Kirsten Wellman
The Mount Athos “project” affords scholars a unique opportunity to delve into the character of Alexander the Great. Based on the extant sources, the scope of the project remains basically the same in all accounts, but Alexander’s reaction to the idea is decidedly different with each one.
In Vitruvius’s late first century B.C. account from De Architectura, Alexander was “delighted with the nature of the plan,” but decided not to pursue it because the proposed city site could not supply its own food and thus could not thrive. In Plutarch’s account of Alexander from nearly a century later, Alexander’s refusal stemmed from the prudence of not wishing to be associated with the Persian king Xerxes’s ship-channel fiasco at Mount Athos during the Persian War. Lucian, writing in the mid-second century A.D., gave two reasons for Alexander’s rejection of the project. In one account, Alexander’s humility prevented him from putting his “tiny body” on a par with the magnificence of the mountain. In a second account, he refused because he perceived that the architect proposing the idea was a flatterer. In a twelfth century A.D. account, Ionnes Tzetzes wrote that the architect was known for grandiose, unrealistic, and idealized portraits, something of which Alexander wanted no part.
Certainly if this monument had been achieved in antiquity, Alexander’s image and fame would have been transcended to a demi-god-like status. But I think his refusal, whatever the reason, exhibited great foresight on his part. It was an act of piety and respect for the gods to prevent himself from acquiring godhood while he was still alive, as well as a shrewd political move in regard to the view the Macedonians took on depicting living people as deities. Because the project never came to fruition, Alexander avoided the potential comparison with the failure of Xerxes had this project fallen short of the mark for whatever reason. From a very basic standpoint, perhaps Alexander was afraid that the idea could simply could not work out successfully, and he, the conqueror of Asia, did not want to be seen as a failure on a grander scale or mar the image of himself that he had so carefully cultivated.