Unit-1 "Alexander and the Brotherhood of Man"

Author Bio: Author-Plutarch (ca. AD 46 -AD 120).  Greek biographer, essayist, and Platonist philosopher who was born in Chaeronea, Boeotia; best known for writing "Parallel Lives" and "Moralia."  Even though he took some liberties with how accurate his accounts were, he always made sure that they were entertaining and informative to read.


Date/ Context: There has been much debate as to why Alexander the Great chose to conquer the Persian Empire and other large-scale empires. Was he a power hungry manic who got off on conquering his fellow man?  Was he motivated by irresistible curiosity or a desire for wealth?  Or did Alexander have bigger concerns altogether?  When he ordered his soldiers to take Persian brides, was he attempting by crossing blood and customs to break the mold between the intellectual and physical restraints of the Greek city-states, and therefore unite East and West?  Or was the creation of his mighty empire the result of impulse and coincidence?


Summary: Alexander the Great did not treat the Greeks as a leader, nor did he treat the barbarians as a master, instead treating the Greeks as friends and kinsmen, and treating the barbarians as wild animals or plants. If he did treat the Greeks as a leader, his kingdom would have been full of warfare, banishment, and secret plots, rather he saw himself as a divine being sent down to earth to keep the peace and rule the world.  If Alexander the Great failed to win people over with diplomacy, he conquered them in battle.  Alexander the Great conquered people from all over the world and united them as one under his rule, intermixing their lives, customs, marriages and standards of living.  Alexander the Great urged his conquered subjects to view his land as if it were their native homeland.  Alexander the Great saw good men as his fellow kinsman and those who commit evil deeds as aliens; he distinguished Greeks from barbarians not by their shields, swords, or tunics but by associating Hellenism with virtue and honor, and barbarians with evil deeds.  Alexander acted out of a desire to subject all the races of the world under one rule and one form of government.  In conclusion, Alexander the Great perceived himself as a god-like figure who was sent down to earth to unite all the races in the world under his mighty empire's rule and form of government, to make all of mankind united as one.



Key Quotations:

"Alexander did not follow Aristotle's advice to treat the Greeks as a leader, the barbarians as a master, cultivating the former as friends and kinsmen, and treating the latter as animals or plants."

"Had he done so his kingdom would have been filled with warfare, banishments and secret plots, but he regarded himself as divinely sent to mediate and govern the world."

"And those whom he failed to win over by persuasion he overpowered in arms, bringing them together from every land, combining, as it were in a loving cup, their lives, customs, marriages and manner of living; he bade them all look on the inhabited world as their native land, on his camp as their citadel and protection, on good men as their kinsmen and evil doers as aliens, and to not distinguish Greek from barbarian by the . . . shield, or the sword, or the sleeved tunic but to associate Hellenism with virtue and barbarians with evil doing . . ."        

"Instead he conducted himself as he did out of a desire to subject all the races in the world to one rule and one form of government, making all mankind a single people."