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Alexander The Great Conquest Essay

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Alexander the Great’s inexorable ten year conquest of the Persian Empire was a conquest motivated by a number of reasons; finance, revenge, opportunity, expansion and personal zealotry being amongst those debated by modern historians. In his attempts to garner Greek support for the conquest, Alexander veiled his true motivations under the guise of nationalistic revenge. In truth however, Alexander's reasons for the invasion of the Persian Empire lay in financial necessity, territorial expansion, his desire to stand up to his mythological and biological ancestry and the opportunity presented by the relatively weakened state of the Persian empire. 1. Revenge for the Persian invasions of Greece (281) Writing in the first-century BCE, …show more content…

Writing in the first-century BCE, Diodorus Siculus comments ‘Alexander’s heritage went back to Heracles on his father’s side’ while on his mother’s side, Pausanias suggests he was ‘related to the Aeacids(family of Achilles)’. The heroic deeds and military skills of these heroes were impressed upon him through the education he received from Lysimachus and Aristotle. Plutarch tells us that Lysimachus ‘taught him (Alexander)to think of himself as Achilles’, while his later teacher, Aristotle, tutored the young Alexander in the works of Homer, particularly ‘The Iliad’, which Alexander came to regard at ‘as a guidebook of military excellence’ and ‘took with him Aristotle’s revised version’ on his Persian invasion. For Alexander, the Persian invasion was a platform for him to portray himself as a modern day mythological hero, one who stood up to his mythological ancestry. Diodours Siculus describes his symbolic arrival into Asia: ‘he flung his spear from the ship and fixed it in the ground, and then leapt ashore himself the first of the Macedonians, signifying that he received Asia from the gods as a spear-won prize. He visited the tombs of the heroes Achilles, Ajax, and the rest and honoured them with offerings and other appropriate marks of respect’. Historian Simon Hornblower comments ‘this was a Homeric idea…Alexander genuinely modelled his behaviour on

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(Doc. B). This empire had not messed with him or affected him conquering land, but Alexander saw an opportunity and jumped at it first chance he saw. Alexander did not think about the negative affect that was created by him conquering all this land, he just saw the opportunity to become more powerful, and make his empire one of the biggest. He wanted to set a legacy for himself, and did not care about how everyone else was

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Long ago, back into the time of ancient Greek, was a young 20 year old British Macedonian king called Alexander. He was a very brave, dauntless, and generous man to his followers. He had conquered a vast of land and made it his empire. He had found 70 cities and named most of them Alexandria. He spread Greek ideas and culture to the world.

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Madelyn Youtsey Mr... Caros/Mr. Bishop Western Civ. I/Composition 31 March 2023 The Legacy and Military Prowess of Alexander the Great Many conquerors have earned kleos, have built magnanimous empires, and had their name carved into stone like Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon but one of the most famous and influential conquerors was Alexander the Great.

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Consequent to his death, Alexander the Greats empire that he built ruptured into three separate kingdoms, these kingdoms later broke into more smaller states. However, even though Alexander’s kingdom did not last long, his influence did. Alexander the Great formed a huge empire, which spread Greek culture into Egypt and many parts of Asia, and paved the way for new civilizations to develop. Alexander encouraged blending of cultures in areas he conquered, created new cities for example, Alexandria in Egypt. Alexander encouraged people from other parts of the empire to move to these cities and lastly, Cultural Diffusion led to the formation of Hellenistic Culture blending of Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian cultures.

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A good leader should be humble, gracious, and thankful, but Alexander, on the other hand, was egotistical, conceited, and showed almost no gratitude to his

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I took them and gave them t you for your profit and enjoyment. ”(Cole and Symes, 127). This demonstrates Alexander’s actions and the result accomplished when a person is entirely focused on a certain task. It was through dramatic gestures and great rhetorical skills, that Alexander was able to win the commitment of many of his

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The teachings of Aristotle impacted Alexander by showing his conquered provinces a sense of tolerance due to both generosity and political wisdom rather than applying an artificial scheme to all countries; the adoption of the division of power was incorporated to prevent the possibility of rebellion (6). However, despite implementing an improved political system, Alexander established himself as a liberator by using harsh force on rebellious cities and executing an individual with a powerful influence that threatened his control (1). In order to achieve his mission of unification, Alexander felt that the best method of instilling Hellenism was by abiding with their values; he adopted the dress of a Persian king at the court ceremonies in order to strengthen his relationship and appear less foreign toward the Persians (6). Alexander the Great devised various means for unification by proposing to relocate settlers, promoting intermarriage between Persians and Macedonians, and instituting equality towards military service by training the youth located in the East as Macedonian soldiers and teaching them how to use their weapons in order to become Hellenized barbarians after 5 years (6). Alexander the Great had significantly impacted western civilization by creating various systems in order to strengthen the overall influence of the Greek

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Alexandria is considered to be the best example of ALexander's successful spreading of Greek Culture. Alexander may have been somewhat known as a big-headed, narcissistic leader, so much so as to going as far as to say that he was the son of Zeus, the King of the Gods. But Alexander truly did deserve the title of “The Great”. To be great in history is not to be a nice, sweet person who is kind to everyone, but to be a smart ruler who knows what he wants and gets what he wants. To be great in history is a title that comes with a lot of speculation, but

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The conquests of Alexander the Great during the 4th century BC undoubtedly transformed the ancient world, bringing people of foreign lands into contact with Greek ideals and customs that spawned a unique Hellenistic period of both decaying and generative traditions. Despite the historical dramatization of Alexander, emphasizing his charisma and intellect as being the driving forces in creating an empire of a size that had never been imagined before, the contexts of cultural tension between Greek and Persian societies, a fractious Greek political state, and civil strife from an overpopulated Greek world greatly supplemented Alexander’s inherent traits in clearing a path for him to rise and embark on a path of conquest in the pursuit of eternal

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