Soldier, Priest, and God

by F S Naiden

  Massive floats honoring the founder of the dynasty, the first Ptolemy, entered the stadium first, followed by floats for the Olympian gods. One float honoring Dionysus carried a deified Mount Nysa, that center of the world Alexander had visited. The seated goddess periodically rose to her feet, thanks to hidden machinery, poured a libation, and sat down again. Power for this device came from the sixty slaves pulling the float. Statues of Alexander and the first Ptolemy, adorned with ivy garlands made of gold, rode side by side on another float.

  The last float in the parade displayed an enormous statue of Alexander in armor, as though marching at the head of his men. Yet here he stood to the rear of an army of slaves with ropes over their shoulders for pulling floats. The only armed men on the scene served as marshals controlling the vast crowds. The city Alexander founded some fifty years before had become home to several hundred thousand Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians, plus tourists and visitors from throughout the Near East and Greece. Not all honored him as a god, but all admired the spectacle.

  The city of Alexandria found several other ways to make Alexander its own. One was mythical. A story spread that the substitute king whom Alexander had put to death in Babylon was an Egyptian, sent to Babylon by an Egyptian god, Serapis. Serapis was the father of Horus, as Amon was, and so Serapis was in charge of Alexander. Serapis wanted Alexander to return to Egypt and be worshipped after death, and got his wish by tricking Alexander into killing the substitute. Alexander lost both his throne and his life, and then Ptolemy stole his body and brought it to Alexandria.34

  Another way was the Alexander Romance, composed in Alexandria sometime after Alexander’s death. It soon became popular throughout the ancient world. In every version of the story, Alexander was some sort of Egyptian.

  A third way was official. Ptolemy II began to claim that Alexander’s father, Philip of Macedon, was his own grandfather. In 272 Ptolemy established a cult for himself as Alexander’s descendant, and also for his wife, so that the Greeks and Macedonians in Egypt would worship them as gods. To help pay for the new cults, he taxed every vineyard in Egypt.

  Meanwhile, the Egyptian priests continued to worship in the old way. They regarded Alexander as a dead pharaoh, and not an especially prominent one, and they regarded each Ptolemaic pharaoh as a son of Horus, given divine standing and a ka to go with it, but not immortality. In 238 Ptolemy III ordered Egyptian priests to expand their pantheon by worshipping Alexander and the Ptolemies. Now Alexander became a god for the Egyptians. Even at Siwah, he had never asked for so much.35

  With the new cults came revised rules for rituals and a calendar reform ensuring that the overburdened priests stuck to their schedules. This reform established the 365-day year plus leap years. The last five days of the year belonged to the cults of Alexander, the pharaoh, and his family.36

  This Greco-Egyptian religious machinery operated for centuries, even after Egypt fell to the Romans. Pompey, Caesar, and Augustus all paid their respects to the shrine of Alexander in the royal precinct. Augustus, the first Roman to rule as pharaoh, preferred Alexander to the other Macedonian rulers of Egypt. After he visited the chapel where Alexander lay, the priests offered to take him to the tombs of the Ptolemies, but he declined. “I have come to see a living king,” he said, “not a row of dead men.”37

  Gossips in the emperor’s court claimed that Augustus not only saw Alexander but broke off his nose. Although untrue, this story testified to the uncanny power of the body. People doubted whether Alexander was subject to the vicissitudes of mortality.38

  In AD 215 Emperor Caracalla visited the Soma, and the sight of Alexander’s face seemed to mesmerize him. After laying his purple cloak on the sarcophagus in a gesture of grief, he announced that he was a reincarnation of Alexander. He had the same twist of the neck and out-of-kilter eyes. When Alexandrians scoffed, he raised a detachment of pseudo-Macedonian companions to rampage through the streets and butcher them. He also enclosed the Soma with high walls and watchtowers, turning it into a fort. In 264 a rebellious Roman general took refuge there, and the ensuing siege may have damaged Alexander’s chapel. More destruction followed, and by the 300s little of the Soma survived.39

  Then came two cataclysms, Christianity and the tidal wave of 365. If the new religion did not efface what remained, the wave did, and around the year 400 a Christian author mocked the pagan gods by asking, “Where is the tomb of Alexander? Show me. On what day did he die? Tell me.” The tomb was gone, and the annual celebrations held on the day of his death had ceased.40

