Alexander the Great

Kate Abel

1. Does Alexander deserve to be called "Great"?

Through his short life, Alexander had many accomplishments to make him deserve the title "Great". He was able to conquer the most powerful empire at the time and meld together different cultures. Alexander was able to defeat every enemy he came across. His bravery lead him to be able to persevere and conquer any enemy. His bravery originated from him believing that he was the son of either Hercules or Achilles. His goal was to be the "new Achilles" and conquer the Persian empire. He would lead his army into battle, which his advisers thought was risky for him. He began his conquest by raiding Danube. Rumor then spread throughout the already conquered Greek city-states that Alexander had died, causing the Thebes to revolt. Quickly, Alexander was there and completely destroyed the Thebes. He used the ruined city as an example of what would happen to any who try to revolt. He quickly moved to Southern Greece, and their lack of preparation required them to surrender. Now, he truly began his conquest with Persia with his 30,000 heavily armed men. He personally lead his army in the Battle of Granicus, in 334 BC, where he defeated the Persian and Greek mercenaries army. As he moved along the coast, he freed the Ionian cities from Persian rule. His next battle at the Gulf of Issus, was a slim win. Outnumbered by the Persian army, 150,000 to 30,000, it was a miracle that they won. His stop in Egypt was successful for his empire as well. The Egyptians were more than happy to have a new leader, instead of Persia. Alexander quickly found a spot at the top of the Nile River where he would construct a new sea port called Alexandria. This quickly came to be the best sea port of the Eastern Mediterranean. Alexander quickly moved and conquered more of the "mysterious East". Through his trek he managed to influence and change other cultures, like bringing Greek culture into Egypt. These cultures successfully blended and made a whole new culture, Hellenistic. He managed to conquer so much land and great empires and even blended cultures in only a 13 year reign, which could truly make a person be viewed as "Great".

 2. What can one learn about the values of a society based on their views of greatness?   

Alexander's society had evolved their views of greatness over a period of time. It even originated from how his father ruled their kingdom. Alexander and his father both believed in the idea that power and control were what defined greatness and success, which rubbed off on their society. Alexander and his father both wanted to be in control of vasts amount of land. They wanted to rule over many people and lots of land. They wanted to be the most powerful people or empire, they wanted to crush their enemies. The way Alexander ruled and viewed success swayed the society's values. Seeing that Alexander's views of greatness made the society believe if they followed, they would go down in history as a great society for believing in Alexander's values. The society would support Alexander and even go off to war with him and risk their lives to defeat mighty empires and trek over 5,000 miles to show that they approved of his idea of greatness. The society viewed greatness almost as a prize, where the "winners" were the ones who had the most power and control. The society believed in the same greatness that Alexander did, being the most powerful empire, and Alexander did just that, earning him the title of Alexander the Great.

3. Do time and distance impact someone's popular perception? 

Time and distance change how people see a certain being because a society can give out only the good information about that person, or the media can spread only negative aspects of that person. Alexander's reign as a king was over 2000 years ago, so any negative stories that would taint his "great" image could have gotten lost. The society that was under his rule would only want to put out the great things about Alexander to make them seem like a better empire than they may have truly been. Stories or facts about a person can easily get lost over time, especially if only one side of the story is told and passed on. This makes it easy for the popular perception of a ruler to seem so one-sided, because that's the only part of the story that is being told. Facts and other details about a person can get lost as the years go by. Distance also cause a change in how people view another person. News and changes in other countries aren't as important as the ones in the country a person is living in. They aren't as big of a concern as the ones we deal with in our own country, so it's easy for media to manipulate it into what the people want to hear. Distance makes it harder for a person to go out and prove that what they are hearing is fact. People will assume what they hear is truth because there's no reasonable way to go that distance to prove whether it's fact or not. Another country may also only let out information they want other people, from far away, to hear. These warped stories that pass through different times and distance may be just glorified or concise versions of the real story. Alexander did many great things in his life, but that's almost all he is known for, is for him being so "great". It's hard to prove that he wasn't since most stories about him are only about his great qualities.

Works Cited

"Alexander the Great (Alexander of Macedon) Biography." Alexander the Great (Alexander of Macedon) Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

"Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age." Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.

Falls, C. B. The First 3000 Years: Ancient Civilizations of the Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile River Valleys, and the Mediterranean Sea. New York: Viking, 1960. Print.