Alexander The Great

[General Parmenion]

Alexander The Great (356-323 B.C.)Art Painting
King of Macedonia and one of the greatest generals in history. He conquered much of what was then the civilized world. Alexander brought Greek ideas and the Greek way of doing things to all the countries he conquered. This great general and king made possible the broadly developed culture of the Hellenistic Age.

HIS BOYHOOD
Alexander was born in Pella, Macedonia, the son of Philip of Macedonia, who was an excellent general and organizer. His mother was Olympia, princess of Epirus.
She was brilliant and hot-tempered. Alexander inherited the best qualities of both his parents. But he was even more ambitious than his father. He wept bitterly when he heard of Philip's conquests and said, " My father will get ahead of me in everything, and will leave nothing great for me to do." Alexander's mother taught him that Achilles was his ancestor, and that his father was descended from Hercules. Alexander learned by heart the Iliad, a story about the deeds of Achilles. He carried a copy of the Iliad with him, and Achilles became Alexander's model . Even as a boy Alexander was fearless and strong. He tamed the beautiful and spirited Bucephalus, a horse that no one else dared to touch or ride. Later, this famous steed carried him as far as India, where it died. Alexander then built the city of Bucephala on the Hydaspes River in memory of his beloved horse. Philip was so proud of Alexander's power over the horse that he said, "O my son, seek out a kingdom worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee."

HIS YOUTH
When Alexander was 13 years old, he was taught by Aristotle.
He was always eager to learn. Aristotle inspired the talented youth with a great love for literature. He took part in sports and daily exercise to develop a strong body. Aristotle also inspired in Alexander a keen interest in other countries and races of people, and in animals and plants. Alexander's education was not all from books. He talked with ambassadors from many foreign countries, and with other noted persons at his father's court. When he was only 18, he commanded part of Philip's cavalry at the battle of Chaeronea. Alexander also acted as his father's ambassador to Athens. Alexander was 20 when he became king of Macedonia. The Greek other states had grown restless under Macedonian rule. While Alexander was away making war on some barbarian tribes in the north, someone spread a story that he was dead. The people in the city of Thebes revolted and called upon the people of Athens to join them. Alexander soon appeared before Thebes with his army. His soldiers stormed the city. Every building in Thebes was destroyed, except the temples and the house of the poet Pindar. About 30,000 inhabitants were sold into slavery. Alexander's action broke the spirit of rebellion in the other Greek states.
ALEXANDER\'S EXPEDITION MAP

CONQUEST OF PERSIA
The ambitious young king then turned his thoughts to conquering Persia. This had been part of his father's plan before him. He crossed the Hellespont with an army of 35,000 soldiers in the spring of 334 B.C. He had very little money, and gambled on a quick victory.
The Persians met him on the banks of the Granicus River. Alexander stormed across the river with his cavalry. This victory opened all Asia Minor to him. Only Halicarnassus withstood a long siege.

In 333 B.C., Alexander became seriously ill. But he recovered and marched along the coast into Syria. The king of Persia, Darius III, raised a large army. He fortified a riverbank near Issus behind Alexander. Alexander turned north and routed the Greek and Persian heavy infantry with his phalanx. He captured the king's camp, including Dario's' wife and mother. His gallantry toward them was his finest act. Alexander then marched south into Phoenicia and captured Tyre after a seven-month siege. The city was on an island, but Alexander built a causeway out to it, so that it is now a peninsula. About 8,000 Tyrians were slain and 30,000 sold into slavery. Alexander's victory over Tyre is sometimes considered his greatest military achievement. The whole region then submitted to him except Gaza, where a brave Persian governor resisted for three months. Gaza eventually suffered the same fate as Tyre.

Alexander next went to Egypt. The Egyptians welcomed him as a deliverer, because they
hated their harsh Persian rulers. Alexander founded a city on a strip of land between Lake Mareotis and the Mediterranean Sea. This city, Alexandria, became a world center of commerce and learning. While it was being built, Alexander made the long, dangerous
march to the temple and oracle of Zeus-Ammon, in the Libyan desert. Alexander was told that he was the son of the god and would conquer the world.

