Alexander the Great, born on 21 July 356 BCE in Northern Greece ( Macedonia), was a king of Macedon who went on to conquer most of the known world of his time and is undoubtedly the greatest warrior in history. There is something about this historical figure that intrigues me deeply. I still remember vividly the History class in my school, when my History teacher introduced this great conqueror to the class. May be it was the way in which the lesson on Alexander was taught, the interest in Alexander and his conquest has stayed on with me for almost 16 years now. His conquest ranging from the Mediterranean to Himalayas ,spanning 12 years and more than 35000 Kilometers has the stuff that great stories in history are made of.
Source :
http://faculty.etsu.edu/kortumr/08hellenistic/htmdescriptionpages/01map.htm
What baffles me about Alexander the Great among other things is that, how was it possible for a man of such young age to conquer such a vast empire ? A warrior at fourteen, a general at sixteen and a king at twenty, Alexander's military genius and diplomatic skills were well known throughout the world.
Alexander was born to Philip II, a dominating man and Olympias, a ruthless, eccentric, dynastic yet beautiful woman. With such a combination, it is not hard to believe Alexander had the makings of a great ruler and conqueror.
The battle of Charonea in 340 BCE was a turning point in Alexander's life. Barely sixteen, he played a very important role in the victory of Macedonians against the Thebans and Athenians. The story goes like this - King Philip II commands his Macedonian phalanx to march forward and attack the Athenians. During the attack, King Philip II calls for a retreat which encourages Athenians to move forward. But Thebans make a mistake here and stay at their position, giving rise to a huge gap between them and Athenians. This catches the eye of a shrewd but barely sixteen year old boy - Alexander the Great, who along with his cavalry charges towards the gap and attacks ruthlessly the Thebans. At this point, the Macedonian army decide to move forward against the Athenians and this way the army of both Thebans and Athenians are destroyed. While Athenians are forced to surrender by the Macedonian army, the Thebans who came under attack by Alexander and his cavalry are slaughtered ruthlessly. This way, the Macedonians won the Battle of Charonea which gave them total control over Greece and propelled Alexander to new heights and established him as a commander par excellence.
In 336 BCE, after the death of King Philip II (conspiracy theories suggest Alexander and his mother planned this), Alexander the Great claims the throne and becomes the King of Greece ( although he was not a pure Macedonian) and begins to realize his next big dream - the conquest of Persia!
Alexander leads his massive troop of 32,000 soldiers into Asia by crossing the water-body Hellespont (today known as Dardanelles) using man powered vessels. First the battle of Granicus (334 BCE) followed by the battle of Issus (333 BCE) where Alexander confronts King Darius III for the first time and defeats him inspite of the fact that the King Darius's army outnumbered Alexander's army. In 331 BCE, Alexander meets King Darius III again in battle of Gaugamela and decisively defeats him. It was the begining of the end of the Persian power and the rise of Macedonian power in Asia.
By 327 BCE, the Persian empire was totally under the control of Alexander and it around this time he marries Roxandra, an Iranian princess. Another great example of Alexander's perseverance was the siege of Tyre, a Mediterrenean coastal base in 332 BCE .
It was around this time that Alexander set his eyes on the Indian sub-continent and fought King Porus of Hindu Paurava kingdom in 326 BCE at the battle of Hydaspes river (Jhelum river, modern-day Pakistan). The battle resulted in Macedonian victory with Punjab being annexed to the Alexander's empire which ranged from Greece to Persia. Even in this battle Alexander's army was heavily outnumber by 5:1. Alexander's horse, Bucephalus, which he had tamed when he was thirteen was killed.
The battle with King Porus was so fierce and hard-fought that Alexander's army was completely worn out and could not continue further to march towards the River Ganges. Alexander had to abandon his plans of further conquest and decided to return back. He turned back to Persia and around 323 BCE he died in Babylon due to illness.
The accomplishments of Alexander sound impressive even today. Alexander also had a great teacher in the form of Aristotle who instilled important values in him and taught him other things like diplomacy, politics and ethics among other things. It was primarily because of Aristotle's teachings that Alexander never plundered the land he conquered and never forced the culture of Greece on the inhabitants of the land he conquered, but merely introduced them.
Some consider Alexander the greatest hero and warrior in the history and some see him as a ruthless villain who killed hundreds of thousands of men. Whatever the case may be, Alexander's life showed that ambition has no limit and if determined,one can achieve the impossible. Alexander, truly was THE GREAT.
References
1.
Joshua.J.Mark, Alexander The Great, Ancient Encyclopedia
