Why Alexander?

[heinrich]

Several authors (Hornblower, Lendering, Briant) have pointed out that the eastern Mediterranean was already becoming some sort of unity before Alexander started his career. They point at Greek influence on Cyprus and the Levant, and see Persian influence in Greece. In their view, culturul unification was inevitable after the economies had become intertwined, a process that had started after the Persian conquest of Lydia. They also argue that without Alexander, the unification would have had a "Persian face"; but with Alexander, it had "a Greek face".I think this is convincing, and yet, something is wrong - but what? Anyone any thoughts?HM

[Kit]

It does have a certain seductive logic, but I can't help but feel the conclusion is too simplistic. Economic dominance does not necessarily translate into cultural dominance. The Greeks had maintained a distinctive culture from the Persians for two centuries by the time of Alexander. Indeed, it could be argued that the Greeks defined themselves as an antithesis of Persian culture.The Greek culture managed to survive (and indeed flourish) in the face of Roman military, political and economic dominance. A dominance that lasted far longer than that enjoyed by the Persians.So I'm not convinced by the inevitability of Persian cultural unity extending throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Although I'm happy to support the view that Alexander played his part!ATB,Kit.

[ancientlibrary]

There's a lot to be said about this topic. I'd start by noticing that while Alexander and the Macedonian kingdoms spread a single language, the Persian empire did not. Persian itself was hardly writtenGÇöit appears to have been created for and almost restricted to the Behistun inscription. By and large the Persians did their administration in Aramaic, but it never achieved the sort of international status that Greek did. Or take settlement. There were long-standing Persian settlements in Anatolia, but, by and large, the Persians didn't colonize in force. They did not create places like Alexandria and Antioch.They exerted a certain amount of cultural "pull," but it wasn't great and, at least for Greece, one could argue this was stronger in the 5c than in the 4c.Random thoughts.