Netflix Reveals Alexander the Great Series Release Date

The Persian conquest and defeat led to him to instigate further East, reaching modern-day India and Pakistan. Thus, Alexander spread the Hellenistic world of the Balkan peninsula to control Egypt, Asia Minor, Central Asia along with the Middle East in his conquest against Phoenicia.

Through this conquest Alexander managed to spread a brand new wave of Hellenism by establishing many great cities such as Alexandria in Egypt or Alexandria on the Caucasus in Himalayas.

Following his death in 323 BC, a number of states emerged as successor states in each region he conquered. Many of his cities are still standing, as is local folklore about him.

The GreekReporter.com troll returns!

Hi, Greece troll.

This thread is useless without pics for evaluation. Who's playing Alexander, Hephaistion and Bagoas?

Sounds excellent. Hopefully it's factually correct . I'll be watching this.

They should have just gone with a complete series, not some semi-documentary. This might still be somewhat interesting, but still, they should have just done a fictional series. Would work better.

I love you, Greek troll.

Expect to see history wildly rewritten.

Perhaps Assad Zaman for Bagoas.

Verificatia of sizemeat?

I used to frequently advocate for that kid who played the young Octavian/Augustus in "Rome" and I think he was the cabin boy in "Master and Commander" but I could be wrong. He was the prettiest little twink and I thought he'd be great for Alexander's boyfriend. He's probably 40 now so his time has passed.

Casting suggestions?

[quote] Expect to see history wildly rewritten.

Well, we have been doing that for millennia.

Why doesn't someone take Mary Renault's trilogy about Alexander and make it into a series? If it was done right with a good cast it would be fantastic. Reading her books when I was a college freshman made me fall in love with Alexander.

I love Olympias.

Olympias was a cunt!

I cheered when I read she was stoned to death by the relatives of the people she had murdered.

But I liked Alexander's sister Cleopatra (not that one) and was saddened about her fate after her brother's early demise.

Olympias was exactly the kind of cunt that should be beloved by DL! She was a witch, goddammit! What more do you bitches want???

Secret

More than 100 years before Alexander there was Alcibiades. He was a general in the Peloponnesian Wars. He was wild. As I recall one of the famous Philosophers, maybe Socrates? was his lover. Mary Renault wrote a book called, The Last of the Wine in which he makes an appearance, but the main story is about two Gay lovers, who were soldiers who fought in the wars. Beautiful and heartbreaking.

Oh yeah. Alcibiades fought on ALL THREE SIDES in the Peloponnesian War! Not an ethic to scratch himself with.

Socrates was said to be besotted by him, but whether they were lovers is speculation. However, he was reportedly pretty much anybody's, and was famous for being the most beautiful man in Periclean Athens. He was also quite a good general -- as long as he stayed on your side. He was kinda the Black Swan version of Alexander, who was beloved by his troops, and even by the women of Darius of Persia, whom he captured when Darius fled. (Needless to say he treated them totally chastely. Fraus of the time said he only conquered the world looking for the right girl.)

R19, yes! In fact Alexander became very close to Darius's mother. He would visit her regularly to make sure she was OK and wanted for nothing. Some said she preferred Alexander over her own son.

You're right about Alcibiades. Well said! He was absolutely brilliant but unstable. I like that description: "the Black Swan version of Alexander." The most recent book I have about him is "Nemesis" which is on my to do list this winter.

Can't wait to watch.

R20, wouldn't you prefer Alexander over your own son, who fled leaving you to the enemy barbarian? Anyway, you're right: she refused to eat after his death and died of grief and starvation.

Nicolas Clay, if the perfect ass in Evil Under the Sun, did the docuseries of Alexander better circa 1980.

There is man-on-man action in this and the homophobes are complaining

There were all kinds of Greek organizations (from Greece, not fraternities) that raised hell and protested Oliver Stone even suggesting Alexander might have had a man who he loved and cherished unto death. Hephaistion was the love of his life. it wasn't platonic or fraternal, it was carnal. They fucked.

Lies! Alexander and Hepaestion were just platonic dudebro besties!!! No homo!!!!

What Alexander the Great would have looked like. HOTT!!

^ I'd hot it and quit it

Years ago, when he was much younger, I always thought Matthew McConaughey would have been well cast as Alexander. Not for acting, because IMO he is too contemporary, but his looks.

r29 he would have been physically very right for the role.

