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!
