Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend

This event took place on the 25th of October 2022. The information below is correct as of the publication date.
Lindsay Allen, Tom Holland and Richard Stoneman explore the man, leader and mythic icon.
Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) precipitated immense historical change in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. But the resonance his legend achieved over the next two millennia stretched even farther - across foreign cultures, religious traditions, and distant nations, with hundreds of colourful Alexander legends being told and retold around the globe.
Alexander came to embody the concerns of Hellenistic man; he fuelled Roman ideas on tyranny and kingship; he was a talisman for fourth-century pagans and a hero of chivalry in the early Middle Ages. He appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings, frequently as a prophet of God. Whether battling winged foxes or meeting with the Amazons, descending to the underworld or inventing the world’s first diving bell, Alexander inspired as a hero, even a god.
Leading experts on Alexander and his myths, Lindsay Allen and Richard Stoneman explore the origins and development of these amazing stories. Hosted by author and historian Tom Holland.
Dr Lindsay Allen is a Lecturer in Greek and Near Eastern History at King’s College London. She is the author of The Persian Empire (2005), and teaches courses on pre-Islamic Iran, Persepolis, Alexander and the Near East in the first millennium BC at KCL. She is currently completing a catalogue of the dispersed fragments of Persepolis worldwide.
Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. He is the author of books including Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire, his history of the Graeco-Persian wars, won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award in 2006.
Professor Richard Stoneman is a scholar, an author, an editor, and an honorary visiting professor at the University of Exeter. An expert in the field of Greek history, his works include The Greek Alexander Romance, Xerxes: A Persian Life, The Ancient Oracles: Making the Gods Speak, and A Traveller’s History of Athens.
This event was presented in memory of Naseeb Shaheen, author and scholar.
The British Library is a charity. Your support helps us open up a world of knowledge and inspiration for everyone. Donate today: support.bl.uk/

[@drvautrot]

Very enjoyable presentation. Loved hearing how far and wide the Alexander Romance spread around the Earth, and the plethora of translations!

[@SeanRCope]

Michael Wood OBE , made the best documentary of Alexander the Great. He follows his armies route and stops at critical locations to talk with local historians.

[@sharonjanethague7181]

He did!

[@sharonjanethague7181]

A very interesting presentation.

[@AAbaya2024]

In Sri Lanka, there's a temple dedicated to a Hindu god, whom the Buddhist refers to as Skander. Apparently in Iran, Iskander (even the drone) is a reference to Alexander. Its quite possible that Skander is same as the Iskander. Would be interesting to get this solved .

[@pkpolitis1062]

it is not Skander, it is Skanda

[@AAbaya2024]

Sounds the same anyway,

[@traceyolsen308]

It was nice to find so many other people think the remains of Alexander are posing as St Mark in Venice, but why shouldn't the clerics there allow his body to be dug up and have DNA , carbon dating and any other useful test be performed on the body? Most of the Saints I've heard of seem to have been chopped up and had various pieces of their bodies put on display in reliquaries, etc,...and if he's buried, won't he be completely decomposing because of all the flooding? Wouldn't it be better to put the body in a nice dry airtight container, preferably with glass walls so whoever it is can be viewed ...as it seems was traditional with the body of Alexander, and also an enormous number of Saints? It was a very interesting program, thank you.

[@thomasarthurmaj]

Alexander and his Seleucid and Ptolemaic successor kings are also referred to cryptically in the prophecy of Daniel chapter 11, composed long before the Middle Ages.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Really ? Did Nostradamus mention him as well ? Better call Graham Hancock..!

[@BlueBaron3339]

Fascinating presentation *despite* two of the three speakers. Lindsey Allen was nervous and raced through as if a vaudeville hook was reaching for her just off-stage. Richard Stoneman rambled and trailed off as if he was talking to himself. Tom Holland, of course, is a pro. Clearly, public speaking is not a required course for professors 😂 But it was charming in its own way.

