A Land of Myth, Mystery or Men?

 So if this Golden Fleece thing was just a smash and grab job, why is Georgia so important?  

    It would seem that Georgia has been a crucible for mankind since before we were mankind.  As related in an earlier edition, multiple Pre-Homo Sapien specimens have been found in the region of Dmanisi.  Under present anthropological understanding, the importance of this find would have been meaningless - or worse, mis-interpreted - were they not found in such close proximity to each other, as in Dmanisi.  As I understand it from reading in the Georgian National Museum, this has never been found before.  Why were our earliest humanoid species discovered together outside Africa in Georgia?  A distance of at least 1,600 kilometres (1000 miles).  Could they have been at the meeting with God (entry 24 February 2020)?

Skull, Homo-erectus(Author's collection)

    As noted in the last several entries, evidence of contact between Hellenic Greece and western Georgia was effected in approximately1200BC through Jason and his Argonauts but their knowledge of the Golden Fleece in Greece begs the question: who told them about it?

    In Greek Mythology we encounter Prometheus.  A demi-god of the heroic nature but one that ran afoul of his full-blooded cousins by stealing the secret of fire and giving it to mankind.  For this transgression, he was chained to a mountain top where an eagle pecked his liver out by day and it re-constituted itself by night.  That mountaintop was non other than Mount Kazbegi located in Georgia on the border with Russia along the Georgian Military Highway.  Georgian mythology has a similar character who suffered the same fate named Amirani.  Did Jason return with that bit of information too?

Mount Kazbegi centre image (Author's collection copyright 2020)

    The concentration of unique languages is prolific in the Caucasus as well.  It seems that every mountaintop speaks a different language (not dialect) and most are too old to have an alphabet.  The Georgian alphabet itself is among the oldest in the world.  Interestingly, mythology comes to the rescue here as well.  Local legend has it that while distributing languages to the world’s people, God placed all the languages in large panniers and mounted them on a donkey for easier transport.  While walking over the Greater Caucasus Mountains, the high, jagged peaks tore the bottom of the panniers and many languages fell across that small area before the holes were patched.

Georgian village in Svaneti Region of Georgia
(Author's collection copyright 2020)

    Life in the Caucasus has never been easy and it takes a hearty breed to survive.  It stands to reason that anyone standing out in a crowd like that would be legendary in their exploits.  This holds true for Georgia.  Many larger-than-life characters have existed throughout time.  King Vakhtang Gorgasali was said to have been deer hunting one day in the fifth century AD.  He was in an unfamiliar region, a bog-ridden area next to the Mtkvari River when he wounded a stag with an arrow.  King Vakhtang chased the wounded deer into the bogs where it disappeared from site through the morning mist but he heard it fall into the marshy waters.  So sure was he that the animal was dead that he ran forward unprepared, only to see the stag emerge from the waters unharmed and run away unscathed.  Bewildered by this, he investigated the reason for it and is credited with discovering the curative waters which gave rise to the city of Tbilisi: the capital of today’s Georgia.

Hamams in Old Towne Tbilisi (Author's collection, copyright 2020)

 

    Later, after a war with the Ottoman Empire, Tsarist Russia was trying to “Tame” their recent acquisition called Georgia and many a hard man was drawn to the Caucasus to test his mettle and make his fame.  In fact, a large body of Russian literature is linked to the wars of oppression in the Caucasus and one of the greatest insurgencies ever fought took place there: driven by the unbending will of its best known leader, Imam Shamil, an Avar from today's Daghestan.  With drive in mind, history would soon recognise another Georgian: Ioseb Dzhugashvshvili.  We remember him as Josef Stalin and he killed millions of people trying to impose his will on the world under the guise of communism.  

     Perhaps, unbending will is the true mystery of the land God reserved for himself.  Each individual I met there, over decades of interaction, was a force to be reckoned with - men and women both.  So if the region's mystery is, indeed, the unbending will of men, Caucasians most likely created the circumstances from which myth emerged and with this en-ending supply of wilful people, the Caucasus has remained prominent in the development of mankind since the dawn of time.

