Alexander the Great

Some of the main ones are:. He died in 1947 of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 83 in Fair Lane, his Dearborn estate, and is buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit. Around seventy towns or outposts are claimed to have been founded by Alexander. In ill health, he ceded the presidency to his grandson Henry Ford II on September 21, 1945, and went into retirement. For example, he is held to be the companion of Aristotle and the direct student of Plato. Edsel's 1943 death brought Henry Ford out of retirement. The traditional non-Western accounts differ from what we now know about the life of Alexander on a number of points. Ford suffered an initial stroke in 1938, after which he turned over the running of his company to Edsel.

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 foundation no longer has any association with the Ford Motor Company, nor with the family or descendants of Henry Ford. Despite his supposed sins, by the Islamic period the adoption of Pseudo-Callisthenes' accounts meant that the image of Alexander was on balance positive. The Foundation has grown immensely and, by 1950, had become national and international in scope.[2]. 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. Henry Ford, with his son Edsel, founded the Ford Foundation in 1936 as a local philanthropic organization with a broad charter to promote human welfare. 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. His knowledge of the Ontario town of the same name is believed to have led to the renaming of the Georgia town, formerly known as Ways Station.

Islamic accounts of the Alexander legend, particularly in Persia combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes material with indigenous Sasanid Persian ideas about Alexander. He contributed substantially to the community, building a chapel and schoolhouse and employing a large number of local residents. 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. Ford also maintained a vacation residence (known as the "Ford Plantation") in Richmond Hill, Georgia. Some believe that, excepting certain religious texts, it is the most widely-read work of pre-modern times. (The airfield was across the street and is now the site of a Ford Motor Company test track.) He heavily sponsored the Stout Metal Airplane Company, which developed the Ford Tri-Motor, an early airliner. A Mongol version is also extant. Ford was an early promoter of aviation, building the Dearborn Inn as the first airport hotel.

It is the source of many incidents in Ferdowsi's "Shahnama". Lloyd Shaw. The "Romance" is regarded by most Western scholars as the source of the account of Alexander given in the Koran (Sura The Cave). Which he shared with his friend Dr. 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. Ford also had an interest in American folk music and frequently sponsored square dances, one of his particular interests. Latin and Syriac translations were made in Late Antiquity. It was opened in 1929 as the Edison Institute and, although greatly modernized, remains open today.

This text underwent numerous expansions and revisions throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, exhibiting a plasticity unseen in "higher" literary forms. About the same time, he began collecting materials for his museum, which had a theme of practical technology. 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. It may have inspired the creation of Old Sturbridge Village as well. (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."). This plan never saw fruition, but Ford repeated it with the creation of Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. 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. He moved the schoolhouse from the Mary had a little lamb nursery rhyme from Sterling, Massachusetts and purchased the historical Wayside Inn.

His court historian Callisthenes portrayed the sea in Cilicia as drawing back from him in proskynesis. In the 1920s, Ford began work to turn Sudbury, Massachusetts into an Americana-themed historical village. Alexander was a legend in his own time. Ford had an interest in what today would be known as "Americana". 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. [Detroit News, July 31, 1938.]. Plutarch can't resist a good story, light or dark. The decoration was given "in recognition of [Ford's] pioneering in making motor cars available for the masses." The award was accompanied by a personal congratulatory message from Adolf Hitler.

Arrian presents a flattering portrait, Curtius a darker one. Ford was the first American and the fourth person given this award, at the time Nazi Germany's highest honorary award given to foreigners. In effect, each presents a different "Alexander," with details to suit. In July of that year, Ford was awarded (and accepted) the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle (Großkreuz des Deutschen Adlerordens). The "problem of the sources" is the main concern (and chief delight) of Alexander-historians. In 1938, for instance, it opened an assembly plant in Berlin, the purpose of which was to supply trucks to the Wehrmacht. Much is recounted incidentally in other authors, including Strabo, Athenaeus, Polyaenus, and others. Ford's indirect financial backing of the Nazis was also undeniable, as Ford Motor Company was active in Germany's military buildup prior to World War II.

