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  Alexander is aniketos—invincible. He cannot and never will be defeated by simplification.

  But while Alexander’s ambiguity cannot be unraveled without distorting the historical record of

  what he did, that fact should not undermine our appreciation of his “Greatness.” Throughout history

  the great have often been possessed of godlike abilities, and all-too-mortal flaws and weaknesses.

  Indeed, it is the flaws and mistakes of the great that allow us to appreciate their gifts, and it is by their

  missteps and failures that the great are ultimately redeemed as human beings. Great as he was, in the

  end Alexander turned out to be a mortal, just like the rest of us, if only in that one inescapable way. If

  we can accept that fact, as Alexander himself was finally forced to, perhaps we can forgive him for

  the ambiguity of his greatness.

  The Main Characters

  ABREAS: Macedonian soldier on double pay for military service; died protecting Alexander inside

  the walls of the Mallian town.

  ACUPHIS: chief of Nysa, city in Bajaur named after Dionysos’ nurse.

  ADA: Hecatomnid princess; surrendered key city of Alinda to Alexander; reinstated as governor of

  Caria by Alexander in 334 B.C.E.; adopted Alexander as her son.

  AGIS III: king of Sparta; raised a revolt against Macedon in the summer of 331 B.C.E.; crushed by

  Alexander’s regent in Macedon, Antipater.

  ALCIMACHUS, SON OF AGATHOCLES: brother of Alexander’s bodyguard Lysimachus; in the

  summer of 334 B.C.E. sent on a mission to the Aeolian and the Ionian cities still subject to the Persians,

  dispossessing the ruling factions and establishing popular (democratic) governments in their place.

  ALEXANDER OF EPIRUS: king of Molossia in Epirus, 342–330/29 B.C.E. Brother of Olympias;

  married Philip’s daughter Kleopatra in 336 B.C.E.

  ALEXANDER, THE SON OF AEROPUS, OF LYNCESTIS: accompanied Alexander into the palace

  after the assassination of Philip II, armed like his master; his brothers Heromenes and Arrabaeus

  were executed for their part in the conspiracy to assassinate Philip; executed in the wake of Philotas’

  treason.

  ANAXARCHUS OF ABDERA: philosopher who consoled Alexander after his murder of Cleitus;

  supported Alexander’s introduction of proskynesis (prostration) in front of him.

  ANDRONICUS, SON OF AGERROS: sent to suppress rebellion of Satibarzanes; husband of Lanice,

  Alexander’s childhood nurse; may have been killed at the battle of the river Polytimetus.

  ANTIPATER, SON OF ASCLEPIODORUS: father was satrap of Syria; joined conspiracy of the

  pages to assassinate Alexander because of punishment of Hermolaus or because of his father’s

  demotion; executed.

  ANTIPATER, SON OF IOLAOS OF PALIOURA: sided with Alexander after the death of Philip II;

  served as Alexander’s viceroy in Europe when Alexander departed for the east; involved in frequent

  disputes with Olympias; in 324 B.C.E. Craterus was sent back to Macedon to replace him.

  ARISTANDER OF TELMESSUS: Alexander’s seer; predicted Alexander would take Tyre, but with

  the labor characteristic of his kinsman, Herakles; that Alexandria in Egypt would be the nurse of men

  of every nation; and that the Macedonians would achieve victory at the battle of Gaugamela based

  upon an eclipse of the moon on September 20, 331 B.C.E.

  ARISTOBULUS OF CASSANDREIA: minor officer in Alexander’s army, wrote a history of

  Alexander’s reign sometime after 301 B.C.E.

  ARISTOTLE OF STAGIRA: born c. 384, died in 322 B.C.E. Brought to the Macedonian capital of

  Pella to serve as Alexander’s educational tutor. Annotated special copy of the Iliad for Alexander.

  His kinsman Callisthenes served as Alexander’s official historian. Greatest philosopher in Western

  history.

  ARTABAZUS, SON OF PHARNABAZUS: lived at Pella; surrendered to Alexander after the death

  of Darius; became satrap of Bactria.

  ATHENAEUS OF NAUCRATIS (EGYPT): wrote Deipnosophistae, or “Learned Banqueteers,”

  completed in the years immediately following the death of the Roman emperor Commodus (c. 192

  C.E.), a report on discussions among guests about philosophy, literature, law, medicine, and many

  other topics at a banquet over a number of days, during which events and incidents related to

  Alexander’s life were discussed.