So what really happened?

      Legend tells us that a generation before the Trojan War, in ancient Thessaly, King Pelias stole the throne from his half-brother King Aeson.  In doing this, Pelias made a dangerous enemy in Aeson’s son, Jason, but sent him off on a quest to the empire of Colchis (modern day Georgia).  If completed successfully, this quest had the ultimate pay-off - Jason would be crowned king of Pelias and if he failed, Jason would pay the ultimate price.  To this end, Jason surrounded himself with some of the greatest heroes of the day and it was these heroes and their exploits that grew into legend.  This is the story first related in the third millennium BC by Apollonius of Rhodes entitled, The Argonautica.

All legends are based in truth and this one is no different.  It would appear that wealth and nation building were paramount to would-be-kings even thousands of years ago.  All empires need a financial reserve as well as sustained revenue and it was well known that Colchis was rich in gold. What made them so rich was their particular methods of acquisition.  The Rioni River and its tributaries were populated with wooden vessels outfitted with sheep skins that would take advantage of the rivers’ currents to sift the gold particles as they flowed out of the Greater Caucasus Mountains.  It is not hard to believe that over the millennia, such a simple but revolutionary technique would become the myth of the Golden Fleece.

Colchian earrings - circa 1st millennia BC. (Author's collection, Copyright 2020)

If true, it would seem that the real reason for this exploit was the acquisition of technology - not a simple smash-and-grab robbery.  Think of it like the old adage, “give a man a fish and feed him for a day.  Teach him to fish and you’ve fed him for life.”  Is that the real reason Jason surrounded himself with demi-gods?  How else could one expect to acquire such sensitive information?  

Jason knew that he had to have every skillset possible in order to have any chance of success.  

       Historians and storytellers differ in their passenger list aboard the Argo but generally agree that 50 crewmen were necessary and among the crew there are a few names that always appear: Heracles, Castor, Pollux, Peleus and Telamon.  It was these men, with their varied specialties and capabilities, who had been brothers in arms for such a long time that made Jason's success nearly a forgone conclusion.

Necklace from Vani, Georgia - circa 1st Millennia BC. (Author's collection.  Copyright 2020)

So we see that financial stability and corporate espionage were most likely the basis for the exploits we call the Quest for the Golden Fleece and in an effort to ensure success, Jason surrounded himself with men capable of a variety of skills - skills like; cunning, strength, intelligence and endurance.  Skills that may or may not be required for success but whose lack, when needed, would ensure failure. 

        Yet, in the end we see that for all his planning, preparation and coordination, it was an unforeseen capability that won the day for Jason: magic.  The magic of love when Medea fell for Jason and agreed to help him steal the Golden Fleece from her father, King Aeetes of Colchis.

Bracelet from tomb in Vani, Georgia - circa 1st Millennia BC.
(Author's collection. Copyright 2020)

Origins of the Golden Fleece Myth

    In European culture seeking wisdom - especially hidden knowledge - finds its reflection in the symbols associated with gold: the Golden Fleece, the Philosopher’s Stone and the Holy Grail.  For all the qualities it embraces - this eternal and most noble of metals - gold was recognised as the metal of the sun.  It has become the foremost physical medium for the expression of men’s spiritual endeavours and the scientific knowledge about working gold is seen as one of the revelations of wisdom itself.

Detail on a 18th century BC cup from Trialeti depicting a religious ceremony.
(Author's Collection. Copyright 2020)

  The two phenomena: gold and knowledge, especially the knowledge of gold amongst the Colchians, were the genesis for rationalising the myth of the Golden Fleece.  It was this Golden Fleece that was the main goal of the first long-distance maritime adventure in mankind’s recorded history.  The Greek philosopher and mythographer Euhemerus went so far as to interpret the Golden Fleece as a technique of writing in gold on parchment or a book written on skins which describes the method of obtaining gold by means of chemistry.

