Mieza

On Wednesday (10-4), I paid a visit to Mieza, the ancient town where the young Alexander was tutored by Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher.

My morning began with a phone call to the Mieza archaeological site. Having learned the night before that I could take a bus from Thessaloniki to Naoussa, the modern town closest to Mieza, I wanted to make sure that I could then take a second bus from Naoussa to Mieza. When the archaeological site confirmed that I could, I proceeded with my plan and caught a late-morning bus to Naoussa.

Yet, no sooner had I arrived in Naoussa than I made a perplexing discovery. Contrary to the archaeological site’s assurances, there was in fact no connecting bus between the two towns. (How the archaeological site got this wrong I am still not sure, but, given how things turned out, I have hardly given it a second thought.)

With the connecting bus ruled out, I figured I had two options left, neither ideal: either to walk, which I was told would be dangerous, or to take a cab, which could fast become prohibitively expensive.

It was at this point that Stavros Zachos stepped in to save the day. Having heard my story (told, as at Vergina, in Greek), Stavros, a Greek cab driver who was waiting at the Naoussa bus station when I arrived, surprised me by suggesting a third option: he would take me himself, and would do so, gratis. Tremendously grateful, and not a little stunned, I accepted Stavros’ generous offer and, just like that, found myself on the road to Mieza.

Following a brief stop at the Mieza information center, where we received a warm welcome and a variety of promotional material about the ancient town, Stavros and I began our day with a visit to two Macedonian tombs in the area, both dated to the early Hellenistic period, the period after Alexander’s death. (A total of four tombs have been discovered in the area, but two are currently closed to visitors.)

The first tomb we visited was the Tomb of Anthemion, named for the flower that features prominently in its artistic design.

Tomb of Anthemion facade, composed of a huge entrance, white walls with four decorative Ionic columns (two visible in this picture), a beautifully painted pediment (triangular area at the top of the monument) containing a fresco of a man (left) and woman (right), possibly Hades and Persephone (right), king and queen of the Underworld, and anthemion flowers crowning the monument as a whole (one visible in this picture).

Tomb of Anthemion first chamber, the roof of which features a stunning fresco of anthemia flowers.

Tomb of Anthemion second chamber, which contains both the marble block (right) on which the vessel with the deceased’s remains were found and the giant marble door (center) that originally sealed the room shut.

The second tomb we visited was the so-called Tomb of Judgment. Ranking among the largest Macedonian tombs ever discovered, the Tomb of Judgment takes its name from the spectacular fresco on its facade, a scene that depicts a Macedonian soldier (far left), presumably the deceased, being escorted by Hermes (center left) in his role as Psychopompos, escorter of the souls of the dead, to face judgment before Aeacus (right center) and Rhadamanthus (far right), two of the three judges of the Underworld (a sort of Pagan version of St. Peter).

Tomb of Judgment facade, composed of a large entrance, a lower wall with four frescoes and four decorative Doric columns, a row of metopes (panels with friezes) and triglyphs (panels between the metopes, in this case blue), a painted frieze depicting a battle between Greeks/Macedonians and Persians, and an upper wall with decorative Ionic columns.

 

Above: Tomb of Judgment frescoes, with images (from left to right) of a Macedonian soldier, Hermes, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus. Below: Restored images of the same.

What I found particularly exciting about the Tomb of Judgment was that its occupant was most likely a veteran of Alexander’s campaigns, a soldier who seems to have returned home to Macedonia after the king’s death in Babylon and lived out the rest of his days in wealth and luxury from the spoils acquired in the east. While the occupant’s identity will probably never be known for certain, I was taken with the suggestion, encountered after visiting the site, that the tomb may belong to Peucestas, a Mieza native who became Alexander’s unprecedented eighth bodyguard after saving the king’s life in a famous action during the Indian campaign.

Having finished at the second tomb, took a break to have a snack and read through some of the Mieza promotional material while waiting for Stavros to return from picking up a customer in the nearby town of Veroia.