  ATTALUS: born c. 390; his niece Kleopatra married Philip II in 337 B.C.E. At the wedding feast,

  Attalus prayed for a legitimate heir to the Macedonian throne; appointed as one of the commanders of

  the expeditionary force to Asia in 336 B.C.E. After Philip’s assassination executed with the complicity

  of Parmenio.

  BAGOAS: handsome young Persian eunuch brought to Alexander by Nabarzanes in Hyrcania as a

  kind of gift; Alexander kissed him in a theater in Salmus in Carmania; Alexander and Bagoas perhaps

  had an intimate relationship.

  BALACRUS: Macedonian officer, commanded javelin throwers at Gaugamela; responsible for

  effectively eliminating Persian scythed chariots.

  BARSAENTES: satrap of Arachotia and Drangiana; murdered Darius; later executed by Alexander.

  BARSINE: daughter of Persian nobleman Artabazus; ex-wife of Memnon of Rhodes; she became

  Alexander’s mistress; the relationship produced a son, Herakles.

  BARSINE (STATEIRA): Darius’ eldest daughter; Alexander married her according to the Persian

  custom in Susa in 324 B.C.E.

  BATIS: eunuch, ruler of Gaza on behalf of the Persians; commanded a force of mercenary Arabs who

  resisted three Macedonian assaults upon their city; captured and dragged around the city by his ankles

  at the rear of a chariot, as Achilles had dragged Hektor’s corpse around the walls of Troy, probably

  in retaliation for the assassination attempt on Alexander.

  BESSUS: the satrap of Bactria; assumed power after murder of Darius; captured in the summer of 329

  B.C.E.; later executed.

  BOLON: lesser Macedonian officer, who had risen from the ranks; made damaging speech against

  Philotas at his trial in Phrada in October 330 B.C.E.

  BRANCHIDAE: descendants of the priests and caretakers of the oracular shrine of Apollo near the

  Greek city of Miletos in Asia Minor; handed over treasury of shrine to Xerxes in 479 B.C.E. Resettled

  on other side of Oxus River; wiped out by Alexander.

  BUCEPHALAS: Alexander’s favorite horse. Big, black horse brought to Philip by Philoneicus of

  Thessaly; won by young Alexander in a wager with his father that he could tame the wild horse;

  Alexander rode Bucephalas to India, where Bucephalas died of old age and exhaustion at the age of

  thirty; Alexander named a city after Bucephalas.

  CALANUS: Indian ascetic philosopher who tried to teach Alexander doctrine of good government;

  accompanied Alexander back westward; committed suicide in Persis.

  CALLINES: Macedonian officer in the Companion cavalry; during the mutiny at Opis begged

  Alexander on behalf of the soldiers to be able to kiss Alexander and be called his kinsman.

  CALLISTHENES OF OLYNTHOS: official (contemporary) historian of Alexander’s campaigns,

  wrote the Deeds of Alexander; helped to scuttle Alexander’s plans to introduce the custom of

  proskynesis into his court; charged along with a group of the royal pages with conspiring to murder

  Alexander; died in one of five ways.

  CAMBYSES (reigned 530–522 B.C.E.): Persian king, son of Cyrus the Great; conquered Egypt and

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  CEBALINUS: brother of Nicomachus; revealed Dimnus conspiracy to Alexander in Phrada in

  October 330 B.C.E.

  CHARES OF MYTILENE: Alexander’s usher or court chamberlain, wrote Histories of Alexander.

  CLEANDER, SON OF POLEMOKRATES: commander of mercenaries at Ecbatana and Coenus’

  brother; played key role in assassination of Parmenio in the fall of 330 B.C.E. Executed in Carmania in

  324 B.C.E. for maladministration and crimes against natives.

  CLEITARCHUS OF ALEXANDRIA: wrote a history of Alexander’s reign in at least twelve books

  that may be dated as early as 310 B.C.E.

  CLEITUS, THE “BLACK,” SON OF DROPIDAS: brother of Alexander’s nurse Lanice; commanded

  the Royal Squadron of the Companion cavalry; saved Alexander’s life at the battle of the Granicus

  River; killed by Alexander in a drunken brawl centering on Alexander’s orientalizing and claims of

  divine parentage in 328 B.C.E.

  COENUS, SON OF POLEMOKRATES: commander of infantry from Elimiotis in Upper Macedon;

  fought in all of Alexander’s major battles; wounded at Gaugamela; spoke out against Philotas at his

  trial in Phrada in 330 B.C.E.; at the Hyphasis River advised Alexander to stop; died of natural causes

  in 326 B.C.E.

