Tom Holland

Like father like son

Phillip II of Macedonia by Ian Worthington<br /> <br type="_moz" />

issue 30 August 2008

Phillip II of Macedonia by Ian Worthington

Alexander the Great, it goes without saying, was a man not much given to modesty. In 334 BC, as he was preparing to embark on his invasion of Asia, his mother, the sinister witch-queen Olympias, whispered in his ear ‘the secret of his birth’, revealing that he was in fact the son of a god, of Zeus himself — and Alexander believed her.

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