Everything I Am Not And Wish To Be… [Janelle]

How great was Alexander the Great? It’s in his name, how could he possibly not be great?

It’s pretty clear that Alexander was great. Some may say that he was a bad guy because he killed some people, but this was for the sake of his own people. Alexander had to make sure that the other tribes and communities outside of his would not try to rebel and hurt the people inside of his empire. What better way to do this than make sure that he had no enemies? Alexander had no choice but to help his people.

Dear Alexander the Great,

You are:

• Respected (Even by Julius Caesar 1, one of the most influential individuals in history)
• Selfless
• A risk-taker
• Courageous
• Influential
• Unique
• A good leader

Everything I am not and wish to be.

Alexander was simply a selfless person. The Merriam Webster dictionary clearly defines selfless as: having no concern for him or herself. Imagine a scenario where you are walking across a desert, a very hot desert, with your troops. The sun is beating down on your face and back and the only form of life around you is yourself, your horse, and your troops. Out of nowhere someone comes up to you with a helmet full of water.  What would you do? (I would drink it.) Guess what Alexander did? (Read: He dumped the helmet of water on the

ground.)2 If you haven’t gotten the message yet, here it is:

 

 If Alexander was the only person that would get to drink the water, he wouldn’t drink it at all. Although some may say that he was “wasting” his water, he proved that if the soldiers would have to suffer, he would too.  Alexander was selfless and he sacrificed this rare water for his troops and soldiers.

R.I.P. Alexander and your parched throat.

Alexander traveled to many places. (He wasn’t on vacation, he was conquering almost half of the population.3) While Alexander traveled, he influenced the culture of many areas. His influence in Greek literature and theater was so great that this influence remained in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East for about 900 years!4 Good job Alexander, you really are great…  

Alexander the Great, was he influential? Check. Was he selfless? Check. Did he protect his people? Check. Well, there you go! Alexander the Great, definitely deserves his title.

Alexander the Great Mini-Q1

“The Legend of the Helmet” by Lucius Flavius Arrianus2

NationalInterest.org

Alexander’s Legacy Chart4

Image Sources:

#1 "Alexander the Great Refuses Water in the Desert" - art by Tom Lovell

#2 www.endanca.org

Alexander the Great ……...or was he? [Ayush]

As you may  know Alexander the Great made many accomplishments in his life, as much as how spectacular he was he also did some very dislikable things and thought way too much of himself. He considered himself a GOD, and and he was overconfident in himself. He also did some unusual things when his men were helping and he had no reason to do them. For example the text “The Campaigns of Alexander” by Lucius Flavius Arrianus says that Alexander's army was traveling on a desert and they were dehydrated. Several men went to get water for the men. However when they gave the helmet full of water to Alexander he did something that no one can can fathom he poured all the water on the ground as the whole army was amazed at what their leader had done. This a very questionable move indeed. He also killed men who did retrieved things for him.

According to the chart of Alexander’s legacy his conquest killed around 1000,000 people and his empire barely lasted for long. He was just too big headed to realize what he was doing. The bad part was that he was going to conquer more land if his army did not get tired and sick of his decisions. Also he never was satisfied with how much land he conquered, if he conquered the whole world he would have wanted to conquer the universe.

As I say Alexander’s head was bigger than his empire.

1stmuse.com

Was Alexander the Great Really Great? [Frances]

I really don’t understand why anyone would ever deny the fact that Alexander the great was great. I mean come on, it’s literally in his name. Just to prove it, I looked up the definition of great in the merriam webster dictionary,b and it states that great means “being beyond average” . GIVE ME ONE REASON WHY ALEXANDER THE GREAT WAS BELOW AVERAGE.

Exactly. You can’t. ALexander the great, in my mind was one of the best war leaders in history. Let's take a look at some of his accomplishments:

• At the age of 20, he inherited Macedonia from his father
• Practically conquered half of the world population*see map
• Developed new fighting techniques
• Looked up upon by julius caesar (this is not really an accomplishment, but it is still rather impressive)

Sure, he may not have been the most modest person, but compared to his:

• bravery
• Leadership
• Triumphantness
• And influential role on society

Being not modest it nothing. Just look at this map and you will clearly see that Alexander’s accomplishments can only be classified as great, or above.

