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Early rule Conquest of the Persian Empire Expedition into India Death and legacy Cultural impact | ||
The historical and literary tradition describes several ofAlexander's relations, some of which are the subject of question among modern historians.
Curtius reports, "He scorned sensual pleasures to such an extent that his mother was anxious lest he be unable to beget offspring." To encourage a relationship with a woman,King Philip andOlympias were said to have brought in a high-pricedThessaliancourtesan named Callixena. According toAthenaeus, Callixena was employed by Olympias out of fear that Alexander was "womanish" (γύvνις), and his mother used to beg him to sleep with the courtesan, apparently to no success.[1][2][3] Some modern historians, such asJames Davidson, see this as evidence of Alexander's homosexuality.[2] Two ancient historians, Siculus and Curtius, tell of him spending thirteen days with a tribe-leader of woman-warriors hailing from theCaucasus Mountains, however this appears alongside many other hyperbolized aspects of his character and achievements, and ancient historians did not distinguish between myth and history in the same way historians do today.[4]
Ancient authors see this and other anecdotes as proof of Alexander's self-control in regards to sensual pleasures, and accounts are also known of Alexander's stern refusal to accept indiscreet offers from men who tried to pimp him male prostitutes, among whom, according toAeschines andHypereides, was the renowned Athenian oratorDemosthenes. According toCarystius (as quoted by Athenaeus), when Alexander praised the beauty of a boy at a gathering, probably a slave belonging to one Charon of Chalcis, the latter asked the boy to kiss Alexander, but Alexander refused, to spare Charon the embarrassment of having to share his boy's affections.[5]
According to Plutarch, the only woman with whom Alexander had sex before his first marriage wasBarsine, daughter ofArtabazos II of Phrygia but of Greek education. There is speculation that he may have fathered a child,Heracles, of her in 327 BC.Mary Renault, however, was sceptical of such a story:
No record at all exists of such a woman accompanying his march; nor of any claim by her, or her powerful kin, that she had born him offspring. Yet twelve years after his death a boy was produced, seventeen years old...a claimant and shortlived pawn in the succession wars...no source reports any notice whatever taken by him of a child who, Roxane's being posthumous, would have been during his lifetime his only son, by a near-royal mother. In a man who named cities after his horse and dog, this strains credulity.[6]
Regardless, ancient reports state that Alexander and Barsine became lovers, as Alexander was enthralled by her beauty and knowledge ofGreek literature.[4]
Alexander married three times: toRoxana ofBactria,Stateira, andParysatis, daughter ofOchus. He fathered at least one child,Alexander IV of Macedon, born by Roxana shortly after his death in 323 BC.
Metz Epitome contains report that Roxana and Alexander had another child - a boy who was born in India and died there, in November 326 BC.[7] Alexander Hebrew Romance also mentioned this child and alleges he was named Alexander too.[8]
There is speculation that Stateira could have been pregnant or given birth to a child before she died; if so, she and her child played no part in thesuccession battles which ensued after his death, as Roxana ordered Stateira's death.
Diodorus Siculus writes, "Then he put on the Persian diadem and dressed himself in the white robe and the Persian sash and everything else except the trousers and the long-sleeved upper garment. He distributed to his companions cloaks with purple borders and dressed the horses in Persian harness. In addition to all this, he added concubines to his retinue in the manner of Darius, in number not less than the days of the year and outstanding in beauty as selected from all the women of Asia. Each night these paraded about the couch of the king so that he might select the one with whom he would lie that night. Alexander, as a matter of fact, employed these customs rather sparingly and kept for the most part to his accustomed routine, not wishing to offend the Macedonians."[9]
According to Plutarch, Alexander once sought a sexual encounter withTheodorus's music girl, saying to him that "if you don't have lust for your music-girl, send her to me for ten talents."[10]
Aristotle was the head of the royal academy ofMacedon and, in 343 BC,Philip II of Macedon invited him to serve as the tutor for the prince, Alexander.[11] Alexander received inspiration for his eastward conquests, as Aristotle was encouraged to become: "a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants". Aristotle heldethnocentric views againstPersia, which estranged him and Alexander as the latter adopted a few of the Persian royal customs and clothing. This tension led to ancient rumors that painted Aristotle as a suspect for Alexander’s death, but this rumor spread based ona single claim made six years after Alexander’s passing.[12]
Alexander also received his primary education on thePersian customs and traditions through Aristotle. Upon Aristotle’s publication of his geographic work, Alexander lamented, "Thou hast not done well to publish thy acroamatic doctrines; for in what shall I surpass other men if those doctrines wherein I have been trained are to be all men's common property?" Aristotle’s tutelage is also attributed as the reason why Alexander brought an entourage of zoologists, botanists, philosophers, and other researchers on his expeditions deep into the east. Through those expeditions Alexander discovered that much of the geography he learned from Aristotle was plainly wrong.[13]
Alexander had a close emotional attachment to his companion,cavalry commander (hipparchus) and childhood friend,Hephaestion. He studied with Alexander, as did a handful of other children ofAncient Macedonianaristocracy, under thetutelage ofAristotle. Hephaestion makes his appearance inhistory at the point when Alexander reachesTroy. There they made sacrifices at theshrines of the two heroesAchilles andPatroclus; Alexander honouring Achilles, and Hephaestion honouring Patroclus.
