“I knew Latin as a boy and it struck my fancy to try to learn Greek,” Naiden says. He worked long enough to secure a modest pension and, partly because of his bad back, decided to quit his job. I photo by Megan Mayīefore he forged his way into academia, Naiden drove subway cars and later operated small freight trains as a locomotive engineer in New York City. Now a history professor at UNC, he studies how Alexander the Great used religion to rule. But while Alexander was set on his path at 20 years old, it wasn’t until Naiden was in his late 30s that he found the one he’s on now.įred Naiden worked as a locomotive engineer in New York City before getting involved in academia in his mid-30s. Like Alexander, Naiden has forged his own way into the unknown and proven himself a master in his field. “It is the Near Eastern sources that see the other side,” Naiden says. He is also one of the few people directly quoted in the Quran, according to scholars. In these records, Alexander isn’t depicted as just a warrior, but as a religious figure who performed ceremonies, prayers, and sacrifices. But Eastern writers, on the other hand, thoroughly documented their leaders’ spiritual importance and the sacred duties that they carried out. These accounts, written by ancient historians, place an emphasis on Alexander’s military exploits. This side of Alexander’s story is relatively unexplored, Naiden says, because the majority of scholars who study him have backgrounds in ancient Greek and examine texts written in Greek or Latin. We may think of him as the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the head of the Church of England, all in one.” He uttered or inspired the most prayers and made the most sacrifices, and he did so in the most places, languages, and rituals. “All ancient commanders played religious parts, but Alexander played the most. “Religion dominated warfare because gods dominated everything,” Naiden writes in his book. So he tapped into another avenue of power - the idea of the divine right to rule. Although he fought in many bloody battles and is renowned as an exceptionally clever strategist, even Alexander couldn’t strong-arm millions of people into accepting his authority. In doing so, he took on the role of someone the region’s gods had bestowed power to, rather than that of a foreign conqueror.Īt the beginning of Alexander’s campaign, his home kingdom of Macedon was small. In places Alexander triumphed - Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, and Greece - he made sure to have the priests on his side and submit to the local religious ceremonies conferring leadership. In his book, he lays out how Alexander succeeded when he wielded religion successfully and failed when he didn’t.

The ancient world is a sort of oligarchy in which the gods are supposed to govern the people,” Naiden says. “The ancient world is not a democracy in which people govern themselves. Religious leaders were also political leaders: priests were governing officials and Egyptian pharaohs were hailed as gods. Examining how one of history’s greatest conquerors used belief systems for political legitimacy is something that leaders can still learn from, especially in a time when the world prickles with religious strife.Īlthough power and religion go hand in hand today, the relationship was much more direct in the past.

From the rise of the Taliban to Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, religion and power are deeply intertwined. Lessons from the successes and failures of Alexander’s conquests ring across the millennia. In December, he published the first religious biography of Alexander the Great, “ Soldier, Priest, and God.” Naiden has spent the last 10 years studying how Alexander harnessed local beliefs to secure power. “Not only was he good at conquering people, he was good at avoiding conquering people when he could convince them to accept him as their ruler by sharing their religion,” Naiden says. What Naiden found was a wealth of information and a new perspective on how Alexander used regional religions to his advantage. His most recent book, “Soldier, Priest, and God,” is his first on Alexander the Great. Naiden’s previous books cover different traditions in ancient Greek and Roman culture including animal sacrifice and the social practice of supplication.

To conquer