Alexander the Great and Hernán Cortés: Ambiguous Legacies of Leadership

This is a biographical pairing of two of the greatest conquerors in human history, drawing its inspiration from Plutarch's Parallel Lives. Like Plutarch, the purpose of the pairing is not primarily historical. While Plutarch covers the history of each of the lives he chronicles, he also emphasizes questions of character and the larger lessons of politics to be derived from the deeds he recounts. The book provides a narrative account both of Alexander's conquest of the Persian Empire and Cortés's conquest of the Aztec Empire while reflecting on the larger questions that emerge from each. The campaign narratives are followed by essays devoted to leadership and command that seek to recover the treasures of the Plutarchian approach shaped by moral and political philosophy. Analysis of leadership style and abilities is joined with assessment of character. Special emphasis is given to the speeches provided in historical sources and meditation on rhetorical successes and failures in maintaining the morale and willing service of their men.

About the Author :
Justin D. Lyons is associate professor of history and political science at Ashland University.

Review :
It is difficult to know what Lyons was trying to accomplish with this book. No new history is presented here. Nor is there a novel interpretation of the sources--they are read and cited only in translation. The basic facts are still the same: Alexander the Great conquers Asia Minor, the Middle East, Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan, and parts of India; Hernán Cortés conquers Mexico. The stories of those conquests remain those repeated for centuries. There is some novelty in linking a Macedonian general of the fourth century BCE with a Spanish general of the 16th century CE. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Public libraries only.-- "Choice Reviews" At the height of the Roman empire, when despotism had so long been the order of the day that it seemed as if there were no other options, Plutarch of Chaeronea composed parallel lives of the noble Greeks and Romans with an eye to keeping alive in memory as a human possibility political liberty and the statesmanship to which it once gave rise. Taking a page from Plutarch's script in a time when campaigns of conquest seem a relic of the past, Justin Lyons asks us in this gracefully written volume to compare as leaders, as statesmen, and human beings Alexander the Great and Hernán Cortés. We must hope that this book is the first in a series of parallel lives that he will write. --Paul Rahe, Hillsdale College Like a self-proclaimed latter day Plutarch, Justin Lyons boldly goes where Alexander the Great of Macedon and Hernán Cortés of Castile blazed their respective trails, comparing and contrasting the motives, methods and achievements of the two conquering empire-builders who changed the political map of the world, and doing so within an illuminating overall moral-philosophical frame of reference and evaluation. --Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge