# Alexander the Great is not Great
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [January 2, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886 "2013-01-02T21:50:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/121 "2013-01-04T07:10:13Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#):
>
> I want to pit Napoleon because of that arrogant hat he wore. I mean the guy was only like 5’2’’ or something, and he wore that big tall hat to try and make himself look taller. Also he was kinda fat. What a loser. He also basically just looks like a dweeb and could really use a tan. And this is the guy who walked around calling himself Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Puh-lease! More like Emperor of the Nerds.
Did Napoleon even lift ?
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### Author:  [@Molotok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molotok)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/122 "2013-01-04T07:53:25Z")
I’ll just put this here [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oTEQf1d9Iw)
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/123 "2013-01-04T13:19:36Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#):
>
> and how Patton charged on peaceful protesters.
Yeah, but he _felt bad_ about it.
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
In July 1932, Patton served under Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur as a major commanding 600 troops, including the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. On July 28, MacArthur ordered these troops to advance on protesting veterans known as the “Bonus Army” in Washington, D.C. with tear gas and bayonets. One of the veterans dispersed by the cavalry was Joe Angelo, who had saved Patton’s life in World War I. Patton was dissatisfied with MacArthur’s conduct as he recognized the legitimacy of the veterans’ complaints and had himself earlier refused to issue the order to employ armed force to disperse the veterans. Patton later stated that, though he found the duty “most distasteful,” also felt that putting the marchers down prevented an insurrection and saved lives and property. He personally led the 3rd Cavalry down Pennsylvania Avenue dispersing the protesters.[59]
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/124 "2013-01-04T13:28:47Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Y’know, if that post had been submitted by _anyone_ else, I’d be assuming it was a joke…
I’ve had a feeling all along that we’re helping this lad with his homework.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/125 "2013-01-04T13:34:29Z")
For anyone who’s interested, some long discussions about good and bad military leadership (including Alexander TG):
[Greatest Military Leader Elimination Game](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12792612#post12792612)
[Worst Military Leader Elimination Game](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13145772#post13145772)
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### Author:  [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/126 "2013-01-04T13:45:37Z")
Speaking as someone who lectures on Greek and Roman history, this thread is making me giggle.
Also pish to Beethoven on a mere bubble-gum card; the dude is available as an action figure!
> **[Beethoven Action Figure : Amazon.co.uk: Outlet](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Accoutrements-11256-Beethoven-Action-Figure/dp/B0006FUA3G)**
>
> Beethoven Action Figure : Amazon.co.uk: Outlet
Also also, Alexander had a whole collection of funny hats
Lion hat:
[ ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/AlexanderCoin.jpg)
Not so much a hat, but rocking the Zeus Ammon hairstyle
[ ](https://theworldofalexanderthegreat.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/0000070606-coins0023-002.jpg)
Elephant hat:
[ ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/PtolemyCoinWithAlexanderWearingElephantScalp.jpg)
But my favorite haberdasheriffic Hellene was Pericles the Squidheaded
[ ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Pericles_Townley_BM_549_n2.jpg)
I hope, OP, that your teacher has pointed out to you that no contemporary account of Alexander has survived and that the three major histories of his life were written much later (including one that has much the same opinion you have, albeit phrased somewhat more elegantly.)
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/127 "2013-01-04T13:53:44Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> 😕 “Rooster”? You do not appear to appreciate what sort of god Asklepios was, or what “white cock” means in context . . .
> [@YogSosoth](#):
>
> That must have been some hat!
So you’re saying that Socrates was a dickhead?
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/128 "2013-01-04T15:33:02Z")
> [@Uther\_Penguin](#):
>
> Can I pit your history teacher for wasting time on such an idiotic anachronistic debate instead of teaching about the Hellenistic period, a sadly neglected part of history?
Since he’s about as likely to respond as Alexander the Great is, knock yourself out.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/129 "2013-01-04T15:59:28Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#):
>
> I want to pit Napoleon because of that arrogant hat he wore. I mean the guy was only like 5’2’’ or something, and he wore that big tall hat to try and make himself look taller.
[Not really.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_Napoleon#Napoleon.27s_height)
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*Napoleon’s height \*\*
>
> NapoleonBritish propaganda of the time depicted Napoleon as of smaller than average height (see contemporary caricature right) and the image of him as a small man persists in modern Britain. His actual height was about 1.7m (5 feet 7 inches), average height for the time or slightly taller.[5] Confusion has sometimes arisen because of different values for the French inch (pouce) of the time (2.7 cm) and for the Imperial inch (2.54 cm).[6]
>
> Napoleon’s nickname of le petit caporal has added to the confusion, as some non-Francophones have mistakenly interpreted petit by its literal meaning of “small”. In fact, it is an affectionate term reflecting on his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers.
