Free Essays on Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great By: Robin Fox Lane Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conqueror of the Persian Empire and one of the greatest military geniuses of all times, had many books written about his life and deeds. The book that was read for this term paper was a biography called, â€Å"Alexander the Great.† Robin Lane Fox wrote this biography in 1974. The book goes into great detail about Alexander’s early life, to his intense and magnificent battles, to his sensitive and generous personality. In this paper, I will describe how Alexander came to be king of Macedonia, his conquests to unite Asia, and his mental weakness that drove him to die a lonesome death. In an amazing eleven-year journey of conquest, Alexander the Great, of Macedonia, conquered all the way from Egypt to India. Following his reign came Greek institutions and the Greek language, which became the standard way of the ancient world. On the day that Alexander was born, the temple of Diana at Ephesus burned to the ground. People thought that this was an omen, or a sign that the force that would eventually destroy Asia had entered the world. That force was young Alexander. Alexander was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. He was the son of Philip II, the king of Macedonia, and of Olympias, a princess of Epirius. Philip and Olympias had noticed that their son had matured very early and had potential for greatness. They quickly started to plan his education. His first teacher, Leonidas, was a relative to the family and was very harsh on Alexander. He taught him how to survive off very simple living, which would later help him in his journey to conquer Asia. His next teacher was Lysimachus, who taught Alexander about music, poetry, and drama. This was not enough for Alexander, and Philip and Olympias wanted only the best for their son, so when he was thirteen, they hired Aristotle to be Alexander’s personal tutor. Under Aristotle, Alex... Free Essays on Alexander the Great Free Essays on Alexander the Great Alexander the Great By: Robin Fox Lane Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conqueror of the Persian Empire and one of the greatest military geniuses of all times, had many books written about his life and deeds. The book that was read for this term paper was a biography called, â€Å"Alexander the Great.† Robin Lane Fox wrote this biography in 1974. The book goes into great detail about Alexander’s early life, to his intense and magnificent battles, to his sensitive and generous personality. In this paper, I will describe how Alexander came to be king of Macedonia, his conquests to unite Asia, and his mental weakness that drove him to die a lonesome death. In an amazing eleven-year journey of conquest, Alexander the Great, of Macedonia, conquered all the way from Egypt to India. Following his reign came Greek institutions and the Greek language, which became the standard way of the ancient world. On the day that Alexander was born, the temple of Diana at Ephesus burned to the ground. People thought that this was an omen, or a sign that the force that would eventually destroy Asia had entered the world. That force was young Alexander. Alexander was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. He was the son of Philip II, the king of Macedonia, and of Olympias, a princess of Epirius. Philip and Olympias had noticed that their son had matured very early and had potential for greatness. They quickly started to plan his education. His first teacher, Leonidas, was a relative to the family and was very harsh on Alexander. He taught him how to survive off very simple living, which would later help him in his journey to conquer Asia. His next teacher was Lysimachus, who taught Alexander about music, poetry, and drama. This was not enough for Alexander, and Philip and Olympias wanted only the best for their son, so when he was thirteen, they hired Aristotle to be Alexander’s personal tutor. Under Aristotle, Alex... Free Essays on Alexander The Great Why hello. Thank you for taking an interest in my life, as you already know I am Alexander the great. You’re probably wondering why I have such a cool nickname as â€Å"the Great† huh? Well, stick around and listen to what I have to say about myself and then you can be the judge on whether or not I should be known as Alexander the Great, or Alexander the Best. Sorry, just a little joke. Obviously I can’t give you a life story day by day, so here’s my life in a nutshell. The miraculous year that I was born was 356 B.C. That makes me (pretty damn old) 2,358 years young. I was born into royalty in Pella, Macedonia, being my father was King Philip II, and my mother Queen Olympias. As most of you already know all great figures want the best for their children, so for my education I was tutored by Aristotle; one of the greatest minds to ever live. Since I was heir to the thrown I supported and backed my father 100%. I fought many campaigns for my father, but after I let my temper loose one time I was sent into exile with a few of my companions. I returned after the death of my father in 336 B.C., in which Darius had believed to be involved in, and was hailed as king, although I was careful to eliminate any possible rivals to the throne. This started the path to becoming â€Å"the Great.