pothos.org

Comparisons are, as they say, odious. Ditto with any form of "benchmarking". That said, the benchmark is already set: "The Great" and for many that is alpha and the omega. But “the great” has no meaning unless there exists at least someone else who is “not so great”. So “great&q...

Why isn't it enough to understand the culture and society; to study it and know it to the very best extent possible? To comprehend Alexander's actions within the framework of his society and upbringing should be sufficient Because you also need comparisons to understand cultures and societies. When...

Hi Marcus and Amyntoros, A few comments: All very true; but that wasn't really my point. Although this was not what Kenny was saying (I think), there is a great danger that people will read a comparison with Octavian/Augustus and say "Oh, so Alexander was not as bad as Octavian, because he didn...

Hi all, As a committed defender of comparisons as a method of study, I think it is my “duty” to step in. Since I bored you to death some other times giving you the reasons why I believe comparisons are the way forward, let me tell you now why I think the alternative view is logically wrong. There ar...

VERY off-topic. Sorry! As the Greek phrase says "'Αρτος και θεάματα", bread and spectacles. Hi Efstathios, I heard the same phrase in Spanish ("Pan y circo") but I thought the origin would probably be Roman (the literal translation is "Bread and circus"). Though both sa...

... Pausanias also records that because of this “Ammon is not more honored by the Lybian Ammonians than he is at Aphytis.” Aphytis, btw, was in Macedonia! ... Finally, in Thebes there was a statue of Ammon dedicated by Pindar who also wrote a hymn to Ammon which he sent to the Ammonians in Libya. (...

Hi Sikander I didn't realize you were highlighting the "we" part of the argument. My mistake! I do have a tendency to miss subtle humour (and that, rather than humourous, is quite sad, actually!). Yep, I agree we Pothosians may overestimate the importance of Alexander because we are "...

"Here we are, 2300 years after his death, talking about this guy. " But for a benchmark, we would then also have to ask how many people are talking about *other* historical figures, because the full count would have to take into consideration if Alexander were truly one of the "most ...

Marcus and Amyntoros,

Yeah, I didn't have many expectations, but, well, one never loses hope!

Best,
Alejandro

Hi all, I was thinking whether art could help us in estimating Alex's height, and so I searched for this thread. My idea is that if statues of Alexander are lifelike, we could get a sufficiently good estimate of his height. That is, either you have a life-size statue (and that would be optimal) or y...

Hi Karen,

I heard the story but the main character was Philip, not Alexander (don't know about the painter though).
Can you direct me to the sources?

Thanks!
Alejandro

Hi all, I just read that the bones that were supposed to be Joan of Arc's weere tested by some scientists (and some perfume people! but that's another story), the result being that they didn't belong to the the French heroine but to an old Egyptian mummy. The article is in every newspaper and was pu...

Hi guys, Nice topic. I think there is a distinction to make here regarding the question of whether politics were more or less important than the games themselves. I believe the answer depends on who we consider to be the "relevant group". That is, I would side with Amyntoros in that the ga...

oops, sorry
thought the first message was not posted

Hi Paralus, Although slaves in Athens were not routinely “hunted”, one suspects that life for them in the silver mines at Laurium was about as hard and toxic as one could imagine – ditto Mt Pangaeus in Macedonia. They were, in the end, “non persons”.. Yes, I agree strongly. I was trying to give exam...