Frases de Alejandro Magno

Alejandro III de Macedonia , más conocido como Alejandro Magno , fue el rey de Macedonia desde 336 a. C. hasta su muerte. Hijo y sucesor de Olimpia de Epiro y Filipo II de Macedonia, su padre, quien lo preparó para reinar, proporcionándole una experiencia militar y encomendando a Aristóteles su formación intelectual. Alejandro Magno dedicó los primeros años de su reinado a imponer su autoridad sobre los pueblos sometidos a Macedonia, que habían aprovechado la muerte de Filipo para rebelarse. Y enseguida —334 a. C.— lanzó a su ejército contra el poderoso y extenso Imperio persa, continuando así la empresa que su padre había iniciado poco antes de morir: una guerra de venganza de los griegos —bajo el liderazgo de Macedonia— contra los persas.

En su reinado de trece años, cambió por completo la estructura política y cultural de la zona al conquistar el Imperio aqueménida y dar inicio a una época de extraordinario intercambio cultural, en la que los griegos se expandieron por los ámbitos mediterráneo y próximoriental. Es el llamado Período helenístico Tanto es así, que sus hazañas lo han convertido en un mito y, en algunos momentos, en casi una figura divina, posiblemente por la profunda religiosidad que manifestó a lo largo de su vida.

Tras consolidar la frontera de los Balcanes y la hegemonía macedonia sobre las ciudades-estado de la antigua Grecia, poniendo fin a la rebelión que se produjo tras la muerte de su padre, Alejandro cruzó el Helesponto hacia Asia Menor y comenzó la conquista del Imperio persa, regido por Darío III. Victorioso en las batallas del Gránico , Issos , Gaugamela y de la Puerta Persa , se hizo con un dominio que se extendía por la Hélade, Egipto, Anatolia, Oriente Próximo y Asia Central, hasta los ríos Indo y Oxus. Habiendo avanzado hasta la India, donde derrotó al rey Poro en la batalla del Hidaspes , la negativa de sus tropas a continuar hacia Oriente le obligó a retornar a Babilonia, donde falleció sin completar sus planes de conquista de la península arábica. Con la llamada "política de fusión", Alejandro promovió la integración de los pueblos sometidos a la dominación macedonia promoviendo su incorporación al ejército y favoreciendo los matrimonios mixtos. Él mismo se casó con dos mujeres persas de noble cuna.

El conquistador macedonio falleció en circunstancias oscuras, dejando un imperio sin consolidar. El control sobre diversas regiones era débil en el mejor de los casos, y había partes del norte de Asia Menor que jamás se hallaron bajo dominio macedonio. Al morir sin nombrar claramente un heredero, le sucedió su medio hermano Filipo III Arrideo , que era deficiente, y su hijo póstumo Alejandro IV . Meros figurones, el verdadero poder estuvo en manos de sus generales, los llamados diádocos , que iniciaron una lucha despiadada por la supremacía que conduciría al reparto del imperio de Alejandro y su fraccionamiento en una serie de reinos, entre los cuales acabarían imponiéndose el Egipto Ptolemaico, el Imperio seléucida y la Macedonia antigónida.

Alejandro es el mayor de los iconos culturales de la Antigüedad, ensalzado como el más heroico de los grandes conquistadores, un segundo Aquiles, o vilipendiado como un tirano megalómano que destruyó la estabilidad creada por los persas. Su figura y legado han estado presentes en la historia y la cultura, tanto de Occidente como de Oriente, a lo largo de más de dos milenios, y ha inspirado a los grandes conquistadores de todos los tiempos, desde Julio César hasta Napoleón Bonaparte.

✵ 20. julio 356 a.C. – 10. junio 323 a.C.   •   Otros nombres Alexander der Große, Alexandr Makedonský Veliký
Alejandro Magno Foto
Alejandro Magno: 36   frases 20   Me gusta

Frases célebres de Alejandro Magno

“¡Qué excelente caballo pierden por falta de destreza y denuedo para manejarlo!”

Sin fuentes
Cuando se llevaban al caballo Bucéfalo por ser completamente inútil e indomable.

“No robaré mi victoria.”

Sin fuentes
Respuesta de sus tropas cuando le aconsejaban atacar en la noche a las inmensas tropas de Darío en la Batalla de Gaugamela.

“Cuando esteis más alegres.”

Sin fuentes
Fue su respuesta a sus generales cuando éstos le preguntaron cuándo quería que se dieran inicio (sus honores fúnebres).

“Todos juran que soy hijo de Júpiter, pero esta herida está proclamando que soy hombre.”

Fuente: Citado por Séneca en su obra Cartas a Lucilio, Carta LIX.

“Amigos, ahí tenéis al hombre que se disponía a pasar de Europa al Asia: pasando de un lecho a otro ha acabado por los suelos.”

Aludiendo a su padre Filipo, que borracho en su propia boda, se dirigía espada en mano contra Alejandro, furioso por una frase de su hijo.
Fuente: Plutarco, Vidas paralelas, Alejandro.

