Alexander the Great1, History_Other, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - History Other

Alexander the Great1

Alexander the Great1 Alexander the Great or Alexandros III Philippou Makedonan was born in July 356BC in Pella, Macedonia (Popovic intro). He conquered what was in his time, most of the civilized world. “Alexander accomplished greater deeds than any, not only of the kings before him but also of those later to come later down to our time (popovic intro).” He was one of the greatest military geniuses in the history of the world. Both of Alexander’s parents always dreamed of him someday being a great leader. Alexander’s mother was named Olympias, she was princess of Epirus, a small provincial kingdom. She was the high priestess of a religious cult. She believed that she was descended from Achilles (Wepman 17). She was a jealous woman and very protective of her son Alexander’s father, Phillip II of Macedonia was also a great leader and military strategist. When Alexander was young Greece looked down on the Macedonians as barbarians. In twenty years Phillip made Macedonia more powerful than any province in Greece. He bribed his enemies so that he would only have to deal with them one at a time (Townson 2). Alexander was very anxious to begin his career as ruler the empire his father had created. Once he said,“My father will get to far ahead and leave nothing for me to do.(Popovic origins). “When Alexander was twelve he tamed a horse named Bucephalus, that no one else was able to ride. Phillip was very proud of his son for this accomplishment, he thought that this showed how strong and brave he was. Once Phillip said to his son”seek out a kingdom worthy of thyself, for the kingdom of Macedonia is to little for thee (Popovic parents) prince).”Even at a young age he showed promise as a great ruler. Growing up, Alexander was trained in the art of war. He learned sword fighting, javelin throwing, horseback riding, and archery (Townson 3). He was well known for his ablility to tame horses. Alexander had the best education possible in his time. The great philosopher Aristotle taught him. Aristotle taught him about literature, and introduced him to science, philosophy, and medicine which he became interested in. His favorite work of literature was The Iliad, by Homer. Every night he slept with it and a dagger under his pillow (Townson 3). Soon he would be able to put all of his drive, ambition, and education to work. Phillip was assassinated in July 336BC on the way to the theater with his brother-in-law, Alexander of Epirus, by a Macedonian soldier, (Popovic death of Phillip). After this event , at the age of twenty Alexander quickly and firmly took charge of his father’s army, faster than anyone had ever thought possible (Popovic death of Phillip). Alexander quickly executed all of his enemies and people that had any chance of claiming the thrown; among these were Attulus, a general who claimed that his nephew was the rightful heir and Phillip’s other wife and child. There are stories that Olympia, Alexander’s mother tortured them to death (Wepman After Phillip’s death Sparta and Thessaly claimed independence from Greece. Alexander quickly marched 30,000 men into Thessaly and caught them off guard. When Greece saw how strong Alexander’s army was With the support of Greece, Alexander didn’t waste any time to finish what his father had begun. When Phliip died he left his land far in debt. Alexander’s plan was to conquer more land to get the money to pay off the debts his father had accumulated (Townson 4). He would begin by marching to the Danube River. Along the way Alexander’s army encountered Thracian tribes. Alexander knew that they would try to crush the Macedonian phalanx by pushing their wagons down the slope at them. Alexander told his men to quickly open up the phalanx so that the wagons would roll harmlessly by. The Tracians only had weak weapons to defend their selves with. After Alexander’s army got past the wagons they easily conquered them and took the pass through the Balkans. (Wepman 44). When the army got to the Danube river they tied their tents together and filled them will hay, crossed the river and hid in the tall grass until mourning and caught the Getae totally off guard. They were so scared they didn’t even defend their selves.( Wepman 45). After this victory tribes from all over offered their support to Alexander. Now Alexander began his march through Persia. Alexander crossed the Granicus river in spring 334BC never to return home again. The first battle was on a small plain against a Persian army a lot smaller than his. This was the army’s first victory in Asia (Townson 4). After this victory they conquered a few more cities in Asia-Minor which didn’t oppose them, because they were ruled by tyrants and would rather be ruled by Alexander (Popovic Granicus). The Persians treated Alexander the same way they treated all of their other kings; the Persians treated him like a god. This spoiled him. After this the Greek people could not speak to him the same way they used to. (Cairns 89). Alexander knew that he couldn’t beat the Persian’s navy, so he decided to attack their ports. Then the Persians would be no threat to Greece The next big battle was Issus. In the battle Darius III the king of the Persians led his army personally. Alexander was outnumbered about 10 to 1. Alexander held back a reserve force, this was the first time in history that this military tactic was used. Alexander’s army met Darius’s forces on the coast of the Pinarus river. Darius III ran leaving his family and his troops behind. After the battle, in Darius’s tent, besides his family Alexander found 3000 talents this is worth about 1.2 billion U.S dollars (Popovic Isis) All of the ports succumbed to Alexander’s forces with out a fight, until he got to Tyre . Tyre was an island about a kilometer off shore. Alexander had the channel between the island and the mainland filled. It took Alexander about seven months to take the city. He burnt it to the ground and tortured its people.(Townson 8). After this battle Alexander moved to Egypt. The Egyptians hated the Persians. Alexander was greeted and made pharaoh in 332 BC. He was also treated like a god by the Egyptians (Townson 9). Alexander organized the Egyptian government. He put their army under his command. He founded Alexandria on the western coast of the Nile. (Popovic Nile). Darius knew that Alexander would head east towards Babylon. Darius got together a huge army and in 331 he met up with Alexander (Townson 9). Alexander had about 7,250 cavalry and Darius had 34,000. He attacked the right of the Persian forces to draw away from the middle, then he attacked the middle and got to Darius. This was one of Alexander’s Alexander now had the whole Persian empire ,he still wanted to go farther east. He crossed the Indus river into India and met the army of Porus, the Indian ruler. This was the first time the Macedonians ever saw elephants, their roars scared the Macedonian’s horses. Alexander was extremely outnumbered, so he hid two cavalry groups behind the hills to attack them from behind while the main group attacked them on the right. The elephants trampled the phalanx, but besides that the plan worked. When Porus saw that there was no way for him to win he left slowly on his After this the army kept going east. Rumors started going around that there were huge armies with elephants ahead. His men refused to go any further. They headed back, but went a different way than what they came and captured more cities. As he left the Greek rule was lost over the land he had conquered. The garrisons he left behind were defeated In Babylon Alexander got sick, and he died at the age of 32 (Cairns 91).”He had done enough to wear out the strength of a hundred men, and now he was worn out (Cairns 91).”That night he had drunken a lot of unmixed wine ; it is belived that this was the cause of his death. Alexander left Greece with no heir to the throne(Popovic death). As can be seen, from this paper Alexander accomplished more than most conquerors in the history of the world. He was almost always out- numbered, but he still came out of the battles victorious everytime. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1450