To Whom It May Concern:

I have heard the saying "when Alexander saw the breth of him domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer" and was wondering where it is taken from?

Hope you can help.

Thank you.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Answers

I'd have to disagree with you there. At the time, people believed that India was the edge of the known world. Alexander couldn't have possibly known about the existence of China and the other lands to the east of India. Hmm... I could see Alexander weeping that there were no more lands left to conquer. It only makes sense that he would want to conquer all of the known world, and the fact that he did, or came extremely close to doing it, makes the saying all the more believable.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2004

firstly, i think your all stupid, how meny people that posted and answer, had any kind of answer at all? dont any of you people have anything better to do then this?

seconly, i think alex did say it, even tho its speaking about himeslf, i.e he said ''he wept'' rather then i wept... also i dont think alex would have been aragont enuff to say there are no more worlds to conquer, as he stoped in india and at the time him himself must knew there were other areas, india and onwards that he didnt want to wage war against, this was shortly befor he died..

also i think alex rocks!!!! not only did he pwn most of the world he also tryed to mix greek and persian culter (sadily it failed due to greeks being lame and persians being, well fucked and just conquerd by him) however he also did loads of cool builing has he owned the world.. i tihnk you poeple sould look this stuff up its great,

last of all... WOW i wrote the most on this siter WOHO! hope i helped persin that asked the question, if not. blah i wont lose any sleep over it. ps- forgive the shit spelling and grammer its about silly time in the morning and im tired and sleepy.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2004

"when Alexander saw the breth of him domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer"

This is in fact a (now legendary)misquote from Plutarch's essay in his Moralia entitled "On Contentment of the Mind".

It reads: 'Alexander cried when he heard Anaxarchus talk about the infinite number of worlds in the universe. One of Alexander's friends asked him what was the matter, and he replied: "There are so many worlds, and I have not yet conquered even one."'

Fascinating stuff eh?!

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2003

Hey Steve go piss up a flag pole and tell someone who cares. geez people get a life adn give me some boobies

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2003

Alexander conquered just about all of the known world before he was thirty-three, you jackasses.

Even Ghengis Kahn and Peter the Great can't compare to that.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2003

خليفه اول خليفۂ رسول الله صلی اللہ عليہ وسلم

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2003

What a bunch of jerks...answer the question ya wiseass.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2003

Alexander the great make a great mistake.took wrong direction. the right direction was west and not east.if he had traveled west nowdays english and american didn't exist. Great mistake

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2003

Best answer I've seen so far: http://www.pothos.org/alexander.asp? paraID=96

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2003

Aside from the obvious (Hans Gruber in DIE HARD), it's hard to say. Google for it and the first answer that comes up is a site discussing the many possible attributions. Two likely ones are: it's just always been attributed to Milton; and it comes from a translation of Plutarch's LIFE of Alexander.

Good luck.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2002

there were lots of more lands to conquer, in this world as well

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2002

Alexander was wrong! There were plenty more worlds to conquer.
He just needed to invent interplanetary travel, the lazy git.

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

Don't be lazy, do your own book report.

BZJ

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002