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Mightier Than the Sword: Propaganda in Case Studies of the Battles of Alexander the Great

Mosaic representing the battle of Alexander the Great against Darius III, perhaps after an earlier Greek painting of Philoxenus of Eretria.
Mosaic representing the battle of Alexander the Great against Darius III, perhaps after an earlier Greek painting of Philoxenus of Eretria.

Mightier Than the Sword: Propaganda in Case Studies of the Battles of Alexander the Great

Sophia R. Volpi

Franklin and Marshall College: Honors Thesis (2007)

Abstract

Historians studying Alexander are simultaneously blessed with a wealth and dearth of information about the Macedonian king’s life. Four biographies are examined here: those of Arrian, Curtis, Diodorus, and Plutarch. The description of Alexander’s military campaigns has been powerfully affected by the insertion of propaganda, both by Alexander himself and by his Successors, which has largely been passed down through the extant sources. Alexander’s army occupied the role of the small, highly trained Greek and Macedonian force against which the weak, effeminate, opulent Persians were inevitably crushed despite their significant numerical superiority. The surviving biographies suffer from contemporary sources’ conformation of Alexander’s campaign to this mold. Additionally, later authors focused primarily on the Macedonian king’s character and provided only patchy information about the details of his campaign. If Alexander is to be understood as a general, and his successes to be appreciated fully, the reader remains aware of these considerations.



Introduction

Alexander the Great lived up to his name and is still doing so some two thousand years after his death. Nothing he did was small or unambitious. At sixteen he was made regent of Macedonia while his father Philip launched an attack on Byzantium, during which time he put down a rebellion, turned the enemy settlement into a Macedonian military outpost, and re-named it after himself: Alexandropolis. In 338 BC, at eighteen, he fought alongside his father in the decisive battle at Chaeronea, commanding the heavy cavalry against the Sacred Band of Thebes, the elite of the Theban army. This preeminent group of 300 soldiers was the strongest band in Greece in the fourth century, comparable to the 300 Spartans led by Leonidas in 480 BC. After his father’s assassination Alexander launched a major invasion of Persia, met with victory in every battle, and created the largest empire known to the time. Alexander’s accomplishments even extended beyond his superlative skill as a general. The story goes that a horse breeder from Thessaly approached Philip with a magnificent charger named Buchephalas, but the horse seemed vicious and would let no one mount him. There followed an irritated exchange between Philip and the boy Alexander, who could not stand the thought of losing such a fine animal. At last a wager was made: if the youth managed to mount and ride the horse, Philip would pay the extravagant 13 talents the Thessalian demanded as payment; if he failed, Alexander would begin his young life deeply in debt. According to Plutarch, author of one of the few surviving accounts of Alexander’s life, the impetuous young boy turned Bucephalas toward the sun, having noticed the horse was shying at his own shadow. For awhile Alexander walked beside him, and then ran, then cast aside his cloak and leapt on the animal’s back. Not content with merely satisfying the terms of the wager, he urged Bucephalas to full gallop, and returned to the cheers of Philip and his companions. We see that Alexander is described as reaching for the unattainable even at a young age, always managing to satisfy his desires. He is best known in the popular mind for his pitched battles waged against the Persians and for his eastern campaign in India, where he was famously forced to turn back, not by the enemy, but by his own troops. He remained undefeated but in June 323 BC, amidst plansfor a European campaign, he fell ill and died. He was only thirty-two years old.

Click here to read this thesis from the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education





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