„Es gibt keine anderen Welten mehr zu erobern!“
Letzte Worte, 10. Juni 323 v.Chr.
Zitate von Alexander der Große
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Alexander der Große
Geburtstag: 20. Juli 356 v.Chr
Todesdatum: 10. Juni 323 v.Chr
Andere Namen: Alexander der Große, Alexandr Makedonský Veliký
Alexander der Große bzw. Alexander III. von Makedonien war von 336 v. Chr. bis zu seinem Tod König von Makedonien und Hegemon des Korinthischen Bundes.
Alexander dehnte die Grenzen des Reiches, das sein Vater Philipp II. aus dem vormals eher unbedeutenden Kleinstaat Makedonien sowie mehreren griechischen Poleis errichtet hatte, durch den sogenannten Alexanderzug und die Eroberung des Achämenidenreichs bis an den indischen Subkontinent aus. Nach seinem Einmarsch in Ägypten wurde er dort als Pharao begrüßt. Nicht zuletzt aufgrund seiner großen militärischen Erfolge wurde das Leben Alexanders ein beliebtes Motiv in Literatur und Kunst, während Alexanders Beurteilung in der modernen Forschung, wie auch schon in der Antike, zwiespältig ausfällt.
Mit seinem Regierungsantritt begann das Zeitalter des Hellenismus, in dem sich die griechische Kultur über weite Teile der damals bekannten Welt ausbreitete. Die kulturellen Prägungen durch die Hellenisierung überstanden den politischen Zusammenbruch des Alexanderreichs und seiner Nachfolgestaaten und wirkten noch jahrhundertelang in Rom und Byzanz fort. Wikipedia
Zitate Alexander der Große
Letzte Worte zu seinen Offizieren, die fragten, wem er sein Reich hinterlassen werde, 10. Juni 323 v.Chr.
Original griech.: "κράτιστος."
„Wäre ich nicht Alexander, wollte ich Diogenes sein.“
nach Diogenes' Ausspruch: "Geh mir aus der Sonne."; gemäß Plutarch, Leben des Alexander, 14 und An den unaufgeklärten Herrscher, 5
Original griech.: "εἰ μὴ Ἀλέξανδρος ἤμην, Διογένης ἂν ἤμην." ei mē Alexandros ēmēn, Diogenēs an ēmēn.
„There is nothing impossible to him who will try.“
On taking charge of an attack on a fortress, in Pushing to the Front, or, Success under Difficulties : A Book of Inspiration (1896) by Orison Swett Marden, p. 55
„So would I, if I were Parmenion.“
As quoted in Lives by Plutarch, after Parmenion suggested to him after the Battle of Issus that he should accept Darius III of Persia's offer of an alliance, the hand of his daughter in marriage, and all Minor Asia, saying "If I were Alexander, I would accept the terms" (Variant translation: I would accept it if I were Alexander).
Variants: I too, if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander.
So would I, if I were Parmenion.
So should I, if I were Parmenion.
So should I, if I were Parmenion: but as I am Alexander, I cannot.
I would do it if I was Parmenion, but I am Alexander.
If I were Parmenion, that is what I would do. But I am Alexander and so will answer in another way.
So would I, if I were Parmenion, but I am Alexander, so I will send Darius a different answer.
If I were Perdicas, I shall not fail to tell you, I would have endorsed this arrangement at once, but I am Alexander, and I shall not do it. (as quoted from medieval French romances in The Medieval French Alexander (2002) by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox, p. 81)
„A king does not kill messengers.“
As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, 1.37.9-13
Kontext: Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.
As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, 1.15.1-4
Addressing the dead Hellenes (the Athenean and Thebean Greeks) of the Battle of Chaeronea, as quoted in Historiae Alexandri Magni by Quintus Curtius Rufus
Addressing his troops prior to the Battle of Issus, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian Book II, 7
Kontext: Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war. Above all, we are free men, and they are slaves. There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service — but how different is their cause from ours! They will be fighting for pay — and not much of at that; we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As for our foreign troops — Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes — they are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia. And what, finally, of the two men in supreme command? You have Alexander, they — Darius!
„If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes.“
After Diogenes of Sinope who was lying in the sun, responded to a query by Alexander asking if he could do anything for him with a reply requesting that he stop blocking his sunlight. As quoted in "On the Fortune of Alexander" by Plutarch, 332 a-b
As quoted in "On the Fortune of Alexander" by Plutarch, 332 a-b
Statement upon seeing Bucephalas being led away as useless and beyond training, as quoted in Lives by Plutarch, as translated by Arthur Hugh Clough
Quoted by Plutarch in Life of Alexander http://books.google.com/books?id=vWIOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22for+my+part+I+assure+you+I+had+rather+excel+others+in+the+knowledge+of+what+is+excellent+than+in+the+extent+of+my+power+and+dominion%22&pg=PA167#v=onepage from Plutarch's Lives as translated by John Dryden (1683)
Pausing and addressing to a fallen statue of Xerxes the Great
Plutarch. The age of Alexander: nine Greek lives. Penguin, 1977. p. 294 http://books.google.com/books?ei=0bC3T9ejHcPQsgarjcHWBw&id=eFAJAQAAIAAJ&q=%22set+you+up+again+because+of+your+magnanimity+and+your+virtues+in+other+respects%22#search_anchor
Vitruvius, De Architectura Bk. 2, Introduction, Sec. 3
„Know ye not that the end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered?“
As quoted in Lives by Plutarch, VII, "Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar" (40.2), as translated by Bernadotte Perrin
„I consider not what Parmenion should receive, but what Alexander should give.“
On his gifts for the services of others, as quoted in Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words That Have A Tale To Tell (1905) by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, p. 30
quoted in Alexander : A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War from Earliest Times to the Battle Of Ipsus, B. C. 301 (1899) by Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Variante: It is not what Parmenio should receive, but what Alexander should give.
„Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.“
As quoted in Alexander the Great (1973) by Robin Lane Fox
Unsourced variant : Only sex and sleep make me conscious that I am mortal.
Alexander's letter to Persian king Darius III of Persia in response to a truce plea, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian; translated as Anabasis of Alexander by P. A. Brunt, for the "Loeb Edition" Book II 14, 4
