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Aristotle knew the earth was spherical (De caelo). Presumably he would have taught his students the same. Why, then, is it repeatedly quoted that Alexander sought the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea" (wiki, and others)? What is the SOURCE for this? It is always in quotes, but NO ONE credits it to any of the ancient or modern sources.
A summary of the 2000 BBC documentary In the Footsteps of ATG says "...since his boyhood tutor Aristotle had told him tales about where the land ends and the Great Outer Sea begins" - could it be a corruption of this? (I assume that IF this is accurate then the "land" Aristotle is referring to is the end of Eurasia, not the earth, since HE KNEW THE EARTH WAS ROUND.)
What is going on here?
Also, if we discredit the commonly cited "ends of the earth" motivation for Alexander, can we make another guess at his ultimate goal, or if he even had one?

The ends of the earth do not include the sea, the ancients had no knowlrdge of the Americas so only the limits of Eurasia and Africa are implied (of course he was only heading East) and it does seem a simplistic motivation and motivation is something of which no one is likely to have had much notion except Alexander himself all we have are liyerary constructs and hypothesis.

pathless_wood wrote:Aristotle knew the earth was spherical (De caelo). Presumably he would have taught his students the same. Why, then, is it repeatedly quoted that Alexander sought the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea" (wiki, and others)? What is the SOURCE for this? It is always in quotes, but NO ONE credits it to any of the ancient or modern sources.
A summary of the 2000 BBC documentary In the Footsteps of ATG says "...since his boyhood tutor Aristotle had told him tales about where the land ends and the Great Outer Sea begins" - could it be a corruption of this? (I assume that IF this is accurate then the "land" Aristotle is referring to is the end of Eurasia, not the earth, since HE KNEW THE EARTH WAS ROUND.)
What is going on here?
Also, if we discredit the commonly cited "ends of the earth" motivation for Alexander, can we make another guess at his ultimate goal, or if he even had one?

Justin 12.7.4 wrote:Post haec Indiam petit, ut Oceano ultimoque Oriente finiret imperium. (Roughly: "After this he headed for India, in order to make the outer ocean and the ends of the East the bounds of his empire.")

Best wishes,
Andrew