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Alexander I

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:37 am
by Nikas
I recall a discussion regarding the Alexander I moniker "the Philhellene" in a long-ago discourse where I had maintained the two-fold position that this was a later addition to distinguish himself from the more illustrious Alexander III, and that this particular moniker was chosen precisely a posteriori for his patriotic services to Greece:

-Alexander I is known in history books as Alexander Philhellene. He was probably given the nickname many years after he died. It appeared for the first time in Dio Chrysostom 2.33, who wrote in the second century AD. The nickname could have been introduced in the works of Alexandrian scholars, on the basis of which the Scholia on Thucydides (1.57.2) and Demosthenes (3.35.7) as well as Harpocration’s lexicon (s.v. Alexandros) were written. The nickname had a practical importance since it enabled him to be distinguished from Alexander III, ‘the Great’. What could have significantly influenced the choice of nickname was the image of Alexander I as benefactor of Greece that appeared in the rhetoric of the fourth century, which emphasized the contributions that Philip II’s ancestor had made to the Greek cause.

Edit: A simple google search reminded me of the source: A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, ed. Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington; The Early Temenid Kings to Alexander I, Sławomir Sprawski