In 200 B.C.
“Alexander, son of Philip and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians—”
We can very well imagine
that in Sparta, they were completely indifferent
to this inscription, “except the Lacedaemonians”.
But of course. The Spartans were not
to be led and ordered
like valuable servants. Besides
a Panhellenic campaign without
a Spartan king as their leader
wouldn’t appear really prestigious.
Ah, definitely, “except the Lacedaemonians”.
That’s one point of view. Understandable.
Therefore, to Granicus, without the Lacedaemonians,
and then to Issus; and in the decisive battle,
where the formidable army of the Persians
gathered at Arbela were swept away:
the army that set out for a victory at Arbela was destroyed.
And from this marvellous Panhellenic campaign,
the victorious, the splendorous,
the most famous, glorified,
as no other has been glorified,
the incomparable: we were born;
the great, new Hellenic world.
We, the Alexandrians, the Antiochians,
the Seleucids, and the innumerable other
Greeks of Egypt and Syria, and those in Media,
and in Persia, and so many others.
With our extended dominions,
with the variety of our policies and thoughtful adaptations.
With our Common Hellenic Language
that we carried deep into Bactria, as far as the Indians.
Are we to speak of the Lacedaemonians now?
Manolis Aligizakis 