Alexander der Grosse Αλέξανδρος ο Μέγας Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds; and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him, he returns this answer: “Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?” Plutarch

On the night of Alexander’s birth, tradition alleged, the temple of Artemis was burnt down. The local Persian Magi interpreted this as an omen of further disasters to come. They ‘ran about beating their faces and crying aloud that woe and great calamity for Asia had that day been born’, a firebrand that was destined to destroy the entire East. The night before her wedding, similarly, Olympias dreamed she was penetrated by a thunderbolt, so that fire gushed out of her womb, spreading far and wide before it was extinguished. A month or two later Philip also had a dream: he was sealing up his wife’s vagina, and the wax bore the stamped device of a lion. Some of the palace seers took this to mean that Philip should keep a closer watch on his wife. But Aristander of Telmessus* - who afterwards accompanied Alexander to Asia - had a more acceptable explanation: Olympias was pregnant, and with a spirited, lion-like son. One did not, he told Philip, put a seal on an empty jar. Peter Green , Alexander of Macedon, Penguin. *Aristander of Telmessus (in Caria) was Alexander's favorite seer. The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was destroyed by Herostratus in order to become famous. The legend says that Artemis did not protect her temple, because she wanted to be present at the birth of Alexander the Great which took place that same night. Was Alexander the Great really Great? Did not Daniel say “The male goat magnified himself exceedingly: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable horns toward the four winds of the sky” ? So had Alexander to fulfill the prophecy? Is Alexander Alexander? Source Alexander at the age of 30, artistic image of the Azara herm (Louvre Paris) found in Tivoli. It was presented by the Diplomat Don Jose Nicholas de Azara, a diplomat and archaeologist to Napoleon. Alexander III ( 20.7. 356 BC Pella - 10.6. 323 BC Babylon), The Great (actually a man of 1.60 m to 1.65 m according to Plutarch). Some suppose that he died in Babylon from Malaria, coming from the words “Mala Aria” or bad air as the Romans described the cause of this disease. Other say he died from encephalitis by the West Nile virus. The Macedonians were considered a kind of semi-barbarians by the other Greeks, but finally Alexander helped to expand the Greek civilization that was already weak after so many wars. All mortals should live like one, united, and peacefully working towards the common good. You should regard the whole world as your country, a country where the best govern, with common laws, and no racial distinctions. I do not separate people, as many narrow-minded others do. I am not interested in the origin or race of citizens; I only distinguish them on the basis of their virtue. For my part, I consider all, whether they be white or black, equal. Alexander The Great.

Battle of Issus” Mosaic, Alexander, attacking Darius at Issus . The whole history is told by the expression of the faces of Alexander and Darius. More Information and details of the Mosaic

Darius leaves with horror the battlefield. He cannot believe that his huge army cannot resist the small army of the young Alexander. What is less known is that Alexander had to fight against Greek mercenaries fighting for Darius. From a Lecture: “ The battle opened with Alexander leading the heavy cavalry over the river and charging the left wing of the enemy. This furious assault caved in that section of the Persian line and caused them to waver. Alexander received a deep thigh wound in the process. Meanwhile, other parts of the Macedonian line were not doing as well. The phalanx entered the river under a hail of spears, and upon reaching the opposite bank it was assailed from above by the Greek mercenaries of the Persian center. But Alexander’s assault had carried with it the right portion of the phalanx and when the Macedonian center could not make contact, the phalanx broke in two. The Greek mercenaries pushed forward in the furious fighting and forced the Macedonians back into the river. The outcome of the battle was momentarily in doubt until Alexander was able to clear the left and wheel his cavalry to strike the Greek mercenaries in flank and rout them.“ Many Athenians, Thebans, or Greek mercenaries of the Persian army who were againsts Alexander the Great died. The most famous was Demosthenes.

Surprisingly his death probably was helpful in that his idea of a Universal Culture would reduce the influence of Greek culture. Philip II Macedon asked Aristotle when he was 39 years old to be the teacher of Alexander. Aristotle was not only one of the greatest scientists ever, he had also a great influence indirectly on Alexander; even if Alexander was 13 years old when Aristotle started his work as his teacher. I believe that in the 3 years which Aristotle remained in Macedonia he was able to influence his student before he returned back to Athens where he established his own Academy, the Lyceum. Alexander understood that science and knowledge is not only important for the strength of his army. Alexander therefore included in his army also scientists, engineers and historians. According to Plutarch Alexander had a violent thirst and passion for learning, which increased as time went on…He was a lover of all kinds of reading and knowledge, and it was his delight, after a day of marching or fighting, to sit up half the night conversing with scholars and scientists. Alexander provided financial support (and protection) for Aristotle's Lyceum that he opened returning back in Athens. Did Aristotle tell Alexander that the Persian Empire was so weak because it was only necessary to kill Darius, the Persian Emperor, to conquer Persia? With the advent of World War II, yet another transformation took place. The scientist, who had before only concerned himself with the development of advanced equipment, then started to involve himself in operational matters, advising soldiers on how operational problems should be handled. This was the beginning of what came to be called operational research, or operational analysis, which grew in such a tremendous fashion since the development of the electronic computer which allowed the mathematical testing of virtually any complex situation, real or unreal, provided it can be set out in qualitative terms. This concept seems, however, to be another one of those ancient ideas which have disappeared from view. There are some that consider the philosophers who accompanied Alexander the Great in his conquests to be the precursors of today's operational analysts. Ulysses R. Gotera Impacts of Science and Technology on War

Alexander listening to Aristotle, his teacher in Mieza (another teacher was Menaechmus ) Alexander honours Achilles in Ilion (Troy) Alexander the Great at an age of 20 started 334 BC the war against Persia. 35000 Macedonian and Greek “professional” soldiers in battles at the Granikus, Issus defeated the Persian armed forces of Darius III. Alexander stormed the fortified city port of Tyre in modern Lebanon, seizing the city after a siege of seven months (Alexander had a dream that Heracles invited him into Tyre and Aristander's interpretation was that to take Tyre it requires a Herculean effort). The punishment of the population was terrible: 8000 men killed (2000 crucified on the beach and left to decompose) 30000 women and children taken as slaves. Darius offered Alexander 10000 talents and territory to Alexander to stop the war. Parmenion a friend of Alexander said “I would accept if I were Alexander”. Alexander's reply: “So would I, were I Parmenion”. Alexander captured Gaza and in quick succession occupied Egypt. Cyrene, the capital of the ancient North African kingdom of Cyrenaica, submitted to Alexander soon afterwards, extending his dominion to the lands of the city of Carthage, where his troops set up a ruling aristocracy (and from whom ultimately the great General Hannibal would emerge to test the Roman Empire some 200 years later) Alexander drew up reinforcements and with an army of 40000 infantrymen and 7000 cavalry, marched on Babylon. Crossing the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, he met the Persian King Darius once again, who had drawn up a new army outnumbering Alexander's forces.

At the Battle of Gaugamela, on 1 October, 331 BC, Alexander once again beat Darius, who fled and was killed by two of his own generals. The city of Babylon then surrendered and Alexander occupied the Persian capital city of Persepolis. Within three years, Alexander had occupied a huge stretch of land, and all resistance crumbled before his ruthless Nordic army. His empire extended along and beyond the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, including modern Afghanistan and northward into central Asia.

The basic unit, or speira, in Alexander's army. The 256 men are ranked in close order, 16 deep. In a charge, the spears, “sarisa”, of the first five ranks projected forward to break the enemy ranks - the rest of the men held their spears skywards to deflect arrows or other projectiles. Image from P. Connolly, The Greek armies, 1978 Alexander also used a cavalry of 2000 men divided in groups of 250, each heavily armed. The commander of this army was Black Cleitus. It was reported that small army's move faster and the army of Alexander the Great did over forty miles a day during the pursuit of Darius in 330 BC. Armies as large as Arrian records - assuming they could survive at all - would have been incredibly slow. King Darius marched from Babylon to his base camp near in Issus within three months - a distance of 1200 kilometers or 750 miles at least. It seems that Napoleon somehow succeeded to move his army so fast that this was one of the most important reasons for his military success. A Greek soldiers carried 60-70 pounds on his back. With soldiers carrying one-third the load that would be normally hauled by animals, an army of 50000 men required 6000 fewer pack animals than it would have needed, along with 240 fewer animals to haul the feed for the other animals. By requiring the soldier to carry his own equipment and food, Alexander created the lightest, most mobile, and fastest army the world had ever seen. In eleven years Alexander's army covered 11000 miles.

