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How Historically Accurate is Alexander

426 bytes added, 08:09, 4 January 2017
Historical Accuracy
==Historical Accuracy==
The film has been criticized by many historians for a lack clarity on many key issues in Alexander's life. For instance, key battles and sieges were ignored and too much focus was given on Gaugamela. The Persians were depicted as mostly disorganized, but in reality were a formidable, organized force that required Alexander's great skill to defeat them. Many of the characters, including Philotas Cleitus and Darius III, the Persian king, were shown as young, but in reality were older men in their 40s and 50s. Alexander is shown as wounded in the battle at Hydaspes, but in reality he was wounded in another engagement in India. Many generalities are also given regarding Babylon, where imagery showed a combination of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian themes in the mostly Babylonian city that was one of the capitals of the Achaemenid Empire. In fact, imagery of Babylon remind one of the film <i>Intolerance</i> by D.W.Griffith, which was full of a variety of mixed legends. The Indian ruler Porus historically earned the respect of Alexander and was given status as a king even after his defeat to Alexander. This is mostly ignored in the film. The Lighthouse of Alexandria is briefly shown in one season as Ptolemy is describing the story of Alexandria. In reality, although he did commission its construction, it was not finished in his lifetime. At the time of the film's release, much was made about Alexander's homosexual behavior. Although Alexander was rumored to have slept with men, with his companion Hephaestion as one possibility, there is no clear evidence if he slept with women and men. It is known Alexander did have several wives, but it may have not been uncommon, at least for royalty, to also have male lovers as well as wives. The strongest evidence he had a male lover is with Bagoas, a Persian eunuch in Darius' court who may have also been Darius' lover. Bagoas was described as having exceptional beauty from known accounts. Despite some fairly glaring inaccuracies, some often less known facts do come through, including the diary that Ptolemy wrote that did likely exist and probably did burn in Alexandria centuries later when the famous Great Library burned. This, in fact, probably gave the film some historical leeway and does suggest there probably is a lot about Alexander we have never learned.<ref>For more on the period of Alexander and his successor generals, see: Waterfield, R. (2013). <i>Dividing the spoils: the war for Alexander the Great’s empire.</i> Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.</ref>
==Summary==

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