THE BATTLE OF ARBELA
Alexander turned again to the Persian front in 331 B.C. Darius had collected an
enormous army, including the famous heavy cavalry of the Iranian steppe, and many
chariots with scythe like knives protruding from the wheels. The Persians smoothed and
cleared a vast level plain near Arbela, east of the Tigris River. The Persian cavalry
outflanked Alexander's left and captured his camp. But, with a charge which he led
himself, Alexander routed Darius, and the Persian Army retired to the east.
The battle of Arbela is also known as the Battle of Gaugamela. It is considered on of
the most decisive battles in history.

The city of Babylon surrendered, and Alexander easily captured the Persian cities
of Susa and Persepolis. These cities yielded him vast treasures of gold and silver.
All the inhabitants of Persepolis were either killed or sold into slavery.
Alexander burned Persepolis in revenge for the Persian burning of Athens in 480 B.C.

Alexander crossed the Zagros Mountains into Media in 330 B.C. Darius had fled there,
and was soon afterward killed by his own nobles. His death left Alexander king of Asia.
He marched on, against only local opposition from tribes people, and occupied the
southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Continuing to the east, he set up Iranian nobles as
new local governors, but they revolted after he left. Alexander swung south into
Arachosia (southeast Persia) and then north into Afghanistan, founding cities to
serve as garrisons and centers of administration. He entered Bactria and Sogdiana,
behind the Hindu Kush mountain range, and marched as far as the Jaxartes River.
It took two years to pacify the region. Alexander married Roxane, the daughter of a
Sogdian baron. In Sogdiana, Alexander lost his temper and killed a close friend, Clitus,
in a drunken quarrel. This cost him the sympathy of his Macedonian troops.
There were plots against his life, and he executed several prominent people.

VICTORY IN INDIA
Alexander reinforced his troops with Iranians and reached the rich plains of India in
326 B.C. He defeated an Indian prince, Porus, in this region (now part of Pakistan) and
planned to march to the Ganges River. But his army mutinied. Alexander then sailed
down the Indus River to its mouth, and led his army west across the terrible desert of
Gedrosia, in present-day Pakistan and Iran. His fleet under Nearchus sailed along the
coast to the Persian Gulf. Both the army and the fleet returned together to Susa.

Alexander then became busy with the organization and administration of his empire.
At the height of his power, his realm stretched from the Ionian Sea to northern India.
He planned to make Asia and Europe one country and combine the best of the East
with the West. He chose Babylon as his capital city.

To achieve his goal, Alexander encouraged intermarriages, setting an example by
marrying a Persian princess himself. He placed soldiers from all the provinces in his army.
He introduced a uniform currency system throughout the empire and promoted trade
and commerce. He encouraged the spread of Greek ideas, customs, and laws into Asia.
When he heard that some of his provincial officials ruled unjustly, he replaced them.
To receive recognition as the supreme ruler, he required the provinces to worship him
as a god.

HIS DEATH
Alexander had vast plans, including his governmental reorganization and an expedition to Arabia. But he was taken seriously ill with malaria at Babylon. The simple remedies of the day did not help him. He died on June 13, 323 B.C. His body was placed in a gold coffin and taken to Memphis, in Egypt. Later it was carried to Alexandria, and placed in a beautiful tomb.

Alexander left no choice for a successor. His only son, Alexander IV, was born after Alexander's death. As a result, Alexander's leading generals became governors of various
areas and fought among themselves for control of the Empire. But no single leader emerged, and by 311 B.C. the empire split into independent states or monarchies.

[General Parmenion]

ALEXANDER'S OATH AT OPIS ( 324 B.C. )

"I wish all of you, now that the wars are coming to an end, to live happily, in peace. All mortals from now on will live like one people, united, and peacefully working towards a common prosperity.

