Why Alexander adopted Persian culture over Greek one ?

[Gathin]

It seems he was more Persian culturally than Macedonian with Greek culture to me.

 

[johnincornwall]

Part of the process of going nuts I think.

 

[pugsville]

The Vast majority of his empire was more Persian than Greek,

The Alexander's Empire was basically a new Macedonian top level placed on top of the Existing Persian Empire. Making minimal chnages to teh way the empire worked/governed was going to minimizse friction. Wholeslae chnages to society would have made running the Empire harder (at least in teh short term)

 

[Ajathashatru]

Is it true that he was obsessed with Persian culture even before the persian expedition? I've read somewhere, though I don't remember how authoritative that claim was.

 

[Shaheen]

The bulk of his territories were formerly parts of the Persian Empires so made sense developing and adopting the culture of the ruled over people to some extent.

 

[SenatorIncitatus]

Alexander was very interested by oriental culture, that was one of the greatest of his time. Actually he never adopted one culture above an other, he's idea was of an universal empire, a mixture of cultures. This idea was taked seriously only by him, was then forgotten with his death and if it was taken in consideration it wasn't really applied by no one.

 

[WhatAnArtist]

He seems to, at least on a personal level, preferred the subservience that his new Persian subjects displayed towards him over the more casual, grounded approach his Macedonian generals and friends displayed. The story of several of his Macedonian generals walking out in disgust and flat-out refusing to obey Alexander's orders when he commanded them to prostrate themselves like Persians is well known, and he was apparently criticised at the time (behind his back, obviously) for not having a laid-back and more casual attitude with his generals like his father Philip had, which was the traditional Macedonian custom at the time. Aside from the overtly political factor of most of his empire consisting of former Persian territories, it may just be that he was personally more favourable to the Persian style of respecting their ruler, compared to the more brothers-in-arms, 'first among equals' approach that the Macedonians traditionally had. It's not even debatable that Alexander had a truly enormous ego, even by the standards of the time.

 

[SenatorIncitatus]

He seems to, at least on a personal level, preferred the subservience that his new Persian subjects displayed towards him over the more casual, grounded approach his Macedonian generals and friends displayed. The story of several of his Macedonian generals walking out in disgust and flat-out refusing to obey Alexander's orders when he commanded them to prostrate themselves like Persians is well known, and he was apparently criticised at the time (behind his back, obviously) for not having a laid-back and more casual attitude with his generals like his father Philip had, which was the traditional Macedonian custom at the time. Aside from the overtly political factor of most of his empire consisting of former Persian territories, it may just be that he was personally more favourable to the Persian style of respecting their ruler, compared to the more brothers-in-arms, 'first among equals' approach that the Macedonians traditionally had. It's not even debatable that Alexander had a truly enormous ego, even by the standards of the time.

He seems to, at least on a personal level, preferred the subservience that his new Persian subjects displayed towards him over the more casual, grounded approach his Macedonian generals and friends displayed. The story of several of his Macedonian generals walking out in disgust and flat-out refusing to obey Alexander's orders when he commanded them to prostrate themselves like Persians is well known, and he was apparently criticised at the time (behind his back, obviously) for not having a laid-back and more casual attitude with his generals like his father Philip had, which was the traditional Macedonian custom at the time. Aside from the overtly political factor of most of his empire consisting of former Persian territories, it may just be that he was personally more favourable to the Persian style of respecting their ruler, compared to the more brothers-in-arms, 'first among equals' approach that the Macedonians traditionally had. It's not even debatable that Alexander had a truly enormous ego, even by the standards of the time.

I think he adapted to the culture: when he conquered the lands it wasn't more the king of macedons, he was also the pharaoh and the megas basileus, so he needed to be like the kind of king that persians and egyptians used to have. Because a radical change of the istitucional figure of the royal would have been not possible; and sure he had a great ego, but was also an enlightened man, he wanted to create an universal empire and the only tipe of empire similar to his idea of state was the persian.