ALEXANDER, KING OF ASIA (356 BC – 323 BC), also known as Alexander III of Macedonia or Alexander the Great. Wearing his everyday clothes as they are described by ancient authors. Alexander’s clothes and regalia would have been purely Macedonian during the early years of his reign and military campaigns, but after his decisive victory against the Persian king of kings Darius III at the battle of Gaugamela, and his subsequent coronation as “king of Asia”, a title without precedent in history, Alexander started wearing a royal costume that combined Persian and Greek elements.
His hybrid Greco-Persian clothing consisted of a long-sleeved Persian tunic that was purple in the sides and white in the middle, like the tunic worn by Darius III in the mosaic of the battle of Issus in Pompeii. The Persian kings would wear this tunic in combination with pants, a Phrygian cap (usually yellow) and a sleeved coat over their shoulders, a fashion inherited from their nomadic ancestors from the steppes. The Persians would wear these clothes during military campaigns, not during ceremonial occasions or at the court, for which the Achaemenids had a different type of dress of Elamite origin. Wearing pants was not acceptable among the Greeks, so, Alexander only adopted the Persian tunic but rejected the pants. Instead of the sleeved Persian coat he wore a purple Greek “chlamys” cloak pinned on the right shoulder, and he often wore a headband (that would become a symbol of royalty during the Hellenistic period) and / or the typical Macedonian “kausia” hat.
He also wore a Persian sash, which is also worn by Darius in the mosaic of Pompeii, where it is coloured red. Alexander also adopted the Persian royal sceptre, the throne, and some golden ornaments, as well as some of the rituals of the Achaemenid court. Alexander’s selective adoption of some Persian customs and regalia would have served the purpose of looking less alien to his new Iranian subjects, and by refusing to wear certain clothes that were seen as excessively decadent and barbaric, he tried not to lose the respect of his Greek countrymen.
