Complex Friendships of Alexander the Great

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Joseph Roisman is a professor emeritus of Classics at Colby College. He is the author of Alexander's Veterans and the Early Wars of the Successors, The Classical Art of Command: Eight Greek Generals Who Changed the History of Warfare, and editor or coeditor of Brill's Companion to Alexander the Great and A Companion to Ancient Macedonia.

Klappentext

A first-of-its-kind study of Alexander the Great that examines the diverse manifestations and pivotal role of friendship in his campaigns, decisions, and enduring legacy.

Modern scholarship has illuminated nearly every aspect of Alexander the Great's life and campaigns––but Joseph Roisman turns to a dimension of Alexander's world that has yet to receive sustained analysis: the structure and function of friendship in the king's regime. In this first-of-its kind study, The Complex Friendships of Alexander the Great explores the central role friendship played in Alexander's social, political, and cultural world. Moving beyond utilitarian perspectives, Roisman shows that friendship with the king involved affective, non-instrumental bonds that shaped his decisions, successes, and failures.

Using Aristotle's philosophy of friendship as a starting point, Roisman examines the making, breaking, and remaking of bonds with Macedonian companions, including his closest allies, as well as with foreigners encountered during his campaigns. The book concludes with the first comprehensive list of Alexander's friends drawn from ancient sources. Combining meticulous scholarship with new interpretive insight, this study reevaluates how we understand Alexander the Great's leadership, social networks, and legacy.

Inhalt

List of IllustrationsAbbreviationsPrefaceIntroduction

• 0.1. Identifying Alexander's Friends

• 0.2. The Meaning of Royal Friendship: Aristotle and Alexander's FriendsChapter 1. Alexander's Macedonian Friends: Making, Breaking, and Restoring Friendships

• 1.1. Making Macedonian Friends

• 1.2. The Vicissitudes of FriendshipChapter 2. Categories of Friends

• 2.1. Alexander's Primary Friends

• 2.2. Alexander's Best Friend: Hephaestion

• 2.3. The FlatterersChapter 3. Expectations of Friends3.1. Loyalty and Protection3.2. Friends in Crisis and Hardship

• 3.2a. The Conspiracy of Alexander of Lyncestis, Son of Aeropus

• 3.2b. The Philotas Conspiracy

• 3.2c. The Cleitus Affair

• 3.2d. The Army Mutinies and Hephaestion's Death

• 3.2d. The Army Mutinies and Hephaestion's Death3.3. Sharing and Partnership3.4. You've Got to Tell HimChapter 4. Useful Friends

• 4.1. Appointments and Assignments

• 4.2. Friends in CouncilChapter 5. Marks and Social Settings of Friendship5.1. Proximity and Access to Alexander5.2. Purple Dress5.3. Gestures, Lifestyle, and Burial

• 5.3a. Gestures

• 5.3b. Lifestyle and Burial5.4. Social Settings of Friendship

• 5.4a. Banquets

• 5.4b. HuntsChapter 6. Friends and Gifts

• 6.1. Alexander's Gifts to Friends

• 6.2. Gifts to Alexander and Reciprocity

• 6.3. Refusing Alexander's Gifts

• 6.4. Friends' GiftsChapter 7. Alexander's Foreign Friends, Part I7.1. Greek and Non-Greek Companions

• 7.1a. Abdalonymus of Sidon

• 7.1b. Demaratus of Corinth

• 7.1c. Hagnon of Teos

• 7.1d. Medius of Larissa

• 7.1e. Oxyathres

• 7.1f. Stasanor of Soli7.2. Guest-Friends (Xenoi) and State Representatives (Proxenoi)

• 7.2a. Aeschines of Athens

• 7.2b. Artabazus

• 7.2c. Demaratus of Corinth

• 7.2d. Phocion of Athens

• 7.2e. Theban Xenoi and Proxenoi7.3. Foreign Individuals, Cities, and Tribes

• 7.3a. Anaxarchus of Abdera

• 7.3b. A Boeotian Soldier

• 7.3c. Calanus

• 7.3d. A Chian Friend

• 7.3e. Danubian Tribes

• 7.3f. Flatterers

• 7.3g. Gorgus of Iasus

• 7.3h. Philip of Arcarnania

• 7.3i. Selge

• 7.3j. Syrmus, King of the TriballiansChapter 8. Alexander's Foreign Friends, Part II8.1. Friends and Allies

• 8.1a. Celts

• 8.1b. Cyrene

• 8.1c. Cyzicus

• 8.1d. Darius' Peace Proposals

• 8.1e. European Scythians and Other Embassies to Alexander in Maracanda and Babylon

• 8.1f. Pharasmanes

• 8.1g. Taxiles

• 8.1h. Tyre8.2. Friendship and Surrender

• 8.2a. Musicanus

• 8.2b. Nysa and Acuphis

• 8.2c. Oxyartes

• 8.2d. Phaselis

• 8.2e. Porus

• 8.2f. "Bad" or Cousin Porus

• 8.2g. Sisimithres

• 8.2h. Taxiles8.3. Questionable Foreign Friends

• 8.3a. Hamilcar Rhodanus of Carthage

• 8.3b. Iphicrates, Son of Iphicrates, of Athens

• 8.3c. Langarus

• 8.3d. Mazarus

• 8.3e. Pnytagoras

• 8.3f. Polydamas

• 8.3g. Sisines

• 8.3h. Xenocrates of Chalcedon8.4. ConclusionConclusionAppendix. Alexander's FriendsBibliographyIndex