Alexander the Great

Some of the main ones are:. It has not been ruled out that the bodies were cadavers when Franklin got them; Franklin had an avid interest in anatomy and the damages done to the bodies support that. Around seventy towns or outposts are claimed to have been founded by Alexander. The Times of London reported on February 11, 1998:. For example, he is held to be the companion of Aristotle and the direct student of Plato. In 1998, workmen restoring Franklin's London home dug up the remains of six children and four adults hidden below the home. The traditional non-Western accounts differ from what we now know about the life of Alexander on a number of points. It is one of the few National Memorials located on private property.

By the 12th century such important writers as Nezami Ganjavi were making him the subject of their epic poems, and holding him up as the model of the ideal statesman or philosopher-king, an idea adopted from the Greeks and elaborated on by Muslim philosophers like al-Farabi. The memorial is located in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute. Despite his supposed sins, by the Islamic period the adoption of Pseudo-Callisthenes' accounts meant that the image of Alexander was on balance positive. Many of Franklin's personal possessions are also on display there. Alexander is also blamed for ending the golden age of Zoroastrianism by seizing and destroying the original golden text of the Zend Avesta by throwing it into the sea. In 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial in Franklin's hometown of Philadelphia, including a 20-foot high marble statue. Pahlavi sources on the Alexander legend devised a mythical genealogy for him whereby his mother was a concubine of Darius II, making him the half-brother of the last Achaemenid shah, Darius III, probably in order to justify his domination of the old Persian Empire. Franklin also appears on the $1,000 Series EE Savings Bond (See Treasury security).

Islamic accounts of the Alexander legend, particularly in Persia combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes material with indigenous Sasanid Persian ideas about Alexander. He has also appeared on a $50 bill in the past, as well as several varieties of the $100 bill from 1914 and 1918, and every $100 bill from 1928 to present. Alexander was often identified in Persian and Arabic-language sources as "Dhû-'l Qarnayn", Arabic for the "Horned One", possibly a reference to the appearance of the Hercules head that appears on coins minted during his rule. As a result, $100 bills are sometimes referred to in slang as "Benjamins" or "Franklins." From 1948 to 1964, Franklin's portrait was also on the half dollar. Some believe that, excepting certain religious texts, it is the most widely-read work of pre-modern times. Franklin's likeness adorns the American $100 bill. A Mongol version is also extant. In recent years a number of anti-Semitic groups have been promoting a fabricated quotation which has been debunked by historians: Neo-Nazi Theory (American founding fathers).

It is the source of many incidents in Ferdowsi's "Shahnama". (excerpt from Philadelphia Inquirer article by Clark De Leon). The "Romance" is regarded by most Western scholars as the source of the account of Alexander given in the Koran (Sura The Cave). Franklin's Boston trust fund accumulated almost $5,000,000 during that same time and eventually was used to establish a trade school that, over time, became the Franklin Institute of Boston. From these, versions were developed in all the major languages of Europe and the Middle East, including Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Serbian, Slavonic, Romanian, Hungarian, German, English, Italian, and French. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. Latin and Syriac translations were made in Late Antiquity. From 1940 to 1990, the money was used mostly for mortgage loans.

This text underwent numerous expansions and revisions throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, exhibiting a plasticity unseen in "higher" literary forms. During the lifetime of the trust, Philadelphia used it for a variety of loan programs to local residents. In the first centuries after Alexander's death, probably in Alexandria, a quantity of the more legendary material coalesced into a text known as the Alexander Romance, later falsely ascribed to the historian Callisthenes and therefore known as Pseudo-Callisthenes. As of 1990 over $2,000,000 had accumulated in Franklin's Philadelphia trust since his death. (When Onesicritus read this passage to his patron, Alexander's general and later King Lysimachus, Lysimachus quipped "I wonder where I was at the time."). Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote back to the Frenchman, thanking him for a great idea and telling him that he had decided to leave a bequest to his native Boston and his adopted Philadelphia of 1,000 pounds to each on the condition that it be placed in a fund that would gather interest over a period of 200 years. Writing after Alexander's death, another participant, Onesicritus, went so far as to invent a tryst between Alexander and Thalestris, queen of the mythical Amazons. The Frenchman wrote a piece about Fortunate Richard leaving a small sum of money in his will to be used only after it had collected interest for 500 years.

His court historian Callisthenes portrayed the sea in Cilicia as drawing back from him in proskynesis. In it he mocked the unbearable spirit of American optimism represented by Franklin. Alexander was a legend in his own time. The origin of the trust began in 1785 when a French mathematician named Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour wrote a parody of Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack called Fortunate Richard. All include a considerable level of fantasy, prompting Strabo (2.1.9) to remark, "All who wrote about Alexander preferred the marvellous to the true." Nevertheless, the sources tell us much, and leave much to our interpretation and imagination. At his death Franklin bequeathed £1000 (about $4400 at the time) each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust for 200 years. Plutarch can't resist a good story, light or dark. Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the extremely advanced age (for that time) of 84, and was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Arrian presents a flattering portrait, Curtius a darker one. Because of his involvement in abolition, its cause was greatly debated around the states, especially in the House of Representatives. In effect, each presents a different "Alexander," with details to suit. Their argument against slavery was backed by the Pensylvania Abolitionist Society and its president, Benjamin Franklin. The "problem of the sources" is the main concern (and chief delight) of Alexander-historians. On February 11, 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition. Much is recounted incidentally in other authors, including Strabo, Athenaeus, Polyaenus, and others. These writings included:.

