Plutarch on Alexander

The Greek author Plutarch of Chaeronea gives the following assessment of Alexander the Great in his treatise on Alexander's fortune and virtue (328c-329d): he brought civilization to Asia. Many historians have believed that these words are historically accurate, although they are taken from a laudatory speech.

The translation was made by M.M. Austin.

An ancient assessment of Alexander

[5] If you consider the effects of Alexander's instruction, you will see that he educated the Hyrcanians to contract marriages, taught the Arachosians to till the soil,^note[A preposterous remark. The word Arachosia means "well-watered land" and indicates the high quality of its agriculture.] and persuaded the Sogdians to support their parents, not to kill them,^note[The Greeks believed that there were cannibals in Central-Asia.] and the Persians to respect their mothers, not to marry them.^note[So much for Greek understanding of polygamy.] Most admirable philosophy, which induced the Indians to worship Greek gods, and the Scythians to bury their dead and not to eat them!

We admire the power of [the Athenian philosopher] Carneades, who caused Clitomachus, formerly called Hasdrubal and a Carthaginian by birth, to adopt Greek ways. We admire the character of Zeno, who persuaded Diogenes the Babylonian to turn to philosophy. Yet when Alexander was taming Asia, [the legendary poet] Homer became widely read, and the children of the Persians, of the Susianians and the Gedrosians sang the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles.

And Socrates was condemned by the sycophants in Athens for introducing new deities, while thanks to Alexander Bactria and the Caucasus worshipped the gods of the Greeks. Plato drew up in writing one ideal constitution but could not persuade anyone to adopt it because of its severity, while Alexander founded over seventy cities among barbarian tribes, sprinkled Greek institutions all over Asia, and so overcame its wild and savage manner of living. Few of us read Plato's Laws, but the laws of Alexander have been and are still used by millions of men.

Those who were subdued by Alexander are more fortunate than those who escaped him, for the latter had no one to rescue them from their wretched life, while the victorious Alexander compelled the former to enjoy a better existence. [...] Alexander's victims would not have been civilized if they had not been defeated. Egypt would not have had its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleucia, nor Sogdia its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, nor the Caucasus^note[Here you can read more about Alexander's founding of Alexandria. Seleucia was in fact founded by Seleucus, the first of the Seleucid kings. Prophthasia was not situated in Sogdia, but in Drangiana. Bucephalia was built on the banks of the