  CRATERUS, SON OF ALEXANDER (NOT ALEXANDER III, KING OF MACEDON): from

  Orestis in Upper Macedon; commanded left of phalanx at Issus and Gaugamela; hostile to Philotas;

  perhaps Alexander’s most reliable general during campaigns in Sogdiana and India; in 324 B.C.E.

  appointed Alexander’s viceroy in Europe to replace Antipater; “lover of the king.”

  QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS: wrote ten-book history of Alexander ( Historiae Alexandri Magni),

  probably during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius (41–54 C.E.).

  CYRUS THE GREAT (reigned 557–530 B.C.E.): founder of the Persian empire; built royal residence

  of Pasargadae, where he was later buried; had crossed the deserts of Gedrosia where his army

  supposedly was nearly wiped out.

  DANDAMIS: Indian philosopher who asked Alexander why he had come to India.

  DARIUS I (reigned 522–486 B.C.E.): usurped Persian throne; created royal residences in Susa and

  Persepolis; crushed the Ionian revolt (499–494); his general Datis was defeated at Marathon (490) by

  the Athenians.

  DARIUS III (reigned 336–330 B.C.E.): Persian king; Alexander’s rival; usually depicted in the Greek

  and Roman sources as cowardly and indecisive; a more sophisticated reading of the sources reveals

  that Darius was a competent and flexible leader.

  DEMETRIUS: bodyguard of Alexander; part of Dimnus’ conspiracy against Alexander; exposed in

  Phrada in October 330 B.C.E. Executed by the Macedonian army; replaced as bodyguard by Ptolemy.

  DIMNUS: plotted against Alexander in Phrada in October 330 B.C.E.; committed suicide or killed by

  guards while being arrested; Philotas and Parmenio executed in wake of the conspiracy.

  DIODORUS SICULUS (FROM SICILY): books 17 and through 18.9 of his Bibliotheke, or Library

  (completed around 30 B.C.E.), treat the reign of Alexander from his accession to his death in Babylon.

  EPAMINONDAS: Theban general; defeated Spartan army twice, at Leuctra (371 B.C.E.) and Mantinea

  (362), at which he died; innovative tactician of hoplite warfare, from whose tactics (esp. oblique

  lines of attack) Philip II probably learned.

  ERYGIUS OF MYTILENE: born c. 380 B.C.E.; among friends of Alexander banished in the spring of

  336 B.C.E. in the wake of the Pixodarus affair; later commanded allied cavalry forces; killed rebel

  Satibarzanes in hand-to-hand combat.

  EUMENES OF CARDIA: Alexander’s royal secretary; with Diodotus of Erythrae, kept the Royal

  Diaries.

  LUCIUS FLAVIUS ARRIANUS (ARRIAN): lived c. 86–160 C.E. His Anabasis (“Journey Up-

  country”) of Alexander, in seven books, begins with Alexander’s accession and ends with his death in

  Babylon in 323 B.C.E.; shorter companion work, the Indike, recounts Nearchus’ voyage from the mouth

  of the Indus River to Susa.

  GLAUCIAS: Hephaestion’s physician; crucified after he failed to save Hephaestion’s life in Ecbatana

  in October 324 B.C.E.

  GLYCERA: “Honey”; Athenian courtesan; second mistress/girlfriend of Harpalus in Babylon; kept in

  exceeding luxury, provided with a way of life that was fantastically expensive.

  HARPALUS, SON OF MACHATAS: one of Alexander’s boyhood friends; banished by Philip in the

  wake of the Pixodarus affair; later served as Alexander’s treasurer; fled from Alexander twice; was

  killed on Crete in 324 B.C.E.

  HEGELOCHUS, SON OF HIPPOSTRATUS: cavalry commander; great-nephew of Attalus; perhaps

  plotted against Alexander in Egypt with Parmenio; opposed Alexander’s claims to divine parentage;

  died at the Battle of Gaugamela.

  HEPHAESTION, SON OF AMYNTOR: from Pella in Macedon; Alexander’s dearest friend;

  possibly his lover; wounded at Gaugamela, where he commanded the agema of the hypaspistai; after

  death of Philotas shared command of the Companion cavalry with Cleitus the Black; died at Ecbatana

  in October 324 B.C.E.

  HERACON: Macedonian officer; summoned to Alexander in Carmania in 324 B.C.E.; put on trial;

  originally acquitted; later indicted by natives of Susa; tried again and executed.

  HERMOLAUS, THE SON OF SOPOLIS: student of Callisthenes; slew boar before Alexander;

  initiated plot to kill Alexander in revenge for punishment or because of the demotion of his father;

  executed by stoning.