Fourth century BC example of Colchian goldsmith techniques.
(Author's collection.  Copyright 2020)

  Why is the myth of the Golden Fleece - which emerged from the culture of classical antiquity and pursued its life in the alchemy of Medieval Europe - connected to Colchis?  The answer to this question may be found in Greek written sources that mention Colchis as “rich in gold”, similar to the cities of Mycenae, Sardis and Babylon which were all famed for their wealth.  Perhaps more significantly, the answer lies in the knowledge of obtaining, working and using gold for high spiritual goals - the wisdom that was continuously refined, preserved and passed down throughout the centuries in the territory of Colchis and the entire country of Georgia. Today we witness the demonstration of this wisdom in the golden artefacts found all around the country we call Georgia and we continue to re-discover these techniques and knowledge through our study of these pieces of history.

Colchian fourth century(approx) plaque depicting bull, boar and lion.
(Author's collection. Copyright 2020)

Why Colchis?

"The wealth of the regions about Colchis, which is derived from the mines of gold, silver, iron and copper, suggests a reasonable motive for the expedition of Jason."

Strabo, Geographica, 1.2.39

Excavation at Vani, Georgia - Colchian city.  (Author's Collection. Copyright 2020)

    In today’s “age of reason”, we use science to explain our world.  In the previous world it was religion that explained how things worked and before that, it was myth that gave reason to our world.  

Strangely, even today, the Caucasus is a world of myth.

    Myths and legends carry a powerful message through time - how the tellers of these tales view themselves.  Every tribe under the sun has these stories - each rooted in a time too distant to remember and each of them fascinating.  Yet all of these legends have one thing in common - they stand the test of time.  We, as people, are inextricably bound to the past: it makes us what we are today and shapes what we will become tomorrow.  One could even say that without the past there would be no future.

Waterfront in Batumi, Georgia - eastern Black Sea (Author's Collection. Copyright 2020)

    Strabo describes the wealth of an ancient civilisation as the plausible impetus for one of history’s most enduring myths but perhaps the wealth described by Strabo above can be explained by an even older Georgian myth.

In the beginning, God created the Earth and all its people.  He then asked all the people to attend a gathering so that he may parcel out all the lands of the Earth to them for habitation.  On the appointed day, all the peoples of Earth gathered and received, from God, what we call today their ancestral homelands.  Conspicuously, one group of people was not present, but God went ahead and gave the lands out as gifts to those that were.  Once all the lands were dispersed and the people departed from the gathering, the one missing group arrived.  God said unto them, “My children, I’m sorry but you are late and no land is left to be given unto you as a home.  Where have you been?”  The group replied to God that they had been feasting and toasting God’s good name and his benevolence and, according to their traditions, could not stop the feast in order to attend his meeting.  They apologised profusely but re-iterated that they were late because their particular form of worship had deterred them from arriving on time.  So the Lord spoke to this group of people and said, “You are a genuine and pious people who deserve a good homeland, as such, I will give unto you the place on Earth I had reserved for myself: Georgia.

10th century AD (approx) ruins overlooking Rioni River 
from Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi, Georgia
(Author's collection. Copyright 2020)

    God’s reservation of Georgia as his own refuge could be an acceptable reason for us to believe in the incredible mineral wealth of the region and through time, this could have manifested itself in the great wealth of the empire of Colchis.  This empire on the eastern end of the Black Sea in today’s Georgia was the target of Jason and his boatload of adventuring heroes.

Colchian anthropomorphic figures in main sqaure fountain. Kutasisi, Georgia
(Author's collection. Copyright 2020)

If it Ain’t Broke…

    I am neither an architect nor an Engineer by trade.  I am a natural tinkerer and have spent most of my life breaking my toys, so I have an appreciation for how things are made and what it takes to make them.  As such, I spend a lot of time noticing differences in construction: things like the pathetic stitching on the snaps of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe camouflage fatigues the last year they were made.  Incidentally, I still have a set of those cammies from their first year of production.  Bombproof!