† I had to clean up so to speak, what my father had already started and undertook the invasion of Asia. Now with me as the â€Å"commander-in-chief† my first goal was to restore a sense of stability back to the League of Cornith (the League of Cornith was a league formed of Greek city-states, held together by treaties and alliances) that was starting to break apart. I felt it was my job to prove myself to my followers, townspeople, and most of all my father. I began by executing all potential enemies of Philip in court. My father would have been so proud of me for that (sniffle, sniffle). My next mission was to regain support of all ... Free Essays on Alexander the Great Alexander the Great, was born in June, 356 BC, in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. His parents were Philip II and Olympia. Some say that Zeus was his father but it is probably just a myth. Aristotle taught Alexander in his early teen years. He stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy. In the summer of 336 BC, Alexander's father was assassinated, and Alexander ascended to the Macedonian throne. He found himself surrounded by enemies at home and threatened by civilizations all over. But Alexander disposed of quickly of all his enemies by ordering their execution. Then he took off to Thessaly, where partisans of independence had gained ascendancy, and restored Macedonian rule. Before the end of the summer of 336 BC as general of the Greeks in a campaign against the Persians, originally planned by his father before he croaked, he carried out a successful campaign against the defecting Thracians, penetrating to the Danube River. On his return he crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians and then again took of to Thebes, which had revolted. He took the city by storm and razed it, sparing only the temples of the gods and the house of the Greed lyric poet Pindar, and selling the surviving inhabi ¬ tants, about 8000 in number, into slavery. Alexander's promptness in crushing the revolt of The ¬ bes brought the other Greek states into instant submission. Alexander began his war against Persia in the spring of 334 BC by crossing the Hellespont (now Dardanelles) with an army of 35,000 Macedonian and Greek troops: his chief officers, all Macedonians, included Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. At the river Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy, he attacked an army of Persians and Greek soldiers which totaled 40,000 men. His forces slatured the enemy and according to tradition, only lost 110 men! After this battle all the stated of Asia Minor submitted to Alexander. Continuing south,... Free Essays on Alexander The Great Alexander the Great was a great military leader for many reasons. His life was filled with events that would provide him with valuable experience. The people with whom he was close while growing up urged him to try his hardest, and this also contributed to his great leadership. In the following paper, I will explain how Alexander’s parents and education, among other things, helped him to gain the necessary experience and qualities of a good leader, and how he used this experience as he got older and became a greater military leader. Alexander’s youth played a great role in his development into a great military leader. Many aspects of his youth contributed to this development, including his parents, his education, and the military experience he had early on in his life. Alexandros was born in the summer of 356 BC to Philip II and Olympias (â€Å"Alexander the Great† 1). Alexander’s parents both wanted him to become a great leader, both pushing him to do his best. When Alexander was young, his mother, Olympias, poisoned Philip’s other son so that he could not compete with Alexander. She also once commanded Cleopatra to commit suicide, and then threw Cleopatra’s infant son into a fire (Roselle 28). Alexander received not only support from his mother, but probably inherited her hot temper. One of the men who played the greatest role in Alexander’s life was his father, Philip II. As Alexander was growing up, Philip always treated him like an adult, and Alexander in turn treated him with respect (Gunther 8). This bond between father and son was never broken, although it was weakened by one event. When Alexander was a teenager, his father and he got into an argument, and Alexander then ran away from home. Alexander soon returned, and although he and his father made peace, he never actually forgave his father (â€Å"Alexander the Eckert 2 Great† 1). There was one other man who affected Alexander’s life near ly as much as Philip did. ... Free Essays on Alexander the Great Voltaire quickly chose literature as a career. Advertisement He began moving in aristocratic circles and soon became known in Paris salons as a brilliant and sarcastic wit. A number of his writings, particularly a lampoon accusing the French regent Philippe II, duc d'Orlà ©ans of heinous crimes, resulted in his imprisonment in the Bastille. During his 11-month detention, Voltaire completed his first tragedy, Å’dipe, which was based upon the Å’dipus tyrannus of the ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles, and commenced an epic poem on Henry IV of France. Å’dipe was given its initial performance at the Thà ©Ãƒ ¢tre-Franà §ais in 1718 and received with great enthusiasm. The work on Henry IV was printed anonymously in Geneva under the title of Poà ¨me de la ligue (Poem of the League, 1723). In his first philosophical poem, Le pour et le contre (For and Against), Voltaire gave eloquent expression to both his anti-Christian views auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucreed. A