When Stavros returned, the two of us continued on to the ancient theater of Mieza, a venue, as Stavros told me, where ancient plays are still put on from time to time.

While many of its constituent parts are Roman or even modern (Greek archaeologists have recently been working to restore it), the Mieza theater dates, in its earliest form, to the late Classical/early Hellenistic period–roughly the period in which Alexander lived. Based on this dating, then, Aristotle, I believe, could just possibly have taken Alexander to this theater as part of his tutoring of the young prince. Quite a thought, that.

As the final part of our Mieza tour, Stavros and I visited the School of Aristotle, the name for the idyllic, park-like area where the philosopher tutored Alexander and a number of his peers from the Macedonian nobility (e.g., Hephaestion, Alexander’s best friend and probable lover) in a variety of subjects (e.g., philosophy, politics, literature) for some three years (343/342-340 B.C., meaning that Alexander was between 13 and 16 at the time).

Of all the Mieza sites I visited, I found the School of Aristotle to be the most evocative.

On this grassy terrace, I could imagine Aristotle lecturing while Alexander and his friends listened from the stone benches carved along its sides.

In this cave (and others like it), I could imagine Alexander and his friends exploring in their free time, or even having class on rainy days.

And through this forest, I could imagine Alexander and his friends running and splashing, taking a break from their studies to just be kids.

At that point, having completed our tour of ancient Mieza, Stavros and I made our way back to Naoussa, where he had work and family to attend to and I a bus to catch. Before departing, however, I told Stavros that I wanted to give him a gift (monetary, in this case, as that was all I really had to give at the time) to thank him for everything he had done for me. True to form, Stavros refused at first, saying a gift was totally unnecessary; however, when I insisted, he graciously accepted. This made me so glad. I couldn’t imagine saying good-bye to Stavros without repaying, in some small measure, his quintessentially Greek philoxenia, that quality of kindness and generosity to strangers that had made this day–and our friendship–possible.

Ultimately, in a way I think Alexander himself would have understood, I found myself thinking afterward that, for as much as I had enjoyed visiting Mieza, I had enjoyed meeting Stavros even more.

Aegae

On Tuesday (10-3), I traveled to Aegae (modern Vergina), the original capital of Macedon and the famous site of the Macedonian royal tombs.

Since there was no bus route from Thessaloniki to Vergina, I took a bus to Veroia (pronounced “ver-ee-a”), and from Veroia to Vergina.

When I reached Vergina in the early afternoon, I began my visit at the theater and palace, both located in the upper part of the ancient city. While I knew that both would be closed, as they had been on each of my previous visits, I also knew that it would be nice to admire them even if only from a distance.

Despite its humble appearance, the theater of Aegae ranks as one of the most significant Alexander-related sites in the world.

Here, in 336 B.C., Philip II, Alexander’s father, was assassinated by a royal bodyguard named Pausanias during the wedding celebration of Cleopatra, Philip’s daughter and Alexander’s sister.

The Greek historian Diodorus gives the fullest account of this event to survive from antiquity:

While it was still dark, the multitude of spectators hastened into the theater, and at sunrise the parade formed. Along with lavish display of every sort, Philip included in the procession statues of the twelve gods wrought with great artistry and adorned with a dazzling show of wealth to strike awe in the beholder, and along with these was conducted a thirteenth statue, that of Philip himself, so that the king exhibited himself enthroned among the twelve gods. Every seat in the theater was taken when Philip appeared wearing a white cloak, and by his express orders his bodyguard held away from him and followed only at a distance, since he wanted to show publicly that he was protected by the goodwill of all the Greeks, and had no need of a guard of spearmen … When Philip directed his attending friends to proceed him into the theater, while the guards kept their distance, [Pausanias] saw that the king was left alone, rushed at him, pierced him through his ribs, and stretched him out dead … Such was the end of Philip, who had made himself the greatest of the kings in Europe of his time, and because of the extent of his kingdom had made himself a throned companion of the twelve gods.