You should regard the whole world as your own country with common laws, a country where the best and the brightest rule, regardless of race.

I do not separate people, as do the narrow-minded, into Greeks and barbarians. I am not interested in the origin or race of citizens. I only distinguish them on the basis of their virtue. For me each good foreigner is a Greek and each bad Greek is worse than a barbarian.

If ever differences arose, never resort to arms, but resolve them peacefully. If need be, I will serve as your arbitrator. Do not consider God as a dictatorial Ruler, but as Father of all, so that your conduct would resemble the cohabitation of siblings within one family.

On my part, I consider all of you equal, white or dark, and I would like you not to be only plain subjects of my Commonwealth, but all shareholders, all partners.

To the extent it is in my power, I shall try to accomplish all that I promise. Keep the oath we are taking with the libation tonight like a Contract of Love"

[anaktas]

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

[Provocator]

THE OPI'S OATH IS FAKE!
Arrianos and Kallisthenes never wrote about this oath! this oath is urban legend....

[M.R.]

Originally Posted by anaktas

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

I don't see why a nationalist would idolize Alexander the great and his imperialistic ideas. He took freedom away from people that didn't want to make him any harm whatsoever.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by M.R.

I don't see why a nationalist would idolize Alexander the great and his imperialistic ideas. He took freedom away from people that didn't want to make him any harm whatsoever.

He destroyed another oppressive empire though.

[M.R.]

Originally Posted by Marulus

He destroyed another oppressive empire though.

Only to change it with another one, plus count all the slaugther during that change.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by M.R.

Only to change it with another one, plus count all the slaugther during that change.

Yes, not any kind of improvement.

[Ricardo Reis]

Originally Posted by M.R.

Only to change it with another one, plus count all the slaugther during that change.

I have to remind you that contrarily to Egyptians, Persians, Mongols, English, French, Germans and other 'conquers' of the same area, Alexander is the only ruler who, even today, is positively remembered or even worshiped as God from the tribes of these regions.

[Ricardo Reis]

Originally Posted by Marulus

Yes, not any kind of improvement.

Yes, not at all:

" But if you examine the results of Alexander's instruction, you will see that he educated the Hyrcanians to respect the marriage bond, and taught the Arachosians to till the soil, and persuaded the Sogdians to support their parents, not to kill them, and the Persians to revere their mothers and not to take them in wedlock. O wondrous power of Philosophic Instruction, that brought the Indians to worship Greek gods, and the Scythians to bury their dead, not to devour them! We admire Carneades' power, which made Cleitomachus,formerly called Hasdrubal, and a Carthaginian by birth, adopt Greek ways. We admire the character of Zeno, which persuaded Diogene the Babylonian to be a philosopher. But when Alexander was civilizing Asia, Homer was commonly read, and the children of the Persians, of the Susianians, and of the Gedrosians learned to chant the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides.And although Socrates, when tried on the charge of introducing foreign deities, lost his cause to the informers who infested Athens, yet through Alexander Bactria and the Caucasus learned to revere the gods of the Greeks. Plato wrote a book on the One Ideal Constitution, ebut because of its forbidding character he could not persuade anyone to adopt it; but Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Grecian magistracies, and thus overcame its uncivilized and brutish manner of living. Although few of us read Plato's Laws, yet hundreds of thousands have made use of Alexander's laws, and continue to use them. Those who were vanquished by Alexander are happier than those who escaped his hand; for these had no one to put an end to the wretchedness of their existence, while the victor compelled those others to lead a happy life. Therefore it is even more just to apply Themistocles' saying to the nations conquered by Alexander. For, when Themistocles in exile had obtained great gifts from Artaxerxes, fand had received three cities to pay him tribute, one to supply his bread, another his wine, and a third his meat, he exclaimed, "My children, we should be ruined now, had we not been ruined before." Thus Alexander's new subjects would not have been civilized, had they not been vanquished; Egypt would not have its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleuceia, nor Sogdiana its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, nor the Caucasus a Greek city hard by; for by the founding of cities in these places savagery was extinguished and the worse element, gaining familiarity with the better, changed under its influence. If, then, philosophers take the greatest pride in civilizing and rendering adaptable the intractable and untutored elements in human character, and if Alexander has been shown to have changed the savage natures of countless tribes, it is with good reason that he should be regarded as a very great philosopher."


