Why this book: Selected by my Navy SEAL reading group, and Steven Pressfield agreed to join us for the discussion.  

Summary in 4 sentences:  This is Pressfield’s life of Alexander novelized,  told in the first-person from Alexander’s perspective, as if he’s relating his life, his challenges, and various campaigns and lessons learned to his wife Roxanne’s young brother Itanes, during his campaign to conquer the known world. The book begins with a description of Macedon and Macedonian culture, a brief look at Alexander’s boyhood in Macedonia as the son of Philip of Macedon, being taught “to reason” by Aristotle, and “to act” – physical/mental toughness required of a soldier by Telamon, to become Philips’ successor, and King of Macedonia.  Then after Philip’s assassination,  the large majority of the book is Alexander relating the highlights of his campaign thru Persia and into India, his philosophy of leadership and warfare., and .  There is an epilogue which describes the drama that led him to turn back before he reached the Great Sea, what happened immediately afterward, and describes his death. 

My Impressions:  A powerful portrait not only of Alexander but of the nature of warfare in that time and place, and the genius of Alexander in how he conquered the known world with an army inferior in size and resources to those he met and defeated. But more so, it is about Alexander the man, who struggled with his genius, his “daimon” which drove him to supersede all others, as he also struggled to be a man and a human being.  In this book, and there is some evidence that this was also the case for the historical Alexander, his close friend Hephaestion and confidant was his conscience in this regard, though warfare in that time, perhaps even more than now, required setting one’s humane instincts aside in the interest of survival and domination – though Alexander and his generals would argue that that drive for domination is indeed human, all too human. 

The book has an interesting structure.  It is mostly chronological, but early on we have a coupld of chapters in which Alexander is confronting an Indian King near the end of his campaign, which sets the stage for the final chapters and battle of the book.  Pressfield does not take us down the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean to Egypt, concentrating instead on the conquest of Persia, then Afghanistan and finally into India.

Battles: There are several battles that we experience in this book and Pressfield teaches us about Alexander’s  strategy and tactics as well as his philosophy of fighting associated with how he deployed his forces and earned his victories. The battles this book describes are:

• Battle of Chaeronea in which the Macedonians under King Philip defeat Thebes, their only true rival in Greece, and which was Alexander’s first command in battle.
• Battle of Granicus,  Alexander’s first battle against Darius and the Persians.
• Battle of Issus near the coast, Alexander’s 2^nd battle against Darius, in which over confidence led to  Alexander being surprised from behind, but still yields a convincing, if surprising victory
• Battle of Gaugamela – Culminating battle for his conquest of Persia, which sees Darius flee and after which he takes Babylon.
• Battle of Hydaspes – in India against the enlightened King Poras who offered to teach Alexander how to be a king, not just a conqueror..

The Books of Virtues of War: The titles of the “books” within Virtues of War offer a clue as to how Pressfield uses this narrative to explain Alexander’s philosophy of war, as Pressfield was able to deduce it from the many sources upon which he built his understanding of Alexander and his campaigns. There are separate chapters within the “books” but the story continues chronologically and there is only a loose connection between the titles of the books and the contents within them. 

•  Book One: The Will to fight
•  Book Two: Love of Glory
•  Book Three: Self Command
•  Book Four: Shame at Failure
•  Book Five Contempt for Death
•  Book Six: Patience
•  Book Seven: An Instinct for the kill
•  Book Eight: Love for one’s comrades
•  Book Nine: Love for one’s enemy

Pressfield’s comments:  Steven Pressfield graciously agreed to join us for our discussion.  I didn’t take notes but below are a few highlights I recall (perhaps imperfectly) from our discussion with him:

• He read everything he could find on the historical Alexander to create in his mind a three- dimensional idea of Alexander the man.  In his acknowledgments at the conclusion of the book, he lists many of those sources.
• When I asked him how he got into Alexander’s head so well, he said that when he sat down to write, the words, the language, the story seemed to come from outside himself. 
• He believes in an alternate reality which somehow we can bridge. He felt that when he writes, the words and stories seem to come from it to him.
• Alexander was a truly gifted but conflicted man, between his human impulses and his daimon and drive to conquer.
• When asked why he chose to write this book in the first person, (unlike his other historical novels,) he responded that a phrase had occurred to him that stuck in his head,  “I have always been a soldier.  I have known no other life.”  Thinking about it, he realized that that phrase applied very much to Alexander, and that inspired him to write the book.  And following that “message”  which occurred to him, those two sentences are in the first person – thus the book would be written in the first person. Indeed, the book opens with those two sentences.   

