Podcast on Alexander

[Alexias]

This is quite old (2015), but available at present with Melvyn Bragg and Paul Cartledge
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b06d9bkx

[marcus]

This is quite old (2015), but available at present with Melvyn Bragg and Paul Cartledge
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b06d9bkx

Super. I shall try to find some time to listen to this one.

[Alexias]

One interesting point Cartledge makes is that Philip may not have intended taking Alexander with him to Asia and this was a good excuse as any for Alexander to get rid of him. I don't think Philip would have dared leave Alexander behind.

Another point he made was that the Siwah trip was also about the army's morale - look, we've got the gods on our side!

Cartledge also makes the point about Alexander defining his boundaries in India, but he doesn't make the same point about Gedrosia, or about opening up trade routes to the east.

[marcus]

One interesting point Cartledge makes is that Philip may not have intended taking Alexander with him to Asia and this was a good excuse as any for Alexander to get rid of him. I don't think Philip would have dared leave Alexander behind.

The difficulty is, of course, that we have no way of knowing.

On the one hand, it would have made sense to leave him behind - to have the king and the (currently) crown prince both on the campaign increased the risk of them both being killed by a large amount.

Then again, if Alexander had gone and Amyntas son of Perdiccas remained behind, there would have been a viable Argead (doubly so, as he was now married to Philip's daughter) on hand should both Philip and Alexander be killed.

On the other hand, people might have looked rather askance, had Philip been killed, at an heir who had not gone on the campaign. Leaving aside Alexander's stratospheric levels of entitlement, he would have been mortified if he had inherited the throne with only the memory of the Mardi and Chaeronea to bolster his military reputation.

There is, of course, no evidence that Philip intended to leave Alexander behind, and I don't, personally, think it likely. But there is a reasonable argument that he might have considered it.