history fact

**Caeser The III** · 01-09-2008, 04:29

if im not allowed to say this word in the monastery than im sorry, here's the fact.

Recently i saw a movie, and it showed a fact i never knew before, alexander the great was gay.............yes it is true

heres a roman military fact, the gold crown or leaf crown(somthing like that???) was given to a infantry man who was first up a enemy wall and survived the battle.

**Warmaster Horus** · 01-09-2008, 11:42

http://www.unrv.com/military/legionary-decorations.php

Check that site for more info on military decorations of Rome. The one you're talking about is the Corona Muralis (wall crown, when getting first in a besieged city) or Vallaris (when assaulting a fort).

As for Alexander... He lived 2300 years ago, had no heir, two (maybe three) wives, and a lifelong companion in the form of Hephaestion. It's a bit difficult in my opinion to declare whether he was homosexual or not. And it's a bad idea to trust a movie (I assume it's not a documentary you saw) upon these matters. Which movie was it?
Also, does it matter? I think it's more his achievements that matter.

**Ramses II CP** · 01-09-2008, 15:01

More over, the concept of homosexuality as it's currently understood in our civilization did not exist in the time of Alexander. It's a little bit like calling him a war criminal; certainly his actions would match the definition but no one from his period would even understand what you meant or see the purpose in describing him so.

**Innocentius** · 01-09-2008, 17:18

Facts, you say?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism

**Vorian** · 01-12-2008, 19:30

Originally Posted by Warmaster Horus

http://www.unrv.com/military/legionary-decorations.php

Check that site for more info on military decorations of Rome. The one you're talking about is the Corona Muralis (wall crown, when getting first in a besieged city) or Vallaris (when assaulting a fort).

As for Alexander... He lived 2300 years ago, had no heir, two (maybe three) wives, and a lifelong companion in the form of Hephaestion. It's a bit difficult in my opinion to declare whether he was homosexual or not. And it's a bad idea to trust a movie (I assume it's not a documentary you saw) upon these matters. Which movie was it?
Also, does it matter? I think it's more his achievements that matter.

Actually he had a heir, when he died his wife Roxanne was pregnant. The boy was murdered along with his mother by Cassander, at the age of twelve.

About the gay business, i am not putting myself into the debate. Just wanting to say that homosexuals in antiquity were not like we see them today.

**Quirinus** · 01-15-2008, 13:23

Sulla got a grass crown, I think, from his legions. Was it during his campaign against Italia? I'm not sure.

The Greeks of antiquity did not regard homosexuality with the taboo we do today-- one of the theories about the death of Phillip II revolves around a jealous male former lover, for example.

Originally Posted by Innocentius

Facts, you say?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_criticism

So by your reckoning, the Crusades never happened, the Mongol Empire was a fiction invented by fanciful Mongolian nationalists, and George Washington didn't really fight against the British, is that it?

It certainly seems so, from your posts. An amount of skepticism is always welcome, nay, essential to the study of history, but I find your superior sneering at everything very condescending.

**Innocentius** · 01-15-2008, 14:18

Originally Posted by Quirinus

So by your reckoning, the Crusades never happened, the Mongol Empire was a fiction invented by fanciful Mongolian nationalists, and George Washington didn't really fight against the British, is that it?

It certainly seems so, from your posts. An amount of skepticism is always welcome, nay, essential to the study of history, but I find your superior sneering at everything very condescending.

Now, you did bother to read the "facts" in the OP, did you?

**CrazyGuy** · 01-15-2008, 18:37

Alexander was probably 'gay' in the factual sense that he slept with men (probably younger men), but he wasn't gay in the normative usage of the word. It wasn't until Victorian times that homosexuality became such a social taboo. So while Alexander slept with men, he wasn't a homosexual in the way that we would look at it. Many historical figures took male (as well as female) lovers. Edward II immediately springs to mind.