While Alexander the “Great” was an effective conquer he was not a great ruler. To define a “Great” ruler I would say as well as many other, that it means someone who cares for their people, Alexander did not care. He slaughtered a city, he killed someone for helping, and he slayed thousands.
The city of Tyre was one of the cities Alexander conquered and it was a walled city on an island. When Alexander attacked after building a bridge to the island he burned the city and ordered his soldiers to kill anyone who did not seek sanctuary in the temple1. Later all of those that hid in the temple were sold into slavery1 and 2000 military age men were crucified1.
Once Alexander killed someone for helping him. This occurred when Alexander’s hat blew off him and got caught on something in the seas, and so a sailor went and fetched it. The sailor decided to put it on so it wouldn’t get wet. He was sentenced to death for that2.
In just four battles 100,000 people were killed, citizens and soldiers3. So basically Alexander had a lot of anger issues.
1 Excerpt from “Alexander of Macedon” by Peter Green
2 “The Legend of the Hat Band” by Lucius Flavius Arrianus
3 The chart of Alexander’s legacy compiled from various sources