The five main accounts are by Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, Diodorus, and Justin. In his later years, as congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that attempted to convince his readers of the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the integration of Africans into American society. Instead, the modern historian must rely on authors who used these and other early sources. Later, he finished his autobiography between 1771 and 1788, at first addressed to his son, then later completed for the benefit of mankind at the request of a friend. Unfortunately, these works were lost. It is now called Franklin and Marshall College. Another early and influential account was penned by Cleitarchus. Franklin donated £200 towards the development of Franklin College, which would later merge with Marshall College in 1853.

These included his court historian Callisthenes, his general Ptolemy, and a camp engineer Aristoboulus. Also in 1787, a group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania proposed the foundation of a new college to be named in Franklin's honor. Alexander himself left only a few inscriptions and some letter-fragments of dubious authenticity, but a large number of his contemporaries wrote full accounts. He was 70 years old when he signed the Declaration, and 81 when he signed the Constitution. The ancient sources for Alexander's life are, from the perspective of ancient history, relatively numerous. Franklin also has the distinction of being the oldest signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Alexander himself, while still a young boy, tamed this horse after experienced horse-trainers failed to do so. He is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all three of the major documents of the founding of the United States: The Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution.

Alexander had a legendary horse named Bucephalus (meaning "ox-headed"), supposedly descended from the Mares of Diomedes. While in retirement by 1787, he agreed to attend as a delegate the meetings that would produce the United States Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation. A strong oral tradition, although not attested in any extant primary source, lists Alexander as having epilepsy, known to the Greeks as the Sacred Disease and thought to be a mark of divine favour. In addition, after his return from France in 1785, he became a slavery abolitionist who eventually became president of The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. According to one story, the philosopher Anaxarchus checked the vainglory of Alexander, when he aspired to the honours of divinity, by pointing to Alexander's wound, saying, "See the blood of a mortal, not the ichor of a god." In another version Alexander himself pointed out the difference in response to a sycophantic soldier. When Franklin was recalled to America in 1785, Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. From his boyhood he believed "one should not be parsimonious with the Gods.". He conducted the affairs of his country towards that nation with such success, which included securing a critical military alliance and negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783), that when he finally returned, he received a place only second to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence.

One undeniable characteristic of Alexander is that he was extremely pious and devout, and began every day with prayers and sacrifices. Franklin was so popular that it became fashionable for wealthy French families to decorate their parlors with a painting of him. As a result, Alexander's character is skewed depending on which way the historian's own culture is, and further muddles the debate of who he truly was. Ben Franklin remained in France until 1785, a favorite of French society. Tarn wrote in an age where world conquest and warrior-heroes were acceptable, even encouraged, whereas Green wrote with the backdrop of the Holocaust and nuclear weapons. He lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont who would become a friend and the most important foreigner to help the United States win the war of independence. Tarn, who wrote during the late 19th century and early 20th century, and who saw Alexander in an extremely good light, and Peter Green, who wrote after World War II and for whom Alexander did little that was not inherently selfish or ambition-driven. In December of 1776 he was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States.

W. On his arrival in Philadelphia he was chosen as a member of the Continental Congress and assisted in editing the Declaration of Independence. Good examples are W. In 1767 he crossed to France, where he was received with honor; but before his return home in 1775 he lost his position as postmaster through his share in divulging to Massachusetts the famous letter of Hutchinson and Oliver. Alexander's character also suffers from the interpretation of historians who themselves are subject to the bias and idealisms of their own time. This also led to an irreconcilable conflict with his son, who remained ardently loyal to the British Government. To this way of thinking, Alexander was, first and foremost, a general rather than a statesman. Even his effective work in helping to obtain the repeal of the act did not regain his popularity, but he continued his efforts to present the case for the Colonies as the troubles thickened toward the crisis of the Revolution.

It is further claimed, in response to the view that Alexander was generally tolerant of the cultures of those whom he conquered, that his attempts at cultural fusion were severely practical and that he never actually admired Persian art or culture. This perceived conflict of interest, and the resulting outcry, is widely regarded as a deciding factor in Franklin's never achieving higher elected office. Some proponents of this view cite the destructions of Thebes, Tyre, Persepolis, and Gaza as examples of atrocities, and argue that Alexander preferred to fight rather than negotiate. In London he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act, but lost the credit for this and much of his popularity because he secured for a friend the office of stamp agent in America. Partially in response to the ubiquity of positive portrayals of Alexander, an alternate character is sometimes presented which emphasizes some of Alexander's negative aspects. On his return to America, he played an honorable part in the Paxton affair, through which he lost his seat in the Assembly, but in 1764 he was again dispatched to England as agent for the colony, this time to petition the King to resume the government from the hands of the proprietors. One unresolved topic involves whether Alexander was actually attempting to better the world by his conquests, or whether his purpose was primarily to rule the world. In his letter “Cooling by Evaporation” Franklin noted that “one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer’s day.”.

Modern Alexandrists continue to debate these same issues, among others, in modern times. Another thermometer showed the room temperature to be constant at 65 °F (18 °C). The murder of his friend Clitus, which Alexander deeply and immediately regretted, is often pointed to, as is his execution of Philotas and his general Parmenion for failure to pass along details of a plot against him, though this last may have been prudence rather than paranoia. With each subsequent evaporation, the thermometer read a lower temperature, eventually reaching 7 °F (-14 °C). Most refer to a growing instability and megalomania in the years following Gaugamela, but it has been suggested that this simply reflects the Greek stereotype of a Medizing king. On one warm day in Cambridge England in 1758, Franklin and fellow scientist John Hadley experimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether. Ancient sources are generally written with an agenda of either glorifying or denigrating the man, making it difficult to evaluate his actual character. To understand this phenomenon more clearly Franklin conducted experiments.

