Macedonia FAQ: Bucephalus

Contains Bronze statue of Alexander on Bucephalus Museo Nazionale di Villa Guilia, Rome, Italy. The legend begins with Philoneicus, a Thessalian, bringing a wild horse to Philip II for him to buy (Plutarch, Alexander 6.1.). Plutarch gives us the rest of the story as well. Nobody could tame down the gorgeous horse, and Philip grew upset at Philoneicus for bringing such an unstable horse to him. Alexander, however, publicly defied his father and claimed that he could handle the horse. Alexander's reaction was viewed by his father to be immature, in addition to being disrespectful to all the people that failed to tame down Bucephalus. For that reason, Philip proposed, and Alexander agreed instantly, that if Alexander could ride the the "wild" horse, Philip would buy it; on the other hand, if not Alexander failed at taming down Bucephalus, he would have to pay the price of the horse, which was 13 talents, an enormous sum for a boy of Alexander's age to have. (The 1994 World Almanac says that 1 talent was about 60 pounds. Sixty pounds of anything is a lot of money.)