Alexander the Great 15
"Why Can't We Be Friends": Promoting Tolerance in the 4th Century BCE Or Becoming a Despot?
by CTCWeb Editors
"As Long As We Can Live In Harmony" - War
Alexander struggled with Persian custom. He made a special effort to comport himself as a proper Persian king. Yet, he offended courtiers at nearly every turn by unwittingly committing acts that were regarded as inconsiderate. He took on Persian dress, and he began to adopt Persian customs that required prokynesis, or prostration and blowing kisses, in dealings with the king. Persian nobles routinely prostrated themselves, lying face-down on the ground, before their king. However, this particular Persian custom irked the Greeks. They were not accustomed to ornate ceremony in their dealings with Alexander, and they resisted this new Persian custom.
The Greeks saw prostration as debasing. They thought that the custom paid too much homage to a mortal man. Nonetheless, Alexander required the prostration. Callisthenes, a nephew of Aristotle and a long-time companion of Alexander, publicly refused to prostrate himself. Shortly thereafter, he was found guilty in a conspiracy plot against Alexander and was executed. It is not known if the charges against him were trumped up because of his public challenge to Alexander’s authority.
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Better Known As...
Sikandar the Great might not have the same ring to it, but that's how Alexander would have been known in parts of the Arab world and India. Throughout the vast empire he created and across linguistic borders, Alexander's name was translated in a number of different ways. In other parts of India, he was known as Alakshendra. Central Asia knew him as Iskander. In Albania, where his mother Olympias was born, he would have been Aleksander. But, at home in Macedonia, he was Alexandros or Alexandros Philipou ("Alexander, son of Philip").
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