  Yet Alexander was not quite dead. Centuries later, Muslims venerated him in a chapel that one pilgrim described as being amid the ruins in the middle of the city. A small shrine marked the place where worshippers thought Alexander lay buried. They esteemed Alexander as a prophet described in the eighteenth book of the Koran. They asked him for blessings, brought him votives, and celebrated the anniversary of his death with prayers and a procession, customary honors for a prophet or a saint. In the 1880s an Egyptian government bent on westernizing the city demolished the chapel and the veneration of Alexander along with it.41

  Alexander’s body has never been found.42

  Line drawing of the shrine of Alexander, by Edward Clarke, 1798.

  V. Denon, Voyage en Égypte (Paris 1803), pl. 9.

  in the eighteenth book (or sura) of the Koran, Alexander appears as the prophet called “the two-horned man.” The shrine at Siwah conceived Amon this way, and Alexander wore horns to imitate Amon. Coins spread this image of Alexander throughout the Near East. Many Muslim writers knew about it. One called a mosque at Alexandria “the mosque of the two-horned man.”43

  A few Muslim authorities identify “the two-horned man,” or Dhul Qarnayn, as Cyrus the Great and not Alexander. Either is plausible. The Koran says that the Dhul Qarnayn traveled to the limits of the known world in the course of his conquests, and Cyrus seemingly anticipated Alexander in accomplishing this feat.44

  In the verses quoted below, God addresses Muhammad. God is the upper-case “We.” “He” is Alexander.

  We granted him power in the land and gave him paths leading to all things.

  He took one of these paths, and when he reached the limit where the sun goes down, he found it setting in a pool of murky water, and he found a people. We said, “Dhul Qarnayn, you may either punish them or treat them with kindness.”

  He said, “If a man does wrong, we will punish him. Then he will be remanded to his Lord and the Lord will punish him terribly. If a man has faith and acts righteously, he will have the best reward, and we will rule him gently.”

  He then followed another path, and when he reached the limit where the sun rises, he found a people to whom We gave no shelter against the sun’s rays. …

  He followed yet another path, and reached a place that lay between two barriers. The people scarcely understood a word, but said to him, “Gog and Magog are despoiling the country. Should we pay you tribute to build a bulwark to protect us?”

  He said, “The path my Lord has shown me is better than your tribute. Help me, and I will make a bulwark for you. Bring me sheets of iron.” When he had filled the gap between the two barriers, he said, “Blow!” When they had set it aflame, he said, “Bring me molten copper to pour over it.” Gog and Magog could not scale it or make a hole in it.

  He said, “This is an act of mercy from my Lord. But when my Lord’s promise is fulfilled, my Lord will make this bulwark crumble.”45

  The Lord makes a “promise” to summon mankind before Him on the Day of Judgment. On that day, Alexander predicts, the wall he has made will collapse, and Allah will divide mankind anew between heaven and hell. In all of the Koran, only Muhammad, Abraham, and Alexander speak in their own words of this consummation of man’s time on earth.46

  FINIS

  Chronology

  359 BC—Accession of Philip II to the throne of Macedon.

  356 July—Birth of Alexander III.

  338 Battle at Chaeronea.

/>   336 autumn—Assassination of Philip II and accession of Alexander III.

  335 spring—Alexander’s campaigns north of Macedon.

  335 October—Siege of Thebes.

  334 early spring—Dedication of shrine to Jason at Abdera and sacrifices for crossing the Bosporus and invading the Persian Empire.

  334 late spring—Visit to Troy and the battle at the Granicus River.

  334 summer—Occupation of Ephesus and Priene.

  334 autumn—Campaign in Caria.

  333 spring—Visit to the shrine of Zeus in Gordium.

  333 summer—Passage through the Cilician Gates.

  333 autumn—Occupation of Cilicia and the battle at Issus.

  332 winter and spring—Siege of Tyre, lasting six months.

  332 late autumn—Siege of Gaza, lasting two months.

  332–331 Occupation of Egypt and accession or coronation ceremonies for Alexander at Heliopolis, Memphis, and perhaps Thebes. Visit to Siwah.

  332–331 Religiously motivated revolt in Samaria.

