Alexander the Great was the son of King Phillip of Macedon and Queen Olympia. Macedon was a mountainous country north of Greece. Macedonians were believed to be brave, rugged, and hard-working people. The Greeks believed that the Macedonians were barbarians, but just like the Greeks, the Macedonians were a part of the Aryan race and considered themselves as Greeks (Biography). When Greek city-states in Greece were fighting, and heading for decline, Macedon became mighty under the control of a warrior named Philip. Philip earned position as king in 359 B.C. and became motivated enough to expand his power and the recent weakness of the city-states left him with the perfect opportunity to follow through with this act. Philip formed a strong army known as the Macedonian Phalanx. This was a new form of military force; the soldiers stood line after …show more content…
At only 13, Philip appointed a famous Greek philosopher, named Aristotle as the tutor for him. The famous philosopher taught Alexander to have a vision of a wider world, a desire for studying many subjects, and for discovering new things for knowledge. These lessons made the young teenager open-minded and cultured. Alexander’s love for books caused him to expand not only his, but his people’s knowledge as well; his book obsession led to him building the greatest library during the ancient world, containing thousands of books, scrolls, and other types of literature. By taking advantage of his available literacy resources, he could be successful at improving his knowledge of military tactics. He studied the accomplishments and failures of ancient generals and kings and used the information to better himself for when he became the king and general for the army. The reasoning behind Alexander’s large expansion of knowledge was because of the deep respect that he held for