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Hello, thought I'd ask my buddies on the forum about a detail regarding Alexander in Gaza.
I read that after Gaza had been taken, Alexander had the male population decimated to the man. I mean that seems extreme and totally OTT for ATG- what could have provoked such a drastic,radical and cruel act?
I know that there is an episode that appears in Curtius where Alex takes Betis around Gaza, Achillean style which is of dubious origin and I wondered if this was the same with this "fact".
All the best, Dean.

Hi Dean,I don't really remember enough of the details without referring to my books, but if you consider the massacre at Thebes, the massacre of the mercenaries at the Granicus, the massacre at Tyre... (and these are just examples *before* Gaza) it doesn't really seem out of character.Alexander's policy throughout his campaign was that, if a city surrendered unconditionally, he was extremely lenient, but if it put up a fight he gave no quarter. This is not, in fact, very different from the rules of siege warfare throughout the ages (including up to the Peninsular War in the early 19th century, and probably beyond) - you had your chance and if you resisted - blam!All the bestMarcus

Hi Marcus, how was the Stoneman lecture?
Last night I was reading the posts on this site which foreran the address on Thursday. I am quite curious as to know how it went. Any comments?
Best wishes, Dean.

Hi Dean,There's still some wrangling going on over who's going to write a piece on the lecture, but as a teaser...It was pretty good. Stoneman is, unfortunately, not a very exciting speaker, so I think I dozed off at a couple of points. But he had some fantastic photos - some of them we have seen before (reproduced in various books, such as Wood's "Footsteps"), but many of them I had not seen before and they were fascinating - old Persian and Arabic, as well as Western paintings/illustrations.One of the early comments he made was that he has about 20 reasons why he believes the Alexander Romance was originally conceived during the early Ptolemaic period (as in, possibly even before Ptolemy I died)... but he then said he wasn't going to go into that. Fair enough, but unfortunately I would have found that more interesting that what he did focus on! But his general argument was to show how Alexander wove his way into the legends of so many cultures (including the Grail/Arthurian legend), and why this was the case (ie. what Alexander symbolised for the various cultures). I didn't actually take any notes, but I think Susan did, so perhaps she can elaborate.The real problem was that WMP's "Pothos meeting point" poster wasn't close enough to the wine (the fault of the people who put out the wine) but luckily (a) we were all sitting together anyway and (b) our intrepid webmaster moved the sign to be next to the wine table - phew!All the bestMarcus

Oh, i'm gnawing my heart bacause of sheer jealousy... you guys drinking wine, and listen to legends and things on Alexander... that's terrible! And then, Marcus, you're mean enough to come and render it public how you and the others were having lots of fun.:(s

My dear Susa, all you have to do is move to London...(On second thoughts, that was a mean suggestion. Not that we wouldn't love to see you here, but it wouldn't be fair on you).As for telling everyone what a good time we had... I was forced into it, honest. I really didn't want to tell...Chin up! ;-)Marcus

Hi Marcus, I look forward to reading the complete review (wine and all!)
Dean.

Yeah it had to be great fun hearing all this and all after...
Maciek