Alexander the Great

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Alexander is identified by ancient commentators, beginning with Benvenuto, as Alexander the Macedonian, called by antonomasia the Great, recalled by Dante with only his name in the poem (Inf. XIV 31) and also mentioned in the Convivio and the Monarchia. The authorized note to canto XII clarifies his identity by citing the judgment of the ancients and the tradition that made him a symbol of cruelty and of inextinguishable thirst for blood, based above all on the testimony of Orosius, Dante's main source for the two ancient tyrants of the circle. In the round of the tyrants immersed in the boiling crimson, Alexander is paired with Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse as an emblematic example of ferocity. The ancient tradition is unanimous in recognizing in the name the Alexander best known to the public, that is, the Macedonian.