To Zoroastrians, on the other hand, he is remembered as the destroyer of their first great empire and as the leveller of Persepolis. Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. Alexander is remembered as a legendary hero in Europe and much of both Southwest Asia and Central Asia, where he is known as Iskander or Iskandar Zulkarnain. In 1758, the year in which he ceased writing for the Almanac, he printed "Father Abraham's Sermon," one of the most famous pieces of literature produced in Colonial America. Much about Alexander's personality and aims remains enigmatic. At Oxford University Franklin was awarded an honorary doctorate for his scientific accomplishments and from then on went by "Doctor Franklin." He also managed to secure a post for his illegitimate son, William Franklin, as Colonial Governor of New Jersey. Such views tend to be anachronistic, however, and the sources allow a variety of interpretations. In 1757 he was sent to England to protest against the influence of the Penn family in the government of Pennsylvania, and for five years he remained there, striving to enlighten the people and the ministry of the United Kingdom as to colonial conditions.

Modern opinion on Alexander has run the gamut from the idea that he believed he was on a divinely-inspired mission to unite the human race, to the view that he was the ancient world's equivalent of Napoleon I of France or Adolf Hitler, a megalomaniac bent on world domination. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. . Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. To date there is no evidence to support these claims. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Myths of Alexander's wife having murdered Alexander have been widely discussed and debated by historians. In 1754 he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress.

Alexander's conquests also had long term cultural effects, with the flourishing of Hellenistic civilization throughout the Middle-East and Central Asia, and the development of Greco-Buddhist art in the Indian subcontinent. It was during this period that Franklin was involved in the creation of not only the aforementioned first volunteer fire department and free public library, but also many other civic enterprises. In the East, they had been dramatically reduced by the expansion of the Parthian Empire and the secession of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, but his fame as a statesman rests chiefly on his diplomatic services in connection with the relations of the colonies with Great Britain, and later with France. By the 1st century BC though, most of the Hellenistic territories in the West had been absorbed by the Roman Republic. In politics he proved very able both as an administrator and as a controversialist; as an office-holder, he made use of his position to advance his relatives, though doing so was all but expected in a world dominated by political patronage. By 270 BC, Hellenistic states consolidated, with:. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.

Control over Indian territory was short-lived, ending when Seleucus I was defeated by Chandragupta Maurya, the first Mauryan emperor. Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. Antigonus I ruled for a while in Asia Minor and Syria, but was soon defeated by the other four generals. In 1751 Franklin and Dr. Alexander's empire was divided at first into four major portions: Cassander ruled in Greece, Lysimachus in Thrace, Seleucus I Nicator ("the winner") in Mesopotamia and Iran, and Ptolemy I in the Levant and Egypt. This initiated the notion that some storms travel, eventually leading to the synoptic charts of dynamic meteorology, replacing sole dependence upon the charts of climatology. Ultimately, the conflict was settled after the Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia in 301 BC. One day Franklin inferred that reports of a storm elsewhere in Pennsylvania must be the storm that visited the Philadelphia area in recent days.

After Alexander's death his empire was divided among his officers, first mostly with the pretense of preserving a united kingdom, later with the explicit formation of rival monarchies and territorial states. As a printer and a publisher of a newspaper, Franklin frequented the farmers' markets in Philadelphia to gather news. Main article: Diadochi
. 46) refers to Franklin's inference that electric charge is not created by rubbing substances, but only transferred, so that "the total quantity in any insulated system is invariable." This assertion is known as the "principle of conservation of charge.". The sarcophagus depicts Alexander and his companions hunting and in battle with the Persians. In his classic work (A History of The Theories of Electricity & Aether), Sir Edmund Whittaker (p. The so-called "Alexander Sarcophagus," discovered near Sidon and now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, is now generally thought to be that of Abdylonymus, whom Hephaestion appointed as the king of Sidon by Alexander's order. Franklin established two major fields of physical science, electricity and meteorology.

Its current whereabouts are unknown. The cgs unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb. According to Aelian (Varia Historia 12.64), Ptolemy stole the body and brought it to Alexandria, where it was on display until Late Antiquity. In recognition of his work with electricity, Franklin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received its Copley Medal in 1753. According to legend, Alexander was preserved in a clay vessel full of honey (which acts as a preservative) and interred in a glass coffin. See, for example, the 1805 painting by Benjamin West of Benjamin Franklin drawing electricity from the sky. No contemporary source can be fully trusted because of the incredible level of self-serving recording, and as a result what truly happened to Alexander the Great may never be known. Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, which implied that lightning was electrical.

Before long, accusations of foul play were being thrown about by his generals at one another, making it incredibly hard for a modern historian to sort out the propaganda and the half-truths from the actual events. If Franklin did perform this experiment, he did not do it in the way that is often described (as it would have been dramatic but fatal). Alexander's death has been surrounded by as much controversy as many of the events of his life. Petersburg, Russia, were spectacularly electrocuted during the months following Franklin's experiment.) Franklin, in his writings, displays that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his invention of the lightning rod, an application of the use of electrical ground. He answered famously, "The strongest." Before dying, his final words were "I foresee a great funeral contest over me." Alexander's 'funeral games', where his marshals fought it out over control of his empire, lasted for nearly forty years. Georg Wilhelm Richmann of St. On his death bed, his marshals asked him who he bequethed his kingdom to - as Alexander had only one heir, it was a question of vital importance. (Others, such as Prof.

