Ptolemy
08-11-2007, 08:33 AM
It remains to assess the cultural, social, and economic effects of Alexander's career on the Greek world. Alexander, like Philip, regarded himself as a Greek of Temenid descent. Tutored by Aristotle in contemporary Greek thought and deeply influenced by the Iliad, the lyric poetry of Pindar, and the plays of the Attic dramatists, he intended from the outset to make Greek culture the hallmark, not only of his own court, but of his Kingdom of Asia. Philip had shown him the way by recruiting able men from the Greek city-states (Isoc. 5. 19) and employing the finest artists, as the paintings and offerings in the royal tombs of Aegeae testify- Alexander surrounded himself with Greek writers, philosophers, scientists, and engineers, and he employed the leading painters, sculptor, and actors. No king has ever been a greater patron of the arts. He brought from Greece the most famous artists to compete in festivals of the arts at Memphis, Tyre, and Ecbatana, and at other places of which we do not know' (3. 1. 4; PA 29. 1 6).
The cities which he founded in Asia were designed to become centres of Greek culture in terms of education, performance, architecture, and town-planning, as we know from the excavation of Ai-Khanuma
Whether he founded seventy cities or less, each with a start usually of 10,000 adult male citizens, Alexander had no difficulty in providing the necessary component of Greek-speaking people. He used Macedonians unfit for active service, discharged Greek mercenaries, camp-followers, and then hundreds of thousands of Greeks from the homeland. The flow of men and families to Asia alleviated the social problems arising from overpopulation and unrest in Greece.
This Isocrates had foreseen, when he wrote as follows to Philip: *By founding cities in Asia you will settle in permanent abodes the vagrants who lack the means of subsistence and commit outrage on anyone they meet1 (isoc. 5- 120)- The new world which he opened to Greek enterprise absorbed not only a plethora of displaced persons, but also great numbers of skilled craftsmen and professional men who chose to emigrate from their own states. Our sources mention 3,000 actors and athletes from Greece performing in a single festival at Ecbatana {7. 1. 10; VA 72. 1} and the teaching of the Greek language to Asian army recruits (we know of some 50,000 from VA 47. 6 and Áéô. 7. 23. 1 at 7. 6- 1) and, we may add, to native settlers in the new cities.
The cities which he founded in Asia were designed to become centres of Greek culture in terms of education, performance, architecture, and town-planning, as we know from the excavation of Ai-Khanuma
Whether he founded seventy cities or less, each with a start usually of 10,000 adult male citizens, Alexander had no difficulty in providing the necessary component of Greek-speaking people. He used Macedonians unfit for active service, discharged Greek mercenaries, camp-followers, and then hundreds of thousands of Greeks from the homeland. The flow of men and families to Asia alleviated the social problems arising from overpopulation and unrest in Greece.
This Isocrates had foreseen, when he wrote as follows to Philip: *By founding cities in Asia you will settle in permanent abodes the vagrants who lack the means of subsistence and commit outrage on anyone they meet1 (isoc. 5- 120)- The new world which he opened to Greek enterprise absorbed not only a plethora of displaced persons, but also great numbers of skilled craftsmen and professional men who chose to emigrate from their own states. Our sources mention 3,000 actors and athletes from Greece performing in a single festival at Ecbatana {7. 1. 10; VA 72. 1} and the teaching of the Greek language to Asian army recruits (we know of some 50,000 from VA 47. 6 and Áéô. 7. 23. 1 at 7. 6- 1) and, we may add, to native settlers in the new cities.