The exploits of Alexander the Great were so remarkable that for
centuries after his death the Macedonian ruler seemed a figure more
of legend than of history. Thinkers of the European Enlightenment,
searching for ancient models to understand contemporary affairs,
were the first to critically interpret Alexander's achievements. As
Pierre Briant shows, in the minds of eighteenth-century
intellectuals and philosophes, Alexander was the first European: a
successful creator of empire who opened the door to new sources of
trade and scientific knowledge, and an enlightened leader who
brought the fruits of Western civilization to an oppressed and
backward "Orient." In France, Scotland, England, and Germany,
Alexander the Great became an important point of reference in
discourses from philosophy and history to political economy and
geography. Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Robertson asked what lessons
Alexander's empire-building had to teach modern Europeans. They saw
the ancient Macedonian as the embodiment of the rational and
benevolent Western ruler, a historical model to be emulated as
Western powers accelerated their colonial expansion into Asia,
India, and the Middle East. For a Europe that had to contend with
the formidable Ottoman Empire, Alexander provided an important
precedent as the conqueror who had brought great tyrants of the
"Orient" to heel. As The First European makes clear, in the minds
of Europe's leading thinkers, Alexander was not an aggressive
militarist but a civilizing force whose conquests revitalized Asian
lands that had lain stagnant for centuries under the lash of
despotic rulers.
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