Philip at Chaeronea

[jan]

Aha, at last I can respond to your message. When I was teaching I worked with a man who kept his personal life unknown to any of the members of the faculty. We were all a nosey bunch. But his privacy was safe as he kept his mouth shut. I always like that, and I believe that the same is true of Alexander. He seems to have little known about his private life at all. It is all speculation. Probably, he showed good sense.I am still under the influence of Arthur Weigall who tackles this problem of Alexander's abstinence with good sense, and thus, I believe that Weigall's conclusions are probably British and Egyptian sane for his times. I hope that you don't disappear entirely from view now, John. I always enjoy your thoughts.Jan

[Me]

As I have said before, it is important to realize the strength of the honour that bound these men. We read little about Alexander's personal life because that is how Alexander wanted it- and those who called him friend respected those wishes, even after his death.. I am certain there were others who were seeking more information, but it was not forthcoming from those privy to the truth, those who knew. And perhaps, that is always best...if Alexander had wanted his private life spread out for everyone to gawk at, he would have lived less privately and not bound others to this same secrecy... those who DID speak out were NOT from the inner circle, so their stories are speculation as much as what is done today.
Of course, there will always be gossip, stories and speculation- but they will always be just that- and they can be enjoyed for what they are, but never forget that they ARE stories!
Public behaviour was always open for discussion; private was not.

[Nicator]

Hello S,I had to leave it alone for about a year, but in the last few months I have been hitting it hard. The battle of Guagemela has been given special attention, revised, and enlarged to around 20 pages or so. That's including the prelude to battle, the battle itself, and the aftermath. I'm trying to re-write the battle scenes with expanded information sources. Taking the best available information, as compiled from the available material, and combining it to recreate as I see the battles must have gone. I have recently expanded the intro, and the conclusion...not to mention adding many sections in between. I have also loosened up on my criteria for the actual count in the rhyming schema. After a massive re-write completed last year in which I crunched everything down to 11 counts per line (with rare exception), I have now in some cases allowed 12 (but never 13, and rarely 10). The page count is around 55 now...nearly doubled what it was when I left it last year. My criteria now is in this order:1. The historical accuracy2. The meaning (understandable couplets)3. The rhyme4. The count per line...with 1 and 2 being roughly equal in importance, & 3 and 4 being roughly equal in importance. As always, I look forward to reading your post on Philip at Chaeronea.Yours Nicator

[Nicator]

John, I'm laughing...thanks for the fresh insight!

[S]

Greetings Nicator!
I am hoping someone else might tackle this in the meantime But if not...
I am *still* bogged on that "Horses of ALexander's Army" article- the writing is done but it needs photos that are copyright free.. Halil and I will be traveling to Greece in Sept so I hope to try to get a few, then. Can only try... it seems some of the wild horses are having a difficult time in the drought and higher temps. A few people are trying to breed back to older types, but we'll see- sad that when a thing is gone, its gone. Just was told today there are only about 150 of the giant Iberian donkeys left? Not sure if that even leaves a viable breeding population without increasing too much inbreeding...
At any rate, I better sign off- I know I, and others, are looking forward to your epic!!
Sikander