[@monikagrosch9632]

I think one of the biggest mistakes some modern historians make is judging historical figures like Alexander by our modern standards instead of by the standards of HIS time

[@AlexandrosPanagio]

Alexander. Is the Greatest Name. Its the Kings name.

[@firdousmir8648]

Thank you all...good to hear about how differently Alexander has been portrayed throught out ages. I think one of the presenters makes a mistake by saying that Alexander appears in the Quran also. i think that view is wrong. Zulkernain in the Quran is not Alexander. However one thing is true that many classical interpreters of the Quran do interpret Zulqernain as Alexander. Thanks.

[@golgumbazguide...4113]

Explore Golgumbaz ,Deccan india!

[@aniccadance13]

I can't understand why people are so interested in Alexander sexuality🤔

[@drvautrot]

I agree! Seems to be all the rave lately. It's all speculation about his sexual preferences anyway....zero proof whatsoever. I could not care more nor less if he was asexual, bisexual, or any other imaginable variation. He was Great, regardless.

[@stephenlight647]

His sexual proclivities were of less interest when no one was interested in using him as a promotional vehicle for one’s favorite pastimes… 😂

[@tonyantoniou9271]

It is to serve their agenda. It distracts and side tracks from the endeavour to piece together history as accurately as possible from the perspective of the character of the subjects of study.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

I only listened when I discovered that Paul Cartledge WOULDN'T be there !!

[@jayyoo1794]

It wouldn't be a public event without someone coughing in the back.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

I don't think there's a single lecture on KZbin where some complete t****r ISN'T coughing every 5 minutes. ?! Why don't they ask them politely to leave ? Or even.....NOT politely !!

[@maticbukovac6966]

So this one lady in the audience asked a question about the nature of romantic relationships in ancient Greece, because she heard that these relationships for men were with other men. And instead of giving her any kind of answer the panel of three professional historians basically shrugs their shoulders and skips answering the question altogether... I guess snacks were already prepared in the adjoining room. It is hard for three historians to give a 1,5h lecture on one of the most popular subjects- the Ancient Greece... very, very hard....

[@ionutpaun9828]

They did say they do not have any information about that, and I don't think they wanted to focus too much on Alexander's sexuality. There are more important topics to talk about really.

[@Sobieskicharge]

I agree that was very awkward.

[@stephenlight647]

One thing that is very hard is exploring any topic or person in today’s obsessive culture without using the subject as a launching pad for politicized sexual promotion. Very very hard.

[@stephenlight647]

@@Sobieskichargein today’s fraught environment surrounding all topics of particular leftist hagiography, it is safer to say as little as possible. That is the source of the awkward pauses.

[@Wholly_Fool]

What is your point? Cause that is kind of a stupid question.

[@christoupolitis6499]

Tom Holland's comment about Epirus as a land "basically in Albania now" is innacurate. The ancient Greek kingdom of Epirus, from which Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great came from, is nowadays divided between Greece (moderrn province of Epirus) and southern Albania (historically Northern Epirus). The ancient capital of Epirus was Passarona, which is located in the modern district of Ioannina in Greece and this was the place where Olympias was born, as a daughter of king Neoptolemus II. The ruling tribe among the Greek tribes of Epirus was the Molossoi, so Alexander from his mother's side was also an Epirotic Greek and this is exactly the reason why he claimed ancestry from Achilles, since - according to the Greek mythological tradition - the son of the great Iliad's hero, Neoptolemus, was the father of Molossus, founder of the Molossoi in Epirus.

[@bobbycalifornia7077]

Seems like everyone is very unsure about anything historical relating to Alexander. Also, the water of life story is not the Dhul Qarnayn story in the Quran.

[@swampygirl3748]

i do wish the speaker would pause and not keep uttering Em or Err.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Err.....I sort of....emm......agree . Then again....err....you might be... emm.....a bit ...err....harsh ?