  HIERONYMOS OF CARDIA: history for which he is best known began at the death of Alexander in

  323 B.C.E. and continued to at least the death of King Pyrrhus of Epirus (272 B.C.E.).

  ISOCRATES OF ATHENS: Athenian orator, composed the Panegyricus (380 B.C.E.) and a Letter to

  Philip (346/5), urging Philip II of Macedon to begin a military campaign against Persia.

  MARCUS IUNIANUS IUSTINUS (JUSTIN): third or fourth century C.E. author of a Latin epitome

  (abridgment or summary) of the otherwise lost “Philippic Histories” ( Historiae Philippicae) of

  Pompeius Trogus, a late-first-century B.C.E. Vocontian from Gallia Narbonensis (Vasio or Vaison-la-

  Romaine) who covered Macedon in books 7–12 of his histories.

  KLEOPATRA: niece of a Macedonian nobleman, Attalus; married to Philip II in 337 B.C.E.; Attalus’

  toast at her wedding feast to a legitimate heir to the Macedonian throne caused a brawl between

  Alexander and Philip, which led to Olympias’ withdrawal to Epirus, and Alexander’s to Illyria.

  LAOMEDON, SON OF LARICHOS, OF MYTILENE: younger brother of Erygios; also exiled for his

  part in the Pixodarus affair; knew Persian; one of the trierarchs (essentially, ship commanders) of

  Alexander’s fleet.

  LEONIDAS: relative of Olympias, put in charge of the nurses, pedagogues, and teachers who were

  expected to educate Alexander; known as a strict disciplinarian.

  LEONNATUS: related to mother of Philip II; in 332/1 B.C.E. became one of Alexander’s seven

  personal bodyguards; probably was one of the soldiers who fought to protect Alexander inside the

  walls of the Mallian city; defeated the Oreitai; awarded a gold crown in Susa.

  LYSIMACHUS OF ACARNANIA: Alexander’s pedagogue; ingratiated himself to Alexander by

  calling Philip “Peleus,” nicknaming Alexander “Achilles,” and styling himself “Phoenix,” Achilles’

/>   old tutor. Later, rescued by Alexander during a raid against the Arabians who lived in the area of

  Mount Antilibanus.

  LYSIPPUS OF SICYON: active c. 370–315 B.C.E.; Alexander’s favorite sculptor; created much-

  copied bronze prototypes of Alexander as crown prince and heroic, leonine warrior.

  MAZAEUS: sent forward to forestall Alexander’s crossing of the Euphrates; commander of lowland

  and Mesopotamian Syrians at Gaugamela.

  MEDIUS OF LARISSA: host at the drinking party that Alexander attended on the night he either came

  down with the fever that led to his death, or was poisoned.

  MEMNON OF RHODES: military commander in the service of the Persian kings; recommended

  scorched-earth policy before battle of the river Granicus; his advice was rejected by the Persian

  satraps and military commanders; organized defense of Halicarnassus in 334 B.C.E. His death at the

  siege of Mytilene in the summer of 333 led to the collapse of the Persian naval strategy.

  MENIDAS: Macedonian officer; commanded mercenary cavalry at Gaugamela; left at Ecbatana with

  Parmenio in 330 B.C.E.; perhaps involved in Parmenio’s assassination; in Babylon when Alexander

  died.

  MUSICANUS: ruler of the richest realm in the Indus Valley; surrendered to Alexander, giving lavish

  gifts; confirmed as a vassal king; later revolted; executed.

  NABARZANES: Persian cavalry commander; instigated murder of Darius; later surrendered to

  Alexander; his friendly reception was helped by the presence of the eunuch Bagoas.

  NEARCHUS OF CRETE: commander of Alexander’s fleet when it sailed down the Indus River and

  from the mouth of the Indus River along the seacoast, eventually to the mouth of the Euphrates; wrote

  memoirs of the campaign.

  NICANOR, SON OF PARMENIO: younger brother of Philotas; commanded Guards (hypaspists) at

  Granicus, Issos, and Gaugamela; died of an illness of some kind in Areia, where his brother Philotas

  was left to conduct funeral rites.

  NICOMACHUS: boyfriend of Dimnus, to whom Dimnus’ conspiracy against the life of Alexander

  was revealed in Phrada in October 330 B.C.E.

  OLYMPIAS OF MOLOSSIA: daughter of King Neoptolemus of Molossia; married Philip II of

  Macedon c. 357 B.C.E.; gave birth to Alexander III of Macedon in July 356 B.C.E. Devotee of