Alexander the Great and his time PDF
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alexander the great alexander the great And His Time Agnes Savill Introduction by Thomas N. Beck Barnes & Noble World Digital Library New York This edition published by Barnes & Noble World Digital Library by arrangement with Barnes & Noble, Inc. Introduction Copyright © 2002by Barnes & Noble World Digital Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Barnes & Noble World Digital Library, New York. Barnes & Noble World Digital Library and colophon are trademarks of Barnes & Noble.com. Barnes & Noble.com, 76Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10011. Cover Design by Red Canoe, Deer Lodge, TN ISBN 0-594-08113-0 introduction Alexander the Great. The very name conjures up images of the invincible conqueror in battle, arrows arcing across the sky, chariots thundering over the desert, swords clanging against shields, and the hand- some hero standing tall amidst the fray, slaying ene- mies by the score, and inspiring his men to triumph. Yet how much of this romantic notion is true, how much is myth, and what does it really matter to us anyway? Agnes Forbes Blackadder Savill, in her study of Alexander’s life (which was essentially one long cam- paign from Greece to India and part of the way back), argues that almost all of it is true despite its having passed into myth since the great man’s death. She also argues that it matters quite a bit to us — now more than ever, in fact. Considering the evil that one man could do, Savill wanted to show its polar oppo- site, to demonstrate that one man could change the world for the better; indeed, that one man in particu- lar had. As she wrote, “We have seen in modern Europe how the people have been led astray by false iv introduction idols who brought about disillusionment and destruc- tion. In ancient Greece wise philosophers declared that when one man excelled all others in intellect and character he should be regarded as a god among men, and the people should gladly obey him. The Youth of the future, seeking for such a guide, should measure him by comparison with Alexander of Macedon.” Alexander the Great and His Timeis a very old-fashioned book. Savill subscribes almost totally to the now out- moded “Great Man” theory of history; outmoded not so much because it overestimates the hero but because it underestimates almost everything else. What are the conditions in which a single man, how- ever great, can influence events and make himself immortal? That is a question academic historians pre- fer to grapple with, in studies of the “forgotten” peo- ple of history, the ordinary folk whose daily lives were formerly ignored in favor of biographies of the noted and powerful. Savill does not totally ignore the excluded, but her purpose is to show precisely why Alexander was great — and why we should care. The first edition of Alexander the Great and His Time was published when Savill was 79 years old. She had no training as a historian, but with her medical back- ground (most of her previous publications were about dermatology and other health-related topics) she had an analytical mind and an ability to trace the line between cause and effect. She was the first v introduction woman to receive a degree from St. Andrews University in Scotland. Her medical background shows up most clearly in her tentative attempts to offer a psychologi- cal portrait of the great king. There are two parts to the book. The first is a nar- rative of Alexander’s life, starting with his childhood and following him on his famous campaign through Persia, Central Asia and India, then back, culminat- ing in his premature death in Babylon at the age of 32. A shorter section depicts life in ancient Greece, the Polis, Greek culture, philosophy and religion, and provides brief descriptions of such luminaries as Pericles and Aristotle. There are several unspoken premises to Savill’s work. One is Alexander cannot be understood except as a product of his time. Others are ancient Greece was in many ways far superior as a culture to anything that came since its time, genius is its own justification, and Alexander’s self-imposed mission should be a guiding light to our own trou- bled times. Savill wants to convey Alexander’s sense of mission to readers. That sense of mission seems to have come to Alexander in a vision during his visit to the oracle of the Temple of Ammon at the Libyan oasis of Siwah in 332 B.C. As Savill writes: He had long believed that he had a mission; probably it was at Siwah that he had received confirmation of the intu- itional force which impelled him along his phenomenal career.… A vision of the brotherhood of mankind had been vi introduction with Alexander since he had come under the spell of Egypt with its monuments of past splendor and reverence for the gods. Who can say whether men of genius are not driven by some mysterious and as yet inexplicable force of the spirit when they are impelled to follow a path without apparent reason? In some cases these dreams of future promise arrive suddenly, irradiating as if by a flash of lightning the monot- ony of the daily routine. At Siwah Alexander certainly received a message which sustained him throughout long years of war and suffering and enabled him to surmount obstacles which would have deterred most of the bravest men. Not that his followers understood, even those clos- est to him. For eleven years, Alexander drove his cam- paign further and further eastward, ever more distant from Macedonia, from what his entire retinue consid- ered to be true civilization, even as they were encoun- tering in Persia and India cities grander than their own. Yet Alexander, himself the son of a state the rest of Greece considered to be almost barbaric, wanted to spread the light of Greece to the rest of the world. In Savill’s words: His expressed desire to extend Hellenic culture did not imply worship of Pagan deities, but the Greek ideal of excel- lence, arete. With this aim, he strove to extend knowledge of Greek art, science, philosophy and the many high qualities that characterized that gracious civilization. When the ‘urge’ from the unconscious is accepted by the intellect, it has a clear path; in that personality there is in truth a vocation, a call to follow, a mission. This intuitional drive in such indi- vii introduction viduals as Alexander is an imperative demand; it cannot be pushed aside for lesser claims; it is the man’s destiny, and for aught we can tell, it may fulfil the purpose for which he was created. As Arrian, the careful historian, concluded, ‘There seems to have been some Divine Hand presiding over both his birth and actions.’ One problem with biographies is that they tend to ignore everything except their hero, a natural, if inevitable, flaw. Alexander may have been a truly great man. Indeed, Savill is highly convincing that he was, and why. But he was, nevertheless, only one man. For all his own sense of destiny, of divine inspiration, his almost volcanic sense of competitiveness with his estimable father, Philip of Macedon, his intense desire to exceed (the Greek concept of arete to which Savill refers frequently), there is in most studies of Alexander a trace at least of what the great British military historian John Keegan refers to in his seminal The Face of Battle as the “battle piece.” That is the ten- dency for whatever great man is the writer’s subject to be depicted as solely responsible for all the success attained in the battle under discussion. Alexander was unquestionably a great man on a mission of brotherhood, a wise ruler, a gifted, even brilliant, commander, intrepid in battle, unsurpassed at planning, skilled in diplomacy, humane in victory. But what of his followers? Why did they follow him for almost twelve years away from their homes, their fami- lies, their lives? Savill’s answer is, he was Alexander; of viii introduction course they followed him. He was their king, he was a descendant of Heracles, son of Zeus, he was so visibly superior to all others that they could not but follow him. For Savill’s purpose, which is to persuade us of Alexander’s ultimate virtue, this is sufficient. But a more modern student wants to know of the motiva- tions of Alexander’s retinue, of their personalities, not just whether they were loyal and true, or when they betrayed Alexander. They existed in their own right, not just as “spear-carriers”. This is another indication of how old-fashioned Alexander the Great and His Time is, and was already even when it was first published. Alexander the Great and His Time is an excellent introduction to the subject for a non-academic reader but much less so for the serious student. Savill uses very few sources, although she is not uncritical of them or of the received stories about Alexander that have passed into legend. Frequently she uses her own sense of reason to decide if certain things said about Alexander could possibly be true or accurate, particu- larly stories about his penchant for strong drink or his harsh treatment of certain subordinates. She cites various scholars and archaeologists who also used their own reason to determine the truth in the leg- ends. Her purpose, however, is not to be 100% accu- rate but rather to persuade her readers to be as impressed with her great subject as she is. This she certainly does. Chapter 13, “The Character of Alexander,” is the most interesting in the book. Away ix
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