Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE), the famous philosopher and mentor of Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE), acknowledged that open and accessible societies could face threats and danger from the presence of foreigners. Some of these dangers included the accumulation of land by foreign buyers, cultural clashes in centers of commerce, foreign interference in government, and other forms of troublesome machinations. Despite the recognition of these concerns, Aristotle was in no way a xenophobe. Instead, he openly criticized people who exhibited inhospitable and malicious reactions to foreigners. Countering this, Aristotle advocated that a person should show a kind disposition toward guests in one’s lands. In his text, The Politics, Aristotle wrote, “harshness to strangers is, I think, quite wrong; one ought not to behave thus to anyone, and fierceness is not a mark of natural greatness of mind except towards wrongdoers” (Aristotle, The Politics, Bekker page 1327b). Curiously, Aristotle’s pupil, Alexander the Great, seemed to take the message of cultural tolerance to heart. Rather than look at foreigners as barbarians, Alexander welcomed them both culturally and intimately. The polygamous king kept a mistress named Barsine, daughter of the Persian satrap Artabazus II, and he went on to marry Roxana, daughter of the Persian vassal, Oxyartes, and also married Stateira and Parysatis, daughters of the Persian kings Darius III and Artaxerxes, respectively. Alexander tried to bridge the cultural divide between the Greeks and the peoples of the new lands he had conquered. In this regard, he experimented with hybridizing his royal court’s fashion and ceremonial processes, much to the dislike of his longest serving lieutenants. Such cultural clashes with unhappy Greeks ultimately led Alexander to execute his disgruntled biographer and propagandist, Callisthenes (d. 327 BCE)—who, ironically, was a nephew and fellow student of Aristotle.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Cropped section of Orestes and Pylades Disputing at the Altar, Painted By Pieter Lastman (c. 1583-1633), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Rijksmuseum).
Sources
- The Politics by Aristotle, translated by T. A. Sinclair and revised by T. J. Saunders. London: Penguin Classics, 1962, 1992.
- The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. New York: Penguin Classics, 1971.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Callisthenes-of-Olynthus