The five main accounts are by Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, Diodorus, and Justin. Regardless of whether direct financial support was provided, Ford repeatedly voiced his overt approval of Hitler's theories. Instead, the modern historian must rely on authors who used these and other early sources. However, a 1933 Congressional investigation into the matter was unable to substantiate whether contributions were actually sent. Unfortunately, these works were lost. in the 1920s, and Winifred Wagner, daughter-in-law of Richard Wagner, who said they requested funds from Ford to aid the National Socialist movement in Germany. Another early and influential account was penned by Cleitarchus. This can in part be traced to statements from Kurt Ludecke, Germany's representative to the U.S.

These included his court historian Callisthenes, his general Ptolemy, and a camp engineer Aristoboulus. There is also some evidence that Henry Ford gave Adolf Hitler direct financial backing when Hitler was first starting out in politics. Alexander himself left only a few inscriptions and some letter-fragments of dubious authenticity, but a large number of his contemporaries wrote full accounts. Henry Ford spent years bestowing gushing praise on Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime, although this praise abated as the United States entered WWII. The ancient sources for Alexander's life are, from the perspective of ancient history, relatively numerous. His writings continue to be used as propaganda by various groups, often appearing on anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi websites. Alexander himself, while still a young boy, tamed this horse after experienced horse-trainers failed to do so. Some claim that Ford neither wrote nor signed this letter and have questioned the sincerity of his apology.

Alexander had a legendary horse named Bucephalus (meaning "ox-headed"), supposedly descended from the Mares of Diomedes. On January 7, 1942, Henry Ford wrote a public letter to the ADL denouncing hatred against the Jews and expressing his hope that anti-Jewish hatred would cease for all time. 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. He later retracted the International Jew and the Protocols. 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. Lawsuits in response to anti-Semitic remarks led Ford to close the Dearborn Independent in December 1927. From his boyhood he believed "one should not be parsimonious with the Gods.". None of this work was actually penned by Ford, though they required his tacit approval since he was the paper's publisher.

One undeniable characteristic of Alexander is that he was extremely pious and devout, and began every day with prayers and sacrifices. Denounced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the articles nevertheless explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews (Volume 4, Chapter 80), preferring to blame incidents of mass violence on the Jews themselves. 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. The Independent also published, in Ford's name, several anti-Jewish articles which were released in the early 1920s as a set of four bound volumes, cumulatively titled "The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem." These volumes were distributed through Ford's car dealerships. 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. The American Jewish Historical Society describes the ideas presented in it as "anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-liquor, and anti-Semitic". 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. The paper ran for eight years, during which it republished "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," which has since been discredited by virtually all historians as a forgery.

W. Henry Ford began publication of a newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, in 1919. Good examples are W. Under pressure from Edsel and his wife, Clara, Henry Ford finally agreed to collective bargaining at Ford plants, and the first contract with the UAW was signed in June 1941. Alexander's character also suffers from the interpretation of historians who themselves are subject to the bias and idealisms of their own time. A sit-down strike by the UAW union on April 2, 1941 closed the River Rouge Plant. To this way of thinking, Alexander was, first and foremost, a general rather than a statesman. Ford was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the United Auto Workers union (UAW).

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. The most famous incident, in 1937, was a bloody brawl between company security men and organizers that became known as The Battle of the Overpass. 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. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to squash union organizing. 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. To forestall union activity, he promoted Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, to be the head of the Service Department. 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. Conversely, Ford was adamantly against labor unions in his plants.

Modern Alexandrists continue to debate these same issues, among others, in modern times. The "short week," as Ford called it in a contemporary interview, was required so that the country could "absorb its production and stay prosperous.". 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. In granting workers an extra day off, Ford ensured leisure time for the working class. 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. In 1926, Ford instituted the five-day, forty-hour work-week, effectively inventing the modern weekend. Ancient sources are generally written with an agenda of either glorifying or denigrating the man, making it difficult to evaluate his actual character. Even with these requirements a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for the profit sharing.