  331 early spring—Official foundation of Alexandria.

  331 spring—Suppression of the revolt in Samaria.

  331 summer—Passage of the Euphrates River.

  331 Sept. 20—Eclipse of the moon.

  331 Oct. 1—Battle near Arbela.

  331 autumn—Occupation of Babylon and coronation of Alexander. Occupation of Susa.

  330 winter—Occupation of Persepolis and visit to Pasargadae.

  330 summer—Death of Darius.

  330 fall—Execution of Philotas and assassination of Parmenio.

  330 winter—Arrival at the Hindu Kush.

  329 spring—Passage through the Hindu Kush.

  329–327 Campaign in Bactria and Sogdiana.

  329 late spring—Surrender of Bessus. Foundation of Alexandria Eschate.

  329–328 Winter quarters in Bactra. Violation of the shrine of Anahita.

  328 autumn—Defeat and decapitation of Spitamanah.

  328–327 Fall and winter quarters in Samarkand and elsewhere. Murder of Clitus.

  327 spring—Marriage of Alexander and Roxana.

  327 summer—Conspiracy of the pages and trial of Callisthenes.

  326 early spring—Departure for India. Visit to Mount Meru at Nysa. Sacrifices for crossing the Indus.

  326 summer—Campaign in Punjab. Visit to Taxila. Battle at Jhelum River. Dedication of altars at the Beas River.

  326 autumn—Departure downstream, toward the lower Indus Valley.

  326 winter—Campaign against the Malavas.

  325 midsummer—Arrival at Patala. Sacrifices on the shoreline and at sea.

  325 early autumn—Departure of Nearchus and the fleet, and of Alexander and Craterus with the troops and baggage.

  325 late autumn—March through the Gedrosian Desert.

  325–early 324 Occupation of Carmania and Dionysian celebrations. Flight and supplication of Harpalus.

  324 spring—Second visit to Pasargadae and arrival in Susa. Marriages of Alexander III and leading companions to Iranians.

  324 late spring—Mutiny of the army at Opis.

  324 autumn—Death of Hephaestion at Ecbatana and destruction of temple there.

  324 winter—Arrival in Babylon.

  323 June 10—Death of Alexander III in Babylon.

  323 summer—Birth of Alexander III’s posthumous son, Alexander IV. Regency of Perdiccas.

  321 Departure of cortege of Alexander III from Babylon and seizure of the cortege by Ptolemy in Syria. Supplication and death of Demosthenes.

  321–320 Burial of Alexander III in Memphis.

  320 summer—Assassination of Perdiccas by Seleucus.

  320 summer—Redistribution of commands and provinces at Trisparadeisos.

  317 Murder of Philip Arrhidaeus by Olympias.

  316 spring—Execution of Olympias.

  310–309 Murder of Roxane and Alexander IV by Cassander.

  309 Betrayal and death of Heracles, son of Alexander III and Barsine.

  ca. 300 Removal of Alexander III’s body to Alexandria.

  A Glossary of Gods and Lesser Beings

  Achilles The greatest Homeric warrior, important to Alexander III both as a military role model and as a reputed ancestor of Olympias, his mother. Alexander worshipped him at Troy.

  Ahura Mazda The chief god of the Persians, sometimes worshipped together with two others, Anahita (q.v.) and Mithra, a sun god. Unlike his Greek counterpart, Zeus, Ahura Mazda, or “Lord of Wisdom,” personified good in combat against evil.

  Alexander III King of Macedon and acknowledged leader of Thessaly and Greece, positions inherited from his father, Philip II; reputedly the son of Nectanebo according to Egyptian sources, and half Persian according to some Persian sources. In Greek and Egyptian sources his mother was Olympias, but in Persian sources she was a Persian princess.

  Alexander IV Co-king of Macedon and of the Macedonian empire in Asia, positions inherited from his father, Alexander III. His mother was Roxana, the Sogdian wife of Alexander III.

  Ambhi Ruler of Taxila, the first important Indian city conquered by Alexander III and his army. Ambhi was the first native ruler to become a provincial governor under Alexander.

  Amon, or Amon-Re The chief god of Egypt, responsible for making Alexander III pharaoh of Egypt, and worshipped in Greece as Zeus-Amon. As pharaoh, Alexander ranked as Amon’s son; however, he had no divine mother. The priests of Amon-Re became important advisers to Alexander.

