Alexander (son of Amyntas)

Also known as: Alexander · Family: Macedonian · Role: son of Amyntas · First appears: Book 5 · §12–19

In Book 5, while young, Alexander witnessed calamity and could not endure it. When Persian guests attempted to touch the disguised Macedonian men seated beside them, the men killed them. Soon afterward Alexander stopped the Persian search by giving Bubares money and his sister Gygaia. At Olympia, after proving his Argive descent, he was judged a Hellene and allowed to compete in the foot-race.

In Book 7, when the army was assembled at Tempe, Alexander advised the Hellenes to leave the pass, and they followed his counsel. Later, as the king was about to cross from Asia to Europe, the Thessalians, left without allies, willingly sided with the Medes. In Book 8, Mardonios sent Alexander as an envoy to Athens, but the Athenians refused to make an agreement with Xerxes and declared they would defend themselves. In Book 9, at the Athenian guard-posts, Alexander secretly disclosed Mardonios’s plan to attack at dawn and asked that the information be kept secret and told only to Pausanias.