Not only can you see how small macedonia was from the start, but you can also see the long, stretched out path Alexander took to conquer all that he did.

I dare you, to say that- under the merriam websters definition of great- that Alexander the great was not great.

-Frances, the great writer

Sources:

The DBQ project ( How great was Alexander the Great Mini Q )

Encyclopedia Britannica

What is Greatness? [Samhita]

If great means egomaniacally narcissistic, a cold-hearted murderer, or a ruthlessly cold-hearted killing machine, or perhaps even a mangler of religion, then Alexander the Great was truly great. But as we all know, this is the very opposite of great. Then why on earth does he have this title?

This Alex person was self-centered. Hugely. Imagine your hat band blew away from your head. A man retrieved it, but had to wear it on his head to protect it. You would reward the man, correct? Alexander had this situation on his hands, and he dealt with it in a strange way. He killed the man. After all, the hat could only touch his head. In fairness, he did reward the sodier, but what good does money do you when you’re dead?1

This man  had done our ruler here a great service, and he was executed. But that’s not his only transgression. In his grand eight year conquest, how many cities do you think he named after himself? One? Two?

Try ELEVEN.2 And that’s the minimum.

Who does that? Well, who besides Alexander the Greatly Self-Centered…

That’s not his worst problem. He was a ruthless, cold-hearted monster. Okay, maybe he wasn’t that bad, but he was pretty cruel. Look at the poor residents of Tyre. After a seven month siege, the city was reduced to chunks of rubble. Only few were spared, and thousands were crucified.3 This isn’t an isolated incident either. In his long-winded conquest, he killed 100,000 people in the major battles! On top of that, many were civilians.4 If that isn’t a crime of the worst type, then nothing is.

And then there were the religions, manipulated to create a false allegiance. He falsely assumed Egyptian god status, and forced the Greeks to accept that he was a son of Zeus.5 He maneuvered and mangled the belief systems of many to gain power. Would this man stop at nothing?

Yes, he would have murdered more if he had lived longer.

Yes, this person was prepared to manipulate, lie, and twist the truth

Yes, he was the most narcissistically egomaniacal person ever, and

No, he was NOT great, in any way.

Image 1 - Goorin Brothers Store

Image 2 - Homohistory.com

1Alexander the Great: Man and God, by Ian Worthington

2 A Map of Alexander’s Empire

3 Alexander of Macedon, by Peter Green

4 A Chart of Alexander’s Empire

5 History Alive!

Alexander the Great [Maddox]

Alexander the Great

Many historians debate over question, was Alexander the Great really all that great? Many people, including me, think he was not great after all. Alexander, if you are reading this, I want to ask you why:

• You are so careless for your men
• You have such a big head (figuratively, not literally)
• You are so insensitive

Alexander was careless for his men, as shown in “The Legend of the Helmet.” It tells that Alexander dumped out water in front of hundreds of people dying of thirst.1

Alexander was very big-headed. First he dominated the Greeks so he decided he was better than the biggest empire at the time, the Persians.2 Second, he named more than 11 cities after himself.3 I think that is over-kill.

Source: http://cominganarchy.com/2009/01/02/which-alexandria/

Finally, he was very insensitive. As said by Peter Green, “Alexander had ordered all except those who sought sanctuary to be slain.”4 Great? I think not.

Sources

1: Lucius Flavius Arrianus, The Campaigns of Alexander, circa 130 BCE

2: Alexander the Great Mini-Q

3: Map of Alexander’s Empire compiled from various sources

4: Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, University of California Press, 1991

Life or Death... I choose Death [Emanuela]

“When the last organized resistance was broken, Alexander’s [soldiers] ranged through the city on a ferocious manhunt.... Alexander had ordered that all [except]those who sought sanctuary [safety in the temple] were to be slain, and his commands were executed with savage relish.1” This is how he conquers. He kills. Alexander kills. He kills and conquers, kills and conquers, kills and conquers. This is how his life works. It’s for fame.

Fame. Fame for Alexander has to do with at least one person’s death. Alexander tries to act smart but the truth is... guess what he killed someone who was completely innocent and generous with love. “He therefore put it around his own head and brought it to the king. Most biographers of Alexander say that the king gave him talent as a reward for his zeal. Then he ordered his head cut off.2” Seriously, the soldier just gave Alexander the band then got his head cut off. What was the point of the $10,000 given to the soldier? Killing your own people. Have you heard of that... Oh, wait you just did...

