Alessandro, Aristotele e l’unità dell’impero: per uno stato dell’arte fra ricezione di Alessandro e critica aristotelica

Poddighe, E.

2024-01-01

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Abstract

The relationship between Alexander the cosmocrator and Aristotle the political theorist is a “classical” theme in the reception and criticism of the Macedonian king and Aristotle’s work respectively. The study of this theme allows us to compare two different research perspectives. The first is that of Aristotle as Alexander’s political advisor: this image is fully developed in the Eastern and Western tradition and finds its main context of elaboration in the Roman culture of the imperial age. The second perspective, which is given priority here, attempts to shed light on what is undoubtedly the most complex and controversial aspect of the critical reworking of the relationship between Alexander and Aristotle, namely the extent of Aristotle’s actual intellectual involvement with the novelty of the political achievements of the Macedonian monarchy. It is possible to isolate a thematic core that serves as a link between these two perspectives: it is the theme of the unity of the empire. If we isolate the theme of the unity of the empire in Alexander’s reception, we immediately see the central role assigned to Aristotle. Alexander’s entire ecumenical design tends to be traced back to Aristotle's teaching, that is, the theoretical design that ideologically underpins the unification of the Greek cities into a unified state above the individual poleis and, at the same time, the project of a unified government of the world. Scholars are in relative agreement on the nature of this relationship, as well as on the different functions played by Aristotle’s presence alongside Alexander in the cultural context of its elaboration, which can be traced back to the Roman-imperial period (I-III AD). In this context, the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander invests every aspect of the action of conquest, from the political to the cultural, from the scientific to the religious. However, if we look at the subject of the unity of Alexander’s empire from the perspective of a critical reworking of what can be found in Aristotle’s work on this point, the state of the art changes radically. Indeed, there is considerable scholarly disagreement as to whether Aristotle considered the political achievements of the Macedonian monarchy. The question of the permeability of Aristotle’s reflections to the novelties that the political and juridical relationship between the Macedonian kingdom and the Greek cities had introduced into the sphere of hegemonic relations between the Greek states, as well as the possibility that Aristotle had elaborated an even more advanced line of thought, capable of providing an ideological basis for the construction of Alexander's empire and justifying, on the level of political theory, the prospect of a new reality that went beyond the polis, remains extremely controversial. According to most scholars, Aristotle was literally “blind” to the changes his era was undergoing. Other scholars, on the other hand, believe that it is necessary to overturn this image and recognise an Aristotle who was certainly involved in Alexander’s ideological construction of world government. In exploring this theme, I would like to try to outline a more nuanced relationship between Alexander and Aristotle, in which the latter is engaged in illustrating what he knows best about Alexander’s ecumenical design: the problem of the unity of the Greeks.