitar and all’ (Anabasis, 1.15) (Figs 5, 7). "e !rst battle fought against the

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Fig 9. Drawing in pen battle, the Macedonians discovered the 11 12 wife, mother and daughters of Darius and pencil on green- in the king’s tent, and Alexander blue paper by an unknown Dutch artist treated them with courtesy and respect showing Alexander (Fig 10). Darius himself would raise cutting the Gordian another vast army and at Gaugamela in knot, c. 1600. October 331 BC once again contested 34.8 x 26.7cm. the fate of his empire. As in the previ- ous battles, Alexander’s integrated use Fig 10. Tapestry of of cavalry and heavy infantry armed Alexander and Darius’ with long sarrissa spears would prove family. Flanders, Brussels, Jan Frans decisive. Trapped between this anvil van den Hecke and hammer Darius again !ed the workshop, 1661-95. "eld, to be killed early the following 451 x 690cm. year by Bessus, his kinsman and the of Bactria. His death brought an Fig 11. Alexander the end to the Achaemenid dynasty. Great and by (Life of Alexander, 62.1). Establishing According to the famous legend, any- At Gaugamela the Macedonians Pietro Antonio Rotari Poros as a client King, Alexander began one able to loosen the bindings would had their "rst experience of "ghting (1707–1762). Oil on the long journey back to Babylon, "rst go on to rule Asia. When Alexander canvas, 1756. war elephants, and as Alexander led following the rivers to the Arabian found himself unable to untie the his army further eastwards into the Fig 12. Apelles Sea, and then leading the army across knot he solved the problem by slicing lands of the Indian kings, they would painting Campaspe, the fearsome Gedrosian Desert. It was through it with a blow of his sword. confront large numbers of these for- by Sebastiano Ricci a march that le# many of his veteran A beautiful intaglio depicting midable creatures in battle. A#er hard (1659–1734). Pliny troops dead, and which many writers – Methe, goddess of drunkenness, from "ghting through the lands of what are the Elder tells the ancient and modern – have regarded as the Aulus workshop in Egypt of the today Afghanistan and Pakistan, in 326 story of the Greek Alexander’s revenge against his army 1st century BC, provides a link to both BC the Macedonian army crossed the artist Apelles, who for their refusal to continue the cam- the spread of Greek culture across the was stunned by River Indus before moving south-east Campaspe’s beauty paign eastwards into the heart of India. Near East in the wake of Alexander’s to the River Hydaspes. Here Alexander and fell in love with %roughout this section of the exhi- campaigns, and the heavy drink- fought his last great battle against the her. Alexander was bition, artefacts and pictures relate to ing that was a feature throughout the Indian ruler Porus, whose army con- so delighted with the some of the most memorable moments Macedonian king’s life (Fig 12). It was tained as many as 100 war elephants painting that he gave of Alexander’s campaign. A sketch by in 328 BC, while in a drunken rage, (Fig 2). With the horses refusing to Campaspe to Apelles. an unknown Dutch artist, dating to the that Alexander murdered Cleitus the engage the elephants, the Macedonian Oil on canvas, c. 1705. early 17th century, illustrates the cutting Black, the cavalry commander who had infantry took the brunt of the "ght- of the Gordian Knot in the ancient saved his life six years earlier at the Fig 13. Chalcedony ing and, although they were ultimately intaglio depicting Phrygian capital of Gordium Battle of the River Granicus. victorious, the number of dead and Methe, goddess of in central Anatolia as the Plutarch describes the scene: wounded was high. Despite his own drunkenness. Aulus army wintered in the ‘Alexander seized a spear personal ambition to reach the Ganges workshop, Egypt, city during 333 BC (Fig from one of his guards, met and follow it to the great encircling 1st century BC. 9). %e staves of an ox- Cleitus as he was drawing ocean that Greek philosophers believed 2.2 x 1.7cm. cart dedicated to the aside the curtain before was just beyond, the Hydaspes was to god Sabazios (o#en the door, and ran him prove the eastern limit of Alexander’s equated by Greeks through. No sooner had conquests. Plutarch writes of how ‘this with either or Cleitus fallen with a roar last combat with Porus took o$ the sometimes Dionysus) and a groan than the king’s edge of the Macedonians’ courage, and were fastened with a anger departed from him. stayed their further progress into India’ uniquely elaborate knot. And when he was come to 13 22 Minerva September/October 2010