    This is all a way of saying that newer isn’t necessarily better.  Last week I was watching a re-run of a World War Two documentary in which Germany invaded France by running around the Maginot line.  While discussing river crossings and their importance to military operations, historic film reels were played showing a German tank crossing a makeshift bridge; one hastily constructed from little more than timbers laid across numerous small boats.  This bridge struck me as familiar and I began to sift through my library for references to this construction as it seemed out of place in this German war footage.

Screenshot of bridge by author

   I worked backwards in time and was consulting J. Caesar’s The Gallic War without finding my bridge, so I looked further back in time.  Finally, I found it.  The description went something like this:  

    

Many boats (654) were placed side-by-side and facing into the current while cables were used to secure them to the shore and the individual bows were anchored up and down stream to keep the boats in line relative to each other and adding more stability.  Boards were then placed between the boats and over the cables to connect them while brushwood and soil were placed over the boards to create a walkway and a more even surface after which a handrail was placed on either side to keep soldiers and beasts of burden from falling in. 

Author's image of a bridge in Afghanistan taken from The Histories

    This resource that listed my bridge was actually Herodotus when his Histories were describing how the Persian Empire invaded Greece.  Xerxes used this bridge type to cross the Hellespont in 482BC (circa).  This narrows is approximately 1240 metres (1350 yards) of the most difficult waters in the world.  This successful iteration was actually the second effort.  The first had ended badly for all: the engineering supervisors were beheaded and the waters of the Hellespont were flogged with 300 lashes while being subjected to verbal abuse for being disobedient.  

Author's image of a sketch from The Histories  

So, in 2019 I saw a film from 1939 which spoke about how technologically advanced the German Army was and how incorporating this technology gave the Germans a battlefield advantage.  Yet in this film, our twentieth century technological genius’ used a bridging technique from 2,421 years earlier.  Perhaps part of their genius was their ability to recognise when something works well.

Greek Fire

    Since the dawn of time man has been competitive.  Perhaps that is what has set him apart from the rest of the animal kingdom: Faster, farther, better - regardless of the endeavour.  This is especially true in warfare.  More efficient means of vanquishing the opponent has always found an audience: and so it was with Greek Fire.

    In the early days of the Greek city states and of the Roman Empire, the use of incendiaries in combat was rampant and the unpredictable nature of Greek Fire made it as hazardous to the employer as it was to the intended victim.  Yet, the ability to throw fire from one point to another in a focused and directed manner was very desirable, so pyro-masters kept refining the process through trial and error.  Finally, in about 668AD, a Greek refugee from Syria arrived at Constantinople with a proven recipe.  By 672, Kallinikos, as our Greek was called, had perfected his delivery technique and was using it to defend the Eastern Roman Empire against invaders.  Legend has it that this version could set water on fire and actually burn underwater.  

Image of a 12th century manuscript (Author's collection)

    All mythology and nonsense, right?  Except that napalm and white phosphorous fit these descriptions and were used to great effect during the wars of the twentieth century.  Throughout time there were other munitions that created races to develop and acquire regardless of the cost in dollars or humanity.  The atomic bomb is an excellent example of today’s Greek Fire as the centre of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, Japan reached five thousand degrees centigrade.  Add to that the fact that the second bomb (made of plutonium, not uranium) was so unstable that it had to be tested in the New Mexico desert prior to being dropped on Nagasaki and due to the arms race (both before and after) created by its introduction we see many parallels with Greek Fire. 