What is certain is that Alexander died of a high fever in early June of 323 B.C. Franklin's experiment was not written up until Joseph Priestley's 1767 History and Present Status of Electricity; the evidence shows that Franklin was insulated (not in a conducting path, as he would have been in danger of electrocution in the event of a lightning strike). Alexander's death has been reinterpreted many times over the centuries, and each generation offers a new take on it. On June 15, Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment and also successfully extracted sparks from a cloud (unaware that d'Alibard had already done so, 36 days earlier). Neither story is conclusive. On May 10, 1752, Thomas Francois d'Alibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment (using a 40-foot-tall iron rod instead of a kite) and extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. These theories often cite the fact that Alexander's health had fallen to dangerously low levels after years of overdrinking and suffering several appalling wounds (including one in India that nearly claimed his life), and that it was only a matter of time before one sickness or another finally killed him. In 1750 he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm.

Various other theories have been advanced stating that the king may have died from other illnesses, as well, including the West Nile virus. He is also often credited with labeling them as positive and negative respectively. However, many other scholars maintain that Alexander was not poisoned, but died of natural causes, malaria being the most popular. Franklin proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of electrical fluid (as electricity was called then) but the same electrical fluid under different pressures (See electrical charge). All had powerful motivations for seeing Alexander gone, and all were none the worse for it after his death. These include his investigations of electricity. The original story stated that Aristotle, who'd recently seen his nephew executed by Alexander for treason, mixed the poison, that Cassander, son of Antipater, viceroy of Greece, brought it to Alexander in Babylon in a mule's hoof, and that Alexander's royal cupbearer, a son-in-law of Antipater, administered it. This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with the learned throughout Europe and especially in France.

Alexander, coming to Babylon, had at long last disaffected enough of his senior officers that they formed a coalition against him and murdered both him and Hephaestion within a space of only a few months, intending on ending his increasingly unpopular policies of orientalism and ending any further military adventures. He created a partnership with his foreman, David Hill, which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. The poisoning theory derives from the traditional story universally held in antiquity. In 1748, he retired from printing and went into other businesses. Various theories have been proposed for the cause of his death which include poisoning by the sons of Antipater, murder by his wife Roxana [1], and sickness due to a relapse of malaria he had contracted in 336 BC. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life (in between bouts of politics and money-making). He was only 33 years old. He founded an American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries.

On the afternoon of June 10-11, 323 BC, Alexander died of a mysterious illness in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon. It was later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania, to become the University of Pennsylvania, today a member of the Ivy League. Several hundred allied horse rounded out the cavalry, but were inferior to the rest. The Academy opened on August 13, 1751, and seven men graduated on May 17, 1757, at the first commencement; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one as Master of Arts. Of light cavalry, the prodomoi (runners) secured the wings of the army during battle and went on reconnaissance missions. In 1743, he set forth a scheme for The Academy and College of Philadelphia, which he was appointed President of on November 13, 1749. The organization of the Thessalian cavalry was similar to the Companion Cavalry, but they had a shorter spear and fought in a looser formation. Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs.

The riders did not carry shields. In 1736 he created the Union Fire Company, the first volunteer firefighting company in America. The horses were partially clad in armor as well. The success of this library encouraged the opening of libraries in other American cities, and Franklin felt that this enlightenment partly contributed to the American colonies' struggle to maintain their privileges. They were equipped with a 12-14 foot lance, the xyston, and heavy body armor. The newly founded Library Company ordered its first books in 1732, mostly theological and educational tomes, but by 1741 the library also included works on history, geography, poetry, exploration and science. The Companion cavalry (hetairoi, friends) was divided into eight squadrons called ile, 200 strong, except the Royal Squadron of 300. Franklin and several other members of a philosophical association joined their resources in 1731 and began the first public library in Philadelphia.

The heavy cavalry included the "Companion cavalry," raised from the Macedonian nobility, and the Thessalian cavalry. Adages from this almanac such as "A penny saved is twopence clear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") are now commonly quoted every day by people all over the world. The best peltasts were the Agrianians from Thrace. In 1732 he began to issue the famous Poor Richard's Almanack (with content both original and borrowed) on which a lot of his popular reputation is based. Peltasts are considered to be light infantry, although they had a helmet and a small shield and were heavier then the psiloi. His intelligence combined with a great deal of savvy about cultivating a positive image of an industrious and intellectual young man earned him a great deal of social respect. Alexander also had light infantry units composed of peltasts, psiloi and others. The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitating for a variety of local reforms.

They carried a shorter spear, a dora, which was six or seven feet long and a large aspis. On Denham's death Franklin returned to his former trade and by 1730 set up a printing house of his own from which he published The Pennsylvania Gazette to which he contributed many essays. In addition to the units mentioned above, the army included some 6,000 Greek allied and mercenary hoplites, also arranged in phalanxes. Following this he returned to Philadelphia with the help of a merchant named Thomas Denham, who gave him a position as a clerk, shopkeeper and bookkeeper in his shop. Sometimes hypaspists are mentioned in the front line of the battle just between the phalanx and the heavy cavalry and seem to have acted as an extension of the phalanx fighting as heavy infantry while keeping a link between the heavily clad phalangites and the companion cavalry, but they also accompanied Alexander on flanking marches and were capable of fighting on rough terrain like light troops so it seems they could perform dual functions. He was not satisfied, however, and after a few months was induced by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith to go to London where, finding Keith's promises empty, he again worked as a compositor in a printer's shop in what is now the Church of St Batholomew the Great, Smithfield. Their armament is unknown; it is difficult to get a clear picture from ancient sources. At age 17, he ran away to Philadelphia seeking a new start in a new city.

