Deconstructing MYTH of Aleksandar's Supposed "Brotherhood of Mankind"

[indigen]

Q1: Who were the ruling class and military elite in this "kozmoplitska" Alexandria?

Q2: How similar do you think Alexandria, which is said to have emerged from a strategic Persian military garrison site (like the many other Alexandrias), was in the period from 332/331-323 to the Metropolis it came to be under Ptolemaic Dynasty?

A1- Macedonians.
A2- However the differences the point being is simple. This city was a product of Alexander himself. Here's what Peter Green wrote of it in Alexander the Great pages 275-6.

"Brotherhood of Mankind" = "Spreading of Cosmopolitanism" (aka "ширење на космополитизам")

Duly noted like I said in a previous post. However, the fact is Alexander was Cosmopolitan and spread it in his own virtuos way.

I think you are avoiding to admit your own misconceptions about Alexander's so called "Unity of Mankind" (which, as I clarified for you, in RoM circles is presented as "shirenje na KOZMOPOLITIZAM", and I gave you an example of that from a Macedonian source. I have to ask why you keep BEING OFF TOPIC and harping back to some other common garden variety of Western cosmopolitanism that Alexander was supposed to have been on a mission to spread, in your view? Why don't you start a new topic and elaborate on the "planned cosmopolitanism" that Aleksandar was supposed to have spread?

As for Alexandria, it was not even finished by the time of Aleksandar's death. When Ptolemy took over Egypt, he found the appointed (by Aleksandar) administrator very unpopular and the populace on the verge of overthrowing him (so the extant sources may say).

The practical military objective of having some towns in an alien population (or land/country) populated by a mixed group of people and serving as a strategic outpost, which logically is less likely to revolt against the Macedonian garrison and more likely to support its upkeep, as implemented by Filip II and Aleksandar III (and his Succesors, no doubt) being presented as some mission for "cosmopolitanism" is ABSURDLY UNBELIEVABLE. IME, it was the strategic and military necessity and lack of Macedonian manpower that these outpost cities and towns were established in the way they were.

---------

Reiterating some of the points for final clarification:

So that we have no further misunderstandings, the following would be a better clarification: [In RoM circles] "Spreading of Cosmopolitanism" (aka "ширење на космополитизам") = "Brotherhood of Mankind" [i.e. the same "Brotherhood of Mankind" that W. Heckel says is "an idea which has been thoroughly discredited and is discussed today merely as a footnote to Alexander scholarship."]

Eugene Borza:
The conclusion is inescapable: there was a largely ethnic Macedonian imperial administration from beginning to end.

----------

The following Macedonian excerpt is an example of the type of "kozmopolitizam" I had in mind amongst RoM circles and not some common garden variety Western cosmopolitanism you may have swirling in you brain:

Големиот македонски цар планирал да создаде светска држава, чија територија ќе се простира од местата каде што изгревало сонцето, па се до оние предели каде што тоа заоѓало; држава, во која нема да има граници меѓу одделните народи, кои, со тек на времето, ќе се обединат во еден единствен "светски" народ.

Во овој случај, генијалниот дух на Александар Македонски, поради својата пројава на беспримерен, не само за древноста, туку и за денешнината, космополитизам, го заслужува вниманието на научниците-социолози.

Во процесот на тоа обединување меѓу народите, Александар Македонски, меѓутоа, барал да се зачува потполната рамноправност помеѓу различните етноси, без да се даваат привилегии на ниту еден народ, вклучувајќи го тука и македонскиот.

Ѓорги Поп Атанасов - Библијата за Македонија и Македонците

http://my.opera.com/ancientmacedonia/blog/?id=1582448

---------------

Newsgroups:alt.culture.macedonia,alt.news.macedoni a, soc.culture.australian,
soc.culture.bulgaria, soc.culture.canada, soc.culture.greek, soc.culture.usa
From: "Josif Grez"
Date: 2000/07/07
Subject: Re: Macedonians !!

This is what is found in the literature:

(1)Ancient Macedonians were not greeks. Thousands of quotes by prominent scholars can attest to that. Ancient Greek chroniclers can attest to that.
The action of Greeks themselves can attest to that. Epigraphic evidence can attest to that; epitaphs, inscriptions, tombstones etc., etc., etc..

(2) Macedonia was not a Greek land. Countless of quotes are available to verify that.

(3) Ancient Macedonians spoke Macedonian. The evidence comes from the mouth of Alexander the Great himself.

(4) Macedonian names were not Greek names, even though some names were found in use by the Greeks too. There are inscriptions that eloquently support this thesis. Macedonian names were in large extent different than the Greek names.

(5) There was no unification of the greek city-states by Philip. It was a military conquest. It was a war that Greeks lost and were enslaved by the Macedonian kings for centuries.

(6) There was no hellenization policy with Alexander.

(7) Macedonians did not spread hellenizm anywhere. They spread, if that was possible, only Macedonizm.

(8) Greeks spread propaganda and fabrications only. Greece needs to wake up and smell the reality in today’s Europe. Lies will go only so far, and then reality hits you in your face.

These are the things you should be puzzled about.

Clowns and half illiterate zombies to mend the front will not cut the mustard anymore.

Good day
Josif

[TrueMacedonian]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...431728622.html

Babylonian Dreaming
by Peter Green

Late in the afternoon of June 11, 323 B.C., Alexander III—King of Macedon, world-conqueror, self-styled Lord of Asia—died in Babylon at not quite 33 years of age: whether of an unidentified disease (helped by war wounds and alcoholism) or as the result of deliberate poisoning is unknown. There were certainly many who wished him gone. During his last few months, he had purged a majority of his provincial governors—in some cases with good reason—and his always lurking paranoia saw treachery everywhere.

The previous season, after 11 years of campaigning, his battle-weary troops, faced in India with the prospect of a never-ending pursuit of conquest and Homeric glory, had mutinied and forced him to turn back. Undeterred, Alexander at his death was planning fresh conquests: first of the Arabs, then of the whole North African coast as far west as the straits of Gibraltar, and after that back home, picking up Spain, Sicily and Italy on the way.

Thus to paranoia was added megalomania. Alexander designed for his father, Philip, a tomb rivaling the Great Pyramid. He devised plans for racial mingling that involved the wholesale transfer of populations. The most conspicuous symbol of this project had been the mass weddings at Susa in 324, in which large numbers of Alexander's officers were married off to Persians. He also issued a proclamation demanding recognition of himself as a god. None of this, to put it mildly, appealed to the Macedonians he led, but his power and charisma were such that no one dared put up any concerted resistance, while huge cash bonuses from the looted Persian treasuries helped keep his seasoned veterans quiet.

It is thus a striking fact, and one that neither James Romm's "Ghost on the Throne" nor Robin Waterfield's "Dividing the Spoils" sufficiently stresses, that the moment Alexander was dead, almost literally overnight, every single one of his plans was shelved. The campaigns were canceled, the monuments were never built and the Macedonians almost to a man abandoned their Persian wives, along with the whole idea of racial fusion. Nothing shows more starkly what a gulf separated the visionary leader from those he led.

For fair use only


It is indeed quite interesting this racial fusion and plans of massive migrations. When I picked up Romm's book and read Green's review it made me think about this topic with indigen. I also read something from Pierre Briant which I hope to find in my pile of papers and post on here.

[makedonche]

TM
Excellent reading, well found, look forward to more!

[momce]

interesting Alexander excludes the greeks from his prayer I found that very interesting