An illegitimate son?

[athenas owl]

Thank you for bringing this topic up. I can see this happening, a "Persian" marriage....it certainly couldn't have but helped bring Artabazus and his brood of warriors over. I don't know that Barsine and Alexander had been friends, but the interaction between the two families was most likely much more complex than the sources tell us.

[di]

I thought that modern historians no longer believed that Hercules was Alexanders son but that of Memnon - they could count to nine.

It was useful for Alexander to be seen to have a mistress and he acknowledged the baby but both he and Barsine ( and probably others) knew that he wasn't Alexander's son.

[athenas owl]

I thought that modern historians no longer believed that Hercules was Alexanders son but that of Memnon - they could count to nine.

It was useful for Alexander to be seen to have a mistress and he acknowledged the baby but both he and Barsine ( and probably others) knew that he wasn't Alexander's son.

Huh? Memnon died years before Heracles was born, at least 5 years...

Which reminds me. Is there anywhere besides Justin that has Barsine at Pergamon when ATG died?

Meleager argued that “their proceedings should not be suspended for the result of an uncertain birth; nor ought they to wait till kings were born, when they might choose from such as were already born; for if they wished for a boy, there was at Pergamus a son of Alexander by Barsine, named Hercules

13.2.7

Not that she wasn't, but in this very bit Justin also has Meleagros suggesting the boy...when all this time I thought it was Neachus. I have wondered if placing her and the child at Pergamon was done because they certainly were there later.

[Fiona]

Woah! That's a bit of a leap, isn't it? "Surely" to have been to weaken the bond between Alexander and Hephaistion? There's no evidence that Parmenion had the slightest problem with whatever bond those two had (and let's not forget that the nature of that bond is far from being clear).

We also need to be careful of referring to Barsine as Alexander's "Old friend", as well. Sure, it is highly likely that she was in Macedonia with the rest of her family, and it is very possible that she and Alexander met (although not definite); but it's another big leap to refer to them as old friends.

ATB

Oh fiddle, can't a person get away with a tidgy bit of hyperbole round here?
Well, as to the first, it's only 'if so', after the 'with a woman' part, and it was a 'surely' in a suggestion-y sort of voice...
As to the second, OK, OK...Barsine, who was someone he might possibly have met before...
Fiona

[Fiona]

Which reminds me. Is there anywhere besides Justin that has Barsine at Pergamon when ATG died?

Meleager argued that “their proceedings should not be suspended for the result of an uncertain birth; nor ought they to wait till kings were born, when they might choose from such as were already born; for if they wished for a boy, there was at Pergamus a son of Alexander by Barsine, named Hercules

13.2.7
Not that she wasn't, but in this very bit Justin also has Meleagros suggesting the boy...when all this time I thought it was Neachus. I have wondered if placing her and the child at Pergamon was done because they certainly were there later.

It's Curtius who has Nearchus bring the boy's name up, but he doesn't mention Pergamum. He has:

Nearchus then said that while nobody could express surprise that only Alexander's blood-line was truly appropriate for the dignity of the throne, to wait for a king not yet born and pass over one already alive suited neither the inclinations of the Macedonians nor their critical situation. The king already had a son by Barsine, he said, and he should be given the crown. Nobody liked Nearchus' suggestion.

Why didn't they like it, if Barsine had been officially attached in any sense to Alexander? Nearchus seems to believe that the boy was Alexander's son, but you don't, from Curtius' words, get the impression that the army en masse believed it. Nor do we get any idea here how old the child was.
Fiona[/quote]

[marcus]

Woah! That's a bit of a leap, isn't it? "Surely" to have been to weaken the bond between Alexander and Hephaistion? There's no evidence that Parmenion had the slightest problem with whatever bond those two had (and let's not forget that the nature of that bond is far from being clear).

We also need to be careful of referring to Barsine as Alexander's "Old friend", as well. Sure, it is highly likely that she was in Macedonia with the rest of her family, and it is very possible that she and Alexander met (although not definite); but it's another big leap to refer to them as old friends.

ATB

Oh fiddle, can't a person get away with a tidgy bit of hyperbole round here?
Well, as to the first, it's only 'if so', after the 'with a woman' part, and it was a 'surely' in a suggestion-y sort of voice...
As to the second, OK, OK...Barsine, who was someone he might possibly have met before...
Fiona

I can but only go:

ATB