CHAPTER FIVE ---~.J---;.:;';;;::==:~".:@:.--"':==~:i+I-.'-----
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE CREATION OF HELLENISTIC WARFARE
BEFORE ALEXANDER THE GREAT it was rare to see portraits of famous Greek generals displayed publicly. Indeed, notables such as the Spartan regent Pausanias, Miltiades, the Greek victor at Marathon, Pericles and Alcibiades at one time or another were severely criticized for efforts at bringing public attention to themselves, or claiming individual credit for the victories of their particular city-states. The idea that a lowly warrior might be idealized as a living god was blasphemous and deeply resented. The recalcitrant philosopher-historian Callisthenes was beheaded by Alexander for his failure to kneel and show obeisance to his monarch. As acceptance of his godhead grew, Alexander realized the propaganda value of displaying his youthful countenance, and within a few years of the start of his reign, statues appeared in the many thousands from Athens to the Indus, all sharing the prerequisite characteristics: flowing hair, lithe though muscular physique, and gaze transfixed at the upper horizon, as if pondering further conquest and good deeds for the brotherhood of man. The value of such visual imagery in legitimizing state terror was not lost on tyrants from Augustus to Hitler, who, like Alexander, made sure to have their virile image on every street corner of their realm. This is a second-century Be copy from Pergamon of an earlier lost original.