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Alexander the Great





I thought it was interesting in Chapter XI page 8 of Watchmen that Adrian Veidt claimed Alexander the Great as his hero. A notable historic figure who had the same hero was Napoleon Bonaparte. It also seems notable that Alexander the Great’s hero was Achilles.

Related to Adrian Veidt’s proclamation of his hero, he mentions that he admired how Alexander the Great had conquered the civilized world and managed to rule “without barbarism!” On the surface it seems Adrian Veidt is trying to say he wants to create a world without war- a civilized, peaceful world. It seems that his vision is to bring “an age of illumination to a benighted world” (benighted meaning dark and unenlightened). It is somewhat ironic, however, if you take the Greek meaning of the term (Alexander the Great was Greek after all). In Greek “barbarian” refers to anyone who is not Greek, who does not speak the Greek language. The way Alexander made the world “non-barbaric” was by spreading the Greek culture and Greek language to the conquered lands. I suppose, however, in essence, both Adrian Veidt and Alexander the Great accomplished the same feat of unifying the known world- despite their differing definitions of “barbarism”.


Though Adrian Veidt recognizes that Alexander the Great’s empire did not “survive him,” he doesn’t seem to recognize why. It is generally agreed that the empire broke down because Alexander the Great died without consolidating his power and without providing an heir to take over. With his death a huge power vacuum was created which no individual person could fill, so the empire was split up between his Generals. It seems reasonable to speculate that the unified world Adrian Veidt has created can very well have a similar fate. Once the threat of an alien invasion, a common enemy, is realized to be non-existent, what will happen? What will happen when Adrian Veidt’s influence over the world that binds them together is gone? The most obvious answer is that, like Alexander the Great’s empire, the world will split up into factions against each other.

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