p20-23_Alexander.indd 4 04/08/2010 19:09 of 327 BC he had married Roxana, a Bactrian princess, described by some as the most beautiful girl in the whole of Asia (Fig 11). Roxana was pregnant with her #rst child at the time of Alexander’s death, and bore him a posthumous son, Alexander IV. However, despite coming under the protection of Olympias, Roxana and her son were assassinated some 13 years a!er Alexander’s own death. $ere is a tradition that Alexander had previously lived with Campaspe, from the $essalian city of Larissa, and had a child with the noblewomen. However, while inspiring Renaissance and mod- 15 ern painters (Fig 12), the relationship goes unmentioned in the principal lit- Egypt (Fig 16), the dynasty that ruled erary works that deal with Alexander’s the country for nearly three centuries life. until Cleopatra VII took her own life in $e #nal section of the exhibition 30 BC, and her young son, Ptolemy XV focuses on Alexander’s legacy. Despite Caesarion, was executed later that year his empire’s rapid decline, Alexander’s on the orders of Octavian (Fig 17). in%uence on the world endured. He $e feats of Alexander extended le! Greek and Macedonian settlers well beyond antiquity, with various scattered in the numerous cities he versions of the Alexander Romance had founded across his vast empire. popular across Europe and the Middle Here they came into contact with local East throughout the medieval period. 14 populations, spreading Greek customs $e story of Dhul-Qarnayn from the while assimilating some of the local Qur’an and other holy works from himself… he drew the spear from the Fig 14. Marble traditions to produce a unique cultural Islam, has also been equated with dead body and would have dashed it of Bacchus/ synthesis. $e third part of the exhi- Alexander. Meaning ‘the man with Dionysus. Roman into his own throat, had not his body- bition follows the spread of this new two horns’ the name certainly re%ects 2nd century AD copy guards prevented this by seizing his of a Greek original. Hellenistic culture, with terracotta #g- depictions of Alexander as he appears hands and carrying him to his chamber’ H. 207cm. urines depicting men and women, gods on gold staters minted during his (Life of Alexander, 51. 9-11). and satyrs, as well as stone fragments reign. Generally known as Iskander Entering India in 326 BC, Alexander Fig 15. Iskandar of architecture; all of which testify to in the countries of the east, Alexander was also following in the footsteps of and the Hermit. the artistic wealth that characterised would also play a prominent role in Dionysus (Fig 14), the god of wine. Illumination from a territories conquered by Alexander, Persian literature (Fig 15), and appears According to myth, the deity had trav- manuscript of Khamse and which endured for centuries. in #nely executed miniatures dating by Nizami Ghanjavi, elled across the subcontinent teach- $e jewel in Alexander’s empire was from the early modern period. 1431 AD. ing Indians cultivation of the vine. 23.7 x 13.7cm. the wealthy land of Egypt. Although Down the centuries, Alexander has Alexander’s mother, Olympias, was spending less than a year in Egypt dur- remained a source of inspiration for a devotee of Dionysus, god of wine, Fig 16. Three-layer ing his campaigns, he had been greeted writers and artists. His personal cour- while Alexander also drank large quan- sardonyx twin as a liberator from Persian rule and, age, and unparalleled military victo- tities of alcohol throughout his life. portrait of Ptolemy II following his famous visit to the ries, o!en against overwhelming Alcohol also played a prominent role Philadelphos Oracle at Siwa, was proclaimed opposition, captured Hellenistic in Alexander’s death. Arrian writes of and Arsinoe II son of Amun. Whether or not and Roman imaginations. (Gonzaga Cameo). how Alexander became ill following a he believed in his divine par- Byzantine monarchs liked to see From Alexandria, long drinking session with Medius of 3rd century BC. entage, his worship as a liv- themselves as the direct descen- Larissa, while Diodorus Siculus says 15.7 x 11.8cm. ing god by Egyptians and dants of the Macedonian king, the Macedonian king grew sick a!er other peoples in the Persian and throughout the Middle drinking a large bowl of unmixed wine Fig 17. Basalt sculpture Empire, as well as the adop- Ages his legend was suf- in honour of Hercules. Following an of Cleopatra VII, tion of other oriental traits, fused with Christian piety, illness that lasted 12 days, Alexander 51–30 BC. H. 104 cm. would cause disquiet among while artwork based on his died. Aside from the e"ects of many many in the Macedonian life remained popular during years of consumption of undi- army. Before leaving Egypt the Italian Renaissance. I luted wine, poison, malaria, Alexander also founded a typhoid, meningitis, and city bearing his name on the !e exhibition ‘!e many other theories Mediterranean coast, on the Immortal Alexander the have been put forward western edge of the Delta. Great’ will be on view from to explain Alexander’s Alexandria would quickly 18 September 2010 until 18 death at the age of 32. grow into one of the largest and March 2011 in the Hermitage, Alexander’s early most in%uential cities in the Amsterdam. death, without an heir, ancient world. In addition to its All images (except Fig 6) would ultimately lead to economic and cultural impor- courtesy of !e State Hermitage the dismemberment of tance, the city became the capi- Museum, St Petersburg. his empire. In the spring tal of the Ptolemaic rulers of 16

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