[quote] he would have been physically very right for the role.

Too tall. Alexander was a pocket gay.

[quote] Anyway, you're right: she refused to eat after his death and died of grief and starvation.

r22 Well that and her daughter who was married to Alexander and through who she probably hoped to continue her dynasties rule of the empire had been murdered by Alexanders other wife and the regent of the empire and she was probably next in the general purge of the Persian faction that happened.

What’s crazy to me is Alexander and 300 years of Egyptian rulers including Cleopatra are at the bottom of the shore of Alexandria and then have no interest digging them up.

Alexander kissing his bf was hot!

Guy playing Alexander is hot

Like they did with Leonardo they've butched him up. Pass.

He WAS butch.

R27 Alexander had heterochromia?

R37 LOL! I know, right? An effeminate guy (in his twenties, no less) would not be able to lead a large army to numerous victories, establish a vast empire, and remain undefeated.

Matthew McConaughey isn't tall. He'd probably be a bit taller than Alexander or Tom Cruise, but he isn't tall, tall..

If you've read Mary Renault's books and other writing about Alexander, he was very physically fit. As far as I've read his only vice was that he sometimes partied and drank too much while he was out there conquering the world, but he also was a workaholic who rose early and went to bed late.

At age 54, McConaughey is far too old.

Alexander was dead by the time he was 32.

He probably looked more like Jeremy Allen White.

He probably looked more like Gene Wilder.

Have watched like two episodes now. So far just one gay kiss, was that it? I can't be bothered to watch more if it's not more gay than this.

R42....."Years ago, when he was much younger..."

The crazy seer lady who narrates the show is the most compelling thing about this show. Give her a spinoff!

I just finished the docu drama of Alexander on Netflix and it was terrible. First, it was historically inaccurate. Even to getting the names of the Persians wrong, and the relationships wrong, and important events wrong...like the assassination of Phillip. They also have Alexander with just two buddies. In real life he had his Companions, and among them close friends. It was completely fucked up. Here were these historians narrating the story and totally getting important shit wrong. And of course most insulting was the fact that while they first show us the affection Hephaestion and Alexander had for one another, with and kiss and an embrace and a scene of the two guys bathing in an opening sequence, that was it. A few longing glances, a chaste hug, and at least twice Alexander pushing him away. But they had Alexander making goo goo eyes and allegedly fucking Darius's wife. Except he did not fuck Darius's wife, he fucked his daughter and they had a kid, who lived...until another of his wives killed them much later on. There is credible history by credible historians that was completely ignored. I hate it so much, as an historian one who has read history since childhood, when these so called "docuentaries" get it wrong. This is not some obscure shit, this is real familiar history to so many people that the program was a fucking insult. Not just inaccurate about factual history, but also inaccurate about Alexander's sexuality. I hate the feeling of frustration I have. I wish I had not watched it.

Oh, and the only two friends who were acknowledged were Ptolemy and Hephaestion. And they all called one another "Heph" and Alex" and "Ptol" I shit you not! Disgusting .

Yes r38. He had one blue eye and one brown eye.

Mary Renault said Alexander's eyes were grey but sometimes looked blue ish. I'mma go with that. Alexander was Macedonian. He was often described as "golden maned" and gold/bronze complexion. The people we think of as Greeks from the Greek islands and from the south were really a mixture of Turkish and Greek, thus darker complexioned. A lot of people even today think of most Greeks as swarthy, but not all of them were. It's kind of like with Italy. The southern Italians and Sicilians are dark and swarthy but the northern ones are not. Alexander had reddish blonde hair that was coarse and thick according to historians.

Actually Oliver Stone, aside from the whitewashing he gave to the relationship of Alexander and Hephaestion, he got a lotv of the history right. Stone's major problem was his casting. Except for Jared Leto I love Colin Farrell but he was a terrible choice for Alexander. Val Kilmer as Phillip?Terrible, and Angelina Jolie as Olympia has mother was just cringeworthy.