Alejandro Magno Frases y Citas

“Para mí he dejado lo mejor: la esperanza.”

Sin fuentes
Fue su respuesta a Perdicas cuando éste le preguntó. ¿Para ti que has dejado? Pues de los bienes ganados en batalla todo lo había repartido a sus soldados.

“Si espero perderé la energía de la juventud.”

Sin fuentes
Fue su respuesta a su maestro Aristóteles cuando éste le sugirió que esperase a tener más edad, pues con sólo 16 años no era edad para comandar su primera batalla.

“Si yo no fuese Alejandro, quisiera ser Diógenes.”

Sin fuentes
Exclamó eso después de decirle a Diógenes el cínico que pidiera lo que quisiera, y este pidió que Alejandro se moviese a un lado pues le tapaba el baño de sol matutino al que estaba acostumbrado.

“Ya me imagino cuán ostentosos serán mis honores fúnebres.”

Sin fuentes
Exclamó esto el último día que agonizaba.

“Al más fuerte…”

Sin fuentes
Fue su última frase en agonía de muerte mientras sus generales le suplicaban dijese a quién dejaría administrando su vasto imperio. Se debate mucho lo que Alejandro respondió: algunos creen que dijo Krat'eroi (‘al más fuerte’) y otros que dijo Krater'oi (‘a Crátero’). Esta controversia se debe a que la pronunciación griega de ‘el más fuerte’ y "Crátero" difieren sólo por la posición de la sílaba acentuada.
Últimas palabras

“Yo he venido a Asia, no con el propósito de recibir lo que vosotros me deis, sino con el de que tengáis lo que yo deje.”

Fuente: Citado por Séneca en su obra Cartas a Lucilio, Carta LIII.

Alejandro Magno: Frases en inglés

“A king does not kill messengers.”

As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, 1.37.9-13
Contexto: Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.

Alexander the Great frase: “There is nothing impossible to him who will try.”

“There is nothing impossible to him who will try.”

On taking charge of an attack on a fortress, in Pushing to the Front, or, Success under Difficulties : A Book of Inspiration (1896) by Orison Swett Marden, p. 55

“So would I, if I were Parmenion.”

As quoted in Lives by Plutarch, after Parmenion suggested to him after the Battle of Issus that he should accept Darius III of Persia's offer of an alliance, the hand of his daughter in marriage, and all Minor Asia, saying "If I were Alexander, I would accept the terms" (Variant translation: I would accept it if I were Alexander).
Variants: I too, if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander.
So would I, if I were Parmenion.
So should I, if I were Parmenion.
So should I, if I were Parmenion: but as I am Alexander, I cannot.
I would do it if I was Parmenion, but I am Alexander.
If I were Parmenion, that is what I would do. But I am Alexander and so will answer in another way.
So would I, if I were Parmenion, but I am Alexander, so I will send Darius a different answer.
If I were Perdicas, I shall not fail to tell you, I would have endorsed this arrangement at once, but I am Alexander, and I shall not do it. (as quoted from medieval French romances in The Medieval French Alexander (2002) by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox, p. 81)

“Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war.”

Addressing his troops prior to the Battle of Issus, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian Book II, 7
Contexto: Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war. Above all, we are free men, and they are slaves. There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service — but how different is their cause from ours! They will be fighting for pay — and not much of at that; we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As for our foreign troops — Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes — they are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia. And what, finally, of the two men in supreme command? You have Alexander, they — Darius!

“If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes.”

After Diogenes of Sinope who was lying in the sun, responded to a query by Alexander asking if he could do anything for him with a reply requesting that he stop blocking his sunlight. As quoted in "On the Fortune of Alexander" by Plutarch, 332 a-b

“Know ye not that the end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered?”

As quoted in Lives by Plutarch, VII, "Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar" (40.2), as translated by Bernadotte Perrin

“I consider not what Parmenion should receive, but what Alexander should give.”

On his gifts for the services of others, as quoted in Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words That Have A Tale To Tell (1905) by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, p. 30
quoted in Alexander : A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War from Earliest Times to the Battle Of Ipsus, B. C. 301 (1899) by Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Variante: It is not what Parmenio should receive, but what Alexander should give.

“Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.”

As quoted in Alexander the Great (1973) by Robin Lane Fox
Unsourced variant : Only sex and sleep make me conscious that I am mortal.

“What an excellent horse do they lose, for want of address and boldness to manage him! … I could manage this horse better than others do.”

Statement upon seeing Bucephalas being led away as useless and beyond training, as quoted in Lives by Plutarch, as translated by Arthur Hugh Clough

“For my part, I assure you, I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.”

Quoted by Plutarch in Life of Alexander http://books.google.com/books?id=vWIOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22for+my+part+I+assure+you+I+had+rather+excel+others+in+the+knowledge+of+what+is+excellent+than+in+the+extent+of+my+power+and+dominion%22&pg=PA167#v=onepage from Plutarch's Lives as translated by John Dryden (1683)

“Shall I pass by and leave you lying there because of the expedition you led against Greece, or shall I set you up again because of your magnanimity and your virtues in other respects?”