(Diodorus 16.92.5-93.1, 94.3, 95.1)

By combining Diodorus’ account with the picture of the theater given above, we can partially visualize what happened on that fateful day in 336 B.C.: in the early morning, a crowd of spectators, both Macedonians and Greeks, took their seats in the theater’s multi-tiered seating area (the area between the low fence and the trees in the upper part of the picture); subsequently, thirteen statues–twelve of the Olympian gods and one of Philip–were carried into the theater and placed in the orchestra (the area between the low fence and the stone wall running through the center of the picture); shortly thereafter, Philip’s entourage, including Alexander, entered the theater ahead of the king, with some perhaps standing in the orchestra and others perhaps taking their seats in the front row; and finally, Philip himself began making his way through the theater’s east entrance (the stone wall surmounted by the gold-colored bush on the left side of the picture), and, somewhere between there and the orchestra, was struck down by Pausanias.

Like the assassination of JFK, the assassination of Philip II has become a major topic of scholarly debate. While some have argued that Pausanias acted alone, his motive being revenge for Philip’s lenient treatment of a Macedonian nobleman who had sexually assaulted him, others have suggested that Olympias, Philip’s wife and Alexander’s mother, and possibly even Alexander himself may have been involved as well. My personal view is that Olympias and Alexander certainly had a motive (i.e, a desire to see Alexander made king and a fear, almost certainly irrational, that the prince was no longer his father’s heir-apparent), but I am less certain that Alexander, at least, would have countenanced such an act given the religious pollution associated with parricide in the ancient world. Whether he was involved or not, though, Alexander proved to be the major beneficiary of his father’s murder: within hours, Alexander was proclaimed king of Macedon, and, within less than two years, was in a position to begin the campaign from which he would go from being Alexander III to being Alexander the Great.

From the theater, I made my way around to the entrance to the palace of Aegae. Here, I had an inspired idea. Noticing that there seemed to be people working at the palace site, I decided to try talking to someone there in the hopes that, given my present Alexander quest and, no less importantly, my ability to explain said quest in Greek, they might make an exception to their strict no-visitor policy. Remarkably, the idea worked. No sooner had I explained to a group of Greek archaeologists and craftsmen who I was and what I was doing in Greece than Charis, one of the leaders of the team, began taking me on a private tour of the palace.

Here is a sample of the photos I took in the course of this tour.

-Courtyard: Located in the center of the palace, the courtyard would originally have been an open-roof area surrounded by a giant colonnade.

-Banqueting Rooms: The palace at Vergina boasts no less than three banqueting rooms (the Macedonians were famous for their heavy drinking, after all!), two of which contain impressive mosaics: one depicting a giant floral pattern and the other the mythological rape of Europa.

-Royal Bedrooms: While I have seen differing opinions about the nature of these rooms, Charis believes that they were the royal bedrooms. If so, then Alexander must have slept here whenever he visited Aegae–a rather mind-boggling thought (!).

Of all the things I learned during this tour, perhaps the most surprising was that the Greek government has spent more money on the palace at Vergina than any other ancient building besides the Parthenon. Though I would never have guessed this, even the quickest glance around the palace made it clear that this was not a cheap endeavor. All over the site, workers were busy not just preserving the ancient ruins, but reconstructing them (e.g., columns, walls, mosaics)–all with the aim of reopening the palace to visitors within a few years.

When the tour ended, I thanked Charis and his co-workers profusely. I could hardly believe my good fortune, not only in being allowed access to the site, but in being given this private tour. While my Alexander adventure is still in its early stages, I can say for certain that this experience was–and will remain–one of its true highlights.

To catch my breath from the high of visiting the palace, I took a break to have a late lunch back in the town of Vergina, a simple picnic of bread, almonds, and bananas. When I felt sufficiently refortified, I continued on to my final stop for the day: the Vergina museum, home of the Macedonian royal tombs.

Discovered in the late 1970’s by the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos, the Macedonian royal tombs provide the most vivid window into Alexander’s world of any surviving source, literary or archaeological. While debate continues to rage over who, exactly, is buried in each of Andronikos’ three main tombs, it is generally believed that two of Alexander’s closest kin are among them: Philip II and Alexander IV, Alexander the Great’s son by his Bactrian (modern Afghani) wife Roxane.

