Disbanding The Navy

The biggest thing that I found odd earlier on in the reading was that Alexander was more confident in his ability to hold Asia with infantry than he was in the ability of Greece to defeat the Persian navy.  I thought this was odd because it seemed like Athens with the Delian league was more or less able to dominate the Persian navy in the Mediterranean when Athens was at the peak of its empire. The fact that the navy of Alexander when he controlled all of Greece and then some still wasn't powerful enough to defeat a Persian navy that probably already had a fair number of deserters if the impression I got later on with the speed of people deserting the Persian navy is correct.

Also two other small things that I thought were odd and cool were the fact that apparently Ptolemy was a far more common name than I thought, and also the development of silt deposits forming a land-bridge around the mole to Tyre was absolutely incredible.

Alexander's Character

I cannot decide what to make of Alexander. On the one hand, he is depicted as a fairly benevolent ruler. He cares for his wounded troops, respects the dead of his enemies on several occasions, joins his troops while they're doing hard work, respects Darius' women, and spares the lives of several enemies out of compassion or respect (or so claims Arrian). Then on the flipside, he appears to be very proud and brutal on several occasions. He massacres the people of Thebes and treats the Greek prisoners of war very harshly after one of his first Persian battles. What do you think about Alexander?

Alexander and the Greek Gods

I find it interesting that Alexander claims to be descended from Zeus and Heracles. While this maintains his Greek heritage, at times he is almost shown as a god himself. For example, when he is fighting the Thebans, he appears to pop up almost everywhere which makes him sound like a super soldier. I'm surprised that he does not make a claim to be descended from Ares, the god of war because wouldn't that be just as effective as claiming to be descended from Zeus?