Alexander the Great DIED before Alexandria was founded

Alexander the Great DIED before Alexandria was founded: Historian claims that a former ally used the ruler’s legacy to establish his own leadership and build the ancient city

His successor used the leader’s legacy to cement his own rule of Alexandria
The Ptolemies actually founded Alexandria made it into the great city it became
But he reportedly ‘diverted’ the leader’s body from Babylon by using a dummy
Ptolemy I paraded Alexander the Great’s corpse in the city long after his death

Published:
12:34 GMT, 7 March 2019

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Updated:
14:43 GMT, 7 March 2019

The legend of Alexander the Great may have to be rewritten after controversial claims by a historian who says the leader died before the founding of his city.

The little port of Alexandria which became a major centre of the ancient world was just an ‘outpost’ for the leader who never had greater ambitions for it, he claims.

Alexander the Great died before the city was officially founded, and the association was made to legitimise the rule of Ptolemy I, who then became King, it is said.

Alexander III, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas.

In a paper named Alexander in Africa, Professor Philip Bosman describes the claims that the city was founded by Alexander the Great as being made for ‘propaganda’ by the man who declared himself king.

Professor Bosman writes: ‘The port was not the embodiment of ambitions that Alexander himself harboured.

‘It was deliberately orchestrated among the early members of the Ptolemaic dynasty, who wished to feed off the glamour of its founder in their own power game.’

In the years following Alexander’s death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in several states ruled by Alexander’s surviving generals and heirs holding onto a sense of unity was an important strategy adopted by his successors.

He added: ‘The purposes of which are to establish or symbolise social cohesion, to legitimise institutions and power relations, and to influence beliefs, values and behaviour. ‘

‘Alexander was a conqueror who established outposts along the way, and Alexandria in all probability started humbly as a military fort.

‘Alexander’s successors, on the other hand, were interested in cities to rule.

‘Alexandria came to play that part late in the reign of Ptolemy I Soter, when he made it the capital of his kingdom.’

The city of Alexandria in Egypt may have merely been one of the ‘outposts’ that Alexander the Great adopted during his time as leader and that it only became prominent after his successor, Ptolemy I, built it on the legend that Alexander had great ambitions for the little port

Timothy Howe, author of Founding Alexandria, who is making the claims against Ptolemy, writes in the same paper: ‘Ptolemy chose Egypt because he realised that Alexandria, Alexander the Great’s prestigious city foundation, enabled him to obtain immediately the prestige linked with the recollection of the conqueror.

‘Ongoing archaeological excavations of the area have so far failed to yield conclusive evidence for Alexander’s personal involvement in Alexandria; indeed, all analyses of the physical evidence suggest that Ptolemies I and II were responsible for Alexandria’s planning and growth as a city’.

The author also mentions that the city did not gain any notoriety until the Ptolemies built the harbour’s famous lighthouse and the Great museum and library of Alexandria.

WHO WAS ALEXANDER THE GREAT?

Alexander the Great is arguably one of history’s most successful military commanders.

Alexander III, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece.

Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16.

By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas.

He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history’s most successful commanders.

He had carved out a vast empire stretching from Macedonia and Greece in Europe, to Persia, Egypt and even parts of northern India by the time of his death aged 32.

Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia.

In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in several states ruled by Alexander’s surviving generals and heirs.

After his death he became a near-legendary figure. He has long been the measure against which military leaders compare themselves and military academies throughout the world still teach his tactics.

Only five barely intact accounts of his death at Babylon in 323 BCE survive to the present day.

None are from eyewitnesses and all conflict to varying degrees.

According to one account from the Roman era, Alexander died leaving his kingdom ‘to the strongest’ or ‘most worthy’ of his generals.

In another version, he died speechless in a coma, without making any plans for succession.

Only five barely intact accounts of his death at Babylon in 323 BCE survive to the present day and all conflict to varying degrees.

According to one account from the Roman era, Alexander died leaving his kingdom ‘to the strongest’ or ‘most worthy’ of his generals.

Ptlomey may also have stolen Alexander’s body from Babylon, where it initially was embalmed, by using a dummy corpse, one of the text says.

One author describes how Ptlomey may also have wrestled Alexander’s body from Babylon and paraded the corpse in the city two years after his death.

According to the latest historical paper, Ptolemy ‘seriously misrepresent’ Alexandria’s origins in order to ‘magnify the importance for Alexander and, more to the point, himself.’

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ALEXANDRIA

Alexandria, in Egypt was once among the greatest cities of the Mediterranean world and a centre of Hellenic scholarship and science.

It was the capital of Egypt from 332 BC until its surrender to the Arab forces in 642 CE.

Alexandria is now the second largest city in Egypt, after Cairo .

Reputedly founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC (though a small village existed before that famous globe-trotting general arrived), it was the capital of Greco-Roman Egypt.

With the breakup of the empire upon Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, control of the city passed to his viceroy, Ptolemy I Soter, who founded the dynasty that took his name.

The early Ptolemies successfully blended the religions of ancient Greece and Egypt in the cult of Serapis (Sarapis) and presided over Alexandria’s golden age.

The city profited from the demise of Phoenician power and from Rome’s growing trade with the East via the Nile and the canal that then linked it with the Red Sea.

Alexandria became, within a century of its founding, one of the Mediterranean’s largest cities and a centre of Greek scholarship and science.

Alexandria’s status as a beacon of culture was cemented by its great library, which supposedly held every manuscript in the world, and the Pharos – a giant lighthouse on the harbour which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Two millennia on, the lighthouse and the library are long gone. But there are enough sights here – including the first-rate Alexandria National Museum in an old 19th century mansion.

Alexander the Great’s corpse was placed in a golden coffin in Alexandria by Ptolemy after his death in 323 BC.

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