Daimon: The concept of the “Daimon” (pronounced day-moan) is key in the book to understanding Alexander as Pressfield portrays him.  Much of Alexander’s challenge is his effort to manage and control his daimon.  In Latin, “Daimon”  is “genius” and is often used to refer to a supernatural power.  Alexander realized that he had a power that was somehow separate from his own person or personality  – almost an alter-ego.  Part of Alexander loved people, wanted to be loved, and hated killing; his daimon on the other hand, dispassionately drove him to dominate and conquer the world, which included much killing, retributive slaughter and destruction. He truly believed his daimon was a part of and driven by his destiny.  In Virtues of War, Hephaestion and Telamon caution him about managing his daimon.  You’ll see in the quotes below, many references to Alexander’s challenge to manage his daimon.

Breakdown in Discipline: There is an interesting scene after the victory at the key battle of Issus when discipline broke down in Alexander’s army, and his men engaged in a bacchanalia of looting and destruction of the Persian King Darius’s treasures, which were suddenly theirs.   Alexander was mortified by the primitive expression of this undisciplined will to destroy,  and forced his army to stop and undergo brutal military training, to restore discipline and get them under control, after just winning one of the greatest military victories in history.  He berated them, that their lack of discipline in victory had disgraced him, disgraced Macedonia, and shamed their colors and country. p 154-56

Babylon: When Alexander conquered Babylon, he kept in power many of Darius’s leaders and functionaries and showed respect for their religion and culture, which won him the enmity of many of his Macedonian generals, officers, and men, who had been brought up to regard Persian culture, as weak and effeminate, and therefore inferior to the warrior culture of Macedonia.  Even though the soldiers had engaged in and enjoyed the debauchery that Babylon had offered in celebration of their new dominance, they resented that Alexander had shown respect for and adopted some of the practices of Babylonian culture, apparently in preference to cultural practices of his native Macedonia.  This open mindedness toward Persians was not appreciated nor respected by most in his army. Alexander ignored these objections, but he knew he had to get his army out of Babylon and back on the campaign again soon, to keep them focused and under control.

Telamon  In Virtues of War, Telamon had been a soldier for King Philip and had been assigned to teach the young boy Alexander about war and discipline, and to have him undergo hardship to make him tough and resilient. Telamon continued to serve Alexander throughout his campaign and at the end, when Alexander was forced to turn around before reaching the Eastern Ocean,  Telamon  chose to leave Alexander’s service and head East and follow the path of the yogi they had met, who had “conquered his need to conquer the world” (see quote below.) Unlike most of the generals in Pressfield’s book, Telamon was a made up character, based on a mythological figure, and according to Pressfield himself in our discussion with him, Telamon is his favorite character, one who he brings back in his other historical novels that take place in ancient times.  In fact, in a different incarnation, Telamon is the main character and protagonist in Pressfield’s latest novel, A Man at Arms.

Conclusion and Epilogue  Alexander’s first person narrative in Virtues of War concludes with his great victory after the battle of Hydaspes, prior to which his army had been on the verge of rebellion.  Alexander declares, “This victory has brought us back. We are ourselves again. Nothing else matters.  Believe in our destiny and press on. No force on earth can stop us now!” p 335. The next chapter in Virtues of War is the Epilogue, told in the voice of Itanes, his brother-in-law and page to whom he had narrated his story thus far in the book.  The Epilogue recounts briefly how, after continuing East after Hydaspes, his army eventually insisted on going home.  Though Alexander still was driven to conquer on, and to reach the great Eastern Ocean,  he reluctantly acquiesced to their desires, and turned back to the West.  Itanes recounts how Alexander continued his conquests, but this time heading West back toward Macedonia and Greece,  touches but briefly on the horrors he and his army experienced on their return to Babylon, how Alexander was never the same after losing his closest friend Hephaestion to disease along the way, and finally after returning to Babylon, succumbed himself to disease at the age of 32 years. 

