What is greatness? I know it’s not a common question, but this is what I’m asking myself. It is simply being a powerful being, or something more then that? Is it a great leader, being kind and generous and honest? Whatever greatness is, I know there wasn’t a bit of it in Alexander.
Even most people have heard the title Alexander the Great before, most people don’t know who he is or what he did. Let me refresh you: According to the textbook “History Alive! The Ancient World,” Alexander was crowned king of at the age of 20 after his father was murdered (does anything seem suspicious???). His father had conquered Greece so Alexander ruled the Greece mainland and the land north of it. This happened at 338-ish B.C.E.(Before Common Era). Alexander’s first act as king was to attack and conquer Asia Minor. Bit by bit, he slowly conquered all of Persia, and the lands beyond, until stopping at India. He would have continued if he had not been stopped by elephants (HA! Elephants). At this point, he ruled almost all that was known of the Ancient World. Alexander died at the age of 33.
Back up, he conquered almost the entire Ancient World? That’s pretty power hungry. In fact, according to a chart of Alexander’s Legacy (created by various sources), Alexander conquered over 2,000,000 square miles of land. The map to the right shows his empire at the highest.
Source: www.britannica.com
On the left side of the picture is the land Macedonia, the kingdom Alexander inherited. That giant area wasn’t enough for him though. He had to have more. He wanted to rule everything! Obviously, Alexander wanted power.
Do you define great as being power hungry? No, I didn’t think so. Power hungry is what Alexander was, not “great.”
Alexander was also viciously violent (and maybe evil). I know that sounds harsh, but before you draw conclusions, listen to this story.
By the way, this excerpt occurred as Alexander attacked a city on an island called Tyre(tire). The city thought they were unconquerable because they were on an island and protected by high walls. (nearly everyone in Ancient times had a very big head) Alexander’s army created a land bridge and attacked the city via the bridge. This excerpt is from the book Alexander of Macedonia by Peter Green.
“Alexander’s soldiers ranged through the city on a ferocious manhunt… Alexander had ordered that all… were to be slain, and his commands were executed with savage relish. … Seven thousand Tyrians died… the remaining survivors, some 30,000 in number, he sold into slavery.
Two thousand men… were crucified.”
Source: www.utexas.edu
Isn’t that terrible? Alexander was savage, cruel, violent, whatever you pick, but he was not great.
The main thing that made Alexander not-so-great in my opinion was the fact that he was bloodthirsty. As Alexander conquered, he also killed. In just four major battles alone, Alexander killed a total of 100 thousand people, soldiers and civilians alike.1 So many people had to died for Alexander’s ambitious ways. Alexander the “Great” was bloodthirsty. The worst part was that he killed for power. Many people died after Alexander conquered them. If they resisted, he burned their city to the ground and sold them into slavery or killed them. Was he really great?
This big-headed (he named more than 11 cities after himself!2), power hungry, savage, violent, bloodthirsty killer does not deserve to be called great. A native one of the lands Alexander conquered is quoted in a book saying “... the Two Horned one whom you … call Alexander the Great.”3 When this native refers to Alexander as the “Two Horned One,” that means that the natives think of Alexander as the devil.
Alexander the Two Horned One is not and never was great.
1 Source: Chart of Alexander’s Legacy (created by various sources)
2 Source: Map of Alexander’s Empire (created by various sources)
3 Source: Native Kasi Khushnawaz, quoted from the book In the footsteps of Alexander the Great by Michael Wood