The "anti-woke" crowd is freaking out over the gay stuff

R53 and to this I saw "What "gay stuff???" They had a hot scene where they were bathing/swimming and kissed and caressed. It was lovely. Very Romantic. And another scene where they pledged their lives to one another. And then two or three times where Hephaestion wanted to kiss him or embrace him and he pushed him away. Meanwhile he was staring at Darius's woman with hot eyes, and they got close and she gets pregnant and dies in childbirth....along with her baby. So there was only that one actual scene of them being lovers, and the rest was bullshit. I think the reason there's an outcry is that the filmmakers and others like these Faux documentarians are timid about it. I wish someone would do a real bio pic of Alexander and allow him and Hephaestion to be the lovers that history has recorded. It's shameful t hat we cater to the homophobes. They scream about his sexual orientation as if it is something ugly. Fuck them. And having said that I will also say this was the worst, most inaccurate telling of Alexander that I have come across. I have researched and read dozens of books about him, and that time in history, and this was the biggest shit mess I have ever encountered.

Any good porn or Derek Jarman like films on Alexander?

R49 “Ptol?” That reminds me of an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show in which Phyllis says that her friends call her “Phyl for short,” to which Rhoda says, “And her best friends just call her “Pha.”

[quote] "Heph" and Alex" and "Ptol"

r49 Well that sounds hilarious. Like Netflix made the Macedonian aristocratic class into gen z highschool students.

[quote] This is quick to answer. The hope of the production team is to have 3 seasons. Back when they first enlisted my help, they realized (after my first pass over their proposed episodes) they needed at least 2 seasons to cover Alexander.

[quote] BUT, from the start, they’ve also wanted to continue on to the establishment of Ptolemy’s empire and the city of Alexandria. This hooks back into the archaeologist Calliope Limneos-Papakosta, who is a friend of the executive producer Lucy van Beek.

[quote] Here’s an article on Lucy. She’s also why you see a lot more women, so thank her. ;-)

[quote] That said, the real problem is lack of funds to hire enough actors and extras. I argued, hard, for some that are needed for season two, including Philotas and Kleitos, but also Krateros and Perdikkas. It really IS a concern, not to throw too many unfamiliar names at viewers, at once. But I think, across 6 episodes, all could have been introduced without confusion. But they just didn’t have funds. At least Kleitos is mentioned by Lloyd, and a guy briefly shown.

Theres a women on tumblr who worked as a historical consultant on this and explains some of the more... Interesting choices and apparently this was made on a really tight budget.

Budget has nothing to do with accuracy. And they could have saved a t on on all those"historians" spoke with great authority promoting false information. The closest we have to accurate is Oliver Stone and it is far from perfect. And as I said earlier, his casting choices were largely really bad. But this version? It was amateur. And IMO the pushing forth of false or misleading information is inexcusable.

BE MORE GOOD!

The fact that it's trending on Netflix means there is an interest, an audience for the story, and it would be great if a credible rendering were available. Of course didn't Netflix give us Jada Pinkett's Black Cleopatra? Another historical re write. Alexander was inconsolable when Hephaestion died. He died not long after.

It wasn't meant to be that serious, people. They are mimicking the type of limited series that the History Channel is known for, half-cinematic camp, and half historical analysis by so-called "experts." If you were looking for Netflix to open up a new front in the gay liberation movement with this shit, you were always barking up the wrong tree. It just isn't that serious.

Well, it's gay enough that the straight, right-wing activists on twitter are having a meltdown

Unless it stars Timothee Chalamet and Sydney Sweeney, I’m not watching.

The homophobes would love to erase Hephaestion's existence from history. But in addition to being Alexander's forever lover, he was also a more than capable administrator and an intelligent trusted advisor. He was promoted to being the second highest noble in Alexander's court. Second only to Alexander.

Well, I guess I’ll just watch the first episode. I had somebody comment yesterday that an image I made for my Ai art Tumblr looks like a scene out of the episode.

You know, they can't keep denying it forever . Even Alexander's father Phillip had male lovers. Young men.

And I just re-read the wiki page for Hephaestion, and it was pretty clear they were lovers. Lots of citations confirmed it, and even the historical citations that didn't confirm it outright called them BFFs. Duh! Everyone acknowledged that there was no one closer to him. And, as the philosophers of their time described friendships they were "one soul inhabiting two bodies." The Greek word for"friend" was ambiguous enough to mean lovers.

^ Nooooo! Not true! They were just good buddies! Brahs bein' brahs!

Do conservatives claim Alexander? You'd think his enforced race mixing would have been a deal breaker even if you take out the Bagoas and Hephaestion related sodomy.

R66 is demonstrating how they did CPR in 330 BC.

There will probably be more.

There's been developments.

Sam Heughan, played Alexander and Paul Telfer, Hephaestion, in this crappy movie from 2010:

R72, did Miss Sam get into character by tapping that ass?

