Template:Did you know nominations/List of cities founded by Alexander the Great
- The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
The result was: promoted by Hawkeye7 (talk) 21:35, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
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List of cities founded by Alexander the Great
A bust of Alexander the Great.
- ... that Alexander the Great (pictured) really liked the sound of his own name? Source: See sources in article.
- ALT1: ... that occasionally, Alexander the Great (pictured) founded cities not named after himself? Source: See article.
- ALT2: ... that Alexander the Great (pictured) founded settlements across the Near East and Central Asia? Source: See article.
- ALT3: ... that although Alexander the Great (pictured) established many settlements, often named after himself, nobody knows exactly how many there were? Source: Lead sources.
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Lundie Kirk
- Comment: Image optional. ALT0, ALT3 and ALT1 humorous, although the latter depends on some prior knowledge of the reader. ALT2 more factual. I'll leave it up to the discretion of the reviewer and nominator.
5x expanded by AirshipJungleman29 (talk). Self-nominated at 23:49, 10 January 2023 (UTC).
Does seem to have 5x the prose as the pre-Jan. 3 version. Long enough, new enough, well sourced, no copyvio. QPQ done. Image appears to have proper licencing and a looks OK at size. I was ready to give this the good to go, because I like ALT0, which is both interesting and funny (in the right kind of way—I'm not a big fan of a lot of 'funny' hooks). My second choice would be ALT2, which I do think is interesting enough. But upon closer inspection of the article, I'm not sure ALT0 is sufficiently backed up. Do we know if Alexander himself named all of these cities after himself? @AirshipJungleman29: I'm okay with ALT2, but I am giving you an opportunity to address the issue I have with ALT0 if you want. Srnec (talk) 01:15, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
The nominator hasn't responded for 2 weeks... so I'll just approve ALT2. BorgQueen (talk) 07:50, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
- Hi, sorry there BorgQueen, Srnec, I completely forgot about this nomination. Yes, we do know that Alexander named these cities after himself (or the accepted ones anyway). There are multiple reasons, ranging from textual (the ancient sources) to logistical (he was often the only Greek commander to visit the regions) to logical (either he named them himself, or he approved his commanders naming them after him, which in essence comes to the same thing), to sheer unlikelihood of any other possibility (Alexandria Bucephalous is named after his horse, in a region no Greek-speaking commander would reach for two centuries. Who else but he could possibly have named it?) ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 14:26, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
- My doubt was based on my reading of just the "accepted" items in the list, of which we can ignore Nikaia, Bucephala and Charax. This leaves four Alexandrias, two of which (Ariana and Arachosia) are not mentioned by the historians. How do we know a city's original name was Alexandria? Could it not have come to be called that because of its association with Alexander? Constantinople was not named as such by Constantine. Anyways, I'm not really disputing the claim so much as that the article as written supports it. This might be an easy fix. Srnec (talk) 16:12, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
- Fraser states "there is no evidence to suggest that the Seleucids named settlements after Alexander." So it could have happened, but there's no evidence to suggest that, and we know that the alternative namer did like naming things after himself. But that's the crux of the issue, no? I mean, even if I name only four cities after myself, the hook works. Should the article just include an "Alexander named these cities." in the article? Srnec ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 17:02, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
- My doubt was based on my reading of just the "accepted" items in the list, of which we can ignore Nikaia, Bucephala and Charax. This leaves four Alexandrias, two of which (Ariana and Arachosia) are not mentioned by the historians. How do we know a city's original name was Alexandria? Could it not have come to be called that because of its association with Alexander? Constantinople was not named as such by Constantine. Anyways, I'm not really disputing the claim so much as that the article as written supports it. This might be an easy fix. Srnec (talk) 16:12, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
- Hi, sorry there BorgQueen, Srnec, I completely forgot about this nomination. Yes, we do know that Alexander named these cities after himself (or the accepted ones anyway). There are multiple reasons, ranging from textual (the ancient sources) to logistical (he was often the only Greek commander to visit the regions) to logical (either he named them himself, or he approved his commanders naming them after him, which in essence comes to the same thing), to sheer unlikelihood of any other possibility (Alexandria Bucephalous is named after his horse, in a region no Greek-speaking commander would reach for two centuries. Who else but he could possibly have named it?) ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 14:26, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
