Alexander: Child of a Dream by Valerio Massimo Manfredi Read Free Book Online Page B

and so, as Alexander progressed, other teachers, trainers and instructors were summoned to court.
As soon as Alexander was able to appreciate poetry, Leonidas began to read him the works of Homer, particularly the Iliad, because it presented the codes of honour and bearing that were appropriate to a royal prince of the house of the Argeads. In this way the old teacher began to win not only the minds of Alexander and his young companions, but their hearts too. However, the rhyme that announced Leonidas’ arrival in class was still to be heard echoing through the corridors of the palace:
Ek kori kori korone! Ek kori kori korone!
‘Here he is, here’s the old crow!’
Together with Alexander, Hephaestion listened to the poetry of Homer, and the two boys, enrapt, pictured in their minds’ eye all those extraordinary adventures the
story of the titanic struggle in which the strongest men and the most beautiful women in the world had taken part, joined even by the gods themselves, all of them with parts to play and sides to take.
By now Alexander was perfectly aware of who he was, of the universe that rotated around him and the destiny for which he was being prepared.
The models presented to him were those of heroism, of resistance to pain, of honour and respect for one’s word, of sacrifice to the point of offering one’s life. And he followed these models day after day, not out of the diligence of the disciple, but out of his own natural inclination.
Gradually his nature revealed itself for what it was: at one and the same time it displayed the brutal aggressiveness of his father the
royal temper that could flash like lightning together with the mysterious charm of his mother, her curiosity for the unknown, her hunger for mystery.
He cherished his mother deeply. It was an almost morbid bond, while he held his father in limitless esteem. Over time, however, this admiration gradually evolved into a desire for competition, an ever stronger will to emulate him. Indeed, there came a day when the frequent news of Philip’s successes seemed to sadden rather than please Alexander. He began to think that if his father conquered everything, then there would be no space left for him to demonstrate his own worth and valour.
He was still too young to be able to understand just how big the world is.
Occasionally, on entering Leonidas’ classroom along with his companions for their lessons, he would bump into a sad-looking youngster, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years of age, who always rushed off without stopping to speak.
‘Who is that boy?’ he asked his teacher one day.
That’s no concern of yours,’ replied Leonidas, briskly changing the subject.
     
Ever since becoming king, Philip’s greatest ambition had been to bring Macedon into the Greek world, but he well knew that to achieve this goal would inevitably require the use of brute force. For this reason he had dedicated all his resources to making his country a modern power, pulling it up out of its condition as a tribal land of herdsmen and livestock farmers.
He had developed agriculture on the plains, bringing skilled experts from the Greek islands and cities of Asia Minor, and he had intensified mining activity on Mount Pangaeos, extracting up to a thousand talents per annum of gold and silver.
He had imposed his authority on the tribal leaders and made them dependent on him either through force or through matrimonial alliances. He had also created an army the likes of which had never been seen before, consisting of enormously powerful heavy infantry, extremely mobile light infantry and squadrons of cavalry that had no reason whatsoever to fear any force in the Aegean area.
But all this had not been enough for him to be accepted as Greek. And not only Demosthenes, but also many other orators and men of politics in Athens, Corinth, Megara and Sicyon continued to call him Philip the Barbarian.
For the Greeks the Macedonian accent, which was influenced by the speech of the