R71, that is really remarkable. And the best thing is that they can now use DNA from those remains to identify Olympias, Alexander's mother. At some point they will find Alexander's body if not his tomb, and can positively ID it. One of my interests has been reading about where his tomb might be. i believe it's in Egypt on the outskirts of Alexandria. The last sighting of it was in 300 AD. But the gold and the opulence, perhaps even his ornate armor was stripped from it. So my guess is he was reinterred in something less valuable.

Alexander was a military genius, and they didn't really get in to how he conducted the battles of Gaugamela and Issus. Didn't even talk about how he got into the city of Tyre which was a big deal. Instead it was a throw away line in another conversation.

R75 here. They talked about the fact that they didn't have the budget but a good director would have needed full blown, prolonged battle scenes, They could have started by having Alexander and his advisors and generals meeting in his tent to plan and discuss tactics, moving little tokens on a table map, and periodically flashes of battle scenes. It would have worked if the director was skilled.

[quote]And I just re-read the wiki page for Hephaestion, and it was pretty clear they were lovers. Lots of citations confirmed it

I actually read the wikipedia artcile on this person and I didn't find one single citation that confirmed this. Please provide the citation if you found otherwise. I came out of reading that artcile thinking that you all sounded like a bunch of delusional, grasping old bitties.

Alexander probably did have male lovers but whether he did or not neither validates nor negates your existence.

R74: If you watched the six part series this thread is about, you would have seen documentary footage and interviews with an archaeologist who thinks she may have found Alexander’s tomb.

This cracked the Netflix Top Ten in the U.S. last weekend so I’m guessing there’s a part II coming. It certainly wasn’t the flop “Cleopatra” was. I binged it, went through it like a hot knife through butter. Yes, there were historical inaccuracies but it was very watchable, despite the relatively paltry budget. And though there weren’t kisses or love scenes throughout between Alexander and Hephaesteon, the nature of their relationship was established in the very first episode, which is good for our side, as judged by the meltdown it’s causing cultural conservatives. And according to the historical record, Though Alexander often drank to excess, he was relatively abstemious when it came to sex. Perhaps he felt that saving it up provided his strength and his hunger for conquest.

Uh-oh, this article has made it to the official Europe subreddit, Netflix has stepped in it again. I doubt Greece will threaten them like Egypt has over black Cleopatra, though.

Wives served two purposes back in the day. They were for political alliances and they were for bearing children.

[quote]The closest we have to accurate is Oliver Stone and it is far from perfect

Yes but Stone also, chickened out; Alexander/Hephaestion kissing scenes ended up in on the cutting room floor.

[quote]Says Stone: “We may have had a few takes of them [Alexander and Hephaistion] kissing, but it wasn’t my intention” to show anything physically explicit. The director is also starting to get complaints from gay activists that the film soft-pedals Alexander’s sexuality.

[quote]While Farrell has a steamy sex scene with an unclothed Rosario Dawson as Alexander’s wife, Roxane, the film leaves little doubt that the true love of the conqueror’s life is his boyhood friend turned fellow warrior, Hephaistion, portrayed by Jared Leto.

[quote]“It was said . . . that Alexander was never defeated, except by Hephaistion’s thighs,” says the aged Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins).

WTF is this "controversy" shit? It's common knowledge that ancient Greeks practiced what we now call homosexual relations (there was no word for homosexuality back then) frequently and it was a normal part of their society. Same with Romans. This is common historical fact.

Do these idiot conservatives have not the most basic elementary understanding of the classical world?

R82, I can't speak to what the Romans did but for sure the Greeks, you're right. And Phillip of Macedon, Alexander's father always kept a young man. He wasn't into kids, but he enjoyed young men. And let's not forget the Thebans from the days of Alcibiades...who was also Gay. And entire legion of Gay men, The Sacred Band of Thebes, Gay couples, were among the bravest warriors of their time. They were celebrated. Now why in Hell is such a touchy subject to acknowledge Alexander and Hephaestion? It's all about homophobia. Period. And it is time for some brave soul to step up and tell the fucking truth. If you take on the story of Alexander the Great, tell the fucking truth.

Fag.

Who are you, R84?

[quote] I can't speak to what the Romans did

General men of high social standing or of military standing were expected to be tops if engaging in homosexual relations.

Despite the awful script and ridiculous wigs they had chemistry on screen and off.