    Even today, the search for the proper recipe continues.  In early August 2019, there was an explosion west of Archangel, Russia and, subsequently, the town of Nenoksa was evacuated and all this was conducted under a veil of mis-information and retracted statements by the Russian Government.  What ever their cover-story may be, the most likely happenstance is this: The Russian military was testing a Skyfall missile (a nuclear missile powered by a nuclear reactor) that went awry.  The best bet is that its portable nuclear power station melted down in a smaller version of the Chernobyl, Ukraine tragedy.  Most certainly, the power station was one of a new offering by the Russian firm Rosatom.  Rosatom stated last year that they envisioned their new portable reactors being used in a fleet of nuclear-powered ice-breaking ships in support of Russia’s efforts to open (then dominate) the Northern Sea Route: thus connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Artic.

    Keep in mind that through all of this, Russia has no overt enemies and the only international enmity directed towards them is because of their meddling in external, sovereign affairs.

Close-up of the above manuscript (Author's collection)

Is this the fallout from today’s Greek Fire?

From the Ashes of Empire

"To the Strongest"

    With these last words, in response to the question, who will rule your kingdom, the empire of Alexander the Great began to crumble.  Despite all his hard work, he failed to plan for the earthly immortality of his actions and ensured that the fractious and internecine nature of Macedonian politics would continue.  His kingdom was quickly divided into four sections: the two most famous being the Seleucid Empire (Mesopotamia and Persia) and the Ptolemaic Dynasty (Egypt and Palestine).  

    

Modern day view of Hydaspes Battlefield, Pakistan (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

    Of these two, the Ptolemaic lasted until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC whereupon it was absorbed into the Roman Empire.  Cleopatra committed suicide with a viper (as the story goes) and her palace was eventually overtaken by a rising sea and lost to time.

    In 1996 Archaeologist Franck Goddio discovered the palace five metres underwater in Alexandria's East Harbour and this set off a frenzy of activity in the region, the repercussions of which we are still feeling today.

Greek Coins (circa 330BC) on display Lahore Museam (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

    Perhaps the greatest lesson in all of this is the employment of proper preparation.  Egypt's Alexandria became an immortal city through Ptolemy's hard work after Alexander's death, yet he was only in charge of Alexandria because Alexander failed to plan.  The details of ancient Alexandria have been lost to time because of the destruction of its library.  This library where all the knowledge of the ancient world was centralised for the ease of access and distribution.  Yet a single, unplanned event wiped it out and the tumultuous subsequent historical events (including a sea that rose about eight metres) ensured that we today aren't sure about much of anything with regard to ancient Alexandria.

    Some might say, "That could never happen to us, we have the internet and all information is distributed and accessible worldwide." That sounds great as long as there is electrical power and the servers aren't compromised.   A recent nuclear explosion near Russia's White Sea was an unplanned event that is depriving inhabitants of electricity for the foreseeable future and I'm sure a nuclear explosion is harmful to servers.  

    To take a lesson from a long series of mistakes.  Let's not put all our eggs in one basket.

Homecoming, another word for respite

    Under the warm, wet blanket of a Virginia summer's eve, I am standing on the curb at the airport arrival terminal, awaiting my ride home after a few weeks abroad.  This is where I love to be.  I have renewed my faith in mankind by viewing the countless happy reunions inside the terminal and, now, I am waiting on my own.  My wife will be here soon - she's caught in traffic.  After years of traveling for a living I still love this evolution and I have seen all forms that it can take.

Bazaar in Lahore Pakistan (Author's collection Copyright 2019)

    Parades and receptions have been the recent form of fanfare for returning heroes but that wasn't always the case.  Homer tells us that after twenty years of war fighting and mis-adventures, Odysseus returned only to find his home being ravaged, his wife being pressured to leave him and his kingdom on the brink of collapse.  Luckily, this most cunning man had the wherewithall to unmask and dispatch his enemies in one well-orchestrated stroke.  On the other side of Greece, in Mycenae, Agamemnon wasn't so lucky.  His wife and her lover killed him in his sleep.
    Perhaps, Agamemnon was delivered from himself in this tragic event: saved from a future that he couldn't see because of his desire to return home. Tennyson has followed up with an exploration of this sentiment.  Through the ageing eyes of Odysseus who, after fighting his way to the underworld and back with the sole purpose of regaining his home had become bored and longed for the adventure of travel once again.

