Why is Alexander referred to as being “the Great”?
The main reason that Alexander, the ruler over my home of Greece, is considered to be “Great” is because of his military conquest that he is spreading to a span of over 3,000 miles in territory. Alexander has planned for us to march over 11,000 miles over the course of 11 years. Alexander’s remarkable occupation over a vast spread of land began with his invasion of Persia, which avenged Greece for the shambles that it had essentially been left in, following the Peloponnesian War. This crushing of the Persian Empire and its leader, Darius III, helped better dignify our land of Greece. Alexander is actually such a respectable person that he had the assassinators of Darius III, who were actually part of Darius’s army, killed, and later gave Darius III a royal funeral. This powerful army, consisting of around 12,000 of us Macedonians, 7,000 allied troops, and 5,000 hired mercenaries (24,000 in total), accompanied by Alexander’s perfected phalanx that he improved from, his father, Philip II’s phalanx, swept all the way to western India. One of the greatest and most decisive victories for Alexander was at the river of Hydaspes, against a great Indian ruler named Porus, in July of 326 BC. Following this battle, and after marching through other parts of India, Alexander was even able to adopt the war elephant into the army as a powerful weapon. Alexander’s successful ruling over such a large empire, through the use of a powerful and resourceful military, is just one of the many reason’s that he is considered “Great”.
How did the blending of all the cultures that fell under Alexander's control aid or hurt his empire?
The blending of the different cultures that fell under Alexander’s control aided his empire. One benefit of the blended culture under his empire was the museum and library at Alexandria. Hellenistic scholars at Alexandria studied different sciences and mathematics. At the museum, scientists, such as Aristarchus, Euclid, Eratosthenes, and Ptolemy, came up with different astronomical discoveries and inventions. Discoveries in the field of astronomy include: the conclusion that the sun is far bigger than the Earth, the correct hypothesis that the sun is the center of the solar system, and an approximation of the Earth’s diameter. A very important book that came from the scientists that worked at Alexandria are Euclid’s, a famous mathematician, geometry textbook known as The Elements, with 465 geometric propositions and proofs. This textbook still lays the foundation for geometry to this day. Also, inventions like the Archimedes screw, a device used to elevate water from a lower water source, well benefited the people of the Ancient World. Archimedes also accurately estimated the value of pi. From these contributions from Archimedes, later scientists built the force pump, pneumatic machines, and even the steam engine. Along with scientific benefits, new philosophies came from the Hellenistic culture. Stoicism and Epicureanism were two beliefs that evolved from the blended culture. Stoicism, founded by the philosopher Zeno, was the practice of living virtuous lives that were led by the will of God and the natural laws that God established. Epicureanism, founded by Epicurus, is the belief that the gods have no interest in humans as they rule the universe. The only things that are real are those perceived by the 5 senses. These are merely examples of the countless pieces of artwork, inventions, and ideas that came from the Hellenistic age that greatly helped Alexander’s empire.
Compare Alexander to another historical figure who carries the “idea” of being great. Has time changed the opinion of this person?
Along with Alexander being considered “Great” among the wide variety of figures in History, there are others with an equal prowess in both leadership and sacrifice that do not necessarily have such regal titles such as “ the Great”. Abraham Lincoln is the best example of a leader who is very comparable to the accomplishments of Alexander the Great. Abraham Lincoln led a group of people to do what he thought was morally right, to emancipate slavery from the United States. This belief about slavery was the most controversial opinion of Lincoln’s time. Alexander also led his people in a way that he thought was morally right. Alexander preserved the cultures of territories that he encountered, such as Egypt and Persia. This too, like the decision to abolish slavery, was a choice that many followers of Alexander completely disagreed with. They thought that the culture of Greece alone should take over the lands that Alexander had claimed. However, from a modern standpoint, we can see that both the decision to abolish slavery, and the decision to not destroy the cultures of the lands that Alexander conquered, benefited the world later on. As time has passed, the opinion of Abraham Lincoln has definitely changed over the course of around 150 years. When he first put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln was disrespected by most of the people of the South. However now, Lincoln’s choice was one that is respected and agreed upon by almost all of the people of the U.S. What was once a decision that was thought to be solely a blunder to the economy of the South, is now realized to be one of the most important aberrations that needed to happen in American History.
Works Cited
Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Section 5 The Spread of Hellenistic Culture. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Holt McDougal Online, n.d. Web. 25 Sep. 2013. >http://my.hrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=9780547521084<
Jed Untereker, James Kossuth, Bill Kelsey. Alexander : The Early Years. Williams College Winter Study Class, 1996. Web. 25 Sep. 2013. >http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/youth.htm<
Jed Untereker, James Kossuth, Bill Kelsey. That Group That Went Hog-Wild in Asia for 11 Years. Williams College Winter Study Class, 1996. Web. 25 Sep. 2013. >http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/army.htm<
pothos.org. All About Alexander the Great. CMS Made Simple, 2004. Web. 25 Sep. 2013. >http://www.pothos.org/content/index.php?page=army<
FUN TRIVIA, INC. Fun Trivia : Alexander the Great. 2006. Web. 25 Sep. 2013. >http://www.funtrivia.com/en/History/Alexander-The-Great-17774.html<
The History Channel. Abraham Lincoln. A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2013. Web. 26 Sep. 2013. >http://www.history.com/topics/abraham-lincoln<
I liked the extra information about the library of Alexandria, and the great scientists of the time. I also liked the comparison between Abraham Lincoln and Alexander, I never thought of it that way.
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ReplyDeleteEvan, I like the way you showed a lot of facts and information about Alexander's conquests, but i wish you would have gone into more detail about your life of a soldier.
ReplyDeleteI liked how when you were talking about Hellenistic culture and how this culture made many new inventions and discoveries. All of the examples you gave of discoveries and inventions are very interesting. You did very well describing how Hellenistic culture affected his rule positively. I also like how in the first paragraph instead of viewing why Alexander was called the great in a soldiers point of view it was in the point of view of someone who did not have to fight or have someone they know fight, or someone who was willing to to do any thing to defend Alexandria. I think it shows the point of view of Alexander who did not care as much about his soldiers as the citizens of Alexandria. I also like how you use so many examples of how Abraham Lincoln and Alexander The Great were similar. I like how you talked about how the event that they caused while ruling were the same instead of just talking about how there character was the same.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love how detailed this blog post was. You really went all out on this one. I can tell that you spent a lot of time on this project. I like how you used specific examples to really enforce your statements. I found this post to be enjoyable.
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