>
> Napoleon also surrounded himself with the soldiers of his elite guard, required to be 1.83 m (6 ft) or taller, making him look smaller in comparison.
>
> Despite his normal height, Napoleon’s name has been lent to the Napoleon complex, a colloquial term describing an alleged type of inferiority complex which is said to affect some people who are physically short. The term is used more generally to describe people who are driven by a perceived handicap to overcompensate in other aspects of their lives.
Napoleon certainly **did** have a Napoleon complex, but it was rooted in a sense of social inferiority, not physical; he was only minor provincial nobility, upper-middle class really, from remote barely-French Corsica, he was educated at a military academy as a scholarship-boy, and the mostly higher-born French-nobility cadets must have let him know they were better than he. After he became Emperor, [he vociferously insisted on the House of Bonaparte being included in Gotha’s Almanac,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almanach_de_Gotha) the directory of European royalty.
> [@](#):
>
> Even in the early 19th century the almanac’s retention of deposed dynasties evoked objections, although not necessarily the desired changes. Napoleon’s reaction was typical of parvenu authorities. The elected Emperor wrote to his foreign minister, Champagny:
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Monsieur de Champagny, this year’s “Almanach de Gotha” is badly done. I protest. There should be more of the French Nobility I have created and less of the German Princes who are no longer sovereign. Furthermore, the Imperial Family of Bonaparte should appear before all other royal dynasties, and let it be clear that we and not the Bourbons are the House of France. Summon the Minister of the Interior of Gotha at once so that I personally may order these changes.[8]
>
> The response of the publishers was to humour Napoleon by producing two editions: one for France, with the recently ennobled, and another which included dynasties deposed since abolition of the Holy Roman Empire. A merged version, whose first section including recently reigning dynasties but also families which lost sovereignty after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, remained in publication until 1944, and has been replicated in subsequent dynastic compilations (e.g., Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Furstliche Hauser, Le Petit Gotha, Ruvigny’s “Titled Nobility of Europe”).
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### Author:  [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/130 "2013-01-04T16:04:44Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#):
>
> My history teacher is awesome. He has a reason for doing his. You see, **our class is not good at writing essays and debating**. So he is having us learn about Alexander because this is a really good topic for that. Now this is actually in our curriculum. And we are reading an article; the other thing he is teaching us is that any fact can be argued one way or another. Facts don’t speak for themselves. The articles on Alexander are also really good for teaching us how to create well-developed arguments from facts. History class is not only about history. It is also about becoming a better persuasive writer at least in our curriculum.
No kidding.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/131 "2013-01-04T16:20:38Z")
Dude, he’s 13.
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### Author:  [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/132 "2013-01-04T16:29:25Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Dude, he’s 13.
15
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/133 "2013-01-04T16:41:55Z")
> [@Uther\_Penguin](#):
>
> Can I pit your history teacher for wasting time on such an idiotic anachronistic debate instead of teaching about the Hellenistic period, a sadly neglected part of history?
I prefer the Hellenistic Period to the Jewish Question.
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### Author:  [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/134 "2013-01-04T18:37:54Z")
Just got out of History. He mentioned the Hellenistic Period today.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/135 "2013-01-04T20:01:21Z")
> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> I prefer the Hellenistic Period to the Jewish Question.
Isn’t the Jewish Question the practice of answering a question with a question?
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/136 "2013-01-04T20:05:33Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Isn’t the Jewish Question the practice of answering a question with a question?
Is that what you were taught?
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### Author:  [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/137 "2013-01-04T20:14:19Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#):
>
> I want to pit Napoleon because of that arrogant hat he wore. I mean the guy was only like 5’2’’ or something, and he wore that big tall hat to try and make himself look taller. Also he was kinda fat. What a loser. He also basically just looks like a dweeb and could really use a tan. And this is the guy who walked around calling himself Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Puh-lease! More like Emperor of the Nerds.
But he could rock a water slide.
---
### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/138 "2013-01-04T23:12:00Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#):
>
> But he could rock a water slide.
Ziggy Piggy! oink oink oink oink
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### Author:  [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/139 "2013-01-04T23:35:40Z")
> [@Zebra](#):
>
> Josh Green from [Crash Course World History](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LsrkWDCvxg) kind of agrees with the OP.
That was actually really cool. Are the other “Crash Course” videos that good? I’m going to have to check them out.
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### Author:  [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexander-the-great-is-not-great/645886/140 "2013-01-05T01:14:50Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Is that what you were taught?
Are you saying he was taught wrong ?
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