The writer of historical fiction must sometimes bend true-life characters to fit his conception of a story’s theme. In The Virtues of War, I made the historical Hephaesteion, Alexander’s dearest friend and second-in-command, take a stand for compassion and empathy for others.

Torn between the dark side of the Warrior Archetype and the light, Alexander (at least in my own historical fiction rendering) was pressed by his friend and second-in-command, Hephaesteion, to choose.

Alexander’s closest generals were his dear friends Craterus and Hephaesteion.

What are the limits of the Warrior Archetype? When does a virtue like the will to win become the crime of brutality and senseless aggression?

Today, we’ll examine two more stories of Alexander … and see if we can learn how we was able, over ten years of war (during which the majority of his soldiers never saw their homes even for a brief leave or furlough) to maintain the passionate devotion of his officers and men.

Alexander was twelve years old when horse dealers brought the great stallion Bucephalus, for sale, to his father Philips’s court in Macedonia.

With today’s episode we’ll move on from the Spartans, the consummate Warrior Collective, to the paramount individual warrior in history—Alexander the Great.