To Zoroastrians, on the other hand, he is remembered as the destroyer of their first great empire and as the leveller of Persepolis. The company established a Sociological Department complete with 150 investigators and support staff in order to verify this last point. 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. The wage was offered to men over the age of 22, who had worked at the company for 6 months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford approved. Much about Alexander's personality and aims remains enigmatic. Ford labeled the increased compensation as profit sharing rather than wages. Such views tend to be anachronistic, however, and the sources allow a variety of interpretations. The program called for a reduction in length of the workday from 9 to 8 hours and a raise in minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers.

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. On January 5, 1914 Ford announced his five-dollar a day program. . Henry Ford had very specific thoughts on relations with his employees. To date there is no evidence to support these claims. By 1945 Henry Ford's senility was quite evident, and his wife and daughter-in-law forced his resignation in favor of his grandson, Henry Ford II. Myths of Alexander's wife having murdered Alexander have been widely discussed and debated by historians. Roosevelt considered a federal bailout for Ford Motor Company so that wartime production could continue.

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. President Franklin D. In the East, they had been dramatically reduced by the expansion of the Parthian Empire and the secession of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The company saw hard times during the next two years, losing $10 million a month. By the 1st century BC though, most of the Hellenistic territories in the West had been absorbed by the Roman Republic. Henry Ford II was released from the navy and became an executive vice president, while Harry Bennett had a seat on the board and was responsible for personnel, labor relations, and public relations. By 270 BC, Hellenistic states consolidated, with:. The issue was settled for a period when Henry himself, at the age of 79, took over the presidency personally.

Control over Indian territory was short-lived, ending when Seleucus I was defeated by Chandragupta Maurya, the first Mauryan emperor. Edsel's widow Eleanor, who had inherited Edsel's voting stock, wanted her son Henry Ford II to take over the position. Antigonus I ruled for a while in Asia Minor and Syria, but was soon defeated by the other four generals. Henry Ford advocated Harry Bennett to take the spot. 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. On May 26, 1943, Edsel Ford died, leaving a vacancy in the company presidency. Ultimately, the conflict was settled after the Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia in 301 BC. The design never caught on.

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. Furthermore, it ran on grain alcohol (ethanol) instead of gasoline. Main article: Diadochi
. It weighed 30% less than a standard car of the same size, and was said to be able to withstand blows ten times greater than could steel. The sarcophagus depicts Alexander and his companions hunting and in battle with the Persians. This project culminated in 1942, when on January 13 Ford patented an automobile made almost entirely of plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame. 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. Soybean-based plastics were used in Ford automobiles throughout the 1930s in plastic parts such as car horns, in paint, etc.

Its current whereabouts are unknown. Henry Ford long had an interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, especially soybeans. According to Aelian (Varia Historia 12.64), Ptolemy stole the body and brought it to Alexandria, where it was on display until Late Antiquity. During the thirties, Ford also overcame his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned Universal Credit Company became a major car financing operation. According to legend, Alexander was preserved in a clay vessel full of honey (which acts as a preservative) and interred in a glass coffin. Subsequently, the company adopted an annual model change system similar to that in use by automakers today. 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. The result was the highly successful Ford Model A, introduced December, 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of over four million automobiles.

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. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission. Alexander's death has been surrounded by as much controversy as many of the events of his life. The elder Ford pursued the project with a great deal of technical expertise in design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving it to his son to develop the body design. 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. By 1926, flagging sales of the Model T convinced Henry of what Edsel had been suggesting for some time: a new model was necessary. 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. Half of these were Ford Model Ts.

What is certain is that Alexander died of a high fever in early June of 323 B.C. By 1928 there were about 30 million cars world wide. Alexander's death has been reinterpreted many times over the centuries, and each generation offers a new take on it. Henry Ford's assembly line was so unique that it turned the Ford Motor Company into a Giant, (and became a tool for every other industry that creates merchandise in the assembly line, of course the assembly line does not use people anymore, but uses robots) while the other car companies were still stuck with the technologies of the earlier days. Neither story is conclusive. But that's what made it unique. 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. One screw held 10 or 20 parts.