Here is a brief overview of the three tombs (with photos from the Internet, as the museum does not allow visitors to take their own).

Tomb I: The earliest of the three tombs discovered by Andronikos (mid 4th century B.C.), Tomb I has been attributed to several figures, including Philip II and Amyntas III, Philip’s father. The tomb is most famous for its stunning, if severely faded, painting of Hades’ abduction of Persephone.

Tomb II: This is the most famous–and controversial–of the tombs discovered by Andronikos. While some, most notably Andronikos himself, believe that this tomb belongs to Philip II, others hold that it belongs instead to Philip III, Philip II’s son and Alexander’s half-brother. What scholars all agree on, however, is the tomb’s spectacular nature, both in terms of its artistic program and its material remains.

-The Frieze: Depending on the main occupant of Tomb II, the frieze may either depict Alexander the Great (central mounted figure) and Philip II (mounted figure to the right) at a hunt, or Alexander IV (central mounted figure) and Philip III (mounted figure to the right) engaged in the same activity.

-The Larnax and Wreath: The gold vessel that contained the remains of the main occupant of Tomb II, and the gold wreath that crowned his head during the cremation ceremony.

-The Arms and Shield: The marvelous panoply of a king, almost certainly used only for ceremonial purposes. The shield is particularly stunning, containing, as it does, a chryselephantine (gold + ivory) central boss that seems to depict Achilles’ slaying of the Amazon Penthesileia.

-The Ivory Heads: Fragments of a frieze from a ceremonial couch discovered in Tomb II, these two ivory heads may depict Philip II and Alexander the Great. If so, this Alexander head is, I believe, the earliest surviving contemporary portrait of the future world conqueror.

Tomb III: The latest of the tombs discovered by Andronikos (late 4th century B.C.), Tomb III is widely agreed to belong to Alexander IV, Alexander the Great’s son who was murdered by Cassander ca. 310 B.C. Though somewhat less spectacular than Tomb II, Tomb III is still a remarkable discovery, with several stunning features.

-The Painting: The antechamber of the tomb contains a chariot race painting, perhaps an activity that Alexander IV was particularly fond of.

-The Hydria: The silver vessel that contained the remains of the main occupant of Tomb III, most likely Alexander IV, and the gold wreath that crowned his head during the cremation ceremony.

Since I realize I have strained the blogging format to the breaking point with this post, let me conclude with a simple recommendation: if you find yourself feeling even the slightest interest in the Macedonian royal tombs, make sure to visit them in person at some point in your life. Should you do so, you might just have a magical moment like I did this time–sitting completely alone before Tomb II, possible resting place of Philip II, and hearing nothing but the eerily beautiful silence of the intervening millennia.

 

Pella

On Monday (10-2), I visited Pella, the birthplace of Alexander and the capital of ancient Macedon.

Taking a bus from Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city and my home base for the first few days, I arrived at Pella in the early afternoon. While I had visited Pella before during my semester at College Year in Athens (CYA), I thought that returning to the site now would be the perfect way to begin my journey. And so it proved.

There were two things that made this second visit to Pella special. First, I was able to explore the site for as long as I wanted (something that, understandably, had not been possible when I came with CYA); and second–and more incredibly–I had the site virtually to myself for much of the afternoon.

While I came to Pella hoping to see the city as it was in the time of Alexander, I soon discovered (or, rather, rediscovered) that I was mainly seeing the city as it was in the time of Cassander, the Alexander-loathing Successor who gained control of Macedon after the conqueror’s death. Whatever disappointment I felt at this discovery, however, was more than outweighed by the grandeur, albeit greatly faded, of the site itself.

To my mind, Pella’s three standout features were the following:

-The House of Dionysus: Probably the most beautiful part of the site today, the House of Dionysus contains a graceful colonnade and several stunning mosaics, including one depicting Dionysus on a panther (now in the archaeological museum) and another depicting two men, possibly Alexander and his general Craterus, hunting a lion (also in the archaeological museum, but unfortunately not on display at the moment).