"On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander, Plutarch"

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Discovery Tajikistan: ALEXANDER THE GREAT on Iskander\'s trail in Tajikistan

Visit of Alexander the Great to the sacred mount of Sri Pada: fact or fiction?

Alexander the Great in the Qur\'an

He became an important figure of the Persian historical narrative, as can be especially seen in Ferdowsi's epic Shahnameh, where he is called Sekandar.

[Ricardo Reis]

Originally Posted by M.R.

I don't see why a nationalist would idolize Alexander the great.

I think this would do for any nationalist:

"But Alexander took his breakfast at daybreak seated; he dined late in the evening; he drank only after sacrificing to the gods; he played dice with Medius when he had a fever; he played games while travelling, at the same time also learning to wield a bow and mount a chariot. For himself he married Roxanê, the only woman he ever loved; but Stateira, the daughter of Darius, he married for imperial and political reasons, since the union of the two races was highly advantageous. But as for the other Persian women, he was as much their superior in self-control as in valour he was superior to Persian men. For he looked at no woman against her will and those that he looked at he passed by more readily than those that he did not look at; and although he bore himself humanely toward all other persons, it was toward fair youth alone that he conducted himself haughtily. eHe would not listen to a single word in praise of the beauty of the wife of Darius, who was a very handsome woman; but when she died, he graced her funeral with such a royal pomp and bewailed her death so feelingly that his self-control was questioned amid his display of humanity, and his goodness incurred the charge of wrongdoing. For Darius was disturbed by suspicion of Alexander's power and youth; for he also was still one of those who believed Alexander's victory to be through Fortune. But when he had tested the matter from every angle, and recognized the truth, "Then," said he, "the lot of the Persians is not so utterly wretched, nor will anyone say that we are altogether cowardly or unmanly in that we have been overcome by such a man. But for my part I pray the gods for fair fortune and for might in war, that I may surpass Alexander in bestowing favours; and I am possessed by an ambitious and emulous desire to prove myself more humane than Alexander. But if my power be spent, do thou, O Zeus, ancestral god of the Persians, and ye other gods that guard our kingship, grant that none other than Alexander take his seat upon the throne of Cyrus." This was Darius's way of adopting Alexander, invoking the gods as witnesses.

...

