Shane Mage wrote: "Like him or not, Alexander founded the greatest city in the world.
"For some 700 years, until the Christian barbarians destroyed its soul, Alexandria was the center of civilization, the fount of philosophy, technology, and learning."
Before its establishment, were there not Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum and the other school the name of which doesn't come to my mind currently.
How much credit must Alexander be given for these things. We know he died at the age of 33 and he was always on the run--from one country to another. He had no time to stay at one place and concentrate on anything except war and booty.
Besides, should the credit of flourishing of Alexandria be given to the victories of Macedonia or its subsequent defeat and destruction? For the defeat and destruction of Macedonia it was that sent philosophy-lovers out from their home into the open world--many of who went to settle in Alexandria and turn the place into the centre of learning.
Aristotle's most important works, his dialogues, were published in his lifetime and were immensely popular.
Thanks for the this information. I had acquired the notion from some commentators that Alexander had no respect for Aristotle leave alone having any gratitude for him. And Aristotle's manuscripts went from one hand to another for centuries till Arabs got hands on them.
Anyway, there have been, there are and there will be good and brave people in the world--though the multitude has been, and is beastly and cowardly. A life-span of 100 years or so of any generation has little or no significance. Generations upon generations pass on and thousands of years elapse without producing any significant change and without being of any worth or any semblance of worth. Even then, however, a minute of pain to any living being, and a minute of pain to any human being, is unbearable. The cry of any buffalo in distress is the most pleasant sound to the hyenas. And the cry of any place's people in distress is the most pleasant sound to the wicked neighbors, slaves, princes, kings, capitalists and so forth. But the cry of people in distress is heartbreaking to any sensitive and brave person.