ATG & Rome

[Vanessa Howard]

I wonder how much impact ATG had on the ruling class of Rome?

All great military leaders/historical figures can be used for propaganda and initially I wondered if ATG was employed by anti-republicans? After all, for those intent on bypassing/dissolving the power of the Senate, it must have been useful to reference ATG and his achievements as King - wielding unencumbered power.

But then I thought that if ‘consensus building’ was a cornerstone of Macedonian kingship, it could have been pointed out that he was an inclusive leader not a despot.

Also makes me wonder how different things might have been if ATG were born Athenian...but that's another thread I guess!

I would be grateful for any insights - was ATG a popular figure in Roman political life?

[Paralus]

Also makes me wonder how different things might have been if ATG were born Athenian...but that's another thread I guess!

Now there's something from outside of left field. The assembly will have voted to fine him some 150 talents after the hubristic visit to Siwa. God knows what it will have done when it asked for an acoounting of his fiscal management at the end of his term as strategoi.

The asembly will have had appoplexy over his relationship to Hephaestion and that barbarian courtier Barsine. They'd have branded Heracles a metic at best. Then we'd have the unedifying sight of Alexander passionately arguing for the putting aside of citizenship laws for his - as yet - unborn son.

I wonder will they have elected an emporer? Then again, given his proclivity to get about with bodyguards, they'd likely have branded him a tyrant. No Kleomenes in Sparta though to come boot him out!

[Vergina Sun]

Alexander the Great was pretty well-known in Rome. In "Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions" by Frank L. Holt, Holt wrote:

An envious Julius Caesar wept in Spain at the mere sight of Alexander's statue. Pompey the Great rummaged through the closets of conquered nations for Alexander's 260-year-old cloak, which the Roman general then wore as the costume of greatness. In his zeal to honor Alexander, Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) accidentally broke the nose off the Macedonian's mummified corpse while laying a wreath at the hero's shrine in Alexandria, Egypt. The unbalanced emperor Caligula later took the dead king's armor from that tomb and donned it for luck. The Macriani, a Roman family that rose to the imperial throne in the third century c.e., always kept images of Alexander on their persons, either stamped into their bracelets and rings or stitched into their garments. Even their dinnerware bore Alexander's face, with the story of the king's life displayed around the rims of special bowls.

I'm not sure how much help this was, but I'm still looking for other sources that state how the Roman ruling class felt.

[smittysmitty]

I wonder how much impact ATG had on the ruling class of Rome?

I would be grateful for any insights - was ATG a popular figure in Roman political life?

We are indebted to Rome's elite for preserving what we know today about Alexander. All five major sources on Alexander were either written by or for the Roman elite .

[Vanessa Howard]

Thank you - the Frank L Holt quote is fascinating. I had read before of Caesar’s tears as he reached the age that ATG died and realised how little he had achieved (at that point) but was not sure if it was a myth

And where would we be without Arrian - it was the first book I read about ATG and it kick-started everything for me.

And thank you Paralus - what a brilliant way to imagine ATG born an Athenian citizen - thought provoking and it made me laugh out loud!

Cheers