I wrote about the kitschy, gargantuan statue of Alexander the Great – officially named the Equestrian Hero – back in 2011. Constructed by the then right wing government of North Macedonia (as the former Yugoslav republic is officially known) it was a rebuke to the monopolisation of Hellenic history by the Greek authorities. Skopje was basically flipping the bird to Athens, despite the latter’s ongoing campaign to absorb the history of ancient Macedonia into his heritage.

Since then, there have been numerous interrelated developments. Time to do a follow up.

We all learnt about Alexander III (the Great) of Macedon at university. Building on the military innovations of his father, Philip II, he conquered vast regions of Asia and Africa, eventually defeating the main Eastern rival of the Greek city states, the Persians.

Why is this ancient history important? It is fascinating on its own merits, but that is only half the story. Macedonian national identity is a highly politicised and contested territory. The figure of Alexander III is deployed by both Macedonian and Hellenistic nationalists to construct an unbroken line of continuity between ancient city-states and today’s modern nations.

In 2014, the right wing Macedonian government of Gruevski launched an ambitious and expensive project to build statues of those considered important in Macedonian history. Attempting to cultivate a national identity, Gruevski wanted to solidify his political base. Named Skopje 2014, this project interestingly, continued the longstanding neglect of Communist-era statues and buildings left in disrepair since the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

Right wing nationalist ideology, overtaking the independent states of the former Yugoslavia, looks to the distant past to build a distinct national identity.

Expensive statues – from simplistic propaganda to absurd kitsch

Intended to rally the population around a basic Macedonian patriotism, Skopje 2014 had that affect, but the opposite result. Masses of Macedonians rallied, opposing the corruption, authoritarianism and financial wastage of the right wing Gruevski government. Skopje 2014 symbolised Gruevski’s obsession with nationalist myth making while ignoring the country’s social and economic problems.

In 2015, Kit Gillet reported in the Guardian that Skopje had become the capital of neoclassical kitsch, with statues dotting the capital city. The project because the target of sustained and heavy criticism, leading to the eventual resignation of Gruevski in 2016. He has faced criminal charges, and was sentenced to jail terms for money laundering in the following years.

Rather than promote a gaudy version of glorious Macedonian history, the government exposed its malfeasance, and the irrelevance of instrumentalising ancient history for modern political purposes. When unemployment is nearly 30 percent of the working age population, poverty and crime endemic, building statues of historically distant figures is not exactly the first concern on everyone’s mind.

Nationalism, Hellenic origins and non-Hellenic pushback

As for Alexander III, he is both Hellenic and Macedonian. There was no such thing as a concept of nation during his times. Modern nationalism, whether Greek or Macedonian, has attempted to monopolise ancient history on an exclusionary basis. Western philosophers have traced their origins to ancient Hellenistic civilisation, and this has politically charged implications, to be sure.

Hellenism, and our collective effort to base ourselves in the Ancient Greek tradition, rubs up against the Macedonian sense of identity. Ancient Greece – and Rome – constitute the cultural reservoir from which we, as Westerners, derive our sense of identity. Our art, philosophy, culture etc are (allegedly) derived from the originality of the Greeks.

The government of Skopje has the right to push back at the creeping Hellenisation process – if they want to build a statue to Alexander III, good luck to them. There are numerous attempts by historians and scientists to acknowledge the culturally narrow lens of focusing exclusively on Greco-Roman civilisation. The contributions of African, Asian, Arab-Islamic civilisations is only just beginning to be understood.

In our rush to repudiate the ‘Ancient Greeks invented everything’ claim, we cannot ignore the original contributions of the pre-Socratic philosophers to our own culture. For instance, the Milesians – a Greek city-state on the west coast of Asia Minor – developed a sophisticated philosophy of dialectics and natural science. Marx and Engels were, in a way, following in the footsteps of the Greek atomists and Heraclitus (c 540 – 483 BCE).

In the English-speaking world, we associate the perspective of biological evolution with Darwin. In fact, the concept of evolution dates back to Anaximander (c 610 – 546 BCE), who elaborated that species change over time, without requiring a supernatural deity.

The monotheistic conception of god was centuries into the future; polytheism was the order of the day for the Milesians. In a way, the ancient Greeks were atheists – nonbelievers – from the monotheistic perspective.

Do you see how far away we have moved from an ultranationalist reading of ancient history? Claiming descent from an ancient people is very appealing and soothes the conscience of right wing nationalists, but does not get us any closer to veracity.