pothos.org

Most classical sculpture in Copenhagen museums is at the Glyptotek, so if you do a Google image search on "ny carlsberg alexander" it brings up several works. No bronzes though, marbles only. FWIW, I'm guessing it's this one. http://www.flickr.com/photos/planetstar/2321323261/ Chris. Spea...

Are there Any situations in the ancient world where a king or commander of a military campaign had put an unlikely person in charge of an important task? Just wondering if it has happened, or if it would have probably been as out of place then, as it would be now. I am assuming that a eunuch would ...

I am sure there are many on here who are interested in many of the archaeological highlights you bring up! Interesting point you make about out that the special distinction between the "soldiery" and the "commoners". Macedon was a great frontier march and as Aristotle says earned...

Wow, I was not aware of this inscription, thank you for sharing! Fascinating, a letter from a reigning King of Macedon to his officials! Am I also safe in assuming that this letter/inscription would have been meant to be available to be viewed by the common inhabitants?

Myself I would drop the “exceptional”. It may well have been an easy choice for Philip. To me, what’s truly exceptional about it is that Philip picked the man who’d become the most influential philosopher in history. This says something about Philip’s judgement. As for Alexander's intelligence, I p...

Perhaps I should have clarified what was meant by highly educated. It appears Philip took exceptional care to ensure nothing but the best for his heir. Imagine today one of our parents arranging for us the privilege of being tutored by the pre-eminent expert in their respective fields, a leading phi...

Indeed. He laid up an entire store house of incendiaries amidst a group of pyromaniacs, left and failed to supply any manager of the lock and key and wondered why the entire facility burned to the ground. Precisely. If we grant that Alexander was a highly educated and intelligent person which none ...

Nikas, I have to disagree here. The kingdom was perennially most threatened by Persia and Persia was eliminated forever. Certainly, the kingdom in the European sphere was destabilized but only at the cost of a much larger and more powerful dominion overall. It should be noted that Alexander should ...

It's not fair to Alexander to demean him based on the collapse of his kingdom. And what a massive kingdom it was. Had he not taken the whole of the Persian empire, lock, stock, and barrel, it would have been at his doorstep within a few years. Also, like Philip, Alexander had no choice on when he d...

I think its fair to say your litmus test would hold up as a very good way to decide the better king. But is the 'better' king always the 'greater'? We were discussing who was the greater king, and in the days of Alexander, and the days when our precious few sources were being thought up and written...

Did Philip ever actually claim Alexander to be his heir or was Alexander just the best fit at the time of Philips death? Nikas, Dialogues of the Dead! I just ordered it a few days ago and will have it any time now. Glad to know Philip and Alexander are in there. "Dialogues of the Dead"......

Hello folks and what's in it for the workers?? Apparently, to no longer be a tribe of impoverished vagabonds, running around dressed in skins, feeding a few sheep on hills and feebly fighting Thracians, Triballians, and Illyrians, but instead getting some snazzy new cloaks and getting to live in th...

Forgive the length, but I believe this may be of some interest bearing in mind this topic: Lucan, Dialogues of the Dead 12 (14). PHILIP AND ALEXANDER PHILIP You cannot deny that you are my son this time, Alexander; you would not have died if you had been Ammon's. ALEXANDER I knew all the time that y...

Some great responses in this thread and I guess I will finally wade in to the thick of it, but there should be no ambiguity here: I firmly hold that Philip is the greater. Now such a bald-faced statement does need a little explanation. I am of the opinion that while they are many qualities and defic...

One cannot argue that Philip was as 'up to the task' physically as his electrifying son. One eyed and hobbled...this was a recipe for disaster in a tight pinch. Repeatedly we hear of Alexander getting off horse and attacking on foot. In this type of warfare, the warlord's physique was paramount to ...