Located about twenty kilometers from Antalya, in the Güllük Dağı National Park, there is a place called Karabunar Kiui, where the Archaeological Site of Termessos is located. It hosts the well-preserved remains of the ancient city of Termessos, a city-fortress that mythology attributes to the founding by the Homeric hero Bellerophon, and whose location at […]
Alexander the Great
Posted inAncient Greece
Chares, the Athenian General who Held Power to Enrich Himself and his Supporters without Ever Winning a Major Battle
Brave to the point of recklessness, especially when it came to excessively exposing his own physical integrity during combat, Chares of Athens was a general who never enjoyed prestige or popular favor. The reason lies in his shady personality: not only did he not hide but boasted of his libertine behavior, he lacked scruples, did […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Philetaerus, the Eunuch Founder of the Kingdom of Pergamon and the Attalid Dynasty Who Knew How to Manage Alexander’s Heirs
As we have seen in other articles published here, eunuchs have always enjoyed the trust of kings and emperors because their inability to have descendants barred them from direct access to power, which limited their ambition. Or so it was thought, as in practice they could exercise authority indirectly and/or in lesser spheres. We have […]
Posted inClassical Archaeology
A Roman Bronze Plaque from 200 AD Depicting Alexander the Great, Found in Denmark
Alexander the Great, also known as Alexander III of Macedon, was one of the greatest military leaders in history. He ruled an empire that stretched from Greece to India during his lifetime, which was cut short when he died in Babylon at the young age of 32 in 323 BC. Even centuries after his death, […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Crateros, the General who May Have Been Denied the Succession to Alexander Because of a Phonetic Error
«Tôi kratistôi». Diodorus of Sicily recounts in his Historical Library that this was the laconic response given by Alexander the Great on his deathbed to his friend Perdiccas when asked who he left as heir. The expression means “to the strongest”, but it was ambiguous – or very explicit, depending on how you look at […]
Posted inAncient Greece
The Nymphaeum of Mieza, the place where Aristotle instructed Alexander the Great.
When Alexander the Great was already at war in Asia, strange news reached him from his homeland: his tutor Aristotle had made public his teachings, those same doctrines with which he had imbued the mind and soul of the young Macedonian, allowing the whole world to know them. Alexander’s displeasure is reflected in the alleged […]
Posted inAncient Greece, Antiquity
Corupedium, the battle that ended the long war between Alexander’s successors
It is curious that one of the most extensive empires of antiquity had such a weak foundation that, in reality, it was only based on the charisma of its builder. We’re talking about Alexander the Great. That giant with feet of clay that he formed with his military genius fell apart as soon as his […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Onesicritus, the historian whom Alexander the Great sent to learn the secrets of the yogis
Astypalaia is a small island in the Greek Dodecanese, possibly a colony of Megara, where around 360 B.C. Onesicritus, a historian and cynic philosopher who followed Diogenes of Sinope ( the one who lived like a beggar in a jar), was born. In 334 BC, when he was 26 years old, he crossed the Hellespont […]