-The Agora: The Pella agora, or market-place, is truly impressive, ranking among the largest in the Greek world. At the center of the agora was a giant, open square, while along each of the four sides were businesses as well as government and religious buildings.

-The Old North Wall: Though objectively nothing to write home about, this tiny piece of wall found a special place in my heart as soon as I learned that it used to be part of the city’s northern fortifications during Alexander’s day (!).

When I had finished exploring the archaeological site, I made my way up to the new archaeological museum, the highlight of which, for me, was was the Giannitsa Alexander, a famous statue found in the nearby town of the same name.

My visit to Pella ended on a high note. Learning that I had about an hour until the final bus departed for Thessaloniki, I took off from the museum to make one final stop: the ancient palace. While I knew that the palace, unlike the rest of the ancient city, was closed due to ongoing archaeological work, I thought it might still be worth peering over the gate to see what, if anything, was visible. From a purely material perspective, the result was disappointing: all of the palace ruins, I found, were covered by protective sheds. Yet, from a human perspective, I couldn’t help but be moved: here, right before my eyes, I realized, must be the hill on which Alexander had been born.

And so, having taken in that stirring view, I hurried back to the bus stop, reaching it, in a stroke of Alexandrian good fortune, with time to spare.

 

 

Introduction

-Που είναι ο Μεγαλέξανδρος;
-ο Μεγαλέξανδρος ζει και βασιλεύει.

-Where is Great Alexander?
-Great Alexander lives and reigns.
Medieval Greek proverb

Welcome to “Pothos”, a blog chronicling my journey following in the footsteps of Alexander the Great. Having never written a blog before–and being someone for whom writing does not come easily–I will admit to having been initially reluctant to begin one now. As my trip drew closer, however, I came to see the benefits of doing so: first, that a blog could serve the familiar purposes of a journal, helping me both process the experience as it is happening and remember it better after it is over; second, that it could allow my family and friends to follow my journey, even if only at second hand; and third, that it might, in some small way, help inspire in you, the readers of this blog, an interest in Alexander, the historical figure who, more than any other, has fascinated me since childhood.

While my ambitions for this Alexander trip were originally far grander, I decided, in the end, to focus on a single part of the Macedonian king’s career: his early campaigns in Greece and the Balkans. Following an initial tour of three Macedonian sites central to Alexander’s childhood and adolescence (Pella, Aegae, Mieza), I will retrace Alexander’s Greek campaign of 336 B.C., his first as king of Macedon. Beginning in Pella, the Macedonian capital, I will make my way south to Corinth, where the young king convinced the Greek city-states to remain faithful to the Panhellenic (all-Greek) alliance his father Philip had recently established. From there, I will return to Macedonia to follow Alexander’s Balkan campaign of 335 B.C. Starting from Amphipolis, a city that has recently been in the news due to the discovery of a colossal Macedonian tomb dated to Alexander’s own period, I will retrace Alexander’s march against the Thracian and Illyrian tribes to the north of Macedon, a march that will take me through parts of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, and Albania. Finally, and as the closing act of the trip, I will follow Alexander’s fateful march on Thebes, a march that resulted in the shocking destruction of one of Greece’s most venerable city-states.

The title of this blog requires some explanation. An Ancient Greek word meaning “desire”, “longing”, or “yearning”, pothos is frequently used by the ancient Alexander historians to describe their subject’s deep, if somewhat mysterious, desires–his desire, for example, to visit the Oracle of Ammon in the midst of the Libyan desert, or his desire to capture Aornus, an Indian stronghold that Hercules himself had supposedly failed to capture. Thus, given my own desire to follow in the footsteps of a man who has been dead for over 2,000 years, “Pothos” seemed a natural title

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the blog!

P.S. In the coming days, I will be posting about my visits to Pella, Aegae, and Mieza. Stay tuned!