One of the battalions was named the Agema and served as the King's bodyguards. His brother was not impressed when he discovered his popular correspondent was his younger, precocious brother. Another important unit were the hypaspists (shield bearers), arranged into three battalions (lochoi) of 1,000 men each. His brother and the Courant's readers did not initially know the real author. Modern historians believe most of the phalangites did not wear heavy body armor at the time of Alexander. While a printing apprentice he wrote under the pseudonym of 'Silence Dogood' who was ostensibly a middle-aged widow. It is unclear whether the phalanx used body armor, but heavy body armor is mentioned in Arrian (1.28.7) and other ancient sources. He left his apprenticeship without permission and in so doing became a fugitive.

Many modern historians claim the phalanx used a smaller shield, called a pelta, the shield used by peltasts. His schooling ended at ten and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer who published the New England Courant. Arrian mentions large shields (the aspis) but this is disputed; it is difficult to wield both a large pike and a large shield at the same time. Benjamin was the youngest son. For protection the soldier wore a Phrygian-style helmet and a shield. Between both of his father's marriages, he produced 17 children. Each soldier had a long pike called a sarissa, which was up to 18 feet long, and a short sword. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a maker of candles, who married twice.

The main infantry corps was the phalanx, composed of six regiments (taxies) numbering about 2000 phalangites each. Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston. About one third of the army was composed of his Greek allies from the Hellenic League. They had the following children: John (December 7, 1690), Peter (November 22, 1692), Mary (September 26, 1694), James (February 4, 1697), Sarah (July 9, 1699), Ebenezer (September 20, 1701), Thomas (December 7, 1703), Benjamin (January 6, 1706), Lydia (August 8, 1708), and Jane (March 27, 1712). It was composed of light and heavy troops and some engineers, medical and staff units. Samuel Willard. The army of Alexander was, for the most part, that of his father Philip. He then remarried, to Abiah, on November 25, 1689 in the Old South Church of Boston by the Rev.

This idea, however, subsists upon a misunderstanding of "dress," used in the sense of "attire." In fact, it was Athena who was the cross-dresser, wearing armor when Greek women and other goddesses did not. Josiah's first wife Anne died in Boston on July 9, 1689. It has been proposed that Alexander was also a "cross-dresser," on the grounds that he was known to wear the "silvery dress" of Athena, which he received from priests at Troy. (August 23, 1685), Ann (January 5, 1687), Joseph (February 5, 1688), and Joseph (June 30, 1689) (the first Joseph having died soon after birth). See History of Homosexuality for more information. Sometime during the second half of 1683, the Franklins left England for Boston, Massachusetts; and while in Boston, they had several more children, including: Josiah Jr. If Alexander's love life was transgressive it was not for his love of beautiful youths but for his involvement with a man his own age, in a time when the standard model of male love was pederastic. They included: Elizabeth (March 2, 1678), Samuel (May 16, 1681), and Hannah (May 25, 1683).

Such debates, however, are considered anachronistic by scholars of the period, who point out that the concept of homosexuality did not exist in Greco-Roman antiquity: sexual attraction between males was seen as a normal and universal part of human nature since it was believed that men were attracted to beauty, an attribute of the young, regardless of gender. In around 1677, Josiah married Anne Child at Ecton; and over the next few years, this couple had three children, all of whom being half-siblings of Benjamin Franklin. Others argue that the same can be said about all our information regarding Alexander. His mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts on August 15, 1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife Mary Morrill. They argue that historical accounts describing Alexander's relations with Hephaestion and Bagoas as sexual were written centuries after the fact, and thus it can never be established what the 'real' relationship between Alexander and his male companions were. Franklin's father, Josiah Franklin, was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith and farmer, and Jane White. People of various national, ethnic and cultural origins regard him as a national hero. .

The suggestion that Alexander was homosexual or bisexual remains highly controversial and excites passions in some quarters in Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, and diasporas thereof. Franklin's inventions include the Franklin stove, the medical catheter, the lightning rod, swimfins, improvements to the glass harmonica, and possibly bifocals. Besides Bagoas, Curtius mentions yet another lover of Alexander, Euxenippos, "whose youthful grace filled him with enthusiasm." (VII.9.19). In 1775, Franklin became the first United States Postmaster General. (This Bagoas should not be confused with Bagoas the former Persian Vizier, nor the Bagoas son of Pharnuches who became one of Alexander's trierarchs.) Whatever Alexander's relationship with Bagoas, it was no impediment to relations with his queen: six months after Alexander's death Roxana gave birth to his son and heir Alexander IV. Franklin was a member of the Freemasons, corresponded with members of the Lunar Society, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Bagoas must have endeared himself to them by his courage and fortitude during that harrowing episode. One of the leaders of the American Revolution, he was well known also for his many quotations and his experiments with electricity.

At this point in time, the troops present were all survivors of the crossing of the desert. Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American printer, journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat and inventor. "Bagoas [...] sat down close by him, which so pleased the Macedonians, that they made loud acclamations for him to kiss Bagoas, and never stopped clapping their hands and shouting till Alexander put his arms round him and kissed him." (Plutarch, The Lives). Dr. Their relationship seems to have been well known among the troops, as Plutarch recounts an episode (also mentioned by Athenaios and Dicaearchus) during some festivities on the way back from India, in which his men clamor for him to openly kiss the young man. The film version of 1776 features Howard da Silva, who originated the role of Franklin on Broadway. The word is not used even for Hephaestion. A fictionalized but fairly accurate version of Franklin appears as a main character in the stage musical 1776.

