Alexander, the Crown Prince

Abstract

The Life of Alexander by Plutarch and the Alexander Romance by Ps.-Callisthenes are the only two sources that deal with Alexander’s birth, childhood and youth. Both works deliver a large number of anectodes: but only in the case of Plutarch’s biography do these anecdotes maintain a firm connection with reality. In the Alexander Romance, the author offers the reader a story full of plot twists. Alexander’s youth ended abruptly in the autumn of 336, when his father Philip II was murdered in Aigai, during the ceremonies organized to celebrate the wedding between Cleopatra, Philip’s daughter and Alexander’s sister, and the king of Epirus, Alexander called Molossos: the crown prince became king in a sudden and most unexpected way.