Alexander in Exile

[Nicator]

Greetings All,The thought naturally occured to me that while in exile Alexander must have trained fervantly in the military and martial arts. He may have used this time to great advantage before being recalled to hone his skills and learn new ones. The alternative is that he lived the veritable life of luxury and leisure at his hosts expense...not likely, considering his ambitious nature. Any comments...

[luc]

I doubt that Alexander even slept well, considering the threat of his father being not so "welcoming" to him, and the whole threat of possible rivals to the throne, possibly even assassination. As for Alexander training, I have no doubt on that. Alexander never really sat idle, and he must have been a good guest, respectful at least.Luc

[ruthaki]

I believe it was recorded and well-known that he provided a lot of cultural activity as well as sports events for himself and his men. He had actors come to perform, and regularly held games.
Much in the same way that entertainment is provided for overseas troops today.

[marcus]

Quite an interesting question, Ruth.All the records of games and theatrical events are those that are connected with religious festivals - whether standard ones, or those held in honour of the gods after a particular victory.What we don't have any information on, is what other entertainments might or might not have been provided outside the religious. There is plenty of information on Greek recreational activity, and we can bet that the army spent a lot of downtime at training. Whether Alexander himself provided any amusements that were not religious (apart from the amusement to be had from his prancing around in Persian clothes, of course) is not known.All the bestMarcus