Alexander the Great versus ET

By now the repeated battering of the rams had loosened the joints in the stones and the defensive walls had fallen; the fleet had entered the port; and some Macedonians had made their way on to the towers the enemy had abandoned

Macedonian ships attacked the walls with siege engines; and marines from Cyprus landed in the 'Sidonian port' and forced their way into the city.

True to Ezekiel's prophecy, the mainland city of Tyre has never been rebuilt (Ezek. 26:14).

The inhabitants of Tyre did not believe the prophets of God as they spoke of the cities doom. Historian Charles Rollin observed: "To prove, in a sensible manner, to Tyre, that the prophecy concerning her ruin was not incredible, and that all the strength and wisdom of man could not ward off or suspend the punishment which God has prepared for the pride and the abuse of riches, Isaiah set before her the example of Babylon, whose destruction ought to have been an example to her.

Callisthenes (Gk. Kallisthenês), son of Damotimos, c.360-c.353 BC, a Greek from Olynthos, was a kinsman of Aristotle, probably his great-nephew (P 52.1, 55.4). He was a well-known historian in his own right: before he joined Alexander as the historian of the campaign against Persia he had already written historical works, including a history of Persia, and another on the Third Sacred War (for example Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 13.560b–d; Plutarch, Moralia, 292E-293, 307D) and at some point he had worked with Aristotle on a list of the victors in the Pythian Games (SIG 274). Strabo (13.?) ascribes to Callisthenes and Anaxarchus Alexander's cherished "casket copy" of Homer's Iliad.

We do not know whether it was Philip or Alexander who initially engaged Callisthenes to record the war against Persia, but it appears that he was introduced to Alexander by Aristotle (Valerius Maximus, 7.2.ext.11a). In 334 BC he crossed the Hellespont with Alexander’s army. Similarly we don’t know the full extent of his employment although it is clear that, as well as writing a history of the expedition he was at some point put in charge of educating the Royal Pages—as Aristotle had educated Alexander and his peers (P 55.2; A 4.13.2; C 8.6.24f, 8.7.3, 8.8.1) . During the army’s time in Egypt Callisthenes went on a trip to locate the source of the Nile, and when they reached Babylon he supervised the translation of the Babylonian astronomical records; so his remit was clearly much wider than just writing a journal of the expedition.

Callisthenes is best known for writing a history of the expedition which was laden with flattery of Alexander, and he appears to have played a large part in the elevation of Alexander as son of Zeus following the visit to Siwa in Egypt. The history is lost, surviving only in a few fragments cited by later authors (for example: P 27.3, 33.1; Strabo, 17.I.43).

Callisthenes’ history was probably written in instalments that were sent back to Greece to be disseminated to the states of the League of Corinth. We are not sure exactly where his work ended: it is generally assumed that the battle of Gaugamela was the last major event recorded, but his record might have gone up to the death of Bessus in 329 BC [continued]

...Apart from the cuneiform evidence from Babylonia that is now being disclosed, the Greek and Latin sources for Alexander's life are, from the perspective of ancient history, relatively numerous. Alexander himself left only a few inscriptions and some letter-fragments of dubious authenticity, but a large number of his contemporaries wrote full accounts. The key contemporary historians are considered Callisthenes, his general Ptolemy, Aristobulus, Nearchus and Onesicritus. Another influential account was penned by Cleitarchus, who, while not a direct witness of Alexander's expedition, used the sources which had just been published. His work was to be the backbone of that of Timagenes, who heavily influenced many surviving historians. Unfortunately, all these works were lost. Instead, the modern historian must rely on authors who used these and other early sources.

The five main accounts are by Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, Diodorus, and Justin. [continued]

... Concerned about his glory and his relationship with the gods, Alexander and a small party with camels crossed the Egyptian desert to an oasis and holy place called Siwah. There a sun god called Amon-Ra, the father of the pharaohs, was believed to dwell. It was common among Greeks to see their own gods in foreign deities, and for some time Greeks and Macedonians had visualized Amon-Ra as another manifestation of Zeus. Alexander and his party traveled in the coolness of twilight and night, and their journey became biblical in its telling. They endured a sandstorm. They crossed an area infested with snakes and became lost, and their water supply was just about finished. Alexander's historian, Callisthenes, was to claim that they were rescued by gods: two crows that flew in front of them to show them the way. According to another account they were led by gods in the form of two talking snakes.

...By his conquests, Alexander had changed the world. But what had not changed was the inclination to create myth. Even while Alexander lived, his court historian, Callisthenes, had written of an incident in which the sea had retreated from before Alexander's path

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Okay, this is all coming together now. Callisthenes was his historian.


http://www.ancientlibrary.com/wcd/Callisthenes


http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbc...nder_the_Great

As it turns out, there are many legends about Alexander; due in part to the belief in his divinity.


http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch11.htm

It was also a mariner's myth that his sister was a mermaid, so this all gets pretty dicey.

[emphasis added]