Alexander The Great Was A Phenomenal King

Alexander the Great was a phenomenal leader and king. In his short twelve years of reign he conquered many lands and countries such as Persia, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Bactria, and Punjab, and in Egypt, he founded the city of Alexandria. He tried his best to outwit his enemies, but for the most part, used his strength and weapons rather than his wits. His mother was Olympias, whose birth name was actually Myrtle. (Wasson, Donald L. “Olympias.” 01 Jun 2013) Alexander’s father was Philip II of Macedonia who was born in Pella, Greece in 382 B.C. Alexander III was born in Pella, Macedonia, in 356 B.C. to King Philip II and Queen Olympias. (History.com Staff 2009) Although his father was mortal, he spread the word that his father was Zeus.

Alexander’s father was killed, and he became king at the age of 20, but he killed all of his rivals before they could challenge his kingship. (Ian Worthington, Alexander the Great, 1997) Alexander appointed the general Antipater as regent and headed for Persia with his army. They crossed the Hellespont, a narrow strait between the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and faced Persian and Greek forces at the Granicus River; victory went to Alexander and the Macedonians. Alexander then headed south and easily took the city of Sardes. But his army encountered resistance in the cities of Miletus, Mylasa and Halicarnassus. Under siege but not beaten, Halicarnassus held out long enough for King Darius III, the newest Persian king, to bring together a substantial army. Alexander rode toward the home of the fabled Gordian Knot which was attached to a wagon. Legend had it whoever was able to release the cart would conquer all of Asia. Alexander took on the challenge, but was unable to unravel the knot by hand. He took another approach and sliced through the knot with his sword, claiming triumph. (Plutarch. Men who shaped history,

It was mostly comprised of stories or what his mother told him. Philip and Olympias were to have two children, Alexander and a daughter, Cleopatra, but Philip saw his wife sleeping with snakes. Olympias had long been a devotee of the cult of Dionysus, which was something that angered many of the Macedonian people and she may even have introduced the practice of handling snakes to the cult. (Wasson, Donald L. “Olympias.” 01 Jun 2013) Alexander’s tutor was the philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle grew up under the influence of Plato 's worldview but eventually, he developed his own completely independent philosophy. Aristotle opposed the idea that the true reality could only be found on a transcendental level. This means that true reality is found on a not experienced but knowledgeable level. As an alternative model, he developed his teaching of categories. Within the ten categories, he defined; "substance" was primary and defined what all objects are made of. Other categories like quality, quantity or relation were derived attributes, which only became meaningful when assigned to an object with substance. For Aristotle, the world consisted of individual, separated substances, which shared certain attributes with other substances. By replacing Plato 's concept of transcendental ideas with universal categories- attributes that the mind could grasp with the five senses. He turned Plato 's principles of a divine order upside