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Alexander the Great and Sport History: A Commentary on Scholarship

Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great and Sport History: A Commentary on Scholarship

Synthia S. Slowikowski

Journal of Sport History: Vol. 16, No. 1 (1989)

Abstract

Alexander the Great’s unprecedented accomplishments over the brief span of his life marked him as one of the most famous secular figures in history. Over the centuries, myths explaining his deeds were shaped: there are today eighty versions of the Alexander legend in twenty-four languages. Was Alexander the champion of Hellenic culture and a visionary who issued a proclamation of world brotherhood? As C. B. Welles has said, probably not:

Alexander was a dazzling phenomenon, terrifying perhaps rather than attractive. His achievement was to conquer the Persian empire and many of the tribesmen within or on its borders. The world was changed, and he could never be forgotten, and it is, perhaps, wrong to seek his influence in lesser matters. He was his own greatest accomplishment.



It is unnecessary to credit Alexander with achievements that he did not make or even intend to make. In this light, what follows is a reexamination of the literary sources – ancient and modern – which discuss Alexander and the topic of “sport.” Sport historians must be more precise about the nature of how and why Alexander the Great used sport, never losing sight of the fact that Alexander probably never had a systematic philosophy about athletes, sport or athletics.

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