quarrel with a member of an illustrious French family, the chevalier de Rohan, resulted in Voltaire's second incarceration in the Bastille, from which he was released within two weeks on his promise to quit France and proceed to England. Accordingly he spent about two years in London. Voltaire soon mastered the English language, and in order to prepare the British public for an enlarged edition of his Poà ¨me de la ligue, he wrote in English two remarkable essays, one on epic poetry and the other on the history of civil wars in France. For a few years the Catholic, autocratic French government prevented the publication of the enlarged edition of Poà ¨me de la ligue, which was retitled La Henriade (The Henriad). The government finally allowed the poem to be published in 1728. This work, an eloquent defense of religious toleration, achieved an almost unprecedented success, not only in Voltaire's native France but throughout all of the continent of Europe as well. III. Popularity at CourtP... Free Essays on Alexander The Great Alexander the Great was king of the Macedonians and one of the greatest generals in history. Alexander was born in 356 as the son of the Macedonian king Philip II (359-336). Alexander the Great was born in 356 B.C. His father, Philip, was the brother of King Perdiccas III of Macedon or Macedonia, in northern Greece. His mother was Philip's wife Olympias, daughter of King Neoptolemus I of Epirus, in modern Albania. Alexander had a younger sister, Cleopatra (not the famous Egyptian queen). Unfortunately for Alexander and Cleopatra, their parents hated each other. In keeping with Macedonian tradition, Philip had several lesser wives, and Olympias regarded these other women and their children with great animosity. When one of her rivals gave birth to a retarded son, Philip Arridaeus, it was rumored that Olympias had caused his disability with poison. Olympias told Alexander that Philip wasn't his real father, but this probably wasn't true. Philip certainly seems to have believed that Ale xander was his son. He made sure the boy was well educated; the great philosopher Aristotle was one of Alexander's tutors. At the age of 13, Aristotle was hired to be Alexander’s private tutor. Aristotle inspired interests of politics, other races of people and countries, plants and animals, and a great love for literature in Alexander. He was an outstanding athlete and excelled in every sport of his time. In 338 B.C., at the age of 18, Alexander led the cavalry of his father’s army in the Battle of Chaeronea, which brought Greece under Macedonian control. At the age of 20, Alexander’s father was murdered by one of his bodyguards, and Alexander succeeded the throne as king of Macedonia. After his father's murder in 336 B.C. Alexander became King Alexander III. After Alexander’s father died, some Greek cities under Macedonian rule revolted. In 335 B.C., He had several rival claimants to the throne executed, including his cousin Amyntas, whose t... Free Essays on Alexander the Great Alexander the Great By: Lynn E-mail: moninghoff@yhoo.com Who is â€Å"Great†? In history there are few people who can be termed â€Å"Great† and even fewer who deserve to be called so. Alexander, the son of King Phillip of the Macedonians, was one of these truly â€Å"Great† people. He not merely ruled the largest know empire, was declared a God, lead his troops in battle, and conquered foreign cities, his first being at the age of sixteen, but he did it all within a thirteen year time period. Not only did he do all of this, but also it was done within thirteen years. When Alexander became the new King of Macedonia, many believed him to be to young to rule. They felt that he didn’t have the experience needed to be their new leader. They had no way of knowing of the many things that he would come to accomplish in such a short time period. Alexander’s first great accomplishment occurred when he was just sixteen years old. At this time, his father went away to war leaving Alexander to serve as a regent of Ma cedon. During his father’s absence, Alexander led an expedition to a wild region that is now known as modern day Bulgaria. Once there, he subdued the rebellious barbarians and established his first city, Alexandropolis. On the return from his trip, King Philip was so impressed by his son’s achievement that he appointed him a general in the royal army. (www.mrdowlings.com) When Alexander turned his attack towards Persia, his forces were much smaller than his opponent’s. Alexander’s army conquered Persia anyway, by winning a series of battles in which his troops were better trained and organized than the Persian army. His soldiers also admired Alexander because of his personal participation in the battles. He led his soldiers into battle instead of remaining behind the lines as was common for military leaders to do at that time. This allowed the troops to see that Alexander was sharing their danger, and was not asking the... Free Essays on Alexander The Great Alexander the Great, Hybris – Nemesis Life In the life of Alexander the Great, one could examine that he had a hybris-nemesis effect on the world. As a great conqueror and warrior Alexander resembled the mind a hyberistic man that created a nemesis world view in his Hellistic world. Throughout his life time one can evaluate that Alexander had a great unchecked pride that was never tested till the gods took his soul. We can also see that because of his hybris view that he could only create a world of nemesis all around him, just like that of the man that he chased all throughout his crusades of Persia the King of Kings, Dorias who may have been his greatest adversary. It is without a doubt Alexander the Great definitely lead a Hybris lifestyle that led to a Nemesis world view like the other conquerors before him. As stated by John Porter, â€Å" hybris is a tricky word. Today it is used to refer to â€Å" overweening pride,† often in very Christian terms. In antiquity, however, hybris was a form of violent arrogance or aggression that displayed itself, not in one’s attitudes, but in one’s actions.