Alexander the Great’s Policies and Intentions
Alexander the Great was undoubtedly one of the greatest military strategists of all time, conquering most of what was then the known world. However, since Alexander spent most of his life on campaign and conquest, much less is known about his ability and skills at governing. From the policies he enacted, it is difficult to ascertain whether Alexander was trying to achieve a blending of cultures or shrewdly shoring up his power. This was particularly evident with two of his initiatives: encouraging intermarriage between his conquering soldiers to native women, and the attempted enforcement of proskynesis.
One of Alexander’s more debated policies was his push towards intermarriage and drafting natives into his Macedonian and Greek army. Some suggest he was trying to create a mixed race society with some utopian ideal of social harmony. Others postulate he was just being pragmatic. I think that one must look at Alexander’s main goal: world conquest where everyone acknowledged him as the Great King. All of his policies should have been enacted to help him reach his goal. That included commanding the most powerful army in the world, which meant continually adding to its ranks, and keeping his soldiers relatively happy. Marriage between Alexander’s soldiers and conquered natives would help keep the soldiers content, while marriage between his appointed satraps and natives of the ruling class would legitimize the power of those satraps.
When Alexander started his war, it was supposed to be for the liberation of Greek city-states in Asia Minor. This quickly changed to avenging Greece’s defeat by Persia over a hundred and fifty years earlier. However, the only liberation generally accepted as such was by the people of Egypt. For each conquest, Alexander changed his reasoning for fighting. Before his father had died, Alexander had wished for Philip to not conquer Persia in order to leave the son something left to accomplish. Since Philip was killed before he could fight against Darius, the Great King of Persia, Alexander was left with a much smaller goal in which to overshadow his father. It would be very easy to presume then, that part of Alexander’s motivation was to create a much bigger name for himself than Philip could ever attain. As Plutarch wrote:
“At any rate, whenever he heard
that Philip had captured some famous city or won an overwhelming victory,
Alexander would show no pleasure at the news, but would declare to his friends,
‘Boys, my father will forestall me in everything. There will be nothing great or spectacular for you and me to
show the world.’ He cared nothing
for pleasure or wealth but only for deeds of valor and glory, and this was why
he believed that the more he received from his father, the less would be left
for him to conquer. And so every
success that was gained by Macedonia inspired in Alexander the dread that
another opportunity for action had been squandered on his father.” (Plutarch,
256)
Along with the desire to surpass Philip, Alexander also wanted to outshine Heracles, who was acknowledged as an ancestor, and be compared to Achilles, whom he paid tribute to at Ilium. Thus setting himself up to be so great, Alexander would let nothing deter him from his goals.
The only way to accomplish these goals of conquest was to have the best army in the world composed of the most devoted soldiers. Alexander was reported to have a great deal of charisma which drew men towards him, as well as espousing attractive ideals of Greek (and Macedonian) supremacy over the other races. But charisma would only take him so far, and while his men were professional soldiers, they still had homes in Greece and Macedonia and would not relish unending warfare. This was one of the reasons that Alexander had to continuously change his reasons for fighting. Alexander needed to come up with new, compelling reasons for the soldiers to stay on, besides promised glory and available plunder. One of the best ways to his soldiers would be to have their families with them. Therefore Alexander had many of his soldiers marry the female hangers-on (i.e.: prostitutes) and start families while on campaign. Bosworth in particular discusses using intermarriage as a way to keep the troops happy.
“According to Justin there was a
second body of Epigoni [Iranian troops trained in Macedonian warfare],
the offspring of mixed marriage between Macedonian soldiers and Asiatic wives.
Justin states that Alexander began to encourage these unions in 330, at
the time when he first adopted Persian dress.
Two motives are given—to reduce his troops’ longing for domestic life
in Macedonia and to create an army of mixed race whose only home was the camp.
Justin is fuller than usual and not apparently garbled; and there is
corroborative evidence. Arrian
agrees that more than 10,000 mixed marriages had been contracted by the time of
the celebrations at Susa and the veterans of Opis had produced a fair number of
offspring by their native wives. . . .” (Bosworth, 18)
Another point to consider is that any offspring produced by the mixed marriages would most likely not be accepted in either Macedonian or Persian society, which would increase their loyalty to Alexander since with him they would be welcome. If Alexander merely wanted his soldiers to have families in the army he could have imported Greek brides, but then there would have been even more people desiring to return to Greece.
An additional type of mixed marriage that Alexander encouraged was to the satrapial families. By the time of his death there were only three satraps who were Persian, the rest had been replaced by Macedonians. Many of the Macedonian satraps married Persian wives. This gave them some legitimacy in their rule, and by having a Persian population with a Macedonian ruler, there was less of a chance of revolt by the satraps since they did not even speak the language of their subjects. The largest of these weddings was the mass marriage ceremony at Susa where Alexander took the daughters of Darius and Artaxerxes, and approximately 90 of his men were also married. This was apparently not entirely by choice as most of those married at Susa repudiated their wives as soon as Alexander died.