I thought Jared Leto was the only good thing about the cast for Oliver Stone's Alexander. The rest of them were miscast. He was wonderful. His Hephaestion was heartbreaking. And I adore Colin Farrell and Val Kilmer. But, no.

Alexander lost his mind with grief when Hephaestion died. He had the doctor executed. He had an absolutely amazing funeral pyre constructed, he shaved his head, and ordered all kinds of signs of mourning to be enacted and planned memorials to last a year. He even went to the oracle to ask that Hephaestion be elevated to Demi-God. The Oracle said no to the Demi God status but yes to Hero status. Alexander's grief was all consuming. He was dead eight months later.

Colin Farrell and Jared Leto as Alexander and Hephaestion:

It's been done

William fuckin' Shatner? Are you kidding????

With Leonard Nimoy as Hephaestion, right?

Why doesn't someone have the brains to make a streaming series out of Mary Renault's Alexander trilogy? They could say at the start, "While Ms Renault researched the history she did romanticise the story, and we have gone with her version. If you want a more purely historical take, some links to noted historians are on our website."

Then we could all just settle down and enjoy a great gay love story with lots of swashbuckling, lots of victories, a scheming witch mother and a hero loved by all. And we wouldn't be too far from the truth.

R13 = R94

Oops. Sorry about that.

Well, I'm R13 and I love the idea. Mary Renault did a masterful job of research too. I've read Curtius and Arrian, and Plutarch, and god knows what else, suffice to say I have done my own readings and research, and I can't fault MAry Renault's historical fiction. I really enjoy historical fiction in general. But I absolutely hate it when authors are careless or dishonest and don't do their research. If you haven't read her I urge you to try it. I am right now re-reading Fire From Heaven for maybe the 20 time in my life. I haven't read it in a few years. It never gets old. In fact IMO her entire body of work is very impressive. In Last of the Wine she weaves historical events and fictional characters wonderfully well. It's not about Alexander, but it is about two lovers and how war affects them. beautiful story.

[quote] suffice to say I have done my own readings and research

R13/R97 = Trump voter

Last of the Summer Wine

What are you blathering about, R98? The people R97 quotes are historians from ancient times, not Pajamas92 off the internet.

He read fiction, and then he read the historians of the day (or as close to it as he could get: the work of the historian who travelled with Alexander was burned in the Library of YouKnowWhere) to check how close the fiction was to reality. That's what intelligent people do.

R97 Well said. Sadly no one reads Mary Renault anymore. Cynics consider her bellissima writing merely lesbian slash.Pity. Oliver Stone stole much of his Alexander from Renault's trilogy. I first read Fire From Heaven when I was a confused frightened 14yo gayling. I own her a lot. If it was ok for Alexander the Great to kiss boys it was ok for me. If I had a young gay relative I would gift them this book. I re-read it every so often like visiting an old friend. Grazie mille Mary Renault.

R100 thank you for your kind words. That's exactly what I did and continue to do with any historical fiction I read. I really love history. One of the most annoying puzzles I keep revisiting is the search for the tomb of Alexander.So far I've read that the last time anyone referred to it was sometime around 300 AD It was also claimed that the ornate, gold plated sarcophagus was stripped of all its adornment including Alexander's armor, his helmet, and his sword, and then he was re- interred. It's believed that the tomb is somewhere in the area of Alexandria, and even as far away as Siwa in Egypt, because Ptolemy rode off with the carriage he was being transported on. Instead of going to Macedonia, he brought him to Egypt. That much has been confirmed. Cleopatra even brought Julius Caesar out to see the tomb.

Exactly, R101. It is like visiting an old friend.

Renault's entire Alexander trilogy is worth reading. Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Games. She also wrote a non- fiction book about Alexander.

R102 — If you watch the Netflix series this thread was originally about you would see that in addition to fictional re-enactments with actors and talking head historians, there is footage and interviews with an archeologist who thinks she may have found the tomb of Alexander while excavating in Alexandria.

[quote] annoying puzzles I keep revisiting is the search for the tomb of Alexander

Global warming flooded much of the Egyptian beachfront property, probably including both Alexander's and Cleopatra's tombs

R106 reports from ancient historians said the tomb was out a ways from the palace complex in Alexandria, so it may not necessarily be underwater, but still within the confines of the modern city of Alexandria. An alternative theory is that it may be near the temple complex where the Oracle of Siwah is located or was located in the Libyan desert. Because it was there that, allegedly, Alexander claimed it was confirmed that he was the son of Zeus-Amun.

