The big question: Was Alexander the Great as great as history says? Well, no.
According to the textbooks, Alexander is Alexander the Great. But is that true? I mean, he crucified over 2,000 men. He cut off a man's head for retrieving a headband for him. And he killed over 100,000 enemy soldiers AND civilians in only four major battles! So far, he doesn't look so great.
Ok, so, revisit the fact that he crucified over 2,000 men. Wow. Not good. Imagine the impact that would have on those men's families. Sure, this happens a lot in major battle, but that fact that he was so ruthless, proves clearly supports the claim that Alexander is no-so-great.
Maybe you don’t quite believe me. Maybe you are thinking, ‘Well, isn't this kinda what happens in battle?’. Well, ok, yeah, maybe, but that doesn’t mean that Alexander should go down in history sounding like a hero. No matter what you are doing or why you are doing it, there is never a reason to kill so many people. Never. So, if you don’t already agree with me, keep reading and I guarantee you that you will see reason to my argument.
If you scroll up a ways and look at my first paragraph, you will notice I said something about a headband. So maybe I threw things out of proportion a little bit, (it wasn’t just a headband, it was a ‘royal band’), but still. Alexander’s reaction was completely unreasonable. Now, I’m going to go into more detail about that story.
“Alexander was himself steering the trireme (a warship with oars), when a strong gust of wind fell on his broad-brimmed Macedonian hat, and the band that encircled it. The hat, being rather heavy, fell into the water. However, the band was carried along by the wind, and was caught by one of the reeds growing near the the tomb of one of the ancient kings….[O]ne of the sailors swam off towards the band and snatched it from the reed. But he did not carry it in his hands because it would get wet while he was swimming. He therefore put it around his own head and brought it to the king. Most biographers of Alexander say that the king gave him a talent* as a reward for his zeal. Then he ordered his head to be cut of (because) the prophets explained that … he should not be allow the head that had worn the royal head band to be safe,” (Ian Worthington, Alexander the Great: Man and God, Longman, 2004).
Ok, wow. Not that great anymore. If you still don’t believe me, I will hope that this last bit of information will push you over onto my side. This information, (although not directly cited), comes from Alexander’s Legacy Chart.
According to the chart, it took Alexander 11 years for him to build his empire, (which took up about 44% of the world population by the way), but it only took 10 years for the empire to fall apart after his death. I guess there were some pretty unhappy people out there. Well, anyway, that's not all. The same source states that 100,000 (estimated, of course) soldiers AND civilians were killed in only 4 major battles. CIVILIANS! Men in battle are one thing, but at least leave their families out of it! Alexander is starting to look just cruel.
Ok, now that you’ve read through all of that, ( I know, it took a while, sorry about all of the super long quotes), are you ready to decide whether or not Alexander was Great? Now that I have stated all of my reasons, I hope that you agree with my reasoning.
Now, if you agree with me, from now on I hope that we can at least think in our heads, Alexander the Not-so-Great.
Bibliography
1 The destruction of Tyre
2 Legends of the Helmet and the Hat Band
3 Alexander’s Legacy (Chart)
