A piece of trivia / to lighten things up a bit

[chris]

HiI seem to recall ATG was quoted as asking his troops before a battle to shave off their beards ...because no purchase could be made on a beard by the enemy.Is this based on fact? Let's have a heated debate.ChrisChris

[marcus]

Hi Chris,Alexander certainly started a fashion of clean-shaving. To be honest, I doubt if the only reason for this was to stop his troops having their hair pulled in battle (after all, the point of the sarissa was that nobody could get near enough), but I have no doubt that this was one of the practical reasons for depilating.All the bestMarcus

[ruthaki]

Yes, I've heard that was one reason they shaved, but probably also because they wanted to set a 'trend' being the young guys at the time. And a lot of handsome fellows too no doubt.

[Link]

It looks like he had some whiskers on his chin.
AlexanderGÇÖs Itinerary
An English Translation*Iolo Davies, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
his forehead was almost all bare, though quite thickly fringed from exercise because of the speed at which he would ride; he let this be the deciding factor here, and as a result he had made his hair curl upwards and lie back and away from his face. He used to say that this was more becoming for a soldier than if his hair were to hang downwards.
He himself was partly masked with his pointed beard; the rest of his face was clean-shaven

[matz]

hmmm...perhaps he could not make himself look older, so he made others look younger?or perhaps so that we can have a topic to discuss on the forum?(:

[yiannis]

Or perhaps he was beardless or had a very ugly beard.
So he wanted all the rest to shave just like he did, just to make himself look "normal" :-)I don't think that the enemy was never close enough to grab them by their beards!

[marcus]

That must be it! :-)I did also wonder whether Alexander in fact couldn't grow a beard, so to hide his embarrassment he set the trend...Marcus

[gb]

Maybe he couldn't, or maybe it's a question of timing.He started out on the road to fame young, of course, so maybe at th+ít time he couldn't yet grow a beard. And by the time he possibly could, his cleanshaven looks had already become a part of his trademark image...

[Dimitrios Poliorketes]

Shaving off beards would have been practical in ancient combat that frequently involved hand to hand fighting since grabbing facial hair of your enenemy would have been used in close range.The Romans invented the military crew cut for this exact reason. ATG was practical and raised as a warrior so I doubt he would have promoted shaving the beard to start a new fashion to be on the cover of the ancient version of People magizine.

[Wolfie]

There was a large amount of fuss supposedly over Alexander being beardless, and Philip II is always portrayed with beard, as are quite a few others pre-Alexander. However, post Alexander coinage from the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empire shows a lot of beardless folks wandering those coins (not that you'd expect beard on the women, but y'know). The fact that Alexander had no beard and "his crowd" followed suit seemed to be new trend from the amount of fuss made from it. I would wager that battle tactics had little to do with it (didn't seem to faze Philip any) and more with personal taste.Or maybe he hated beards...catching the food at the table, leftover beer for later, and all that stuff wasn't to Alexander's personal cleanliness choice. LOL!Wolfie

[amyntoros]

There may be truth in the statement that being clean shaven prevented the enemy from getting a hand hold. All the Persians on the Alexander sarcophagus are portrayed as having their beards wrapped in some kind of cloth. Was this also to prevent the enemy from grabbing a hold, especially as their beards were so long?I have wondered though if hygiene played a part in Alexander's decision. His frequent bathing has been noted in the histories, so his personal hygiene must have been very unusual for the time. This implies that even his close companions may not have been as clean, and the regular army must often have been literally "lousy." Imagine lice running around on their chins and cheeks! Shaving wouldn't eliminate the problem, but it would certainly reduce it. Once Alexander and his whole army were clean shaven, it definitely started a fashion. As you said, anyone who wanted to emulate the great conqueror simply followed suit.Linda Ann