The Young Alexander

The Making of Alexander the Great

By Alex Rowson

The Young Alexander is a whistle stop tour of the influences, events and people that shaped possibly the greatest conqueror the world has ever seen. This book focusses on the conqueror as a young man, how he ended up taking this path and trying to get a picture of his character. There’s few figures of more interest to me personally – he was a superlative commander with towering ambition, taught by Aristotle, fathered by Philip II (who is often underappreciated) and conquering a vast landmass from Greece to India. What part did his upbringing play in his achievements?

The book approaches this in a fairly predictable way, covering his parents, Macedonian society, the political position and status of Macedon with Greek city states, his close friends who would take part in his achievements and on to wars with Thrace and the rise of Alexander under Philip.

Early on, we encounter Aristotle who has of course been a massive influence on philosophy, western culture and thinking, science, drama and more. We don’t really know a massive amount about their relationship – although Rowson surmises that probably, as in other instances such as Alexander taming Bucephalos (his horse), the young prince was likely to want to impress and be the best. But ultimately, the analysis doesn’t really have a huge amount to go off. Clearly, Alexander had an excellent teacher – one of the best one could ask for, and much like his books sometimes are, he was often a little dry, direct and did not suffer fools. Fortunately, Alexander was anything but.

Alexander was, as anyone who has read a book on him will know, thrust into challenge at an early age. He already held administrative responsibilities as young as 16, likely earlier, and by 20 he was king. By 21 he was fighting his first battle: putting down rebellion at Thebes. The Macedonian upbringing was something Philip deemed important, and it looks like his investment paid off.

Out of the Shadows

Chapter 4 starts off with the great story of Alexander’s confidence and ingenuity. Philoneikos the horse dealer comes to the Macedonian court and sells the king a Pharsalian stallion. Philip grows angry at the horse, as despite already being broken in, it proves skittish and stubborn. Alexander loudly proclaims he could manage it better, and goes on to do so – noticing that it was scared of its own shadow. This story sets the stall for much of the book – entertaining and providing a glimpse at the character of Alexander, but perhaps not so rigorous or discerning as other books. Not that this story is necessarily untrue, but there is less of an emphasis on the provenance of the sources than enjoyment of the tale.

One of the best sections of the book is that of Thrace – not much was kept by the various tribes, rarely acting conformly, with the exception of unification under the Odrysian king Sitalkes. Warring tribes were swiftly defeated and subjugated, opening up Asia, but as the author notes, it is often a set of events neglected by historians. From the Panagyurishte treasures to the defeat and subjugation of the Thrace by Philip.

Aristotle also uses another word in the poem that the later historian Arrian would use to define Alexander’s inner drive to do and see new and extraordinary things: pothos, an ardent desire or longing. It was pothos that made him climb the Gordian acropolis to examine the fabled Gordian knot, pothos that drove his decision to found the city of Alexandria in Egypt, pothos that made him send an expedition to explore the Caspian Sea; the single word embodies both his intellect and the far-reaching curiosity that must have been cultivated by Aristotle.

pp.146 The Young Alexander

Golden Panoply

I rarely discuss this, but the hard back copy of this book is superb with an attractive blue cover with golden leaves. If you take off the cover a royal purple and gold is revealed. Colour photography highlights some of the modern day sites, statues and treasures. Black and white maps also help to provide context as you read through.

The main criticism of this book is perhaps it doesn’t always go too deep. I think sometimes this is due to paucity or reliability of the sources, but really one could say this for many topics in ancient history. There are better books for rigorous dissection of the sources. There are perhaps even better biographies for covering anything – this is a book of interesting diversions at times, such as of gymnasiums, hunting or Alexander’s burial chamber. And when it’s accepted as such, it’s pleasantly enjoyable.

Final score

Having said all this, the book is written well. It fits more into the ‘descriptive and enjoyable read’ than stern, factual history book category. One problem is it perhaps doesn’t delve as deeply as I’d like into some areas of Alexander’s life, when it is limited to his younger years. There is a summary after page 364 detailing his later years, which I thought unnecessary but maybe some find some use for it. It’s perhaps better as an introduction or a read that includes some very enjoyable prose whilst still remaining historically accurate.

7/10