the_accursed wrote: And the argument that Philip ought to have put the most capable person in every position in his most important battle is hardly "hyperbole".
That might be true. The argument, quoted above, was not the hyperbole rererred to as I believe is obvious. The hyperbole is the deliberate use of emotive terms to describe the situation. Alexander is not being advised by “those who lead” or Philip’s “seasoned generals”; in the emotive hyperbole of the case presented he is being “babysat” by Generals who therefore could not focus on the battle.marcus wrote:I think Paralus is being a bit harsh by accusing you of hyperbole. However, I do agree with him that there really wasn't any other place for the heir presumptive to be. It would have looked very odd, in a warlike culture such as Macedonia, for an 18-year-old heir to be denied a place on the battlefield - irrespective of whether or not it was a command position.
The point about the presumptive heir is correct – as others have pointed out. This is the warrior king society in action. It is highly improbable the “teenage” Alexander – who at eighteen is old enough to be king – will have been left at Pella.
Diodorus, once again, is interested in the contesting personalities. Polyaenus and Frontinus point up that there were “grand tactics” in play here and that Philip will have been only too pleased to be informed that his left was making inroads into to the Allied phalanx – no matter who commanded it – as that was what he’d planned to accomplish. Diodorus is more interested in the “competition” between father and son.
No, it was not his first battle. If we may take Justin at his word, Alexander was summoned north in 339 so as “to join him (Philip), and learn the rudiments of war in the camp of his father”.athenas owl wrote:Alexander, at 16, led a force that defeated the Maedi in the Strymon Valley.
It isn't like Chaeronea was his first rodeo..and sadly his childhood and adolescence is sketchy in the sources. What kind of batle experience did he have in the 2 years between the Strymon valley and Chaeronea? The Triballi, the Scythians of the Ister..and? When ATG supposedly saved his father's life against the mutiny, he used his own shield to protect dad....
The Triballi, Scythians and the Ister are all after his accession to the throne. That last – saving his father’s life – seems to have passed me by. Perhaps last night’s shiraz killed the memory engrams?