While Alexander encouraged, or forced, many mixed marriages, there is still little evidence to assume Alexander aimed to create a mixed society. Points against this view are that he kept the Macedonians and Persians mostly separated, by language and even fighting style in his army, and that all of the marriages were between Macedonian men and Persian women, not the other way around. Nor did Alexander encourage any Persian immigration to Greece or Macedonia. The marriages were just one more way for Alexander to exert control over his domain.
Another policy of Alexander’s for which there are numerous interpretations is that of proskynesis. One of the interpretations is that Alexander wished to be seen as a god since Greeks would only show such obeisance to a god. The idea of Alexander being divine goes all the way back to his birth.
“According to Eratosthenes,
Olympias, when she sent Alexander on his way to lead his great expedition to the
East, confided to him and to him alone the secret of his conception and urged
him to show himself worth of his divine parentage.
But other authors maintain that she repudiated this story and used to
say, ‘Will Alexander never stop making Hera jealous of me?’” (Plutarch,
254)
His mother Olympias had allegedly been seen laying with a snake and helped to spread rumors that Alexander’s real father was a god. While this story may not have been seen as proof of Alexander’s divine roots, more credibility was given after having liberated Egypt. Alexander had always put a great deal of faith in oracles and Plutarch points out his devotion to the gods and making sacrifices to them. As the conqueror he was named pharaoh and went to see the oracle of Zeus-Ammon in the Siwah Oasis. This oracle was particularly meaningful to the Greeks, having been consulted by a number of notable Greeks including Lysander, Pereus and Heracles, and therefore could be counted on for reliable advice. Green states that Alexander went to have several questions answered, particularly that of his parentage and whether or not he was going to win in Persia (Green, 273). “’Son of Ammon, Good God, Lord of the Two Lands’.” was Alexander’s greeting and seemed to have confirmed that he was indeed the son of Zeus (Green, 274). The records do not show what else was said to Alexander as he met with the priest in private and never revealed to anyone what their conversation revealed. After this encounter Alexander seemed surer of his goals and more convinced of his own divinity.
It was customary in Persian culture to perform proskynesis to anyone of a higher rank. The Great King was above everyone else, so therefore all who met him had to perform proskynesis. After the defeat of Darius and Bessus, Alexander was now the ruler, and wanted to make sure the Persians recognized him as such. To this effect, he mixed Persian dress with Macedonian, and kept the practice of proskynesis. The problem was that there was often mixed company, and to have the Persians see the Greeks or Macedonians not bow down to Alexander would risk their seeing him as less than the Great King thereby making it necessary to enforce proskynesis with everyone. The Greeks were insulted, interpreting the action as agreeing to the idea that Alexander was already a god, which most did not. (Alexander’s divinity was still being debated in 324-323 with a strong leaning towards him not being a god.)
“Among the usual attempts at
scholarly originality, two points of fairly general agreement may perhaps be
picked out, . . . First, that proskynesis
was mandatory before the King of Persia; secondly, that Greeks regarded it as
confined to divine cult. Most
scholars would add that there was no implication of divinity in the Persian
ceremony. . . .” (Badian, 48).
Alexander would have known that proskynesis does not infer divinity in Persia, so his keeping the practice would therefore not mean that he was forcing others to recognize his divinity so much as keeping a Persian custom in order to assert his leadership. That he could not come up with a suitable compromise to please his Greek and Macedonian companions was merely a policy flaw due to his own ego.
It is important to remember that Alexander the Great was a megalomaniac who wanted fame, glory, and immortality for himself. Much of what he did during his short but fruitful lifetime was aimed at this goal. What we know of his policies supports this theory. While Alexander did encourage intermarriage between his men and the native women, it was not to create a blended society, but to keep his soldiers’ attentions in the army and to help create a ruling class loyal to him. His failed policy of proskynesis was another method of ruling Persians, by keeping many of their customs alive, and can be put into the same category as adopting some Persian dress. Considering Alexander lacked a method of ruling the territories he conquered, it is difficult to imagine that he conceived a master plan to create a cohesive society of his conquests.
Bibliography
Badian,
E. “The Deification of Alexander
the Great.” Ancient
Macedonian Studies in Honor of Charles F. Edson (1981): Pgs 27-71.
Bosworth,
A.B. “Alexander and the Iranians.” The Journal of Hellenic
Studies (1980): Pgs1-21.
Green,
Peter. Alexander
of Macedon, 356-323 B.C. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1991.
Plutarch. The Age of Alexander. Translated into English by Ian Scott-Kilvert. London: Penguin, 197