Bagoas is the only one who is actually named as the eromenos — the beloved — of Alexander. Benjamin Franklin is one of the main characters of Gregory Keyes' Age of Unreason trilogy. Bagoas, a eunuch exceptional in beauty and in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and with whom Alexander would later be intimate," (VI.5.23). Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade (1790).. Curtius maintains that Alexander also took as a lover ".. Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks (1789), and. This would be in keeping with the ancient omnivorous approach to sexuality. An Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, (1789).

He fathered at least two children, Heracles born in 327 BC by his mistress Barsine, the daughter of satrap Artabazus of Phrygia, and Alexander IV of Macedon by Roxana in 323 BC. Later in life, Alexander married several princesses of former Persian territories: Roxana of Bactria; Statira, daughter of Darius III; and Parysatis, daughter of Ochus. But you won't be able to, for you are ruled by Hephaestion's thighs." And Curtius reports that "He scorned [feminine] sensual pleasures to such an extent that his mother was anxious lest he be unable to beget offspring." To whet his appetite for the fairer sex, King Philip and Olympias brought in a high-priced Thessalian courtesan named Callixena. Letter 24 of those ascribed to Diogenes of Sinope, thought to be written in either the 1st century or the 2nd century, and probably reflecting the gossip of Alexander's day, exhorts him: "If you want to be beautiful and good (kalos k'agathos), throw away the rag you have on your head and come to us.

Many discussed his ambiguous sexuality. As Aelian in his Varia Historia (12.7) claims, "He thus intimated that he was the object of Alexander's love, as Patroclus was of Achilles.". There the two friends made sacrifices at the shrines of the two heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander honouring Achilles, and Hephaestion, Patroclus. Hephaestion makes his appearance in the histories at the point when Alexander reaches Troy.

They had most likely been best friends since childhood, for Hephaestion too received his education at the court of Alexander's father. Alexander's greatest emotional attachment is generally considered to have been to his companion, cavalry commander (chiliarchos) and most probably lover, Hephaestion. Many historians argue if this was the cause of his death. While invading the ancient city of Mali along the shore of India he received a nearly fatal wound from an arrow in his chest.

On his return to Babylon, he fell ill and died. He conducted a campaign of extermination against the Cosseans to assuage his grief. Alexander was distraught. After traveling to Ecbatana to retrieve the bulk of the Persian treasure, his closest friend and probable lover Hephaestion died of an illness.

It is not certain that Alexander adopted the Persian royal title of shahanshah ("great king" or "king of kings"), but most historians think that he did. His attempts to merge Persian culture with his Greek soldiers also included training a regiment of Persian boys in the ways of Macedonians. In an attempt to craft a lasting harmony between his Macedonian and Persian subjects, he held a mass marriage of his senior officers to Persian and other noblewomen at Opis, but few of those marriages seem to have lasted much beyond a year. Alexander executed the ringleaders of the mutiny, but forgave the rank and file.

As a gesture of thanks, he paid off the debts of his soldiers, and announced that he would send those who were over-aged and the disabled veterans back to Macedonia under Craterus, but his troops misunderstood his intention and mutinied at the town of Opis, refusing to be sent away and bitterly criticizing his adoption of Persian customs and dress and the introduction of Persian officers and soldiers into Macedonian units. Discovering that many of his satraps and military governors had misbehaved in his absence, Alexander executed a number of them as examples on his way to Susa. He sent much of his army to Carmania (modern southern Iran) with his general Craterus, and commissioned a fleet to explore the Persian Gulf shore under his admiral Nearchus, while he led the rest of his forces back to Persia by the southern route through the Gedrosia (present day Makran in southern Pakistan). Alexander was forced to turn south, conquering his way down the Indus to the Ocean.

Alexander, after the meeting with his officer, Coenus, was convinced that it was better to return. Exhausted and frightened by the prospect of facing another giant Indian army at the Ganges, his army mutinied at the Hyphasis (modern Beas), refusing to march further east. East of Porus' kingdom, near the Ganges River, was the powerful kingdom of Magadha. Alexander continued on to conquer all the headwaters of the Indus River.

After victory, Alexander made an alliance with Porus and appointed him as satrap of his own kingdom. Alexander fought an epic battle against Porus, a ruler of a region in the Punjab in the Battle of Hydaspes (326 BC). Alexander took Aornos by storm (see Siege of Aornos). Many people had fled to a high fortress called Aornos.

King Omphis, ruler of Taxila, surrendered the city to Alexander. With the death of Spitamenes and his marriage to Roxana (Roshanak in Bactrian) to cement his relations with his new Central Asian satrapies, in 326 BC Alexander was finally free to turn his attention to India. However, the evidence is strong that Callisthenes, the teacher of the pages, must have been the one who persuaded them to assassinate the king. Later in the Central Asian campaign, a second plot against his life, this one by his own pages, was revealed, and his official historian, Callisthenes of Olynthus (who had fallen out of favor with the king by leading the opposition to his attempt to introduce proskynesis), was implicated on what most historians regard as trumped-up charges.

In a drunken quarrel at Macaranda Samarkand, he also killed the man who had saved his life at the Granicus, Clitus the Black. Although Philotas was convicted by the assembled Macedonian army, most historians consider this one of the king's greatest crimes, along with his order to assassinate his senior general Parmenion, Philotas' father. Here, too, a plot against his life was revealed, and his Companion and friend Philotas was executed for treason for failing to bring the plot to his attention. This cost him much in the sympathies of many of his Greek countrymen.