[@christoupolitis6499]

in 56:40 - 57:00 Richard Stoneman says that the famous medieval depiction of Alexander's celestial flight in a chariot or basket with the griffins is actually based on a Persian image - Mesopotamian , the depiction of the "Master of the Animals". Well, with respect to Dr. Stoneman's research I disagree with this thesis. I don't think is very productive to seek everywhere the "ex oriente lux". First of all, the "Master of the Animals" is also an Aegean culture image that can be traced already back in the Minoan civilization of the Bronze Age as well as of course the Mycenaean (many such depictions on seals). Moreover, there is a continuation of this motive in Greek art, for example there is one such terracotta depiction from the Acropolis of Gortuna, Crete of the 7th century B.C. - a man with a griffin - as well as from the sanctuary of the Orthia Artemis from Sparta - ivory plaque with a man between 2 griffins. The same motive we see also in later Roman art, for example an emperor sitting on a griffin in a coin of Antoninus Pius, 138 A.D. (for more depictions see Settis - Frugoni, Historia Alexandri Elevati per Griphos ad Aerem, Rome, 1973 pp. 65-78). It is important to point out that this motive comes also to Byzantium, for example there is a flask with the depiction of St. Menas with 2 camels as "Master of the Animals", or a textile with the repetitive depiction of a man with 2 lions. Secondly, as I have wrote in my book (Ο Μέγας Αλέξανδρος του Ελληνισμού - Αρχαιότητα - Βυζάντιο - Νεότερη και Σύγχρονη Ελλάδα, 2016) and my article (Ο Μέγας Αλέξανδρος ως φιλόσοφος - βασιλιάς και πρότυπο χριστιανικής αρετής στο Βυζάντιο: η παράσταση της ουράνιας πτήσης, 2020) it is not the "Master of the Animals" the prime inspiration for the Greek - Byzantine depiction of Alexander the Great in a chariot with griffins, which was imitated also in the West as well as in Russia and Georgia. Rather, it was the rich Greek - Roman tradition of myths and depictions of flights in connection with the significance of the griffins as symbols of might, light, Christ and transition to the afterlife as well as the emperor in a triumphal chariot. The last is common in roman art but the first to be depicted like this was Alexander the Great himself in the frontal side of his famous funerary carriage according to Diodorus Sicelus (18.26). It is not accidently of course that the triuphal chariot of the emperor Ioannis II Komnenos after his victory in Kastamoni in 1133 was decorated frontally with the relief of two griffins, according to the description of Theodoros Prodromos. The depiction of the celestial flight of the Byzantine Alexander the Great was fully compatible with the imperial ideology of the virtous king and the religious concept of the Greek - Orthodox - Christian - Byzantium and as such was adopted in the West, at least in the earliest such depictions there in Italy. It is not accidently that byzantine theologists, like Niketas Stethatos and orators as well are describing the "chariot of virtues" that can lead the good king and in general the faithful Christian to the Kingdom of Heaven. But I will stop here.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

That was a fascinating contribution.! Thank you. No response unfortunately...?

[@christoupolitis6499]

​@@2msvalkyrie529 Thank you for your comment!

[@maecentric]

Lindsey Allans "debunking" of Alexander's story often seems like a stretch. She assumes Josephuses account is false, because "Historians believe he had better places to go." And her conclusion after making this bizarre leap is that highly detailed accounts from antiquity are just as easily false as stories of dragons?? This is the arrogance of 21 century historical scholarship.

[@n.d8001]

Painful to listen to this brilliant lady. Could she hum hum hum 1M times before starting her presentation and then get on with her super interesting narrative without humming every 30 seconds. Impressive research and knowledge.

