The god Alexander and his emulators. Alexander the Great’s “afterlife” in art and propaganda
The god Alexander and his emulators. Alexander the Great’s “afterlife” in art and propaganda

Summary/Abstract: The main problem encountered by whoever tackles the topics of Alexander’s history is the almost complete lack of contemporary sources: most of our knowledge about the deeds and personality of the Macedonian conqueror is based on texts which date from almost half a millennium after Alexander’s time. The same applies to iconography: we have very scarce material from the king’s lifetime, and again what we know, is at least partly derived from the same sources as our historical knowledge, as well as from later copies and imitations of contemporary works of art. The main feature of our sources is very nicely epitomized by a famous anecdote, written down by Plutarch (Alex. 46): “The story is told that many years afterwards Onesicritus was reading aloud to Lysimachus, who was now king, the fourth book of his history, in which was the tale of the Amazon, at which Lysimachus smiled gently and said: ‘And where was I at the time?’”

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