In order to complete his conquest of the remnants of the Persian Empire, which had once included part of western India, Alexander crossed the Indus River in 326 BC, and invaded the Punjab region, following the footsteps of the Indo-Arians of some 1200 years previously. Alexander's army rebelled and refused to go any further, seeing no point in marching endlessly on, getting further and further away from their homes without any respite in sight. Sensing that he had to get his men home quickly, Alexander then pulled off another incredible feat. He constructed a fleet of ships then and there and sailed down the Indus river, reaching its mouth in September 325 BC. He then sailed with his army to the Persian Gulf and returned overland across the desert, arriving in Babylon in 323 BC.

On this return journey Alexander contracted fever and died in Babylon. Alexander the Great, as King of Egypt and Horus Alexander probably was responsible that also his generals did support science. Before in 332 BC Alexander founded a new city in Egypt - which he called Alexandria. This city would later became the literary, scientific, and commercial center of the Greek world. After the Macedonian conquest the center of learning shifted from Greece to Alexandria. There, where Middle Eastern and Greek culture overlapped, Babylonian astronomy and Greek philosophy interacted to produce the sophisticated science of the Hellenistic Age. (Alexander in Egypt) And out of the remarkable Panhellenic campaign,

victorious, brilliant in every way,

celebrated far and wide, glorious

as no other had ever been, glorified,

the incomparable: we are born;

a vast new Greek World, a great new Greek world. We, the Alexandrians, the Antiocheans,

the Seleucians, and the innumerable

rest of the Greeks of Egypt and of Syria,

and of Media, and Persia, and the many others,

with our extensive empire,

with the varied action of our thoughtful adaptations,

and our common Greek, our spoken Language,

we carried it into the heart of Bactria, to the Indians.

Konstantin Kavafis In 146 BC, Macedonia and Greece became direct Roman provinces after a short-lived rebellion by the Macedonians, and in 64 BC, the Seleucid empire was conquered by the Roman general Pompey and became a Roman province. Alexander was responsible that the Greek language become a common language (koine). The Bible was first written in Greek and this probably helped in the expansion of the Christian religion.

Pierre Peyrolle , Le Festin d'Alexandre: See for more details : Alexander The Great fraternity and Salvador Dali (with Dali and others and Alexander the Great in front) "Alexander the Great honors the Work of Homer", from Raphael's Parnassus (Apollo and the Muses) Painting of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace. A Greek stamp for Alexander 2300 years after his death Quotations and some stories

Alexander asked his teacher Menaechmus an easy method to learn geometry. Menaechmus response: O king, through the country there are royal roads and roads for common citizens, but in geometry there is one road for all. A similar response was given to Ptolemy I from Euclid: There is no royal road to geometry.

Did Alexander cut the Gordian knot or did he solve the knot?

Gordius, a Phrygian peasant, was chosen king of Phrygia in Asia Minor when he was the first man to drive his wagon up to the temple of Zeus, this being the condition proposed by the oracles for selecting a new king... Gordius] tied the knot and presumably could untie it, but the oracle-priests were impressed by the fact that none of them could comprehend its construction, so their amazement and respect must have come from an intellectual rather than practical base. The story marks the superiority of the mind of a man who can devise a knot that nobody else can untie, and this knot is taken to be of such original inventive quality, that the simple shepherd immediately is made king... There can be only one reason for this: Gordius represents a new level of thinking, which is symbolized by the invention of the special knot, which the state cannot comprehend, and hence accepts as proof of leadership. William Harris, Man the Inventor of Tools When Alexander reached Gordium, he was seized with a longing to ascend to the acropolis, where the palace of Gordius and his son Midas was situated, and to see Gordius’ wagon and the knot of the wagon’s yoke:. Over and above this there was a legend about the wagon, that anyone who untied the knot of the yoke would rule Asia. The knot was of cornel bark, and you could not see where it began or ended. Alexander was unable to find how to untie the knot but unwilling to leave it tied, in case this caused a disturbance among the masses; some say that he struck it with his sword, cut the knot, and said it was now untied - but Aristobulus says that he took out the pole-pin, a bolt driven right through the pole, holding the knot together, and so removed the yoke from the pole. I cannot say with confidence what Alexander actually did about this knot, but he and his suite certainly left the wagon with the impression that the oracle about the undoing of the knot had been fulfilled, and in fact that night there was thunder and lightning, a further sign from heaven; so Alexander in thanksgiving offered sacrifice next day to whatever gods had shown the signs and the way to undo the knot. Lucius Flavius Arrianus , Anabasis Alexandri, Book II, c.150 AD

Untying the Gordian Knot

Silver Tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, a) head of Heracles b) Zeus Olympios, Archaeological Museum Dion