Alexander

aka the Great

Statue of Alexander in

Istanbul Archaeology Museum

Alexander III of Macedon (born July 19 / 20 / 21, 356 BC and perished on June 10 / 11, 323 BC), he was commonly known as Alexander the Great and a king of Macedon, which is a state in northern Greece. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires in ancient history. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of the most successful commanders of all time.

He was dead just about a month before his 33^rd birthday in Babylon, Mesopotamia (about 55 miles / 85 kilometers from present day Baghdad) in 323 BC, without realizing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia.

Alexander was King by the age of 20 following the assignation of his father, King Philip II. He began his reign by eliminating several rivals to the throne. He had his cousin executed and two upper Macedonian princes from the region of Lyncestis killed, as well as one of his generals.

His biological mother, Olympias, had Cleopatra Eurydice (one of King Philips 6 or 7 wives, she was his 4^th) and her daughter by Philip, Europa, burned alive. When Alexander found out about this, he was said to be furious with his mother … Perhaps he considered being burned alive a bit harsh.

Although Alexander had a total of three female wives and two children (neither of which survived to adulthood) he is also reported to have had numerous affairs with male partners as well.  Some say such activity began during his youth with his tutor, the philosopher Aristotle, who reportedly, had a number of male boy-friends of his own.      

While such social events may seem normal to some today, “gay love” of one man for another, in ancient days was frowned upon as a threat to masculinity as well as the very structure of society. But on the other hand, love between an adult male and a teenage boy was considered the only proper way for two males to love each other.  This way of thinking may best be reflected in the un-timely death of Alexander’s father, King Philip II, whose death came at the hand of a vengeful former beloved, who had recently been spurned by the king for a prettier boy. As any good philosopher might have said in those days: “one trifles with Greek boys at one's own risk”!      

The fact is Alexandra is though to have stretched the accepted boundaries of ancient male love. Not only did he have love affairs with boys, but above them all, was his love for a man his own age, a childhood friend.

As you may recall, when Oliver Stone was considering doing a movie on the life of Alexandra, one unexpected obstacle stood in his way: the Greek government no less. It didn't want one of their greatest heroes tainted by the knowledge of his fondness for male lovers. As a result, the film (released in the US in Nov. 2004) was shot primarily in Morocco and Thailand. In fact there were no scenes filmed in Greece at all; as the Athens News Agency explained, this was because of government opposition to Stone's portrayal of the Greek hero as being by-sexual.   

Considering his many successful exploits in military battle, it makes the “don’t ask don’t tell” arguments regarding the modern U S Military seem quite preposterous.

The exact cause of Alexandra’s death has never been clear. It could have been disease or some say it was brought about by poison. The only sure aspect regarding his death is that it was quite sudden and unexpected; when considering his age of just a few weeks short of 33 years, poison seems likely to me.  Perhaps, if in fact poison was to blame, he like his father before him had an unhappy jilted lover as well.

Sources …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great              http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/alexander/a/Alexander_2.htm                                                http://www.gay-art-history.org/gay-history/gay-literature/famous-homosexuals/alexander-great-gay/alexander-great-gay.html