Pausing and addressing to a fallen statue of Xerxes the Great
Plutarch. The age of Alexander: nine Greek lives. Penguin, 1977. p. 294 http://books.google.com/books?ei=0bC3T9ejHcPQsgarjcHWBw&id=eFAJAQAAIAAJ&q=%22set+you+up+again+because+of+your+magnanimity+and+your+virtues+in+other+respects%22#search_anchor

“Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Hellas [Greece] and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you.”

Alexander's letter to Persian king Darius III of Persia in response to a truce plea, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian; translated as Anabasis of Alexander by P. A. Brunt, for the "Loeb Edition" Book II 14, 4

“There are no more worlds to conquer!”

Statement portrayed as a quotation in a 1927 Reader's Digest article, this probably derives from traditions about Alexander lamenting at his father Philip's victories that there would be no conquests left for him, or that after his conquests in Egypt and Asia there were no worlds left to conquer.
Some of the oldest accounts of this, as quoted by John Calvin state that on "hearing that there were other worlds, wept that he had not yet conquered one."
This may originate from Plutarch's essay On the Tranquility of Mind, part of the essays Moralia: Alexander wept when he heard Anaxarchus discourse about an infinite number of worlds, and when his friends inquired what ailed him, "Is it not worthy of tears," he said, "that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?"
There are no more other worlds to conquer!
Variant attributed as his "last words" at a few sites on the internet, but in no published sources.
Disputed
Fuente: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_tranquillitate_animi*.html

“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.”

Attributed to Alexander, as quoted in The British Battle Fleet: Its Inception and Growth Throughout the Centuries to the Present Day (1915) by Frederick Thomas Jane, but many variants of similar statements exist which have been attributed to others, though in research done for Wikiquote definite citations of original documents have not yet been found for any of them:
I should prefer an army of stags led by a lion, to an army of lions led by a stag.
Attributed to Chabrias, who died around the time Alexander was born, thus his is the earliest life to whom such assertions have been attributed; as quoted in A Treatise on the Defence of Fortified Places (1814) by Lazare Carnot, p. 50
An army of stags led by a lion would be better than an army of lions led by a stag.
Attributed to Chabrias, A History of Ireland (1857) by Thomas Mooney, p. 760
An army of stags led by a lion is superior to an army of lions led by a stag.
Attributed to Chabrias, The New American Cyclopaedia : A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge (1863), Vol. 4, p. 670
An army of sheep led by a lion are more to be feared than an army of lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Chabrias, The Older We Get, The Better We Were, Marine Corps Sea Stories (2004) by Vince Crawley, p. 67
It is better to have sheep led by a lion than lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Polybius in Between Spenser and Swift: English Writing in Seventeenth Century Ireland (2005) by Deana Rankin, p. 124, citing A Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, from 1641 to 1652 (1880) by John Thomas Gilbert Vol. I, i, p. 153 - 157; but conceivably this might be reference to Polybius the historian quoting either Alexander or Chabrias.
An army composed of sheep but led by a lion is more powerful than an army of lions led by a sheep.
"Proverb" quoted by Agostino Nifo in De Regnandi Peritia (1523) as cited in Machiavelli - The First Century: Studies in Enthusiasm, Hostility, and Irrelevance (2005) by Mathew Thomson, p. 55
Greater is an army of sheep led by a lion, than an army of lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Daniel Defoe (c. 1659 - 1731)
I am more afraid of one hundred sheep led by a lion than one hundred lions led by a sheep.
Attributed to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754 – 1838) Variants: I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
I am not afraid of an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of army of 100 sheeps led by a lion.
Variants quoted as an anonymous proverb:
Better a herd of sheep led by a lion than a herd of lions led by a sheep.
A flock of sheep led by a lion was more powerful than a flock of lions led by a sheep.
An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
It were better to have an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of lions led by a sheep.
An army of sheep led by a lion, will defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
An army of sheep led by a lion would be superior to an army of lions led by a sheep.
Unsourced attribution to Alexander: I would not fear a pack of lions led by a sheep, but I would always fear a flock of sheep led by a lion.
As one lion overcomes many people and as one wolf scatters many sheep, so likewise will I, with one word, destroy the peoples who have come against me.
This slightly similar statement is the only quote relating to lions in The History of Alexander the Great, Being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes (1889) as translated by E. A. Wallis Budge, but it is attributed to Nectanebus (Nectanebo II).
Disputed

“To the strongest!”

After being asked, by his generals on his deathbed, who was to succeed him. It has been speculated that his voice may have been indistinct and that he may have said "Krateros" (the name of one of his generals), but Krateros was not around, and the others may have chosen to hear "Kratistos" — the strongest. As quoted in The Mask of Jove: a history of Graeco-Roman civilization from the death of Alexander to the death of Constantine (1966) by Stringfellow Barr, p. 6

“I do not steal victory.”

Reply to the suggestion by Parmenion, before the Battle of Gaugamela, that he attack the Persian camp during the night, reported in Life of Alexander by Plutarch, as quoted in A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great (1900) by John Bagnell Bury

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