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Welcome to the Rest is History. Back in the midst of time when we were mere podcasting novices,

when we recorded our very first episode, we hit on the subject of greatness. And today's podcast

is about a man we talked about a lot in that first episode, but they're ever really getting into

his story. And it is probably the greatest story in all history. It is of course, Alexander the

Great, Tom Holland. There's probably no greater character, no better story, no more glamour and

excitement and romance than in the life of Alexander. Is there? It's a great story. I thought it

was really interesting. And I was surprised that when I put the note up on Twitter saying we're

going to do Alexander the Great, the response was absolutely overwhelming. I don't think we've

ever had as many questions. I don't think we even had more questions, even for Hitler than we did

for Alexander and Sam. So he's heroic kind of backroom boy who he was basically plowing through

all these questions in order to try and whittle them down a little bit. Well, I was reassured.

And I tell you why was because I went to this fantastic literary festival held at Patrick Lee

Firmer's house on the shore of the Peloponnese. And there was a kind of a parlor game type thing

in the evening where we all had to make an argument for who was the greatest Greek. And obviously

I chose Alexander the Great because he's great. I thought I'm just going to go to the fan.

And Ben Hughes chose Helen of Troy and we came at a joint bottom. Oh no. Oh my god, who won?

Aristophanes because he would have opposed Brexit. That's a terrible. That's such an endowment

of that whole occasion. So that may reflect the fact that I made a terrible case for him.

And I think I did rather. But I think it also reflects a kind of tension in attitudes towards

...