After Hephaestion's death in Oct 324 BC, Alexander mourned him greatly and did not eat for days. Alexander held an elaboratefuneral for Hephaestion atBabylon, and sent a note to theshrine of Ammon, which had previously acknowledged Alexander as agod, asking them to grant Hephaestion divine honours. Thepriests declined, but did offer him the status of divinehero. Alexander died soon after receiving this letter; Mary Renault suggests that his grief over Hephaestion's death had led him to be careless with his health. Alexander was overwhelmed by his grief for Hephaestion, so much thatArrian records that Alexander "flung himself on the body of his friend and lay there nearly all day long in tears, and refused to be parted from him until he was dragged away by force by his Companions".[14]
Although none of thefive main sources of Alexander's life state that there was anything other than friendship between Alexander and Hephaestion, some historians speculate that there was more.Robin Lane Fox states that the two were possibly lovers, elaborating that "later gossip claimed that Alexander [and Hephaestion] had a love affair. No contemporary history states this, but the facts show that the two men's friendship was exceptionally deep and close."[15]Paul Cartledge claims that the two "almost certainly" physically expressed their love at one or more stages in their lives.[16] Cartledge notes that if Hephaestion was Alexander's "catamite", the stigma attached to being the passive sexual partner is not something that Hephaestion would have wished to boast about.[16]
InAlexander the Great: Sources and studies,William Woodthorpe Tarn wrote, "There is then not one scrap of evidence for calling Alexander homosexual."[17] Cartledge asserts that any attempt to "expunge all trace, or taint, of homosexuality" from Alexander and Hephaestion's relationship are "seriously misguided."[16]
Campaspe, also known asPancaste, is thought to have been a prominent citizen ofLarissa inThessaly, and may have been the mistress of Alexander. If this is true, she was one of the first women with whom Alexander was intimate;Aelian even surmises that it was to her that a young Alexander lost hisvirginity.
One story tells that Campaspe was painted byApelles, who enjoyed the reputation inAntiquity for being the greatest of painters. The episode occasioned an apocryphal exchange that was reported in the sources for the life of Alexander in Pliny'sNatural History. Robin Lane Fox traces her legend back to the Roman authorsPliny the Elder,Lucian of Samosata and Aelian'sVaria Historia.
Campaspe became a generic poetical pseudonym for a man's mistress.
