The Ancients Wouldn't Have Said "the KNOWN World", Would They ("Alexander"

[UTUSN]

I really wanted to like "Alexander" because 1) I'm a knockover for anything about the Greeks/Romans and 2) I think Oliver STONE is one of us if for no other reason that the wingnuts hate him. That said--------

A couple of little things stuck out, when Alexander said something about conquering "the KNOWN world" and something about "Europe and Asia will come together some day."

The ancients only knew the world they knew, didn't they? They wouldn't have divided things into "known" and "not known", would they?

I liked lots about it, the reconstruction of the ancient scene, Angelina JOLIE's performance. But the length seemed to be longer than the 32 years, 11 months that A. LIVED.

On another note, the actor who played A., whassisname, has been popping in on every single talkshow venue. There's SURE to be a pecking order of venues, and it might seem that CBS's morning show is at the bottom of the list. I've never seen it, but there were two TOO treachly segments on the other channels and I was flipping, and there was the Alexander guy with (Harry SMITH?).

The Alex guy was clearly burned out from the circuit and very aware that this was the bottom of the basement. He was totally blase and got sarcastic/condescending to the unhip Mr SMITH. SMITH was regurgitating all the same questions everybody had already covered, and started with an actual summary of the real Alexander and said something about his having "conquered 90% of the known world." The actor looked at him with contempt for his boringness and said, "95%, actually, Harry." It was clear that the actor was being flip, and not clear that poor Harry got it.

At the end the actor said something about riding horses, that he had had a hobby horse as a child, then asked, "Did you have a hobby horse, Harry?" He said no. The guy said, "When is your birthday, Harry?" He answered. The guy said, "I'll make sure to get you one for your birthday. I still have mine."

[ExclamationPoint]

1. I kind of go lost in that message but...

that does make sesnse. They wouldn't have called it the known world.

[Hosnon]

2. They may have -

we have seen the totality of the globe...they hadn't. For all they knew it went on forever and plus, Aristotle calculated the size of the earth as a sphere. They may have realized that there was much more "planet" out there.

[Floogeldy]

3. They knew they didn't know the whole world

Because nobody had found the end yet.

[UTUSN]

4. Thanks. All Three Posts Make Good Sense n/t

[jobycom]

5. Well, not in English, but sure, why wouldn't they?

The Greeks were obsessed with history. Their most sacred texts were the tales of Homer. Their mythology was as much history to them as religion. The historian Herodotus was Greek. The Greeks loved tales of faraway lands and kings.

Since Alexander was educated by Aristotle, he would have known what the Greeks knew.

The ancient world was full of scientists and philosophers and mathematicians. Some of their research on science and medicine was not equaled in the West until the 15th century. The Egyptians had calculated the circumference of the world (It's a myth that people used to believe the world was flat-- not even the medieval Europeans believed that, and certainly not Columbus). Tales of travel were popular, and merchants sailed the mediterranean met travelers and traders from the Far East.

I've forgotten whether the term barbarian came from the Greeks or the Romans, but it essentially meant the people outside of their land who spoke languages that sounded like "bar bar bar." The Greeks didn't have a lot of love for barbarians, but they knew they were out there.

So yeah, I'm sure they had a concept that they knew part of the world and that there was more they didn't know. How exactly they phrased it, I don't know. But since the film was done in Greek or Macedonian or Persian or any of the other relevant langauges, I'm sure that Alexander wouldn't have actually said anything in the film.