During this time, Alexander adopted some elements of Persian dress and customs at his court, notably the custom of proskynesis, a symbolic kissing of the hand that Persians paid to their social superiors, but a practice of which the Greeks disapproved; the Greeks regarded the gesture as the preserve of deities, and believed that Alexander meant to deify himself by requiring it. In the process he captured and refounded Herat and Samarkand, and he founded a series of new cities, all called Alexandria, including one near modern Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Alexandria Eschate ("The Furthest") bordering today's Chinese Turkestan. His three-year campaign against Bessus and his successor Spitamenes took him through Media, Parthia, Aria, Drangiana, Arachosia, Bactria, and Scythia. With the death of Darius, Alexander declared the war of vengeance at an end, and released his Greek and other allies from service in the League campaign (although he allowed those that wished to re-enlist as mercenaries in his imperial army).

Bessus then declared himself Darius' successor as Artaxerxes V and retreated into Central Asia to launch a guerrilla campaign against Alexander. He then set off in pursuit of Darius, who was kidnapped, and then murdered by followers of Bessus, his Bactrian satrap and kinsman. Alexander allowed the League forces to loot Persepolis, and he set fire to the royal palace of Xerxes, allegedly in revenge for the burning of the Athenian Acropolis during the Second Persian War. Sending the bulk of his army to Persepolis, the Persian capital, by the Royal Road, Alexander stormed and captured the Persian Gates (in the modern Zagros Mountains), then sprinted for Persepolis before its treasury could be looted.

From Babylon, Alexander went to Susa, one of the Achaemenid capitals, and captured its treasury. While Darius fled over the mountains to Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), Alexander marched to Babylon. Darius was forced to flee the field after his charioteer was killed, and Alexander chased him as far as Arbela. Leaving Egypt, Alexander marched eastward into Assyria (now Iraq) and defeated Darius and a third Persian army at the Battle of Gaugamela.

He founded Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty after his death. In 332 BC-331 BC Alexander was welcomed as a liberator in Egypt and was pronounced the son of Zeus by Egyptian priests of the god Ammon at the Oracle of the god at the Siwa Oasis in the Libyan desert. Alexander passed near but probably did not visit Jerusalem. Proceeding down the Mediterranean coast, he took Tyre and Gaza after famous sieges (see Siege of Tyre).

She disowned him and adopted Alexander as her son instead. Sisygambis, the queen mother, never forgave Darius for abandoning her. Darius fled this battle in such a panic for his life that he left behind his wife, his children, his mother, and much of his personal treasure. Alexander's army crossed the Cilician Gates and met and defeated the main Persian army under the command of Darius III at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC.

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to decide which story is correct. Another version claims that he did not use the sword, but actually figured out how to undo the knot. At the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordium, Alexander "undid" the tangled Gordian knot, a feat said to await the future "king of Asia." According to the most vivid story, Alexander proclaimed that it did not matter how the knot was undone, and hacked it apart with his sword. At Termessus Alexander humbled but did not storm the Pisidian city.

From Pamphylia onward the coast held no major ports, so Alexander moved inland. From Halicarnassus, Alexander proceeded into mountainous Lycia and the Pamphylian plain, asserting control over all coastal cities and denying them to his enemy. Alexander left Caria in the hands of Ada, the sister of Mausolus, whom Orontobates had deposed. At Halicarnassus, Alexander successfully waged the first of many sieges, eventually forcing his opponents, the mercenary captain Memnon of Rhodes and the Persian satrap of Caria, Orontobates, to withdraw by sea.

After an initial victory against Persian forces at the Battle of Granicus, Alexander accepted the surrender of the Persian provincial capital and treasury of Sardis and proceeded down the Ionian coast. Alexander's army crossed the Hellespont with about 40,000 Greek soldiers. Alexander immediately ordered the execution of all of his potential rivals and marched south with his armies in a campaign to solidify control of Greece and confront the Persian Empire. Greek cities like Athens and Thebes, which had pledged allegiance to Philip, were not quick to pledge the same allegiance to a 20-year-old boy.

After Philip's death, the army proclaimed Alexander, then aged 20, as the new king of Macedon. Plutarch mentions an irate letter from Alexander to Darius, where Alexander blames Darius and Bagoas, his grand vizier, for his father's murder, stating that it was Darius who had been bragging to the rest of the Greek cities of how he managed to assassinate Philip. However, in recent years Alexander's involvement has been questioned and there is some reason to believe that it may have been instigated by Darius III, the recently crowned King of Persia. Philip's murder was once thought to have been planned with the knowledge and involvement of Alexander or Olympias.

The assassin was supposedly a former lover of the king, the disgruntled young nobleman (Pausanias), who held a grudge against Philip because the king had ignored a complaint he had expressed. In 336 BC, Philip was assassinated at the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra to King Alexander of Epirus. The cavalry wing led by Alexander annihilated the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite corps previously regarded as invincible. Alexander also assisted his father at the decisive battle of Chaeronea in this year.

In 338 BC, Philip created The League of Corinth. In 339 BC Philip divorced Alexander's mother, leading to a quarrel between Alexander and his father which threw into question Alexander's succession to the Macedonian throne. When Philip led an attack on Byzantium in 340 BC, Alexander, aged 16, was left in command of Macedonia. According to Plutarch (Alexander 2.1), his father descended from Heracles through Caranus and his mother descended from Aeacus through Neoptolemus and Achilles.

