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Pressfields books are some f my favorite: as historically accurate as possible with a great story to keep you engaged. Gates of Fire, by him, would be another recommended period piece.
When I read Arrian, I remember thinking that if I was one of Alexander's generals I probably would have killed him. After 10 years of war you might want to kick back and enjoy being an Emperor. But apparently all Alexander thought about was what to conquer next.
Also he apparently forced a lot of his officers to marry Persians in an effort to join the two cultures. I think that caused a lot of hard feelings.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He wasn't actually that way though. They mistook notions of brotherly love which are not homosexual to something homosexual. There are no ancient sources that even allude to that. Just modern scholars projecting their own fantasies as usual.
Or simply that maybe there wasn't such a big distinction between being very close to a same-sex friend without any sexual relationship and being close and experimenting/enjoying each other bodies whenever people partied/had some good time. That is, if people back then didn't really see anything wrong with beautiful/healthy (same sex or not) friends enjoying what their bodies had to offer then the strong distinction t…
Are you really asking for evidence which contradicts a hypothetical that you have no evidence to support?
Even though the post is just a book advertisement, the topic of trying to unravel ancient mysteries is an interesting one. If one got serious about investigating the cause of Alexander's death or some other seemingly cold case like this, how would they go about doing it given all the forensic instruments that we have today - perhaps even including the techniques of big data analysis and machine learning (not sure abo…
It can't be done. For it to even be conceivable a decently preserved corpse would be necessary, and even then we would have no surefire way to confirm that it is him. If miraculously we managed those feats, many causes of death would still be hard to prove.
Our best hope would be finding some copy of a currently lost text that provides more details, and even then it would be hard to tell what is true and what was propaganda from the Wars of tge Diadochi.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or simply that maybe there wasn't such a big distinction between being very close to a same-sex friend without any sexual relationship and being close and experimenting/enjoying each other bodies whenever people partied/had some good time. That is, if people back then didn't really see anything wrong with beautiful/healthy (same sex or not) friends enjoying what their bodies had to offer then the strong distinction t…
>Do you have any evidence to the contrary or are you just saying that it's equally possible either was happening? Are you really asking for evidence which contradicts a hypothetical that you have no evidence to support?
This is tangential but is there any evidence for this claim? It’s my understanding that yeast simply will not grow beyond about 14-15% alcohol, no matter how much sugar you feed them, and this is what puts a cap on the alcohol content of “current vintages”.
I’ve always heard that older wines (and other fermentables) were lower alcohol and that even 14% is only feasible due to modern yeast strains.
When I read Arrian, I remember thinking that if I was one of Alexander's generals I probably would have killed him. After 10 years of war you might want to kick back and enjoy being an Emperor. But apparently all Alexander thought about was what to conquer next.
And kept them SO FAR away from their families with no apparent intention of ever returning. I wonder if some of his generals were able to get 'leave' and go back to Macedonia, though I imagine the trip back must have been quite hazardous as Hellenization was just getting started. Also he apparently forced a lot of his officers to marry Persians in an effort to join the two cultures. I think that caused a lot of hard…
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monnaie_de_Bactriane,_Euc...
https://ancienthistorybulletin.org/downloads/katherine-hall-...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190122115006.h...
When I read Arrian, I remember thinking that if I was one of Alexander's generals I probably would have killed him. After 10 years of war you might want to kick back and enjoy being an Emperor. But apparently all Alexander thought about was what to conquer next.