[@milocevska]

Olimpia was from now Macedonia, not Albania

[@christoupolitis6499]

Olympias - Ολυμπιάς in the original Greek form of the name - was a Greek princess from the ancient Greek kingdom of Epirus, mostly nowdays in Greece, its capital Passarona was in the modern district of Ioannina. Olympias was the daughter of king Neoptolemos II - original Greek name Νεοπτόλεμος, the same name with the legendary son of Achilles. From the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia - Μακεδονία, original Greek form - was of course Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, - original Greek form Φίλιππος, from φίλος + ίππος meaning in Greek "the man who loves horses". The ancient Macedonians of course were Greeks, as I fully explain in another comment here. So Alexander the Great was Greek in both sides of his anchestry, a Macedonian and an Epirotes.

[@tatjanavelkova5814]

tatko na ALEKSANDAR ---- FILIP KRAL NA MAKEDONIJA. majka na ALEKSANDAR ---- OLIMPIJA Princeza od EPIR .

[@goolmaly7879]

Hey Dr Persepolis was not the capital of Iran in that time😂 Now bring me a reason about the existrnce of alexander

[@user-vg2ss1se7e]

Tom Holland mentioned that "political enemies of Alexander questioned his Greekness". So, how many were these political enemies of his? Was it basically just one man, Demosthenes of Athens? And, until 1991, and the breakaway "Republic" of Pseudomacedonia, no one, in 2.300 years had questioned Alexander's Greekness. Until, suddenly, in 1992, a group of Bulgarians and Albanians, and some Serbs, all living in South Yugoslavia, plus some German academics, discovered a non-greek Macedonian ethnos. Really? As far as the "truth" behind Alexander's sources, well, until Schliemann discovered Troy and Mycenae, 100% of the scholars of his age thought that the Trojan War was a fantasy. Well, was it? And until Ventris deciphered Linear B showing that it is plain pure Greek, 100% of the scholars believed that the Mycenaeans were speaking Phoenician, Egyptian, English, or Urdu, basically anything but Greek. Really??? And, comparing Arrian to the Alexander Romance is rather out of context. How about admitting that Alexander and his successors became the blueprint for Rome, its paradigm. How about accepting what Harvard professor J Manning states about Ptolemaic Egypt: the best analysed ancient state in history. How about discussing Hellenistic technology, the automata, the mechanics, all the stuff Stephanos of Byzantium mentions, that were simply copied by the Roman srate And how about calling the Byzantines what they actually were: Greek. Unless Tom Holland believes that Magna Graecia was a series of Roman colonies in the south of Italy...

[@sabineb.5616]

Your comment is rather interesting - but I have to admit that I am not quite sure about your precise point! I agree that our interpretation of the significance of historical events and prominent personalities like Alexander is heavily influenced by current ideologies and nationalistic movements. And I am frankly annoyed when the comment section is hijacked by people who have the irrepressible urge to claim historical characters for their movements. I think that Alexander himself considered himself to be Greek, and that should settle this question.

[@christoupolitis6499]