If to Fortune, as to a human being, one might present Frankness in Alexander's behalf, would she not say, "When and where did you ever vouchsafe a way for the exploits of Alexander? What fortress did he ever capture by your help without the shedding of blood? What city unguarded or what regiment unarmed did you deliver into his hands? What king was found to be indolent, or what general negligent, or what watchman asleep at the gate? But no river was easy to cross, no storm was moderate, no summer's heat was without torment. Betake yourself to Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, or to Artaxerxes, the brother of Cyrus; depart to Ptolemy Philadelphus! Their fathers, while yet alive, proclaimed them kings; they won battles that did not cost a tear; they made merry all their lives in processions and theatres; and every one of them, because of good fortune, grew old upon the throne.
"But in the case of Alexander, though I were to mention nothing else, behold his body gashed with wounds tip to toe, bruised all over, smitten at the hands of his enemies. Now with the spear, now the sword, now with mighty masses of boulders.
On the banks of the Granicus his helmet was cleft through to his scalp by a sword; at Gaza his shoulder was wounded by a missile; at Maracanda his shin was so torn by an arrow that by the force of the blow the larger bone was broken and extruded. Somewhere in Hyrcania his sight was dimmed, and for many days he was haunted by the fear of blindness. Among the Assacenians his ankle was wounded by an Indian arrow; that was the time when he smilingly said to his flatterers, 'this that you see is blood, not Ichor, that which flows from the wounds of the blessed immortals.'
At Issus he was wounded in the thigh with a sword, as Charesstates, by Darius the king, who had come into hand-to‑hand conflict with him. Alexander himself wrote of this simply, and with complete truth, in a letter to Antipater: 'I myself happened,' he writes, 'to be wounded in the thigh by a dagger. But nothing untoward resulted from the blow either immediately or later.' Among the Mallians he was wounded in the breast by an arrow three feet long, which penetrated his breastplate, and someone rode up under him, and struck him in the neck, as Aristobulus relates. When he had crossed the Tanaïs against the Scythians and had routed them, he pursued them on horseback an hundred and fifty stades, though he was grievously distressed with diarrhoea.
"Well done, Fortune! You exalt Alexander and make him great by running him through from every side, by making him lose his footing, dby laying open every portion of his body. Not like Athena before Menelaüs did you guide the missile to the stoutest parts of his armour, and by breastplate, belt, and kilt take away the intensity of the blow, which only grazed his body with force enough to cause blood to flow; but you exposed to the missiles the vital portions of Alexander's body unprotected, you drove home the blows through his very bones, you circled around his body, you laid siege to his eyes and his feet, you hindered him in pursuing his foes, you endeavoured to strip him of his victories, you upset his expectations."

"On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander, Plutarch"



And this is why Greeks idolize Alexander:

"Alexander drafted a reply to this letter and sent Thersippus to accompany the envoys from Darius, with instructions to hand over the letter to Darius but not to engage in any negotiations. Alexander's letter read as follows:

'Your ancestors invaded Macedonia and the rest of Greece and did us harm although we had not done you any previous injury. I have been appointed commander-in-chief of the Greeks and it is with the aim of punishing the Persians that I have crossed into Asia, since you are the aggressors. You gave support to the people of Perinthus, who had done my father harm, and Ochus sent a force to Thrace, which was under our rule. My father died at the hand of conspirators instigated by you, as you yourself boasted to everybody in your letters, you killed Arses with the help of Bagoas and gained your throne through unjust means, in defiance of Persian custom and doing wrong to the Persians. You sent unfriendly letters to the Greeks about me, to push them to war against me, and sent money to the Spartans and some other Greeks, which none of the other cities would accept apart from the Spartans. Your envoys corrupted my friends and sought to destroy the peace which I established among the Greeks. I therefore led an expedition against you, and you started the quarrel. But now I have defeated in battle first your generals and satraps, and now you in person and your army, and by the grace of the gods I control the country. All those who fought on your side and did not die in battle but came over to me, I hold myself responsible for them; they are not on my side under duress but are taking part in the expedition of their own free will. Approach me therefore as the lord of all Asia. If you are afraid of suffering harm at my hands by coming in person, send some of your friends to receive proper assurances. Come to me to ask and receive your mother, your wife, your children and anything else you wish. Whatever you can persuade me to give shall be yours.
In future whenever you communicate with me, send to me as king of Asia; do not write to me as an equal, but state your demands to the master of all your possessions. If not, I shall deal with you as a wrongdoer. If you wish to lay claim to the title of king, then stand your ground and fight for it; do not take to flight, as I shall pursue you wherever you may be.'


Arrian, Anabasis

[Wladyslaw Warnenczyk]

Originally Posted by M.R.

I don't see why a nationalist would idolize Alexander the great and his imperialistic ideas. He took freedom away from people that didn't want to make him any harm whatsoever.

Exactly!He was so ruthless and bloodthirsty,that some call him the ancient Hitler.He not only conquered nations,but also tried to destroy their culture and language - something a nationalist should not accept.I also don't like him because of his sexual orientation.