Talk:List of cities founded by Alexander the Great

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Alexandria Susia

Starting this discussion about Alexandria Susia. This settlement did not exist and there is no evidence it was called Alexandria Susia either. Currently, according to my source which lists several ancient geographers (https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Hellenistic_Settlements_in_the_East.html?id=3aabFPHxRPUC&redir_esc=y) points to an Alexandropolis that may have been founded in Parthia, but the existence is heavily disputed. If there was an Alexandropolis in Parthia, it was almost certainly located near Nisa, the old Parthian capital in present-day Turkmenistan. The source given for Alexandria Susia is an Arabic(?) and another which doesn't given an exact location but just lists an Alexandropolis in Parthia.

Tus was never called Alexandria, as far as we know, it was just called Susia. The only ancient city we know the name of that may have existed in the area of Masshad is Patigrabana.

In general there seems to be a lot of fictional locations on this page, with previous entries like Alexandria Asiana and Alexandria in Babylon being complete fabrications. Botswanna (talk) 19:23, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

@Botswanna, In the source I mentioned, Majlesi says that the city of Mashhad was founded by Alexander; Koleiny and Nomani aslo say this. Pliny says that the city was near Nisa and Asaak How do you conclude that the city is attached to Nisa? Mashhad is also near Nisa.

Tabula-peutingeriana shows this Alexandria below the river, but Nisa is above the river.

Also, Alexander never passed through Nisa, but Arrian describes that he definitely passed through the current location of Mashhad and stood there. Aay1373 (talk) 22:58, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

Pliny says there was an 'Alexandropolis' in the region of Nisaia. Not an 'Alexandria'. So calling it 'Alexandria Susia' is essentially ascribing a fictional name to a city that may or may not have existed. Your assumption that it must be Mashad is just as dubious as it being by Nisa. Susia, the Greek transliteration of Tus, was certainly a real city and was occupied by Alexander. Susia is near modern day Mashad, but we cannot simply ascribe random names to cities when there is no evidence of it. Secondly, Susia predates Alexander (it was built by the Achaemenids) and was certainly not founded by him. Ragau was a city that may have been founded by Alexander in the vicinity, but it was not called Alexandria or Alexandropolis.

There is, potentially, a connection to Nisa for Alexandropolis, but my source, which is will referenced (https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Hellenistic_Settlements_in_the_East.html?id=3aabFPHxRPUC&redir_esc=y) concedes that this settlement most likely never existed at all. If there was an Alexandropolis in this region, we do not know its exact location and cannot ascribe it to a specific place. I will concede that my entry of 'Alexandropolis in Parthia' also has limited evidence and should also be removed.

There is no real evidence of any city founded by Alexander existing in this area, all we can really say is there *may* have been an Alexandropolis somewhere in Parthia. Pinpointing an exact location does not make sense. Botswanna (talk) 02:30, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

@Botswanna, Tabula-peutingeriana shows it as an Alexandria in the west of Merv. The historians I mentioned clearly say that Mashhad was founded by Alexander the Great, so under any name, there is no problem for Mashhad to be on this list. in Wikipedia, our criteria is not the external truth of topics, but verifiability based on sources. See WP:V page. Aay1373 (talk) 06:12, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Tabula Peutingeriana shows many cities in inaccurate locations, and we cannot verify that the Alexandria there is in the vicinity you're speaking of. If you want to put Mashad on the list, put it as Mashad, not as 'Alexandria Susia', it's a made up name. Botswanna (talk) 20:25, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Cities of Alexander the Great.png

@Aay1373

This image is also incredibly inaccurate. There is no evidence for 'Alexandria in the Babylon' and 'Alexandria Arabika' (which I'm assuming is supposed to be Raqqa, Syria. Raqqa was never called Alexandria, or if it was there is not attestation of it in ancient geography. Raqqa's official names through history were Nicephorium, Callinicum and Leontopolis. The source given for 'Alexandria in the Babylon' is also referencing a city named 'Iskandarya' in Iraq, but the only source we have for that city is a CNN article referencing a suicide bombing. We don't know why this city was named Iskandarya. While there are references to a city named 'Alexandria near Babylon' in the Alexander Romance, this city has been identified as either Alexandria near the Pallakopas (location unknown but probably close to the Euphrates near Najaf), Seleucia, Seleucia on the Hedyphone or Alexandria in Susiana. Again, using this source which is well referenced (https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Hellenistic_Settlements_in_the_East.html?id=3aabFPHxRPUC&redir_esc=y).