@@sabineb.5616 The question about the Greek identity of the ancient Macedonians is answered by the historical clues we have, archaeological, linguistic, historical. As an archaeologist, I can assure you that all the written inscriptions that were found in ancient Macedonia, here in Northern Greece, are Greek, including Greek names like Περδίκκας (Perdikas) or Δρύκαλος (Drykalos) that are NOT to be found in the rest of ancient Greece. This clearly proves that the Macedonians DID NOT adopted the Greek language, but that they were original Greeks, having their own Greek dialect among the other Greek dialects of the past. The ancient Greeks were divided in different tribes: Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians, Arcadians, Thessalians, Molossoi (in Epirus), Macedonians e.t.c. They all have spoken different dialects but these dialects were all specific forms of the Greek language. The word Macedonia - Μακεδονία - is Greek and derives from the ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός - which is allready homeric (Homer, Odyssey, η 106) and means long, or tall (modern Greek μάκρος, μακρύς, μήκος). Notice that it is the region - Macedonia - which took its name from the greek trιbe of Macedon - Μακεδών - and not the opposite. Herodotus, the father of history, very clearly points out the greek identity of the Macedonians, who were relatives to the Dorians (among them, the ancient Spartans): («το δωρικό έθνος) οἴκεε ἐν Πίνδω Μακεδνόν καλεόμενον. ἐντεῦτεν δε ές Πελοπόννησον ἐλθόν Δωρικόν ἐκλήθη (Α΄ 56). = "The Dorians, while they were in Pindos mountain they were called Macedonians and when they came to Peloponnesus they were called Dorians". Moreover, he writes «Ἕλληνας δέ εἶναι τούτους τούς ἀπό Περδίκκεω γεγονότας, κατά περ αὐτοί λέγουσι αὐτός τε οὕτω τυγχάνω ἐπιστάμενος καὶ δὴ καὶ ἐν τοῖσι ὄπισθε λόγοισι ἀποδέξω ὡς εἰσὶ Ἕλληνες,(5.22.1) that is "The subjects of Perdikkas (king of Macedonians), AS THEY SAY, they are Greeks and I know very good this fact myself and I will prove it...". Moreover, Alexander the first, king of Macedonians, said to the southern Greeks just before the battle of Platea (479 B.C.) - αὐτός τε γαρ Ἕλλην γένος εἲμι τωρχαῖον, και ἀντ’ ἐλευθέρης δεδουλωμένην ουκ ἄν ἐθέλοιμι ὁρᾶν τήν Ἑλλάδα» (I, 45, 1-2). = "For I am Greek myself from my ancient origins and I would never want to see Greece enslaved instead of being free". Another historian, Polubius, (ΙΧ, 37,7) also writes that the Macedonians are of the same race with the Achaeans, which is of course the Greek one. Titus Libius writes the same thing among Macedonians, Acarnaneans, Aitolians: “Aetolos, Acarnanas, Macedonas, eiusden linguae homines…” (Ab Urbe Contita, 31.29.15). The historical references are numerous...one should wonder, how people who bare Greeks names, (Αλέξανδρος, Φίλιππος, Δρύκαλος, Ευρυδίκα, Κλεοπάτρα, Πτολεμαίος, Κάρανος, Αλκέτας, Αμύντας,Περδίκκας...) believed in Greek Gods, have spoken a specific form of Greek language and fought for the common case of all Greeks against the Persians, as Alexander the Great himself commemorated in the letter he sent to Darious (Arrian, II, 14.-4), could ever be possible to be something else than Greeks. The Byzantine Greek writers also mention Alexander the Great and the ancient Macedonians as Greeks and the term "Macedonian" kept its Greek character throughout history in Byzantium and later till nowdays, despite the fact that people from the ex Yiogoslavia also claim it, stealing it from us, Northern Greeks = Macedonians.

[@sabineb.5616]

@@christoupolitis6499 , thanks for the long and detailed explanations!

[@christoupolitis6499]

You welcome Sabine B.!

[@pkpolitis1062]

@@christoupolitis6499 εσκισες Μεγαλε!! μπραβο Ειμαι απο τη Θεσσαλονικη, αλλ ζω στην Κεντρικη Ασια οπου ο Αλεξανδρος ειναι σχεδον θεοτητα!! Δεν μπορω να καταλαβω γιατι κανεις μας δεν φτιαχνει ενα ιδρυμα στη Μνημη του, να ενωθουμε

[@2msvalkyrie529]

er.......I'll come straight to the point . Was he a Gaylord or not ???

[@pedrojamalserrano4008]

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[@michaelgeiger4043]

Good grief. Can you people please get your "public" speaking @#$% together, please?? Learn to relax and present the material. Do what you have to do but please, don't put it all on me to suffer through your discomfort.

[@solaurelian7638]

the second speaker unfortunately uses a lot of ums and uhhss and its very distracting.. Love the presentation though and I wish you well on your way to better public speaking!