alexander

138 THE WISDOM OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
for their leader to live. Think of the sacrifice being made by
thousands of disciplined soldiers!
Alexander realized that he would lose this magnificent
military machine if he didn’t do something. But how do
you save an army that is dying of thirst without benefit of
water?
Alexander poured that helmet full of water into the sand
in front of the assembled army. He spoke to them with a
clear message, ‘‘I will share your fate.’’ Before Alexander
poured the water out, the army’s fate was to die, but Alexander
was to live because of their generosity. After pouring
out the water, Alexander, too, would die. Alternatively, the
army could walk out of that desert with Alexander to assure
that the fate he shared would be to live. So they did. Now,
it is only fair to mention that noncombatants suffered terribly,
and many, many people died. But it is the consensus of
modern medical doctors that no one should have walked
out of that desert.
Inferences and Allegations
Alexander redefined the army’s reality through one simple
symbolic gesture and a few well-chosen words—changing
fate from ‘‘going to die’’ to ‘‘have to live.’’ Why can’t you?
Leading Lessons
To fully understand the impact of what Alexander did, it is
useful to relay an incident that occurred more than 2,000
years later. During World War II, Britain was so strapped