Duration: 1 hr. 30 mins.
Alexander the Great goes .. to France next October! And not just any place in France but at ''Le Louvre'', the country's most famous museum and one of the best museums on the planet. A major exhibition entitled "In the kingdom of Alexander the Great - Ancient Macedonia'' will be hosted at the famous museum from October 2011 until January 2012. Maybe October isn't too close, preparation, however, is almost completed, so that the artifacts will be sent to France from Greece.
The curator of the department of Greek and Roman antiquities of the Louvre Mrs Sophie Deschamp has travelled to all Macedonian cities in Northern Greece in order to....
select the 668 objects which are going to travel to Paris.
"The French know that Alexander was Greek, but not Macedonian. Things are a little confused. They don't know that Macedonia, the birthplace of Alexander the Great is part of Greece. The exhibition will be a great opportunity for the all the visitors of the Louvre to learn about Alexander the Great, the origin and the timelessness of his myth" said today in Thessaloniki, Mrs. Sophie Deschamp.
It should be noted that the French were the first who began excavations in the Ottoman Macedonia. During their excavations they took numerous antiquities in France, where are now presented at the Louvre. So thanks to the exhibition, the sets of the archaeological finds will be- temporarely- reunited.
The story of Alexander III of Macedonia, whom we know as Alexander the Great, is as much the stuff of history as it is of legend. His youth and extraordinary destiny granted him unparalleled glory. But what do we really know about him? Only a few contemporary accounts have come down to us.
Alexander was born in 356 BC, the son of Olympias, a Molossian princess, and Philip II, the king of Macedonia. The kingdom, which was located in the north of Greece, was prosperous and possessed a powerful army. Philip was able to impose his will over the other Greek tribes and city-states, but was assassinated in 336 while he was preparing to invade the neighboring Persian Empire. Alexander, who was twenty at the time, was proclaimed king of Macedonia. He made his father's projects his own and embarked on an unprecedented military expedition, which resulted in sweeping conquests and immense spoils. Alexander's troops pushed their way into Asia as far as the Indus River, founding a number of cities along the way. The story came to an abrupt end in Babylon — Alexander, who was suffering from a high fever, died in 323 without designating an heir. The period that followed was a troubled one, in which his generals, the Diadochoi, fought over the territories that had been conquered, seeking an unrivaled rule. Nevertheless, by 306 BC they had divided up the lands and each took the title of king. This was the beginning of the Hellenistic kingdoms that were dominated by powerful dynasties. The last of these, Lagid Egypt, disappeared in 30 BC, conquered by the Romans.
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Alexander the Great had been borne in Ancient Macedonia which was part of Greece. Consequently, Alexander the Great was Greek. All other rumors are groundless.
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