QUOTES FROM THE BOOK  Probably the best way for me to review for myself Virtues of War, and convey to others a sense for the key themes of the book is to offer some of the quotes I found most compelling.  Many of them are below (page numbers refer to the paperback copy, pictured above.)

On his close friend Hephaestion: “Only one thing keeps him from being my equal.  He lacks the element of the monstrous.  For this I love him. ” p14

Soldiers the proverb says, are like children .  Generals are worse.  To the private soldier’s fecklessness and ungovernability, the general officer adds pride and petulance, impatience, intransigence, avarice, arrogance and duplicity.  p15

Such virtues of patience, courage, selflessness, which the soldier seems to have acquired for the purpose of defeating the foe, are in truth for use against enemies within himself – the eternal antagonists of inattention, greed, sloth, self-conceit, and so  on.  p22

War is theater, I have said, and the essence of theater is artifice.  What we show, we will not do.  what  we don’t show, we will do.  p52

My daimon was and is, so strong that I am at times possessed by it.  p67

I feel my daimon as I read.  The sequence of experience is this: a flash of rage, succeeded immediately by a chill, then a state of pure, detached objectivity,.. Emotion has fled. My mind is pellucid I am thinking the way an eagle thinks, or a lion.  p 73

As boys we were taught, in our tutor Aristotle’s phrase, that happiness consisted in “the active exercise of one’s faculties in conformity with virtue.”  But virtue in war is written in the enemy’s blood.  p81

When a champion of Persia charges, he cries out his name and his matronymic.  This is so that if he achieves glory, his fellows know whom to honor, and if he falls, whom to mourn.  p101

So potent is my daimon, my countrymen believe, that not only will it preserve me but it will make them whole as well…I strip articles of my kit – dagger and shin guards even my boots, – and give them away.  The men beg me not to risk my life so recklessly. “for even luck as powerful as yours  cannot be tempted forever.”  p105

(I tell my men) “I honor, too, the foe. Let us never hate him.  For he also has willingly undergone a trial of death this day.  Today the gods have granted us glory. Tomorrow, their mill may grind us to dust.  Thank them for your lives brothers, as I do for mine.”  p108

It is my daimon the men see, not me.  It is he who has brought them victory, he to whom their hopes have become attached, and he whom they fear to lose.  I must embrace this, Telamon declares, as a consequence of triumph and celebrity. “You have ceased to be Alexander” Telamon says , “and become ‘Alexander.’”  p110

The enemy are hill tribes mostly, wild free fellows who value liberty before life.  I love them. What do I want from them? Only their friendship.  When at last they believe this, they come in trailing gift colts and bridles of gold.  p126

(A soldier breaks apart priceless booty after Issus) and looks up grinning, as if to say, “See, we are conquerors; we are beyond law or consequence.”  p154

“The life of peace is fitting for a mule or an ass. I would be a lion! Who prospers in peace,”  Philip demanded, “save clerks and cowards?  Glory and fame are the only pursuits worthy of a man.  Happiness?  I  piss upon it!”  p169

I used to be able to separate myself from my daimon. It’s harder now.   I can’t tell sometimes where he leaves off and I begin.  Hephaestion responds: “You are not your gift, Alexander. You employ your gift.” p170

One cannot be a philosopher and a warrior at the same time, as Parmenio has said.  And one cannot be a man and a king.”p174

Chapter 19 offers Alexander’s Maxims of War – some of which: Speed is the greatest advantage in war and the crucial importance of winning at the decisive point in the battle. The role of the officer is to control the emotions of his men. It includes practical wisdom such as: A cavalryman’s horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse should never be allowed to know this.  p183