Want to hear more about how Alexander made his people suffer, well you’re in luck.

“Alexander, with a word of thanks for the gift, took the helmet and, in full view of the troops, poured the water on the ground.3” He just poured the only water they had on the ground! Now letting his troops suffer. Wow, would you want to be one of his troop members? I didn’t think so. Suffering, killing, and conquering. That’s Alexander’s motto.

Alexander lived and conquered. Killed many people, about 100,000 in four wars.4 When Alexander fought the Tyrians, 7,000 died and the 30,000 that lived were sold into slavery.1 But that was not enough for Alexander. He just had to. He had to crucify 2,000 men of military age.1 I know I have said this a lot but why killing! Alexander solves his problems by killing people. So why do some people think Alexander is great when everything leads to death.

So do you think Alexander is great anymore? With all his actions leading to death. For Alexander the Great doesn’t deserve “great” in his name.

Source:  https://fr.pinterest.com/pin/433330795380236494/

1 The Destruction of Tyre- Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon

2 The Legend of the Hat Band- Ian Worthington, Alexander the Great: Man and God

3 The Legend of the Helmet- Lucius Arrianus, The Campaigns of Alexander

4 Alexander’s Legacy- Created by various sources

                       

Alexander the Nincompoop [Evan]

Slaughterer? Check. Fraud? Check. A dangerous baby with possibly no sanity? Check.

Oh. My. Holy. Zeus. Which cruel person could this possibly be?! *ahem**cough*Alexander*ahem*the “great”*cough*.

Just imagine an insane slaughterer that murdered 100, 000 civilians and soldiers1, controls literally 44% of the world population2 right now, (as someone, *cough* *cough* Alexander the “great” did) would you feel safe or comfortable?

Map of Alexander’s conquest

Source: http://explorethemed.com

If that wasn’t enough to convince you that he was pure evil, he was a fraud! (Cue the dramatic music dun dun DUN!!).

Have you ever experienced that one person in a class who doesn’t participate in the class activity yet, in the end, they still get rewarded since their group (probably including you) succeeded? That was Alexander. Every Time his soldiers conquered land, keyword: Soldiers, Alexander got more powerful and influential3. Keyword: Alexander. Some of you might argue by saying he was at the head of every battle leading his soldiers into battle, and he should take credit for what his soldiers did, but what wfould’ve happened if he weren’t there? Absolutely nothing.

Not malicious enough for you? Alright. What if I told you that he was a greedy, big-headed baby? Don’t believe me? Well, ok, imagine him conquering 2,000,000 sq. mi. of land4 and still wanting to go even more if it weren’t for his army5, founding 70 cities and naming every single one of them Alexandria6, and finally, whining all day about his small Macedonian empire like a baby, thrusting him and his army on an eight-year conquest for more land. There. Believe me now?

After all of this, it turns out that Alexander the “great” wasn’t so great after all.

1 Chart of Alexander’s legacy- created by various sources

nationalinterest.org

3 How Great was Alexander the Great Mini-Q Background Essay

4 How Great was Alexander the Great Mini-Q Background Essay

5 How Great was Alexander the Great Mini-Q Background Essay

6 Map of Alexander’s empire and Chart of Alexander’s legacy- created by various sources

#How great was Alexander the Great? [Reeve]

Alexander in the Alexander mosaic from the House of the Faun in Pompeii

You may have heard of Alexander the Great, well I think of him more like Alexander the power hungry. You may not believe me, but boy is it true. You probably think he must have done pretty amazing things to have gone down in history as Alexander the great but I’m here to tell you, nope, nada, no way, Alexander was not great.

Alexander was bloodthirsty. He killed 100,000 people. Many of them were innocent children and women that took care of the children. He also crucified 2,000 men of military age tearing apart families and breaking the hearts  

of many because he was insecure of the men taking his place as ruler. Do you still think he was a good person? I didn’t think so.

You also may think he was good because he spread greek culture, but that wasn’t for a good cause either. Most of the time he was just trying to get credit and get all his people to love even though he did almost no work.

