Alexander! An Epirot or Not!

[smittysmitty]

I'v posed this question elsewhere, but most curious to hear what people on this forum thought!
If Alexander were approached by an Epirot, and asked him was he an Epirot, what would be his response and why?
In appreciation to anyone that may reply!Cheers!

[jorgios]

hard one!hm.. well nothing really has survived of Alexander's knowledge of his heritage(earthly one at least). Giving his closeness to his mother, i am guessing he must have felt strongly about it i think, though i am doubftul, as king of Macedon that he would have made it especially public.In any case, i dont think he would feel connected as an "Epirote" per se, since they were a disorganized band of Illyrian, Greek, and half-Greek tribes that were for the most part on the verge of Barbarism. He would probably identify more with the name "Mollosian" rather than Epirote i'm thinking. Either that, or as a "son of Achillieos", since the Mollosian royal house was supposedly founded by Achillieos.

[Pelagon]

Tribes?
Greek?
You must mean the Greacianos or the Yellens, coastal dwellers. Get it right, Greeks not hang (like a bad smell) around all of thes many tribes of the Mollosani (which means the mouldy ones in Macedonian), Illyri, Ebirus, Thebi, Makedonci, they were mountains apart from the coastal dwellers.Your quest to "Greek Tribalize" all of these Kingdoms is not only wrong, but also transparent.

[marcus]

On the whole I'd say you're right, although I'm not aware that there is anything to suggest that the Epirotes were at all barbarian (except perhaps to the Greeks, but that involves a totally different idea of what a 'barbarian' is - I think you probably mean 'savage' rather than 'barbarian'... which I don't think they were).However, technically speaking, Achilles did not found the royal house of Molossus. Molossus was the son (?) of Neoptolemos, the son of Achilles, and *he* 'founded' the royal house, not Achilles. Otherwise it would be like saying that Robert of Normandy founded the Norman royal house in England, which he didn't, 'cos it was his son who did it (as in, William the Conqueror).All the bestMarcus

[jorgios]

sorry, yah neoptoloemos did found the dynasty. my mistake.
i dont know why that person got so mad because i said some epirotes were greek. i hate when this turns into "who was greek or not" thing, i really do, but the mollosians seemed pretty greek to me.

[yiannis]

Btw, "ptolemos" is the Homeric era word for "war". It later changed to "Polemos" which is also the current form of the word as well in Greek. However in ancient Macedonia it remained to be pronounced as "Ptolemos" and therefore we have names such as "Ptolemaios".
Neoptolemos is of course another name deriving from "ptolemos".

[Kit]

Maybe if Aristotle had really influenced him he would have said i'm neither Epiriote nor Macedonian, but a citizen of the world!?regardsKit

[jorgios]

good point chris!

[yiannis]

I might miss the point here but in what sence can Aristotle's teaching create "citizens of the world"?
I would imagine quite the oposite since his teaching were quite "conservative" even for his era.

[jorgios]

i guess there is no proof that aristotle held this position, it was in fact of course socrates who said it, " i am not greek nor athenian, but a citizen of the world". so who knows

[Tre]

This is a position definitely never held by Aristotle!

[Kit]

But was it a position that Alexander may have held?Kit

[Nicator]

It really is a compelling question. Looking at it through the eyes of Alexander (if that be possible), it would seem that his pride would not allow anyone to mock his roots. The question of half-breed must have been always not far from the forefront of his kingship of Macedonia, but of the entire world, it may not have mattered. The other stuff that comes to mind is his exile into the Illeryian wilds as a youth. How much of his acceptance into these savage lands must have been due to his emphasis of the Epirote side is unknown. On the flip-side it seems almost odd that he states "I didn't say you would be friends of the Macedonians forever" after his surprise attack of the Indian mercenaries. The point I emphasise here is "the Macedonians", as of opposed to "my friends forever". Alexander certainly had a different viewpoint of himself and a different relationship with his troops by this time. later Nicator

[Polyxena]

Yes, if... but, because Olympias had the greatest influence on him, he said.... "I'm the son of Ammon, let them bow down before me!"