Alexander the Great was antiquity\'s greatest commander

[Paralus]

Not me, but the humble citizens of Samos. Many do not know that the Samians made Lysander a God after he liberated them. They sang hymns and had festivals in his honor. Clearchus of Heraclea enjoyed the same treatment. The Thasians offered Agiselaos Godhood and he flat refused them!

This is important for Alexander, because one of the common tropes on his megalomania is that his quest for godhood is somehow tied to his wanting to be like an Asian despot. But, clearly the tradition of deification was not strictly oriental in character.

Or, strictly, religious. Athens, always at the forefront of flattery when it concerned powerful Macedonians, could put any Greek state in the shade. Antenaeus, Deipnosophistae, VI 253.E:

Hail, ever-mighty Poseidon's mightier son;
Hail, son of Aphrodite.
For other gods do at a distance keep,
Or have no ears,
Or no existence; and they heed not us -
But you are present,
Not made of wood or stone, a genuine god.
We pray to you.
First of all give us peace, O dearest god -
For you are lord of peace -
And crush for us yourself, for you've the power,
This odious Sphinx;
Which now destroys not Thebes alone, but Greece -
The whole of Greece...

As a side note, Agiselaos could have marched as far east as he wished had he not been recalled. The army that he reared in Asia and marched back to fight with at Coronea was easily the best the Greeks had ever seen pound for pound.

The Persian response - supplying a fleet to Conon and Pharnabazus, a trial run for Egypt - stopped the Spartan's trashing of their alliance obligations dead in the water. Literally. We've been here before and we'll likely not agree. As for marching as far as he wanted, he did not do that prior to his recall (alternately raiding and making treaties with either satrap - something the King put an abrupt end to) and the fate of the 10,000 is salutary.

Had Agis III defeated Antipater at Megalopolis (the "battle of mice"), as he came very close to doing, or the Thracians revolted a bit earlier, we would be reading of Alexander the "Pretty Good". This is not only luck, super-luck, because Alexander did everything he could to weaken his homeland.

The Thracian "revolt", though poorly transmitted in the sources, clearly discombobulated the Old Rope who had to settle matters with a certain Memnon before attempting to deal with the insurrection in the Peloponnese. In that time Corrhagus was done over and the sun shone breifly on the southern Greeks.

There is no doubt that Alexander's homeland was, at his death, far weaker than what Philip had left it. The Old Rope's utter embarrassment in the field (and Leonnatus') are testament to it.