The 12 altars on iaxartes river

[fraghiskos]

Hi guys.
I'm searching for information about the 12 altars that
Alexander built on the riverside of Iaxarte during the India
campign.
Mostly i'm interested in any archaeological evidence of
these manufacts. Did anyone find or belive to find the
altars? At least, the reason why Alexander built them is'n
not so clear to me, moreover if you consider this: he was
the 13th god of Olympus, as his own celebration of his
great deeds, but at Iaxartes it seemed that he ignored his
divine nature as he built just 12 altars! Maybe he was
convinced not to be a god beacuse he couldn't arrive to
the edges of the world as he wanted to.

[Nicator]

One of the members has a decent web page concerning a possible alter still in existance, but moved up river some distance. You bring up a very good point about his divinity, my obvious first thought was to his father's fate after having erected the 13th pillar to himself on the day of his murder. As Renault said, it seems that even in Alexander's day, 13 was an unlucky number. Whether or not Alexander made this connection is pure speculation. Or, it gives good indication that he still maintained his faculties and didn't actually think himself a god...only used it as a ploy to more easily manage his subjects...you decide.later Nicator

[susan]

The site about the altars is at:
http://www.geocities.com/ranajitdaI expect that Dr Pal will post more on this thread himself.RegardsSusan

[Dr. Pal]

Dear Francesco, Nick and Susan,The altars were grand structures and are of immense archaeological importance. The wholesale disappearance of not one or two but twelve of them is a clear indication that what we have here is a historical blunder of scandalous proportions. This problem was examined by a great scholars but sadly it was not realised that apart from the reports of Arrian, Plutarch and Diodorus, much valuable data about Alexander can be gleaned from the history of his associates (like Moeris) and those who immediately followed him. The key figure here is Asoka, grandson of Maurya or Moeris. I have shown that he is none other than Diodotus-I whose numerous gold and silver coins are of excellent quality and known to every numismatist.Curiously while there is apparently no trace of the twelve altars, there are nearly the same number of grand Asokan pillars which are said to have been erected only about fifty years later. What sort of memorials could Alexander think of? Remembering that like his fatherGÇÖs lion-statue at Chaeronea he had also erected a lion-statue at Hamadan in honour of Hephaestion, it is judicious to surmise that in India too at least some of the altars had lion capitals to commemorate the dead soldiers. This is exactly the case - many of the so-called Asokan pillars have lion-capitals. Barring some patriotic writers like R. Thapar all the art historians have noted the Greek imprint on the Asokan pillars. This is the imprint of Alexander.To cap it all, the Delhi-Topra Asokan pillar was not only carried away from the Beas area where Alexander had come but in it Asoka urges others to engrave messages of Dhamma(righteousness) on existing pillars which makes it inescapable that he had also done it himself. However Asoka had overwritten on the pillars not so much to bolster his image but was driven by a selfless mission to promote Dharma. India has an ancient literary tradition and it is possible that AlexanderGÇÖs inscription was in Greek. Significantly Asoka refers to previous kings who had tried to propagate the message of Dhamma but failed. This is surely a reference to AlexanderGÇÖs call for Homonoia. Tarn certainly made many mistakes but was right about Homonoia.Regards,Dr. Pal

[jan]

Thank you, Susan, for providing this information. I had suffered an allergy during the parsa 3d reconstruction effort only to have it cleared through reading this material on the romance of skander and the history of Alexander by India.This was a most illuminating session as I must relate the time when a peacock strutted up to my family's front door when we lived in Colorado. The section on the peacocks reminded me. Fascinating!Truth is stranger than fiction!Jan