Quote:
Originally Posted by Aegir
I'm admittedly not very attentive of Alexandrian topics and typical mainstream topics in general. I'm willing to be proven wrong with concrete back up evidences and references. That's why I got rather irked with one-liner remarks as if they're self-evident that will never contribute to any discussion.
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You are perfectly entitled to ask for more justification then that. I made the (perhaps incorrect) assumption that other posters would be as well informed of Alexander's ...
eccentric personality as I was, which is of course not a good assumption to make.
There are several historical episodes that point to Alexander's growing god complex, not the least of which is the fact that he had himself made a god, and never objected to the rumours that Zeus was his real father. He also murdered a close companion (
Cleitus) when he objected to Alexander's megalomaniacal claims (One account was that Alexander boasted his achievements far surpassed his father's(Philip II), which cleitus objected to this, claiming Alexander's achievements were due to his father. Another version has Cleitus reminding Alexander that he only got to where he was due to the blood and sacrifice of his Macedonian army. Either way, Alexander likely murdered Cleitus due to Cleitus bruising his ego. There are other episodes like this one, but the Cleitus episode really stands out.
Another good episode was that after the Battle of Hydaspes, when his men mutinied and forced him to bring them back home, Alexander sulked for a good 3 days. Some say his march through the Makran was revenge on his own soldiers, though it's impossible to really know for certain.
He also founded over 20 cities named after himself ("Alexandria"). This was not a guy known for his modesty.
Alexander was losing touch with reality, he had the same "winner's syndrome" that Napoleon did when he decided to invade Russia. The difference is that Alexander died before he could have his comeuppance.