Tristan Hughes

First off is that idea very much of fortune, and you are quite right.

Although Alexander the Great was an extraordinary military commander, and we can't take anything away from that, he was incredibly lucky.

People would always kind of say, you know, he died so young.

And I always now shout back, well, he was lucky to live as long as he actually did, with all of the fighting he did.

That Hellenistic, warlord, charismatic general style of leadership, where you're expected to be leading from the front in all of your battles, whether it's an open-pitched battle, like the Battle of Gargamelor and so on, leading his cavalry in a charge, or assaulting settlements, being one of the first to climb up the ladder to attack the settlements.

You know, Alexander...

In many cases, he's there with his men.

He suffers several big war wounds, but he ultimately does pull through, even though some war wounds are really bad.

And I think it is fair to say that by 323 BC, he is not the same Alexander the Great as he did when he invaded the Persian Empire.

He's got these injuries.

I think he's less healthy than he was, and he's more of a megalomaniac at this time.

However...

Where I take issue with Livy right at the start is him picking out particular examples, particular cases, well-known stories from Alexander's career and using them to say that he has become less of a formidable figure than he was in the past.

He singles out this idea, there's a few ones, he talks about, you know, all of his heavy drinking, you know, and that was a key reason why he wasn't, the Alexander that they would have faced after he'd conquered the Persian Empire was not as great as they would have faced if it was earlier on.

I think that's nonsense because he's fighting, he's, heavy drinking is part of Macedonian League culture from beginning to end with Alexander.

This idea of him killing his close companions and the kind of how,

There are a couple of great stories.

You mentioned Clitus the Black and also the Philotus affair and Philotus and Parmenion.

Alexander was doing away with potential rivals from his earliest days as king of Macedonia, getting rid of rivals.

Macedonian succession is incredibly bloody.