
Remains of Alexander the Great's Father Confirmed Found - megafounder
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/remains-of-alexander-the-greats-father-confirmed-found-141009.htm
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oftenwrong
I guess they could distinguish his father's remains from those of a slave.
Checkmate, Diogenes.

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lotsofmangos
To be fair on him, Diogenes never said they couldn't, he said he couldn't.

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tootie
It's a shame that Philip of Macedon can't get his own billing. He was a legend
in his own right before his son overshadowed him.

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kilon
Anyone that studies history knows that without Philip , Alexander would not
exist nor would have the means to be "Great". So I will have to disagree, at
least here in Greece Philip is as big as his son , if not bigger. But then
Philip would have to stand on the shoulders of previous leaders , who stand in
shoulders of other city-states inside Greece who stood in the shoulder of
other countries , etc etc and etc. Overemphasising historical figures is for
people that learn their history from Hollywood movies.

~~~
argumentum
_without Philip , Alexander would not exist_

Haha, you wouldn't need to know much about history to know that sons would not
exist without their fathers ;)

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kilon
I did not mean it this way.

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colanderman
I'm 99.9% positive argumentum understood your actual meaning and was merely
making a play on words.

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fsloth
I am always amazed of the tenacity of factual information from past
generations to survive. Even though Philip reigned in a historical age, the
substrate which carried the stories to future generations has always been
quite fragile. Writing is truly the most magical of our inventions, surpassing
any others (until at least our AI descendant overlords arrive :) )

~~~
kilon
Personally I find that modern historians tend to be "jealous" of old
historians and are quick to accuse them for misinformation, prejudice and
superstition. But again and again the "myths" are proving to be the truth.
Obviously not always. We live in an age that we tend to overestimate to great
degree of our technology and underestimate the raw power of human mind. The
ancients had both the means and the method to produce high quality work.
Moreover a historian that would lie most likely he would be discredited quite
easily by other historians of his time and his books would fall into disuse.
We should not also forget that the world back then was way smaller than it is
now , news would spread fast and vocal accounts would have been much easier to
be kept in memory for centuries.

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mercurial
You have to consider that, especially in Roman times, ancient historians
tended to produce works at the behest of a sponsor. Assuming that political
motivations may twist their objectivity is not a stretch.

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fsloth
Not only that but sometimes the works that have been preserved the best are
obvious political tools. E.g. Julius Cesar's "The Gallic war".

Which, since we are on the topic, I absolutely must suggest as a reading for
anyone who has the slightest interest in historical fact - or fiction - for
that matter. Yes, the work is political boast about the campaign - but it is
filled with juicy details on roman logistics, political action in the region,
and so on.

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Eliezer
All we need now is the blood of his enemy and the flesh of his servant.

~~~
te_platt
Hey, back to work. Some of us are a bit anxious for a few more chapters.

~~~
swombat
On the one hand, Eliezer is not your bitch. Eliezer will write when Eliezer
feels so inclined.

On the other hand...

PLEASE CAN YOU WRITE SOME MORE ELIEZER OH PLEASE KTHX BAI

Now, here's the good news, from
[http://hpmor.com/chapter/102](http://hpmor.com/chapter/102)

> _The current schedule calls for HPMOR to complete in early 2015. I am still
> writing the final arc so that I can post it without delays. As of Oct 1st I
> am 65,000 words in and working on Ch. 116. I will post Ch. 103, a brief one-
> shot, to announce when I have a definite schedule for posting the final
> arc._

w00t!

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mmanfrin
Is Philip of Macedon so unknown that he has to be referred to only as
'Alexander the Great's Father'?

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antonioevans
No they didn't. They found someone of elite burial with injuries similar to
Philip II (how many elite burial sites are there..many). This is
sensationalism not science. This will be argued for a long time.

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jogzden
As someone with a Macedonian background, what bothers me most is my father's
reaction to this news when I told him about it. I am legitimately excited
about this news, and all he could really think of was if the Greeks would
claim Philip II as theirs and began ranting about the whole Alexander being
Macedonian/Greek debate.

I understand his justification for thinking that way, but it's just sad that
the Macedonians and Greeks won't be getting excited about the discovery, but
will instead be using it to fuel the existing hatred between the countries.

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kilon
You exaggerate , Greeks dont hate you. Some angry, some frustrated , some
don't care. As a Greek myself, I don't like to say to other countries what
they should name themselves but there is an entire area in Greece already that
is called Macedonia that is even more ancient than Alexander himself. So at
best case scenario the name is at least an inconvenience for us. Its like
France deciding to name itself London, how you think English people would feel
?

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dghughes
The USA calling itself America and claiming only its citizens can be called
Americans, when really all people from Canada to southern Argentina are
Americans. Europeans live on the continent of Europe, Africans in Africa,
Asians in Asia etc.

People counter with Canada, Mexico etc. are in North America and South America
so why isn't the USA the USNA?

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vacri
_why isn 't the USA the USNA_

Even if you include the southern continent, there's no similar collection-of-
states, so the USA is just as accurate as the USNA.

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pavlov
There are actually two other large federal republics on the same continent.
One is Estados Unidos Mexicanos, "United Mexican States", and the other is
República Federativa do Brasil, "Federative Republic of Brazil".

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jmt7les
Many people incorrectly refer to the entire country as just Mexico, which is
actually just one state in the United States of Mexico.