Barsine was a nobleGreek-Persian, daughter ofArtabazus, and wife ofMemnon. After Memnon's death, several ancient historians have written of a love affair between her and Alexander.Plutarch writes, "At any rate Alexander, so it seems, thought it more worthy of a king to subdue his own passions than to conquer his enemies, and so he never came near these women, nor did he associate with any other before his marriage, with the exception only of Barsine. This woman, the widow of Memnon, theGreekmercenary commander, was captured atDamascus. She had received a Greek education, was of a gentle disposition, and could claim royal descent, since her father was Artabazus who had married one of the Persian king's daughters. These qualities made Alexander the more willing he was encouraged byParmenio, so Aristobulus tells us, to form an attachment to a woman of such beauty and noble lineage."[18] In addition Justin writes, "As he afterwards contemplated the wealth and display of Darius, he was seized with admiration of such magnificence. Hence it was that he first began to indulge in luxurious and splendid banquets, and fell in love with his captive Barsine for her beauty, by whom he had afterwards a son that he called Heracles."[19]
The story may be true, but if so, it raises some difficult questions. The boy would have been Alexander's only child born during his lifetime (Roxane's son was born posthumously). Even if Alexander had ignored him, which seems highly unlikely, the Macedonian Army and the successors would certainly have known of him, and would almost certainly have drawn him into the succession struggles which ensued upon Alexander's death. Yet we first hear of the boy twelve years after Alexander's death, when a boy was produced as a claimant to the throne. Especially since Alexander's own half-brotherPhilip III Arrhidaeus (Philip II'sillegitimate andphysically and mentally disabled son[20]) was Alexander's original successor.[21] Alexander's illegitimate son would have had more rights to the throne than his illegitimate[22] half-brother. Heracles played a brief part in the succession battles, and then disappeared. It seems more likely that the romance with Barsine was invented by the boy's backers to validate his parentage.[23]
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Ancient historians, as well as modern ones, have also written on Alexander's marriage toRoxana the beautiful [Persian] woman.Robin Lane Fox writes, "Roxana was said by contemporaries to be the most beautiful lady in allAsia. She deserved her name ofRoshanak, meaning 'little star', (probablyrokhshana orroshana which meanslight andilluminating) in Persian. Marriage to a local noble's family made sound political sense, but contemporaries implied that Alexander, aged 28, also lost his heart. A wedding-feast for the two of them was arranged high on one of thePersian rocks. Alexander and his bride shared a loaf of bread, a custom still observed inTurkestan. Characteristically, Alexander sliced it with his sword.[24]Ulrich Wilcken writes, "The fairest prize that fell to him was Roxana, the daughter ofOxyartes, in the first bloom of youth, and in the judgment of Alexander's companions, next toStateira the wife ofDarius, the most beautiful woman that they had seen in Asia. Alexander fell passionately in love with her and determined to raise her to the position of his consort."[25]
As soon as Alexander died in 323 BC, Roxana murdered Alexander's two other wives. Roxana wished to cement her own position and that of her son, unborn at that time, by ridding herself of a rival who could be or claim to be pregnant or to have given birth to a child. According to Plutarch's account,Stateira's sister,Drypetis, was murdered at the same time; Carney believes that Plutarch was mistaken, and it was actuallyParysatis who died with Stateira.[26]
Roxana bore Alexander two children: a first-born son who died as an infant in November 326 BC, andAlexander IV, born 2 months afterAlexander the Great died.
Ancient sources tell of another favourite,Bagoas; aeunuch "in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and with whom Alexander would later be intimate."[27] Plutarch recounts an episode (also mentioned byDicaearchus) during some festivities on the way back fromIndia in which his men clamor for him to kiss the young man: "We are told, too, that he was once viewing some contests in singing and dancing, being well heated with wine, and that the Macedonians' favourite, Bagoas, won the prize for song and dance, and then, all in his festal array, passed through the theatre and took his seat by Alexander's side; at sight of which the Macedonians clapped their hands and loudly bade the king kiss the victor, until at last he threw his arms about him and kissed him tenderly."Athenaeus tells a slightly different version of the story — that Alexander kissed Bagoas in a theatre and, as his men shouted in approval, he repeated the action.[28]
The Roman historianQuintus Curtius Rufus was highly critical of the relationship between Alexander and Bagoas, saying that Alexander was seized of such desire by the eunuch, that Bagoas became thede facto sovereign ofPersia, exploiting Alexander's affections to make him persecute Bagoas's personal enemies, such as the Persian governorOrxines.[29]
A 1972 novel byMary Renault,The Persian Boy, chronicles that story with Bagoas as narrator[30] Renault wrote disparagingly of Rufus's reliability, stating: "[Rufus's account of Alexander] is bent that way by recourse toAthenian anti-Macedonian agitprop, written by men who never set eyes on him, and bearing about as much relation to objective truth as one would expect to find in a History of the Jewish People commissioned byAdolf Hitler."[31]
Recent historians however, such as Jeanne Reames have cast doubt on the likelihood of an intimate relationship between Alexander and Bagoas. Daniel Ogden, critical of Curtius wrote in his book Alexander the Great : Myth, Genesis and Sexuality: "The story, I submit, is simply too good, and should not be used to draw any conclusions about the nature of Alexander’s relationship with Bagoas, or about the development of it."[32][33]