...For always roaming with a hungry heart 
Much have I seen and known; cities of men 
And manners, climates, councils, governments,... 

Erg Chgagah, Morocco (Author's collection copyright 2015)

Travel is a heady concoction that plays on the senses like a highly addictive drug; eventually seducing you into what you try to rationalise is your last time.  Tennyson's Odysseus understood this intrinsically when, despite his advanced age, he stated his intention to turn his kingdom over to his son and roam the wine-coloured seas in search of adventure.

Japanese garden icon (Author's collection copyright 2019)

...Come, my friends, 
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 
Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ 
We are not now that strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 
One equal temper of heroic hearts, 
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 

So, I load my bags into the car and hug my Wife as though I haven't seen her in a lifetime.  We kiss and try to make up for lost time on the way home catching up on all the happenings since our separation.  Yet, although all this electrifying human interaction is genuine, it is perhaps made sweeter by the quiet realisation that this homecoming is really just another respite.

Aquarius Habitat, Key Largo, Florida, USA(Author's collection copyright 2015)

Alexander Who?

    Alexander the Great was the master manipulator of his own image but time has been more than kind by nurturing and honing his reputation as well.  Plutarch, Arrian and Rufus each used existing resources to write their biographies of Alexander which are denied to us by time.  These original resources were written by Alexander’s contemporaries and undoubtedly contained vital information, both good and bad,  that we will never recover.  We have a good idea of their contents thanks to our “intermediary” biographers but that means we also have to access that information through their filter; in short, their “why” for writing.  No one has ever written for the sake of writing - they always have a reason: as in all art forms, there is a muse.  Our intermediary biographers were Romans and the Romans were, above all things, organised.  Rome stopped at nothing in order to systematically arrange a society that supported the state completely, so the Empire was consolidated and safe.  Additionally, the Romans built things to last.  Don’t believe me? Just look at the width of railroad tracks in the United States today and the liturgy in any Christian church.  The width of wagon tracks and the standardisation of Christianity through the First Council of Nicaea are all products of Roman regulation that we feel the effects of today.  So perhaps our interpretation of Alexander the Great has been regulated too. 

Mosaic of Alexander at Issus (Author's collection copyright 2013)

Arrian - 2nd century AD: Roman citizen by father’s status as a Roman Administrator. 

Quintis Curtius Rufus - 1st century AD: borne into one of the original Roman noble families.
Plutarch - 1st century AD: a naturalised Roman Citizen.

    As shown above, each of our biographers had a reason to write for Rome. Whether to uphold a family name or ingratiate themselves to the Republic, their writings could easily mean their demise if not presented properly.  The Pantheon of gods was still the religion of state in the second century AD so any presentation would need to include references to this in order to be legitimate and that is exactly what we find in their writings.  Why else would obscure references to the god’s favouring Alexander be included in their accounts.  After the battle for Xanthos in Lycia (modern day Turkey), an inscribed tablet was found in a nearby spring.  This ancient tablet apparently told of a prophesy of doom for the Persians at the hands of the Greeks - which was meant to be Alexander and his army due to the timing of its discovery.  Whether in Greece, Turkey or Libya, we are told that Alexander actively sought out oracles or tried to full-fill prophesies through his actions.  He was deified by the Egyptians and his ascension as the Persian King brought with it a hint of godly status as well, because the house of Cyrus was descended from gods.  Never mind that Alexander himself was called the Son of Zeus and had long claimed Heracles as an ancestor.

