about three hundred years ago, people started saying "when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer," or some variation on that theme. we don't know who said it originally or why they said it, since it isn't true.
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It must be total hell being a historian.
"When Alexander of Macedon was 33 he wept salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer. Eric Bristow is only 27."
Alexander wept when he heard Anaxarchus discourse about an infinite number of worlds, and when his friends inquired what ailed him, “Is it not worthy of tears,” he said, “that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?”
If a historical figure is recorded at a narrative crescendo as being anything other than kinda cringe, i cast doubt.
People tend to go hard when the moment is not perfect and stumble when the moment is perfect. Prepared lines often fall flat.