R102 I was fortunate to have visited Alexandria several times and with my interest in Alexander and his lost tomb ,sparked by Mary Renault I rushed down to the modern "great library" . It is located on the Corniche by the sea shore where what's left of the old royal quarter would have been. It was wonderful walking near the site of Cleopatra's palace most of which is at the bottom of the harbor. If you go vist the Kom el-Dikka excavations . Roman era ruins practically all that is left above ground of the ancient city. While walking the streets there you can see how the modern city is nearly 60 ft above the ancient level. Suggest reading Saunders , Alexanders Tomb and the more fanciful Lost Tomb of Alexander by Chugg he proposes Alexander The Great's mummified body wound up in St Mark's Basilica in Venice. I've a hunch it's 60 ft below some parking lot in Alexandria. One day when they are building a new apartment block Al may just resurface.

[quote]One day when they are building a new apartment block Al may just resurface.

Well, he WAS very resilient!

R108, yes, what you suggest is highly possible. I've been to Egypt but not to Alexandria. We ran out of time. I hope to go back, and finally visit the city. I will check out Saunders on Alexander's tomb.

The great thing about having a Netflix series at all, is that it shows a high level of interest and that's a good thing, even with all its flaws.

Alexander's mummy has been discovered in Beverly Hills .

I marched along with Alexander at San Juan Hill

You’re a Log Cabin cunt, R112, get the fuck off this site.

[quote]A Netflix series about Alexander the Great is “fiction of extremely poor quality, lowly content and full of historical inaccuracies,” Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said on Wednesday.

The modern Greeks think it was ok for the Ancients to have their bed boys, but strenuously object too the idea of one of the world's greatest historical figures being in love with another man, and to all accounts Hephaestion was no bed boy. He was brilliant in his own right and a worthy companion to Alexander. Talk about ancient power couples!

She did add...

[quote]“However, you will know that the concept of love in antiquity is broad and multi-dimensional.”

So basically she wants to have her cake and eat it too.

R114 Regardless of the documentary narrative this is a dramatic reenactment with many dramatic liberties taken for the sake of story continuation and flow. Besides, Alexander lived over 2,300 years ago, many of the minutia of his personal and even political events are know just generally, not specifically.

Context is everything. Think about the role and the position of women in that culture at that time. They were legally regarded as property and used to make babies and forge alliances. Yes some were priestesses and Oracles, and harridans like his mother. And of course the goddesses, Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, etc. But even the philosophers regarded the love between men as the highest form of real love, and elevated it to a spiritual experience.

Alexander knew he needed heirs and alliances. But his heart belonged to Hephaestion. It is easy to assume Alexander's personality and behavior was in many ways a reaction to his father. Reading Mary Renault, it seemed that Phillip drank a lot, could be brutal and abusive, and given to excesses. He had more than one wife, but he also had both young girls and young men. His appetites were often ungovernable. Alexander was opposite. He developed a reputation for drinking as he got older, approaching his 30's, but never when he was working, and he was much more disciplined that his father in his sexual appetites. In fact, his self discipline was part of why he was effective as a leader.Consider that tens of thousands of men followed him. But his armies were trained and had discipline. It was pretty remarkable.

One of the debaters in Plato's Symposium proposed that an army of lovers would be invincible because they would disdain any dishonour before their beloveds and would thus all fight to the death. This is thought to have either been the idea for, or a response to, the Sacred Band, an elite section within the Theban army based on this idea. The Sacred Band did indeed prove invincible--until they came up against the wing led by Alexander and Hephaistion at the Battle of Chaeronea. Plato was right: nobody would surrender and all 300 were killed. Alexander and Hephaistion were truly invincible, and it took one of them dying to destroy the other.

The battle was decisive in allowing the Macedonians to take over Greece, but Mary Renault has Alexander grieving the Sacred Band on the night after the battle when everyone else is celebrating.

R119 It's possible he did grieve. He did what was necessary, but he also felt sadness. I can see how that would be possible.

[quote]But even the philosophers regarded the love between men as the highest form of real love, and elevated it to a spiritual experience.

Oh for fucking crying out loud, how delusional are you?

Youtubers being Youtubers: they made a music video celebrating the relationship of Alexander and Hep as depicted in this Netflix Show.