He was also an extremely harsh ruler in my opinion. So what if he spread greek culture. Disobey him and you’re dead. And all he did to people who weren't Macedonian was eat sleep enslave, torture, kill repeat. He didn't exactly respect people. I am pretty sure his way of rewarding someone... would be killing them. Oh that reminds me, he actually did do that! I’ll tell you the story. So Alexander lost his hat in the ocean and a sailor went and found the hat and brought the hat back, and Alexander's way of thanking him? “Off with his head!” Now he didn’t literally say that but he did order the sailors head to be taken off. To make matters worse he even rewarded the sailor 10,000 dollars before and then while the sailor was so happy Alexander killed the sailor! Talk about cruel!

Did Alexander The Great Deserve His Name? [Sophia]

    Have you ever heard of Alexander the Great? Most people have. But was he really that great.  If you think that he was, you might change your mind after hearing why I think he wasn’t that great.

    He conquered a LOT of cities all over Europe and Asia. This guy just decided to go around with his army and take over cities. According to various sources used in the Mini-Q, Alexander conquered multiple cities and decided to name all of them the same thing. There were eleven cities that were named Alexandria.  

Source: www.awesomestories.com

Think of dominoes. The hand or whatever is knocking them over is Alexander and his army. The dominoes are the cities. There was one area that Alexander and his army couldn’t conquer, which was India. He actually could’ve taken over them, but because he was finally being nice, he left them alone. Well actually he was impressed with their bravery. But, like, seriously, would you really want some powerful king to come and take over your city? I wouldn’t. NationalInterest.org said that he had about 44% of the world’s population under his rule.

    Alexander had an army of about 40,000 soldiers. He had foot soldiers, archers, and cavalry. Most cities probably surrendered. If you didn’t, your city would be destroyed. The ones that surrendered at once were treated with kindly. Alexander was:

• Greedy (if you couldn’t already tell)
• Mean
• Crazy because he thought he was a god (hate to break it to ya, your not!)

Let’s not forget about the amount of people that he killed. If you had a temple in your city, you would probably hide there. The gods supposedly lived in the temples. They wouldn’t want to disrespect the gods.

    So, do you think that Alexander the Great deserved his name?

Was Alexander the Great Really all that Great? [Catie]

How great was Alexander the Great? Many people argue about this simple question, to me, it’s a flat-out not at all!  There are so many reasons why Alexander was more-so terrible than great, but I chose the three that support my claim the strongest.

• He’s a big headed 20 year old
• He killed many many people
• He forced his officers to marry a different race/ethnicity

First off Alexander was a super big headed. At the age of 20 Alexander inherited his father’s kingdom and set out with the army to conquer Persia1, at the time Persia was probably the most powerful kingdom in the world2. Good for him to want to conquer one of the biggest empires, but I don’t believe he realized that this is so incredibly dangerous! He’s a new king and decides that he wants to take about 40,000 soldiers3  with him on a dangerous conquest, i’m speechless. Not only is he putting the lives of these men in danger, but he is also putting so many others lives in danger as well. This next fact will truly convince you  that Alexander was full of himself. Alexander founded 12 towns with his followers, out of the 12 towns Alexander the “Great” decided to name 10 of them Alexandria!4  He couldn’t have been more creative? Oh, and less full of himself! Apparently not.

www. explorthemed.com

Let’s talk more about how many people Alexander killed. When the last organized resistance was broken they rummaged through the city on a man-hunt! Alexander the “Great” ordered that all except for people that sought sanctuary in a temple were to be slain. Ultimately 7,000 Tyrians died. The survivors were then sold into slavery.5 I don’t know how anyone could classify this as being a caring and good act. This just shows how cruel Alexander really was.

The final listed bullet point states that he forced his officers to marry a different race/ethnicity, this may not seem all that harsh and bad, many people these days are married between different races, but back then this was a big no-no. He tried to unify his empire by marrying Darius’s daughter, then ordering his officers to marry Persian women. Many people didn’t like Alexander joining the two races.6 This as I mentioned was a BIG no-no, he also did this so he could stay in power. I hope you also picked up on the word ordered for his officers to marry.

Alexander was the antithesis of great, the reasons I just explained showed why and how.

Sources:

Alexander the Great Mini-Q1

Alexander the Great Mini-Q2

Map of Alexander’s Empire Note3

Map of Alexander’s Empire4

Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, University of California Press, 19915

Alexander the Great Mini-Q6