Chapter 4
But by then, I was a veteran, forged in battle at age eighteen on the field of Chaeronea, where the Athenians and the Thebans—my, but they never learned, those Thebans—sought unwisely to defy Father.
If he’s lucky, a man meets the moment that sets him on his path in the wider world. Chaeronea was my moment, and I knew it and embraced it. I was prepared to do whatever it took—defend any comrade, outflank any foe, endure any burden—as long as in the end victory was mine.
“Think, Alexander,” Aristotle always told me. “It’s not enough to be a fighting machine. A general must always think on his feet and be prepared to change his course when it fails him.”
“Even in midstream?” I asked him one day as I lay out my imaginary siege of Troy.
“Especially in midstream. To do this, a gen