† This is exactly what Alexander the Great resembled both in life and the battlefield. When in battle Alexander would rush into battle, weather he outnumbered the enemy or the enemy outnumbered him, with battened disregard for the safety of his men or himself. In the Battle of Issus in 333 B.C. Alexander and his men charge through Dorias’ Persian army directly at Dorias, who in fear retreats and abandons his family and army. Dorias’ army discuses the battle and his family is captured and kept as Alexander’s personal servants. In these actions Alexander resembles the meaning of a â€Å"hybristic man,† as also defined by John Porter â€Å"was n ot simply a proud or arrogant man (as we have seen, the Greeks did not regard justifiable pride as a character flaw) but treated others with violence that suggested that they were in effect mere... Free Essays on Alexander the Great Alexander the Great was the king of Macedonia, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and one of the greatest military leaders of all times. Even at an early age, Alexander showed that he would a great leader. Through all his victories and conquests, he has become a great hero and has had a large impact on history. Alexander, born in 356 B.C. in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia, was the son of Philip II, king of Macedonia. Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, taught him from age 13 to 16 in medicine, science, and philosophy. When the time came, he was well prepared to take over the throne. In the summer of 336 B.C. Philip was assassinated, and Alexander became the new ruler of Macedonia. He soon showed his power when the large city of Thebes revolted in 335. He charged the city with mighty force and took 30,000 people as slaves. Alexander’s next attempt was to defeat Persia because he could never be the dominant force in Europe as long as the Persian ruler Darius was still living. A fter beating Persia the second and final time in 332, Darius, who managed to survive, fled to the mountains. He died in the mountains when one of his own men killed him. With Darius dead, Alexander was crowned King of Persia and became known as the king of all Asia. Babylon surrendered after Gaugamela, and the city of Susa was soon conquered. In midwinter, Alexander forced his way to Persepolis, the Persian capital. After plundering the city of its treasuries and taking other rich â€Å"booty†, however he burned the city during a drunken rage, which completed the destruction of the ancient Persian Empire. His empire now extended along and beyond the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, including modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and northward into Bactria and Sogdiana, the modern Western Turkistan, which is also Central Asia. It had taken Alexander only three years, from the spring of 330 B.C. to the spring of 327 B.C., to gain control of this vast empire. In or... Free Essays on Alexander The Great â€Å"Alexander the Great: Hunting For A New Past?† Paul Cartledge attempts to tell the history of the myth and legend of Alexander the Great in this article. Alexander was born to Olympias and Philip of Macedon, or was he, in 356 at the Macedonian capital of Pella. Olympias claims that Alexander was conceived not by Philip, but by the Egyptian God Amun. So the legend begins. As a teenager Alexander is said to have tamed a fiery and exorbitantly expensive Thessalian stallion called Bucephalas. This was Alexander’s horse for hunting and war. Bucephalas and Alexander were unfortunately separated when the steed died in Pakistan at the age of thirty. Alexander loved his horse so much that he named a city after him. At the age of sixteen Alexander was appointed regent of Macedon while his father was away on a campaign. To upstage his father, Alexander waged war on the Thracian people and established a new capital named after, of course, himself. To become a man though Alexander had not to conquer a city, but to hunt and kill a wild boar and a human enemy. This allowed him the right to recline at social gatherings rather than sit straight up. It is said that alcohol may have played a factor in Alexander the Great’s early death. Some scientists say that he may have become a clinical alcoholic. This cannot be proven today, but according to Cartledge his drinking habit may have led him to kill his personal companion and senior cavalry commander. Alexander was taught by Aristotle, the greatest intellectual of his time. Aristotle advised Alexander to treat all non-Greeks as barbarians. He obviously did not pay much attention to this because of his many wives were of non-Greek people. Despite all his wives it is said that Alexander may have had interest in the opposite sex. How they can prove this I am not sure, but the author wrote that he may have had at least two lovers of the opposite sex. One was a boyhood fri...