Tyre: What Makes Alexander Great?

Alexander the Great is hailed, by most historians, as “The Great Conqueror” of the world in the days of ancient Mesopotamia. “Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, single-handedly changed the nature of the ancient world in little more than a decade. Alexander was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia in July 356 BCE. His parents were Philip II of Macedon and his wife Olympias. Philip was assassinated in 336 BCE and Alexander inherited a powerful yet volatile kingdom. He quickly dealt with his enemies at home and reasserted Macedonian power within Greece. He then set out to conquer the massive Persian Empire” (Web, BBC History). It is important to note, which will maybe explain his brutal actions, that

Ian Worthington and E.E White provide evidence on why Alexander the Great is considered Great and why he is not so Great. According to them, Alexander was a great acheiver at a very young age. He acomplished so much in expanding his empire. He conquered Persia, took control of Epgyt and expanded his empire to as far as India at the Indus River. In addition, Alexander is credited with the spread of Greek culture and education along with the formation Hellenistic culture. These accomplishments is what made him so great, but what made him not so great was the amount of people that perished under his reign. Thousands of people who died during his conquests, and many natives were killed such as the Malians where their whole tribe was slautgther

Alexander was an outstanding ruler of Greece in his short amount of years that he ruled. “Alexander became king when he was only 20 years old and after his father Philip was assassinated in 336 B.C.E.” (BGE). Alexander was Creative, also how he made some remarkable achievements and how he had concern for others. Was Alexander Great or Not Great? Three reasons that show that are his empire was at it’s greatest was 2,000,000 sq. miles, the way he puzzled his enemies at war and how he adapted many other cultures to his empire.

Although Alexander can be considered the protagonist of Greek history, there is overwhelming evidence that suggests that he is the villain as he demonstrates the antagonistic qualities of felony, extreme impatience, and greed.

Pella, Macedonia was the birthplace of the greatest man in history: Alexander the Great. Greatness was in his blood, fierceness and bold fighting was only a bit of his entity. Alexander also influenced the world. He died young and for a brief period of twelve years of his life were actually spent engaged in performing the work of his life (Abbot, chapter 1). However, his influence was great and seen throughout history around the globe. Alexander the Great was the greatest in history because he conquered the known world, through conquering most of the known world of his time, he became a role model for later leaders, spread the Hellenistic Age which influenced different times afterwards and unified the world allowing ideas to spread around the world which greatly influenced times afterwards.

While people may think that heroes have some bad things in their past, no hero has ever done what he did. According to A Hero’s Hero, “Here was a man, who walked in flesh and blood, a man who went on to conquer the whole world before he was thirty-two.”(1). A hero's job is to protect the world, and Alexander’s job was the opposite. He conquered the world, he didn’t protect it. Even more so is just how much he conquered, and what he had to do to conquer it. According to Alexander the Great, “A great conqueror, in 13 short years he amassed the largest empire in the entire ancient world — an empire that covered 3,000 miles.”(1). When a person conquers over 3,000 miles of land, one really cannot say that they are still a hero. Just think of what he had to do to get that much land… genocide. He had to inflict mass genocide amongst Asia. The blood that was spilled while the land was being taken over was ridiculous. And when a person does all of this, it’s hard to say that he’s a

The difference between a hero and a villain should be obvious, the hero defeats the villain and saves the land, however what happens when someone decides to conquer other lands for the benefit of his own, that is in fact a villainous act. Alexander the Great is an example of this, there are multiple forms of evidence explaining how he conquered lands, and showed no mercy. Not only did he take over ⅓ of the known world, but he gave his enemies no chance for discussion and he forced them to either change or die. he had no intention of stopping, even his main generals had to refuse his orders for him to realize what he’s doing is unnecessary, and he still planned to only postpone it. Alexander could be considered a hero, but in a general aspect, he was a villain.

Alexander was great because he protected his empire. In 334 BCE Alexander had his first battle at Granicus River. 11 years later Alexander and his army fought in 5 major battles and found about 11 towns (Document A). While on his conquest for 11 years no one from any other country was able to take his empire away from him. Armies from other countries attempted to fight for a piece of land, but failed miserably. Alexander fought through 5 major battles in three different continents and still won. Since Alexander and his troops marched through the continents the basic necessities such as food and water was hard to find. Alexander’s troops couldn’t carry tons of weight. Finding water and food in a new land is very dangerous and exposes the fleet to attacks. Alexander’s troop also can't carry heavy duty tents so shelter would be very limited, this could be very terrible because the horrendous

When the Peloponnesian war happened between Athens and Sparta, the Greeks were weakened enough to be taken over by the Macedonians. Philip II thought it was a great idea to take over the Greek city states and fight against the Persians. Once Philip II died, a new Macedonian king was brought to heir. The heirs name was Alexander the Great. There is two different standpoints on Alexander, was he great or was he bad? We should all believe that Alexander does deserve the title Alexander the Great because he has done many good things. The reasons are that Alexander showed mercy to the people he conquered, Alexander left the people's culture alone but tried to spread Greek culture, Alexander was interested in others cultures, and that Alexander

One reason that Alexander doesn’t deserve to be called great is that, he slaughter thousands of people. In document C, it states that, “Two thousands men of military age were crucified.” The evidence shows that many people were killed while he was growing his empire. Also, the evidence shows that he is mean because many people were killed in the fighting.

Those who see Alexander in a negative manner obviously have quite strong opinions about it. They see him as more of a madman than the most powerful leader. It is easy to see where they get their assumptions from for they look at the bloodshed part of Alexander’s reign. Instead of focusing on the rare ability he had to conquer so

After Alexander the Great’s father was killed, Alexander was forced to assume his role as king of Macedonia. Enemies of his empire thought this would be a perfect time to strike the Macedonian Empire but Alexander was prepared, taught by great military minds he was able to create one of the largest empires of the ancient world.

There is a legend where he and his army are in the desert, and instead of drinking the precious little water reserved for him, he poured in out onto the ground (Doc D). This gesture inspired his army and kept them going through the hard times. You could argue his greatness by saying that he was a general who knew how to keep his troops going through remarkably difficult and trying times. Another legend says that at sea one day, Alexander lost his crown in the wind and a sailor swam out to retrieve it. In order for it to stay dry, the sailor had to keep it on his head. The man was given a reward for saving the crown but then was put to death because the only head that the crown could ever touch must be royal (Doc D). One could use this document to argue that Alexander was even cruel to his own people. The truth is that there are two sides to every story. If you define someone as one thing, you are bound to get debates about whether or not that one thing was true throughout their life.

Alexander III of Macedon or commonly known as Alexander the Great was the conqueror and king of the Persian Empire which is the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He was born on the 20/21st July 356 BC in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. While in reign from 336 to 323 B.C, he united the Greek city-states and led the Corinthian League. He also became the king of Persia, Babylon and Asia as well as created Macedonian colonies in the region and was a member of the argead dynasty. Unfortunately he died around the 10/11th June 323 BC in Babylon at 32 years of age which was classified as middle aged back then.