My envoy sought to make the leading men of Tyre and Gaza see reason; I dispatched letters beneath my own hand. I pledged to make their cities richer, freer, safer. Still they  resisted.  They compelled me to make examples of them.   What I abhor most about such obduracy is that it robs me of the occasion to be magnanimous… The enemy will not see chivalry. He obliges me to fight not as a knight but as a butcher – and for this he must pay with his own ruin.p188

I felt at home in Egypt. I could happily have been a priest.  In truth I am a warrior-priest who marches where the Deity directs, in the service of Necessity and Fate. p188-89

Here is something the instructors of war do not teach: the art of confronting the irrational, of disarming the groundless and the unknown….A racehorse cannot gallop the column’s length faster than the newest rumor or the freshest fear.  p197-98

Can you  please your constituents? Never let me hear that word! The men are never happy with anything. The march is always too long, the way always too tough.  What works with them? Hardship. p201

The lion never makes a bad decision. Is he guided by reason? Is an eagle “rational”?  Rationality is superstition by another name.  Go deep my friend. Touch the daimon. Do I believe in signs and omens?  I believe in the Unseen. I believe in the Unmanifest, the Yet To Be.  Great commanders do not temper their measures to What Is.  They bring forth What May Be.  p201

Sweat, speed action.  These are the antidotes to fear. p206

The material a commander manipulates is the human heart. His art lies in producing courage in his own men and terror in the foe.  p211

When men know they will be attacked, they feel fear; when they know they will attack, they feel strength.  p 213

Do I feel fear, my friends?  How can I?  For to stand in ranks with you, to contend for glory at your side, is all I have ever wanted.  I shall sleep tonight with the bliss of an infant, for I possess in this hour all I have ever dreamed of:  a worthy foe and worthy mates to face him with. p215

I am the living soul of the army. As blood flows from the lion’s heart to its limbs, so courage flows from me to my countrymen.  p215

To lose a brave horse is almost as bad as to lose a man; worse in its way, for no horse understands why he fights; he does so only for love of us.  His loss is as cruel as the death of a child.   p 232

The ordeal of command consists in this:  that one makes decisions of fatal consequence based on ludicrously inadequate intelligence.  p233

Great prizes are won only at great hazard.  p 235

The tribesmen of Afghanistan were the fiercest fighters I ever faced, and their general, the Grey Wolf, the only adversary I ever feared.  The wolf warriors’ religion is fatalism.  They worship freedom and death. The language they understand is terror.. To prevail, one must be more terrible than they….They are capable of endurance beyond all human measure and can bear such suffering, of both flesh and spirit, as would break a block of stone.  p290

And yet, despite their treacherousness and duplicity, one could not help but admire these fellows. I came myself, to love them….Their women were proud and beautiful, their children bright and fearless; they knew how to laugh and how to be happy.  p291

The instrument of counter guerrilla warfare is the massacre. One must learn this art if he hopes to prevail. ..It is combat shorn of chivalry. Telamon called it “the Butcher’s War.”…You cannot fight guerrillas with ordinary forces, and you cannot fight them with ordinary men.  p292

The daimon and the self are subordinate to the soul, but the daimon, should he overcome the self, may abrogate the soul. At that point, a man becomes a monster.  p295

Agathon stood in spirited exchange with the eldest of the yogi wise men. Indicating me,  Agathon declared, “This man has conquered the world! What have you done?”  The yogi philosopher replied without an instant’s hesitation,  “I have conquered the need to conquer the world.”   I laughed with delight.  p 300

Telemon: “The yogi’s remark that he has ‘conquered the need to conquer the world’  means that he has mastered his daimon. For what is the daimon but that will to supremacy which resides not only in all men but in beasts and even plants and is, at its heart, the essence of all aggressive life?… The daimon is inhuman.  The concept of limits is alien to it. Unchecked, it devours everything, including itself. Is it evil? Is the acorn evil, aspiring to become the oak?… In nature, the will to dominion is held within bounds by the limited capacity of the beast.  Only in man is this instinct unrestrained and only in that man like you, my friend, whose gifts and preeminence transcend all external governance.  We have all known suicides, whose stem was this:  A man must kill himself to slay his daimon.” p312