    Why then, would these seemingly obscure references to exaltedness be included in the biographies by our Romans?  If they were writing for Roman knowledge alone, these items would have been left out as the drivel of ancient and unsophisticated historians, yet, they were included and perhaps amplified in importance.  The answer lies in human nature.  Our biographers were trying to ensure their status within a very forgetful and ungrateful Roman society by producing comprehensive works that not only entertain and inform but also teach lessons in a moralistic manner.  

    In these works, Alexander was a god on earth.  He conquered most of the known world.  He survived countless battles and court intrigues by the dozen.  He was impetuous and emotional, yet brilliant and benevolent.  Capable of great chivalry and even greater acts of violence.  When presented with problems, Alexander met each one head-on with a singleness of purpose that always saw him through successfully.  To our biographers, Alexander is, in short, Rome.  

This would not have been lost on Roman audiences reading these works and the more subtle message therein would also have been received well.  The morality tale spoke of this great individual who traveled too far from home too fast.  A man who, despite all his perfection, was seduced by foreign ideas and customs and became, increasingly, distant from his true purpose; living hedonistically as savages do.  He was eventually reminded of his purpose by his countrymen but by the time he realised his errors and tried to return, it was too late.  He could never go home.

    This part of their tale, above all, was their greatest legacy for Rome.  An inverted roadmap for personal and empirical comportment by highlighting the negative aspects of failure to comply.  In doing this, our authors have ensured their place in history not by writing great works on a historic general, but by creating a hero for all time who was old enough to win the world and young enough to lose it.

Keeping the Media at Bay

Image of Alexander's Sarcophagus(Author's collection)

    What to do with a precocious child who meddles in adult's business?  Today, I'm not sure but I know in my childhood, an immediate and severe beating would ensue coupled with some sort of long term misery was the prescription.  In fourth century BC Macedonia, he was made a king.  At least that's what happened to Alexander, son of Phillip II.  Although this precocious child went on to conquer the known world he was still meddlesome in his youth and erratic in his behaviour.  Of all the topics Aristotle taught Alexander, it seems that he learned one lesson very well; how to control his image with the public.
    We know from contemporary biographers that he was creative in his reports back to Macedonia but this is all second-hand speculation as not one of those biographies is extant today.  We are forced to rely Arrian and Plutarch and Rufus - all of which were writing hundreds of years after the fact but cited these originals as their sources.  Could it be that today's generals could take another, more subtle, lesson from Alexander's playbook?
    By all accounts though Alexander was a master of perception management and it would seem that this has extended through the years.  Despite many indicators that Alexander was impetuous and emotional, his reputation today is that of a great leader who managed his meagre resources superbly.
    This was achieved by limiting the exposure outlets that were available to the public and controlling them completely - Callisthenes (an embedded biographer) didn't make it home alive.  Centuries later, the worst that chroniclers could do was to highlight the ire of Alexander's troops over his tendency to "go native" but not one of these writers has acknowledged the need for Alexander to ingratiate himself to the recently defeated and still restive native populations that surrounded him and his small band of Macedonian soldiers.  Additionally, our writer's have never been placed in perspective themselves; they were spinning a moral tale for a specific audience in their own times.  This story became cautionary over time towards their own leaders - An intrepid westerner is seduced by the vices of the East which eventually kill him.  In other words: don't be like Alexander, cling tightly to your Roman values while serving the Republic in far-flung corners of the realm (their audience was Rome).  It would seem that the media has been a tool of the ruling elite for quite some time.

Alexander against Darius III at Issus. A 1st century BC floor mosaic from Pompeii, Italy. (author's collection copyright 2013) 

    It is readily apparent to me that today's media - in their self-driven 24/7 need to produce information for and grab ratings from an lethargic and saturated audience - has dug deeper into our military's conduct than they need to.  Our general's today should take a lesson from Alexander and keep them at bay - feeding them the relevant stories for public consumption instead of allowing these embedded reporters to dig up the worst and most irrelevant rumours to report as facts to an already naive public who doesn't understand what war fighting is all about.