[...] The presence of Alexander on the world stage marks for the first time a new dynamic of war in which the omnipotence of numbers lost its value and humbly bowed before the heroic spirit of the Greeks. We usually focus on Alexander's military achievements and his frenzied advance from Pella to India, China, and the Himalayas, and dazzled by his unparalleled heroism on the battlefields, we completely overlooked Alexander the man, the king, the ruler, the general, the soldier, who threw himself first into battle as a simple soldier, as an equal among equals. These were unprecedented virtues for a leader, virtues that intoxicated the spear-bearers who followed him without ever asking why. The king's desire was for them a divine command. For Alexander, there may not have been a Homer to sing of his feats and greatness, but, as if by divine law, more than thirty-two thousand authors have written books with more than fifteen hundred titles about him and continue to write, most of whom are admirers of his heroic persona. Such an event has not happened for any other real or mythical figure in human history. I will not deal with Alexander the warrior but with Alexander the unparalleled man, the unsurpassed leader, the great philosopher, the charismatic ruler, the incomparable king, as precisely presented by the historians of antiquity from the day of his incarnation until the day of his death, and I will exonerate him with historical arguments from all the shameless slanders, fabricated lies, and nonexistent passions that his malicious critics arbitrarily attribute to him. [...] [Excerpt from the preface text]