Where Did Alexanders Armour end up

[kenny]

Companions hi.Its known that Alexanders armour etc ended up at one time with the Roman Emperors ie, Caligula .Im just wondering are there records or mentions as to what became of them did they just become lost.Its gottta be assumed that at the same time these items were taken from Alexandria Its likely that the body Also removed would you agree or is there record how or when the items were taken from Alexandria and by whom.
Kenny

[marcus]

Hi Kenny,Well, we know when the armour was removed from Alexandria, because Caligula removed it :-)Unfortunately there's no record of what happened to it later. I suspect it lay in a storeroom gathering dust, and at some point it was chucked out by the cleaning lady.Had the body been removed at the same time as the armour I think it would have been recorded, so we can be pretty sure that the body itself stayed in the Soma. After all, the body wasn't *wearing* the armour (I think) so disturbing one didn't mean disturbing the other.CheersMarcus

[jona]

After Caligula, several emperors have identified themselves with Alexander: Nero, for instance, founded a unit that was called "the phalanx" (later known as the First Italian legion, and -ironically- sent to northern Macedonia, Moesia: http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/i_italica.html ).Later, the emperors Trajan and Severus Alexander are known to have had an interest in Alexander. (Perhaps Caracalla too, I'm not sure.) It is possible that one of these took away the armor.Otherwise, the armor may have been destroyed during the fire of 69 or 192.Jona

[xxx]

Caracalla was especially interested in Alexander.Where's his armor? Depends on who you talk too. Certainly some of it was undoubtedly saved for his son. Alexander had more than one set naturally. Eumenes would have had some of it and he would have been in his parade armor when he was placed in the gold sarcaphagus. No doubt the Roman stories of removal of his grave goods are true. If Alexander's bones are around, they would not be with his armor. Maybe in the smae place as the holy grail somewhere :-)Borza and others believe Alexander's armor is in Tomb II mostly based on the fact an iron helmet was found there, but we have no idea if Alexander was the only one who had an iron helmet.

[amyntoros]

Also, we can't know for sure that any of these emperors really did have Alexander's armour - anyone could claim to possess it, but it doesn't mean it was true. Cassius Dio had his doubts, saying about Caligula, "When all was ready, he put on the breastplate of Alexander (or so he claimed).."

[Taphoi]

There is yet another set of Alexander's armour to be considered. According to Arrian 1.11.7:"[Alexander] then went up to Troy, and sacrificed to the Trojan Athena, dedicated his full armour in the temple, and took down in its place some of the dedicated arms yet remaining from the Trojan war."I have heard a rumour more than once in recent years that Count Belisarius took this armour when he visited Abydos on the expedition against the Vandals. However, I have never been able to track down the reference. Does anyone out there have any information on this? The reference may not say where Belisarius got the armour from (that's partly my guess) - just that he had it in Africa or on another campaign.Best wishes,Andrew