Figure

Alexander the Great

also answers to Alexander III, Alexander of Macedon — catalog apparatus · kind: person
375 mentions across 123 episodes of the record — counted by the house’s first pass receipt — the figure shelf, first pass receipt — the curator’s pass

The regnal line — the editor’s table of years, never the record’s voice

The editor’s table of years hangs in this house, but this life is not yet pinned to it. Until it is, the when is a label, not a shelf.

··

The life on our shelf — told from the witnesses; every quotation is the record’s own · not yet read back at the desk

Alexander announced himself before he had a kingdom: the boy who saw what Philip's horsemen could not and tamed Bucephalas, while his father, shedding tears of joy, told him to seek out a kingdom equal to himself — "Macedonia has not room for thee". Regent of Macedonia at sixteen, he plunged into the Granicus with thirteen troops of horsemen, took the tent of Dareius by the river Pinarus, and in Persis sat the royal throne itself — where old Demaratus the Corinthian wept for the Hellenes who had died too soon to see it. He died, Livy says, while still young, before fortune had time to turn.

Most of this file is carried by Plutarch, whose Alexander (c. 100 CE, written under Trajan; Bernadotte Perrin's translation, 1914–1926) weighs its own witnesses as it goes. At the Granicus twenty thousand of the enemy fall, yet Aristobulus, whom Plutarch cites, counts thirty-four dead on Alexander's side. Chares says Dareius himself dealt the sword-wound in the king's thigh; Alexander's own letter to Antipater names no one. Plutarch even corrects the shelf outright: the great battle against Dareius was "not fought at Arbela, as most writers state, but at Gaugamela" — the field where Alexander, pressed to attack by night, gave his celebrated answer, "I will not steal my victory".

Then the record argues back. Livy, Rome's historian (The History of Rome, c. 27 BCE–17 CE; Rev. Canon Roberts's translation, 1912), breaks his narrative for three full chapters to try a case no battlefield ever heard: "What would have been the results for Rome if she had been engaged in war with Alexander?" The concession comes first — "I do not dispute that Alexander was an exceptional general" — then the prosecution: the reputation is flattered by an early death; no man bore prosperity worse; had he marched west, "he would have come into Italy more like Darius than Alexander", his thirty thousand Macedonian veterans facing a people who had raised ten legions of city troops, and consul after consul his equal in courage and ability. Livy even names his opponents — Greeks so frivolous they extol the Parthians at Rome's expense. The Greek shelf celebrates the man; the Roman shelf cross-examines the celebration.

The two vantages never met in the field; Livy's war exists only on his own pages. The question the file leaves open: how would the record read if fortune had given the young king time to change?

Sources: Plut. Alexander 6 · Plut. Alexander 9 · Plut. Alexander 16 · Plut. Alexander 20 · Plut. Alexander 31 · Plut. Alexander 37 · Liv. 9.17 · Liv. 9.18 · Liv. 9.19

cast from the served record · every quoted span verified against it receipt

The witnesses — who says so

Plutarch · the biographer's shelf

Plut. Alexander 49 named 11 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 10 named 10 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 20 named 9 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 9 named 8 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 14 named 8 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 16 named 8 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 37 named 8 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 6 named 7 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 19 named 7 times in this episode — as “Alexander’s” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Alexander 74 named 7 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Alexander · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Eumenes 2 named 6 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Eumenes · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

Plut. Demosthenes 23 named 6 times in this episode — as “Alexander” Demosthenes · Bernadotte Perrin, 1914–1926

…and 111 more episodes attest — counted by the house’s first pass.

Deeds this life stands in — standing in the same episodes; counted by the house’s first pass

siege of Athens — a candidate entry battle of Chaeroneia — a candidate entry siege of Thebes — a candidate entry battle of Issus — 3 episodes attest battle of Plataea — 3 episodes attest sea-fight at Salamis — 3 episodes attest taking of Babylon — a candidate entry battle of Corinth — a candidate entry

Doors to the sister houses

logoi — the words

No door is cut to the word-house from this room yet. Doors are cut from the record itself, never guessed; logoi.health keeps the words meanwhile.

mythoi — the stories

No door is cut to the story-house from this room yet. mythoi.health keeps the stories meanwhile.

The record here: The Histories, Herodotus — Godley, 1920–25 · Parallel Lives, Plutarch — Perrin, 1914–26 · 166 works · 12,119 episodes served

lives · deeds · times · the shelf