Alessandro Magno fra Oriente e Occidente

We can justifiably claim that Alexander the Great not only in actual fact turned the world upside-down but also revolutionised the Greeks' view and conception of the world.Afterwards much had changed. Above all, Alexander's truly unbelievable campaign of conquest brought about a precise knowledge of great parts of the world, from the Near East to India. This affected the Greek conceptual horizon. The world that the Greeks had in mind simply grew. In a certain way it now received a tangible shape. The enormous effect that this had on the geographical imagination of the Greeks was perfectly clear not least to Eratosthenes, one of the leading geographers. However, this was not only a side effect, so to speak, of the military procedure and the conquests themselves. It was also owed to the planning and actions of Alexander. For a part of his campaigns was dedicated to geographical explorations. While he did not intend the revolution just mentioned, he nevertheless initiated and consolidated it. It was thus not a matter of mere chance, even though the concrete scientific elaboration still needed to be accomplished.