Description
This biography begins not with one of the vital universally known incidents of Alexander’s life, but with an account of his father, Philip of Macedonia, whose many-territoried empire was the first on the continent of Europe to have an effectively centralized government and military. What Philip and Macedonia had to offer, Alexander made his own, but Philip and Macedonia also made Alexander form an important context for understanding Alexander himself. Yet his origins and training do not fully provide an explanation for the man. After he was named hegemon of the Hellenic League, many philosophers came to congratulate Alexander, but one was conspicuous by his absence: Diogenes the Cynic, an ascetic who lived in a clay tub. Piqued and curious, Alexander himself visited the philosopher, who, when asked if there was anything Alexander could do for him, made the famous reply, “Don’t stand between me and the sun.” Alexander’s courtiers jeered, but Alexander silenced them: “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.” This statement was as unexpected in Alexander as it would be in a modern leader.
For the general reader, the book, redolent with gritty details and fully aware of Alexander’s darker side, offers a gripping tale of Alexander’s career. Full backnotes, fourteen maps, and chronological and genealogical tables serve readers with more specialized interests.
There is not any shortage of biographies available on Alexander the Great, but Peter Green’s Alexander of Macedon is likely one of the finest. The prose is crisp and clear, and within a couple of pages readers develop into absorbed on this planet that made Alexander, and then the story of how Alexander remade it. Green writes, “Alexander’s true genius was as a field-commander: perhaps, taken all in all, the most incomparable general the world has ever seen. His gift for speed, improvisation, variety of strategy; his cool-headedness in a crisis; his ability to extract himself from the most unattainable situations; his mastery of terrain; his psychological ability to penetrate the enemy’s intentions–all these qualities place him at the very head of the Great Captains of history.”