Michael Baizerman Author

      Image: A Kazakh nomad “almost glued” to his mount       Courtesy: https://metaphorimages.photoshelter.com/image/I0000lAn3o2uAWVA My new chapter of Unit IV focuses on the treatment of nomadic pastoralists by the European literatti. I show that the pastoralist style was alien to well-educated authors and was shown as barbarian. Alexander the Great was applied as the guarding spirit of the oecumene- the civilization of the settled peoples. To match this role, he was commissioned to build the gate or the wall which was to shield the people of the sown from ugly and sinful steppe dwellers. Here's the extract:        The sober report of Arrian Flavius, a Hellenistic historian and Roman general, about Alexander’s failed attempt to overhaul King Darius at the breach in the mountain wall could not suit the sophisticated taste of adventure lovers. As a response to the challenge, an entangled legend wou...

My new chapter points out to the Greek twist of the legend which relates to Alexander putting up a wall or a gate at a mountain pass. I cite Arrian, one of our primary historical sources on Alexander, who mentions no such thing. I show that this yarn had already come into existence at the time of  Josephus Flavius, who makes it part of his narrative. I quote Pliny the Elder who testifies of a great confusion among his contemporaries concerning the location of the Caspian Gates. I'd like to give you a taste of my writing: "It was a long and breaking down chase. The bleeding but still alive Persian emperor took to flight into his eastern satrapies in the last-ditch effort to muster a new army against his victorious contender. The royal escape route passed through the Caspian Gates, a winding ground-level breach in a mountain wall. The pursuer, who would spare neither horses nor riders, was breathing down his neck in a desperate attempt to intercept the fleeting antagonist. ...