After his visit to the Oracle of Ammon at Siwah, according to all five of the extant historians (Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch), rumors spread that the Oracle had revealed Alexander's father was Zeus, rather than Philip. Aristotle was Alexander's tutor; he gave Alexander a thorough training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy. Alarmed by this, he consulted the seer Aristander of Telmessus, who determined that his wife was pregnant and that the child would have the character of a lion. In Philip's dream, he sealed her womb with the seal of the lion.

Olympias dreamed of a loud burst of thunder and of lightning striking her womb. Plutarch (Alexander 2.2-3) relates that both Philip and Olympias dreamt of their son's future birth. According to Plutarch (Alexander 3.1,3), Olympias was impregnated not by Philip, who was afraid of her and her affinity for sleeping in the company of snakes, but by Zeus. Alexander was the son of King Philip II of Macedon and of Epirote princess Olympias.

. Already during his lifetime, and especially after his death, his exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appears as a towering legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles. Alexander himself lived on in the history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek peoples. His conquests ushered in centuries of Greco-Macedonian settlement and rule over non-Greek areas, a period known as the Hellenistic Age.

After twelve years of constant military campaigning, Alexander died, probably of malaria, typhoid or possibly a viral encephalitis. This was extremely unusual for the ancient world. Alexander integrated non-Greeks into his army and administration, leading some scholars to credit him with a “policy of fusion.” He encouraged marriage between Greeks and non-Greeks, and practiced it himself. Following the unification of the multiple city states of Ancient Greece under the rule of his father, Philip II of Macedon, (a labor Alexander had to repeat - twice - because the southern Greeks rebelled after Philip's death), Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia, and extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as the Punjab.

In north-east India and modern day Pakistan he is known as Sikander-e-Azam (Alexander the Great) and many male children are named Sikander after him. He is also known in Eastern traditions as Dhul-Qarnayn (the two-horned one), because an image on coins minted during his rule seemed to depict him with the two ram's horns of the Egyptian god Ammon (it is believed by some that the Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, is Alexander the Great). Alexander is known in some Eastern traditions such as Middle Persian literature as Alexander the Cursed due to his burning of the Persian capital and national library. Alexander III (late July, 356 BC–June 10, 323 BC), commonly known in the West as Alexander the Great or Alexander of Macedon, in Greek Μέγας Ἀλέξανδρος (Megas Alexandros), King of Macedon (336 BC-323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders of the ancient world.

An epic science fiction animated retelling of the story called Reign: The Conquerer by Peter Chung of Aeon Flux fame debuted on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block variety show in 2003. Steven Pressfield's 2004 book The Virtues of War is told from the first-person perspective of Alexander. A further trilogy of novels about Alexander was written in Italian by Valerio Massimo Manfredi and subsequently published in an English translation, entitled The Son of the Dream, The Sands of Ammon and The Ends Of The Earth. A 1965 Hindi movie 'Sikandar-E-Azam' directed by Kedar Kapoor starring Dara Singh as Alexandar depicts Alexandar's Indian conquest with Porus.

In addition to the fiction, Renault also wrote a non-fiction biography, The Nature of Alexander. Alexander also appears briefly in Renault's novel The Mask of Apollo. From 1969 to 1981, Mary Renault wrote a historical fiction trilogy, speculating on the life of Alexander: Fire from Heaven (about his early life), The Persian Boy (about his conquest of Persia, his expedition to India, and his death, seen from the viewpoint of a Persian eunuch), and Funeral Games (about the events following his death). Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso's 1998 album Livro includes an epic song about Alexander called "Alexandre.".

The song describes Alexander's life, but contains one inaccuracy: in the song it is stated that Alexander's army would not follow him into India. The British heavy metal band Iron Maiden had a song entitled "Alexander the Great" on their album Somewhere in Time (1986). Numerous television series about Alexander have been created. [2].

Baz Luhrmann had been planning to make a very different film about Alexander, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, but the release of Stone's film eventually persuaded him to abandon the project. Oliver Stone's film Alexander, starring Colin Farrell, was released on November 24, 2004. Bond's 2000 album Born includes a song titled Alexander the Great. A 1941 Hindi Movie 'Sikandar' directed by Sohrab Modi depicts Alexander the Great's Indian conquest.

A 1956 movie starring Richard Burton titled Alexander the Great was produced by MGM. Kandahar (Alexandropolis), Afghanistan. Iskenderun (Alexandretta), Turkey. Alexandria Eschate, "The furthest", Tajikistan.

Alexandria on the Indus (Alexandria Bucephalous), Pakistan. Alexandria of the Arachosians, Afghanistan. Alexandria on the Oxus, Afghanistan. Alexandria of the Caucasus, Afghanistan.

Alexandria in Ariana, Afghanistan. Alexandria Asiana, Iran. Alexandria, Egypt. The Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus by Junianus Justinus, which contains factual errors and is highly compressed.

The books immediately before and after, on Philip and Alexander's "Successors," throw light on Alexander's reign. Bibliotheca historia (Library of world history), written in Greek by the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus, from which Book 17 relates the conquests of Alexander. Life of Alexander (see Parallel Lives) and two orations On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great (see Plutarch: Other Works), by the Greek historian and biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea;. Historiae Alexandri Magni, a biography of Alexander in ten books, of which the last eight survive, by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus;.

Anabasis Alexandri (The Campaigns of Alexander in Greek) by the Greek historian Arrian of Nicomedia;. The Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt and Cyrenaica. The Seleucid Empire in Asia. The Antigonid Empire, centered on Greece.