  Anahita, or Sarasvati As Anahita, a goddess of water, fertility, and culture among the Iranians; the same as Sarasvati among the Pakrit-speaking peoples of India. The most important shrine of hers that Alexander III visited was in Bactra, the capital of Bactria.

  Antigonus A veteran of the wars of Philip II, given the task of subduing and controlling Asia Minor by Alexander III. After Alexander’s death, a leading successor in control of Asia Minor, and sometimes Syria, Mesopotamia, and western Iran.

  Antipater A veteran of the wars of Philip II, given the task of controlling Macedon and Greece during the Macedonian invasion of the Persian Empire. After the death of Alexander III, a leading successor in control of Macedon and Greece, which eventually came under the control of his son, Cassander.

  Aristander The chief diviner of Philip II and later of Alexander III. He accompanied Alexander into Asia and was the most influential priest in the army before Alexander encountered the priests of Amon-Re.

  Aristobulus An engineer, architect, and virtual chief of the technical staff of Alexander III. He was the author of the most important account of Alexander’s career from a civilian rather than military viewpoint.

  Artabazus, or Ashavazdan A Persian exile who lived in Macedon and then returned to Persia, serving Darius III. He was one of the most prominent Persian leaders to switch sides and enter the service of Alexander III, who took his daughter, Barsine, as a mate.

  Athena An Olympian goddess worshipped for her military qualities by the kings of Macedon, notably Alexander III.

  Baal Haman The chief god of the Semites of western Syria and also the god of the mountain beside which the battle of Issus was fought, and thus for Alexander the III a local form of Zeus.

  Barsine The daughter of Artabazus, who became Alexander III’s mate when captured after the battle of Issus. She bore Alexander a son, Heracles.

  Bessus, or Artaxshasa A Persian noble who was Darius III’s governor of Bactria, a post establishing him as heir to the Persian throne. After Darius’s death, he took the royal name Artaxshasa.

  Calanus The most prominent of the Indian religious leaders who joined the entourage of Alexander III. Evidently a Brahmin, he committed suicide during the army’s return from India.

  Cassander The son of Antipater, who joined Alexander III in Babylon in the months before Alexander’s death, and who established himself as his father’s successor in Macedon in part by killing Olympias and Heracles, Alexander’s son by Barsine.

  Chares Steward
and master of ceremonies for Alexander III, and the author of memoirs of court life.

  Clitus Surnamed “the Black,” a Macedonian cavalry commander assigned by Alexander III to be the first Macedonian governor of Bactria. Alexander murdered him following a quarrel at a drinking party.

  Coenus A veteran of the wars of Philip II, he served first as a leading infantry commander and later as a commander of cavalry and independent detachments. He led the faction of generals who compelled Alexander III to abandon the conquest of India and return to Babylon.

  Craterus A veteran of the wars of Philip II, he served as a leading infantry commander and later replaced Parmenio as the virtual second in command of the army. He died shortly after the death of Alexander III, and thus did not become one Alexander’s successors.

  Cyrus the Great Ruler of Anshan, a small Persian kingdom, who made himself ruler of Iranian Central Asia and then of the entire Near East, save for Egypt. Admired by many Greek writers, he offered a role model to Alexander III.

  Darius III, perhaps né Codomannus King of the Persian Empire at the time of the Macedonian invasion, but of dubious ancestry, since he was only a collateral descendant of Cyrus the Great.

  Demosthenes The most famous of Greek orators; also an outstanding opponent of both Philip II and Alexander III, and convicted of taking bribes from Alexander’s fugitive treasurer, Harpalus.

  Diades Alexander III’s leading engineer, a Thessalian, who wrote a book on siege warfare describing innovations such as towers on wheels and wall drills.

  Dionysus An Olympian god important to Alexander III as the patron god of Thebes, which Alexander sacked, and as a god reportedly worshipped in India, where Alexander hoped to establish himself as ruler under Dionysus’s sponsorship.

  Eumenes The most important Greek companion of Alexander III, whom he served as secretary and to whom he lent money in India. After Alexander’s death, he was briefly one of his successors, only to be defeated by Antigonus.