Various other theories have been advanced stating that the king may have died from other illnesses, as well, including the West Nile virus. The Model T was a very simple car, as simple as it could be made. However, many other scholars maintain that Alexander was not poisoned, but died of natural causes, malaria being the most popular. For the first time everyone could own a car, the downside was that every Model T produced after 1913, (the year the assembly line was created) was painted black because the paint dried a lot faster than any other color. All had powerful motivations for seeing Alexander gone, and all were none the worse for it after his death. The cars sales triggered the modern era of vehicles. 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. The Model T's key to success was the fact that it had been made in the assembly line, which allowed for many different cars to be made consecutively, identically and much faster than other hand made vehicles.

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. Despite urgings from Edsel, Henry steadfastly refused to incorporate new features into the Model T or to form a customer credit plan. The poisoning theory derives from the traditional story universally held in antiquity. Other auto makers offered payment plans through which consumers could buy their cars, which usually included more modern mechanical features and styling not available with the Model T. 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. By the mid 1920's, sales of the Model T began to decline due to rising competition. He was only 33 years old. The company remained privately held by the family until 1956, when the family allowed a public offering of a portion of the company without ceding control.

On the afternoon of June 10-11, 323 BC, Alexander died of a mysterious illness in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon. Also at this time, Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from other investors, thus becoming sole owners of the company. Several hundred allied horse rounded out the cavalry, but were inferior to the rest. On January 1, 1919, after unsuccessfully seeking a seat in the United States Senate, [1] Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son Edsel, although still maintaining a firm hand in its management—few company decisions under Edsel's presidency were made without approval by Henry, and those few that were, Henry often reversed. Of light cavalry, the prodomoi (runners) secured the wings of the army during battle and went on reconnaissance missions. Ford said, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." (See References at bottom). The organization of the Thessalian cavalry was similar to the Companion Cavalry, but they had a shorter spear and fought in a looser formation. This was a record which would stand for the next 45 years.

The riders did not carry shields. The design, fervently promoted and defended by Henry Ford, would continue through 1927 (well after its popularity had faded), with a final total production of fifteen million vehicles. The horses were partially clad in armor as well. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. They were equipped with a 12-14 foot lance, the xyston, and heavy body armor. Wills. The Companion cavalry (hetairoi, friends) was divided into eight squadrons called ile, 200 strong, except the Royal Squadron of 300. Sorensen, and C.H.

The heavy cavalry included the "Companion cavalry," raised from the Macedonian nobility, and the Thessalian cavalry. "Ed" Martin, Charles E. The best peltasts were the Agrianians from Thrace. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and its development came from employees Clarence Avery, P.E. Peltasts are considered to be light infantry, although they had a helmet and a small shield and were heavier then the psiloi. It was in this year that Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Alexander also had light infantry units composed of peltasts, psiloi and others. Racing was, by 1913, no longer necessary from a publicity standpoint because the Model T was already famous and ubiquitous on American roads.

They carried a shorter spear, a dora, which was six or seven feet long and a large aspis. Ford dropped out of the race, and soon thereafter dropped out of racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules and the demands on his time by the now-booming production of the Model Ts. In addition to the units mentioned above, the army included some 6,000 Greek allied and mercenary hoplites, also arranged in phalanxes. In 1913, Ford attempted to enter a reworked Model T in the Indianapolis 500, but was told rules required the addition of another 1,000 pounds (450 kg) to the car before it could qualify. 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. From 1909 to 1913, Ford entered stripped-down Model Ts in races, finishing first (although later disqualified) in an "ocean-to-ocean" (across the USA) race in 1909, and setting a one-mile oval speed record at Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911 with driver Frank Kulick. Their armament is unknown; it is difficult to get a clear picture from ancient sources. In 1908, the Ford company released the Model T.

