Alexander's eating habits

[Max]

Hi,I would appreciate any information on Alexander's eating habits. Somewhere in Peter Green's book I came across something like "...Alexander who ate so sparingly..." (sorry about being so vague) and that sparked my interest. I was just wondering where he got that information and if it is indeed true.Thanks for your input,Max

[marcus]

This comes from two 'sources', I think: the first is Alexander learning from his tutor that a night march is the best preparation for breakfast, and the best preparation for dinner is a light breakfast. The second comes from Aristobulus' assertion that Alexander didn't overindulge with drink and food, but only stayed late at banquets because he enjoyed the conversation. (yeah, right!).All the bestMarcus

[Nicator]

...well, he probably didn't over-indulge in food anyway.

[jan]

Marcus, You are really funny! Oh yeah, right? I can tell you a story about myself when young. I lived next to a group of fighter pilots, a more arrogant group of young men you won't find anywhere since the Macedonians. At any rate, we partied and this one guy who hosted the party fed everyone martini's and naturally, we all got a bit drunk, to say the least. Everyone but him, as he drank only water, and just liked to watch everyone else tie one on. When I read that about Alexander, I thought of that air force fighter pilot, and it made me laugh. Guess what goes around comes around. But I was one of those with my head in the toilet as I should have said no to the martinis, but it was all in fun, and brainy guy stayed sober!

[jan]

Max, According to the source, A.Weigall, Alexander abstained from eating large amounts of food and was indifferent to it, plus he placed a limit on the amount of funds expended for food.

[marcus]

Hi Jan,That chap must have had an amazing amount of control. I could tell many, many stories of a similar nature... but in none of mine does anyone drink only water! :-)I spent much of my youth trying to recreate Macedonian symposia... and looking back on it I'm surprised my friends and I didn't go the way of Alexander (dying, that is, rather than conquering the world - we were certainly in no fit state to take on the Persian Empire!).All the bestMarcus

[Thalestris]

Hi Max!According to VIlma Liacouras Chantiles cookbook "The Food fo Greece", Alexander had a particular fondness for apples:):) Alexander appears in the cookbook in several pages.~~Amazon Queen

[Max]

Hello,Thanks so much for replying. As Green sometimes seems judgemental, I just wanted to confirm whether his statement was true (not that this statement was particularly judgemental).On a side note, it got me thinking about how Alexander (i.e. his deeds, character, personality, sex life, even his ethnicity) are so often used as a means of "legitimizing" one cause or another, that it wouldn't surprise me if the pro-anorexia/pro-bulimia cause adopted him as well based on statements like these. The "fact" that he ate so sparingly coupled with his no doubt immense will power easily fits in with the ideas these groups have.
Ok, sorry about going off on a tangent. I hope I didn't offend anyone, but that was the reason behind my original post.Thanks again,
-Max

[Tre]

Actually there are several other mentions of this other than what Marcus quotes, i.e. and it's probably in Plutarch that he would pass delicacies of one type or another at table until there was often nothing left for himself. So yes - he ate sparingly when food was scarce and was amazingly generous.I am not aware of a specific ancient source that says his favorite food was apples, but fresh fish and fruit would have been delicacies and quite rare.