Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Alexander was a master of marketing. In this short little clip, I talk a bit about the role of Kallisthenes (Aristotle's nephew) as his court "historian," or really, his court publicist. This wasn't a position Philip had employed at his court but seems to have been invented by Alexander for his Asian Campaign, to send home (to Greece) "Dispatches from the Front."
Yet that was only one way Alexander looked after his image. He also controlled who was allowed to make official paintings and sculptures. This is one of the first examples (at least in Greece) where we find of this sort of extensive, deliberate marketing/narrative-control by a ruler...although it will be far from the last.
For more on Kallisthenes' and his history, check my earlier video "Lost Historians of Alexander the Great" youtube.com/watch?v=13r2ztkwtss
Small correction: I say I'm on Sunset Boulevard, but I had moved on to Hollywood Boulevard at that point.
Alexander was a master of marketing. In this short little clip, I talk a bit about the role of Kallisthenes (Aristotle's nephew) as his court "historian," or really, his court publicist. This wasn't a position Philip had employed at his court but seems to have been invented by Alexander for his Asian Campaign, to send home (to Greece) "Dispatches from the Front."
Yet that was only one way Alexander looked after his image. He also controlled who was allowed to make official paintings and sculptures. This is one of the first examples (at least in Greece) where we find of this sort of extensive, deliberate marketing/narrative-control by a ruler...although it will be far from the last.
For more on Kallisthenes' and his history, check my earlier video "Lost Historians of Alexander the Great" youtube.com/watch?v=13r2ztkwtss
Small correction: I say I'm on Sunset Boulevard, but I had moved on to Hollywood Boulevard at that point.