One of the battalions was named the Agema and served as the King's bodyguards. Henry Ford was also one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500. Another important unit were the hypaspists (shield bearers), arranged into three battalions (lochoi) of 1,000 men each. Convinced by this success, the famous race driver Barney Oldfield, who named this new Ford model "999" in honor of a racing locomotive of the day, took the car around the country and thereby made the Ford brand known throughout the U.S. Modern historians believe most of the phalangites did not wear heavy body armor at the time of Alexander. Clair in 39.4 seconds, which was a new land speed record. It is unclear whether the phalanx used body armor, but heavy body armor is mentioned in Arrian (1.28.7) and other ancient sources. In a newly-designed car, Ford drove an exhibition in which the car covered the distance of a mile on the ice of Lake St.

Many modern historians claim the phalanx used a smaller shield, called a pelta, the shield used by peltasts. Henry Ford, with eleven other investors and $28,000 in capital, incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903. 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. Leland in 1902, and the company was reorganized as Cadillac. For protection the soldier wore a Phrygian-style helmet and a shield. Ford was forced out of the company by the investors, including Henry M. Each soldier had a long pike called a sarissa, which was up to 18 feet long, and a short sword. During this period, he personally drove his Quadricycle to victory in a race against Alexander Winton, a well-known driver and the heavy favorite on October 10, 1901.

The main infantry corps was the phalanx, composed of six regiments (taxies) numbering about 2000 phalangites each. With his interest in race cars, he formed a second company, the Henry Ford Company. About one third of the army was composed of his Greek allies from the Hellenic League. Ford raced his vehicles against those of other manufacturers to show the superiority of his designs. It was composed of light and heavy troops and some engineers, medical and staff units. The Detroit Automobile Company went bankrupt soon afterward because Ford continued to improve the design, instead of selling cars. The army of Alexander was, for the most part, that of his father Philip. After this initial success, Ford left Edison Illuminating and, with other investors, formed the Detroit Automobile Company.

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. These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of his own self-propelled vehicle named the Quadricycle, which he test-drove on June 4 of that year. 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. In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company, and after his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on internal combustion engines. See History of Homosexuality for more information. Upon his marriage to Clara Bryant in 1888 Ford supported himself by farming and running a sawmill. 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. This led to his being hired by Westinghouse company to service their steam engines.

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 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on the family farm and became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine. Others argue that the same can be said about all our information regarding Alexander. Flower & Bros., and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Co. 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. In 1879, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist, first with James F. People of various national, ethnic and cultural origins regard him as a national hero. At 13, he saw a self-propelled vehicle, a steam powered thresher, for the first time.

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. As a child, Henry was passionate about mechanics, preferring to tinker in his father's shop over doing farm chores. Besides Bagoas, Curtius mentions yet another lover of Alexander, Euxenippos, "whose youthful grace filled him with enthusiasm." (VII.9.19). He was the eldest of six children. (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. Ford was born on a prosperous farm in Springwells Township (now in the city of Dearborn, Michigan) owned by his parents, William and Mary Ford, immigrants from County Cork, Ireland. Bagoas must have endeared himself to them by his courage and fortitude during that harrowing episode. .

At this point in time, the troops present were all survivors of the crossing of the desert. This achievement not only revolutionized industrial production in the United States and the rest of the world, but also had such tremendous influence over modern culture that many social theorists identify this phase of economic and social history as "Fordism.". "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). He was one of the first to apply assembly line manufacturing to the mass production of affordable automobiles. 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. Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and is credited with contributing to the creation of a middle class in American society. The word is not used even for Hephaestion. Here, the Jew is a threat." - 1920.

Bagoas is the only one who is actually named as the eromenos — the beloved — of Alexander. I believe that in all these countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme.. 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). They are what is called the International Jew -- German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. Curtius maintains that Alexander also took as a lover ".. "The international financiers are behind all war. This would be in keeping with the ancient omnivorous approach to sexuality. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today." - 1916.

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. We don't want tradition. Later in life, Alexander married several princesses of former Persian territories: Roxana of Bactria; Statira, daughter of Darius III; and Parysatis, daughter of Ochus. It's tradition. 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. "History is more or less bunk. 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.