Comment by fch42 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fch42 | Hacker News Reader

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One may rightfully ask whether Alexander just "went with the flow" as you phrase it, or to use a different term, "was lucky to be at/in the right place at the right time". Or even "lucky to have died before his luck ran out".

Let's keep in mind though that having great resources at your disposal, and a large circle of experienced and capable advisors at hand, does not necessarily create a lasting form of "action alignment" between those.

It is interesting in this context that none of his advisors or "immediate staff" ever strongly challenged Alexander in his lifetime.

They deferred to him till the last moment, only to basically be snubbed off by his famous "whoever's strongest" last words. Only then did they go for each others' throats.

It is of course possible, given historical records and "history is written by the victors", that his portrayal as integrative figure is flawed and more incorrect than not. The behaviour of the diadochs, the "infighting of the inner circle" which he apparently had contained in his lifetime, yet broke out immediately after, that make it likely that he brought some forms of "interpersonal skills" to the table which neither his father, nor his "successors" possessed in equal measure.

(my opinion)

>or to use a different term, "was lucky to be at/in the right place at the right time".

Very little luck is involved in winning battle after battle and expanding a city-state kingdom 1000x, with strategic decisions which are still studied and marvelled upon by millitary experts.

Are there graphical apps for understanding history? Something more than an ebook and less than Total War.

Visualization

Here's the book that helped me the most (visually) https://www.amazon.com/Great-Battles-Christer-Jorgensen/dp/1...

Luck was definitely involved. In chaotic situations, such as a battlefield anything can happen. As an example here's a record[0] of Alexander almost dying:

    At Granicus, Alexander was hit in the head by scimitar-wielding cavalry, causing his helmet to fly off his head. The Persians later struck the king with a missile, which went through his shield and lodged in his shoulder.

- The head hit could have given him a serious concussion, even causing him to fall unconcious making his troops think he died and plummeting morale. - The arrow could have pierced his heart instead of his shoulder after going through his shield.

The real point is that such an accomplishment will never be due to pure luck. Skill also had to be there.

[0]: https://www.military.com/history/alexander-great-caught-luck...

Where do you get the 1000x from?

From the relative sizes of the original Kingom at the time of Phillip II to the expanses Alexander conquered. More like 100x (1000x would cover the whole globe), but 1000x works for emphasis.

You are suggesting that Alexander's empire covered 10% of the globe?

Please check your sense of scale.

The total area of the globe is about 510.1 million km2; the total landmass of earth is about 148 million km2. The Internet tells me that Alexander's empire stretched about 5.2 million km2 at its greatest extent. Which is about 1% of the globe, or 3.5% of the total dry landmass.

For comparison, the Soviet Union had about 22.4 million km2. And the British Empire had about 35.5 million km2 at its largest.

The Internet also tells me that Phillip II controlled about 0.3 million km2 at the end of his reign. Which makes for about 5% of Alexander's territory at the end of his reign. A 20x expansion for Alexander is nothing to sneeze at, but it's a far cry from 1000 or even 100.

Phillip II controlled roughly half of modern Greece size-wise, so 25K sq.m. At best, if we include his later (unstable) expansion territories, like the Peloponnese, he'd be at something like 35K sq.m. Not sure where 0.3M sq. miles comes from (that would be 8 to 12 times the area).

For Alexander the numbers I find are about "two million square miles".

2M / 25K gives 1/80. Round it up to 1/100 and let's call it a day.

1000x was an off the cuff number, with the point being the huge increase in the size of the kingdom Alexander inherited - not the specific multiplier.

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