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Alexander: Mutiny at Opis

Alexander the Great is one of the most extraordinary individuals in history. He became king of the fringe Greek kingdom of Macedonia in 336 BC at the age of just 20, and before his death twelve years later, had imposed Macedonian overlordship on Greece, destroyed the mighty Persian Empire and led an army deep into modern Afghanistan and to the Indian frontier. At Opis he faced a mutiny by his Macedonian troops, angered that he wanted to send some of them home, while appearing to give preference to his new Asian subjects, and adopting many of their customs. Alexander dealt ruthlessly with the ringleaders, before (according to 'The Anabasis' by Roman historian Arrian) making a speech to his army in which he berated his troops for their disloyalty. The speech, as it has reached us, was no doubt written by Arrian rather than Alexander. His actual words are certainly vanished forever. But Arrian had access to eyewitness accounts which are now lost (principally Ptolemy and Nearchus), and modern historians generally agree that the speech was a real historical event, and that Arrian gives a good representation of its likely content. Beyond its (contested and debated) value as a historical source, Arrian's speech is a moment of exceptional drama and brilliant writing, in which Alexander first highlights his debt to his father Philip, before launching into a tirade in which he lists his own astounding achievements and qualities of leadership. The speech has been abridged and edited by myself for this video. You can read Arrian's full version in English translation here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Anabasis_of_Alexander/Book_VII/Chapter_IX Buy Alexander books at Amazon and support the channel! The best recent Alexander biography http://geni.us/ynqSFln A short introduction to Alexander http://geni.us/9jMbPiH The most recent English translation of Arrian http://geni.us/KTv8 Get early access and a vote on future topics by supporting Epic History TV on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/epichistorytv Music from Filmstro https://www.filmstro.com/ Get 20% off an annual license with this exclusive code: EPICHISTORYTV_ANN