A two-part declamation arguing Alexander the Great's achievements came from his virtue and philosophy, not from luck (Fortune).
De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute ("On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander the Great") is a rhetorical showpiece from Plutarch's Moralia, cast as a courtroom-style refutation of the popular claim that Alexander conquered the world mainly through luck. Plutarch first lets "Fortune" make her case, then answers point by point, cataloguing Alexander's wounds from the Granicus to the Mallian town where an arrow nearly killed him, arguing that a man who bled so continuously for his empire cannot be called Fortune's pampered favorite.
The bulk of the essay makes a positive case that Alexander was a practicing philosopher, not merely a soldier. Plutarch compares Alexander's actual pupils - Hyrcanians taught to marry, Sogdians persuaded not to kill their parents, Persians taught to revere rather than wed their mothers - against Plato's and Socrates's more famous but less durable students, and argues that founding over seventy Greek-institution cities in Asia did more to spread philosophy than any treatise. He reviews Alexander's sayings (to Diogenes, to his father Philip, to the wounded soldier Antigenes) and deeds (sparing Antigona, sealing Hephaestion's silence with his own ring, refusing a beautiful boy sent to him for pleasure) as evidence of self-control, generosity, and clear-headedness under pressure that rhetoric alone cannot produce.
The essay closes with an extended, almost gruesome inventory of Alexander's battle wounds - head, thigh, ankle, shin, neck, chest - built to prove that whatever Fortune gave him, she also nearly killed him for it repeatedly, most dramatically in the siege of the Mallian town where an arrow lodged near his heart. Plutarch's real target is a Stoic/Peripatetic debate topic (fortune vs. virtue as the cause of greatness), and Alexander functions as the maximal test case: if virtue explains him, it explains anyone.
“Be of good courage, father, and go forward with a glad face, so that at every step you may be reminded of your courage.”
— De Alexandri Magni Fortuna Aut Virtute · read this chapter →
“he often, in recalling it, would say, "If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes"”
— De Alexandri Magni Fortuna Aut Virtute · read this chapter →
“He married Roxane out of love for her alone; but Statira, the daughter of Darius, he married for the sake of the kingdom and its affairs, since the mixing of the two peoples was advantageous.”
— De Alexandri Magni Fortuna Aut Virtute · read this chapter →
“Take virtue away from the fortunate man, and he is small everywhere: small in gracious acts through pettiness, small in hardships through softness, small before the gods through superstition, small toward good men through envy, small among men through fear, small among women through love of pleasure.”
— De Alexandri Magni Fortuna Aut Virtute · read this chapter →
“Let no one be a coward on my account either: I am disbelieved when I say I do not fear death, if you yourselves fear it.”
— De Alexandri Magni Fortuna Aut Virtute · read this chapter →
It is a declamation arguing that Alexander the Great's conquests resulted from his own virtue and philosophical character, not from luck. Plutarch answers a personified 'Fortune' who claims credit for Alexander's empire, countering with his catalogue of battle wounds and acts of self-control.
Yes. Plutarch argues Alexander qualifies as a philosopher through what he said, did, and taught, comparing his transformation of Asian customs (teaching Sogdians not to kill their parents, founding Greek cities) favorably against the more famous but less far-reaching teaching of Plato and Socrates.
He lists Alexander's wounds in detail - a split head at the Granicus, a pierced thigh at Issus, an arrow through his ankle at Gaza, a shattered shinbone near Maracanda, and an arrow lodged near his heart in the Mallian siege - arguing that Fortune's true favorites are unwounded, bloodless kings.
Plutarch reports that after meeting Diogenes at Corinth, Alexander was so struck that he said, 'If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes,' meaning that if he were not devoted to civilizing the world through action he would pursue philosophy through withdrawal instead, as Diogenes did.
Plutarch claims Alexander surpassed them morally: more self-controlled than Agamemnon (who took a captive woman over his wife), more magnanimous than Achilles (who ransomed Hector's body for money while Alexander buried Darius at great expense), and more pious than Diomedes.
Moralia: Ad Principem Ineruditum · Moralia: Adversus Colotem · Moralia: Amatoriae Narrationes · Moralia: Amatorius · Moralia: An Recte Dictum Sit Latenter Esse Vivendum · Moralia: An Seni Respublica Gerenda Sit · Moralia: An Virtus Doceri Possit · Moralia: An Vitiositas Ad Infelicitatem Sufficia · Moralia: Animine An Corporis Affectiones Sint Piores · Moralia: Apophthegmata Laconica · Moralia: Aquane An Ignis Sit Utilior · Moralia: Bruta Animalia Ratione Uti