There is also no city called Alexandria Asiana. Again, a fabricated, made-up location. Any references to this city online just reference the Wikipedia article. Just because there are cities named Iskandarya or Eskandar in Iran or Iraq does not automatically mean they can be attributed to Alexander the Great. Also, several named are wrong. Alexandria Susiana was never called Alexandria Charax. Charax was a later name given to the city. Alexandria 'on' Gedrosia is also wrong, it was either called Alexandria in Rhambacia or Alexandria of the Orietai.

Third, Alexandria Troas was not founded by Alexander the Great. The city was re-named by Lysimachus in honor of Alexander several decades after his death. Botswanna (talk) 19:33, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Hawkeye7 (talk) 21:35, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

)

A bust of Alexander the Great.

• ... that Alexander the Great (pictured) really liked the sound of his own name? Source: See sources in article.
  • ALT1: ... that occasionally, Alexander the Great (pictured) founded cities not named after himself? Source: See article.
  • ALT2: ... that Alexander the Great (pictured) founded settlements across the Near East and Central Asia? Source: See article.
  • ALT3: ... that although Alexander the Great (pictured) established many settlements, often named after himself, nobody knows exactly how many there were? Source: Lead sources.
  • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Lundie Kirk
  • Comment: Image optional. ALT0, ALT3 and ALT1 humorous, although the latter depends on some prior knowledge of the reader. ALT2 more factual. I'll leave it up to the discretion of the reviewer and nominator.

5x expanded by AirshipJungleman29 (talk). Self-nominated at 23:49, 10 January 2023 (UTC).

• Does seem to have 5x the prose as the pre-Jan. 3 version. Long enough, new enough, well sourced, no copyvio. QPQ done. Image appears to have proper licencing and a looks OK at size. I was ready to give this the good to go, because I like ALT0, which is both interesting and funny (in the right kind of way—I'm not a big fan of a lot of 'funny' hooks). My second choice would be ALT2, which I do think is interesting enough. But upon closer inspection of the article, I'm not sure ALT0 is sufficiently backed up. Do we know if Alexander himself named all of these cities after himself? @AirshipJungleman29: I'm okay with ALT2, but I am giving you an opportunity to address the issue I have with ALT0 if you want. Srnec (talk) 01:15, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
  • The nominator hasn't responded for 2 weeks... so I'll just approve ALT2. BorgQueen (talk) 07:50, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
    • Hi, sorry there BorgQueen, Srnec, I completely forgot about this nomination. Yes, we do know that Alexander named these cities after himself (or the accepted ones anyway). There are multiple reasons, ranging from textual (the ancient sources) to logistical (he was often the only Greek commander to visit the regions) to logical (either he named them himself, or he approved his commanders naming them after him, which in essence comes to the same thing), to sheer unlikelihood of any other possibility (Alexandria Bucephalous is named after his horse, in a region no Greek-speaking commander would reach for two centuries. Who else but he could possibly have named it?) ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 14:26, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
      • My doubt was based on my reading of just the "accepted" items in the list, of which we can ignore Nikaia, Bucephala and Charax. This leaves four Alexandrias, two of which (Ariana and Arachosia) are not mentioned by the historians. How do we know a city's original name was Alexandria? Could it not have come to be called that because of its association with Alexander? Constantinople was not named as such by Constantine. Anyways, I'm not really disputing the claim so much as that the article as written supports it. This might be an easy fix. Srnec (talk) 16:12, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
        • Fraser states "there is no evidence to suggest that the Seleucids named settlements after Alexander." So it could have happened, but there's no evidence to suggest that, and we know that the alternative namer did like naming things after himself. But that's the crux of the issue, no? I mean, even if I name only four cities after myself, the hook works. Should the article just include an "Alexander named these cities." in the article? Srnec ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 17:02, 25 January 2023 (UTC)