Greatness or Destruction? [Ruby]

    Imagine, greatness in a leader, courage and intelligence, all in one person. But, also imagine destruction in one. Which would you prefer? Greatness or destruction? I would definatly want greatness in a leader.

    
Source: www.wikipedia.com

    Well, Alexander the Great was actually great. He may have killed people but, he did it for a good reason and they were all innocent. even adopted some of their practices, honored their gods, and let them keep their religion.

    Alexander was fair when it came to his men. After a couple of his men came back with a helmet full of water, he dumped it on the gound. He did it because he thought it wasn’t fair that he get all the water and his men get none.1

    Alexander even tried to bring the Persians and the Macedonians together by marriage, but he never forced them to. The Persians and the Macedonians resented him for trying to join two races, but at least he tried to make peace.

    He would show respect for their cultures he conquered and even adopted some of their customs.2 He honored the Egyptian and Persian gods. He even treated them as equal to Greek gods.2

    Alexander the Great was actually great. He had courage and intelligence. That is who I want as my leader.

1”The Legend of the Helmet” by Lucius Flavius Arrianus 2History Alive! The Ancient World

How great WAS Alexander the Great [Kyle]

Have you ever wondered if Alexander the Great really deserved his sign to be “great?” Well to be honest with you Alexander doesn’t really deserve that title. If you knew what Alexander did during his time period, you will agree that he is one of the most outrageous people to set foot onto the planet. He is a conqueror, a murderer, and a destroyer.

According to various sources, Alexander conquered land that he really didn’t need but had the city under his control. He went to conquer land just to make his empire bigger when he has one of the biggest empires in his time period! Why would he want more land? He also ruthlessly took away many lives of innocent civilians. The armies of the small towns are trying to defend themselves because they want to save their skin. Anyone that ran away was instantly crucified.

Alexander is a murderer since he shed so much blood that he is practically a demon. According to Peter Green at the University of California Press (255), He caused a rampage in Tyre. He destroyed the growing empire- completely and utterly. He killed 7000 civilians and crucified 2000 more that were military age. Then he stormed the temple of Melkart and captured the 30,000 civilians taking shelter. They were sold to slavery and some to the army. It was a horrible sight for the Tyrians. Even though he sold them into slavery, he killed 15,000 more just to be safe in case a tyrian uproar will go off on him. Now you believe that Alexander is not the greatest person alive? Well he also is a very violent destroyer. Various sources told that he destroyed 70 cities and one empire. He even destroyed his own empire by not giving a heir. So the generals split up the land and cause the downfall of his empire. 
Thankfully he was destroyed once and for all. 
Also Alexander lost his title “great.” He is more like Alexander the Ruthless. 
A very fitting name for him.

   www.shuttershock.com      www.spreadshirt.com

Greatness? [Anshul]

What is greatness? To be great, you must be very intelligent, a great leader and have lots of care for others. There are many people in this world who can and should be portrayed as great, but along with that there are people who are the exact opposite. For example, Alexander the “Great”. Even though it say’s in his name that he was “great” was he really. 

Alexander brutally murdered thousands upon thousands of people from Greece all the way to India, he forced people to do what he commanded and he treated his soldiers horribly.

http://www.bible-history.com/maps/05-greek-empire.html

Firstly, according to the chart of “Alexander’s Legacy- various sources” it shows that along with creating Alexander’s 2,200,000 square mile empire, he had killed over 100,000 people. In that time,

100,000 was a lot. It just comes to

show that how many innocent people had to die because of Alexander’s greed for more and more land.

http://stepfeed.com

Secondly, stated by Peter Green in the book “Alexander of Macedon” Alexander had forced thousands of people to do what he asked and change their beliefs. He burned down temples and slave many. It came to the point where the city’s enemies came to help save them from Alexander. 15,000 were able to escape but around 7,000 died and the

remaining 30,000 were sold as slaves.  

Lastly, Alexander treated his soldiers absolutely horribly. Even after his foot soldiers won so many wars, he still didn’t have any care for them. In the “Legend of the Helmet by Lucius Flavius Arrianus” it shows an amazing example of my statement. Alexander and his army were trekking through the vast lifeless desert, almost dieing of thirst the army kept marching on. Finally they found a water source and it was sufficient for the whole entire army. But Alexander went up and he started to drink. As soon as he was satisfied he took all of the remaining water and put it into a helmet. Alexander got the whole armies attention and held up the helmet of water so everyone could see it. As soon as everyone was looking he took the perfectly good drinking water and dumped it into the sand. 

It was enough water for everyone the army to have a sip but he just wasted it.
https://www.pinterest.com

This shows that Alexander the “Great” doesn't deserve the title as great. He was a ruthless ruler who had absolutely no care for his people of his army. Alexander was the exact opposite of great.

  

Alexander the Great (not so great) [Axl]

Was Alexander really as great as he was painted out to be? He killed 100,00 people in only four battles and anyone who resisted him had a bad time.

 Source: http://drum.co.za/

In cities who resisted him he either killed or enslaved the people living there. the slaves were treated harshly as well. Let's be honest here if you can kill 100,000 people in 4 battles you’re not exactly the best person. Alexander literally killed one of his men by chopping Off his head because when retrieving his hat band he put it on so he didn’t get it wet.1  He also crucified 2,000 men of military age and 7,000 other people from that same city were killed as well all because they didn’t surrender to him.

Source: http://reviews.davidmorgan.com/

Alexander conquered 2,000,000 square miles of land because he felt like following his dad’s plan to conquer persia. Do you as a person think that “I felt like it” is a good reason to conquer 2,000,000 square miles of land? Because I very much do not, but that’s just my opinion though. Alexander the great or if you agree with me you’ll be saying not so great, really wasn’t that good of a person and had even worse motives not to mention he killed and enslaved a lot of people unnecessarily. So in my opinion cross out that great Great because he wasn’t.

1source: Ian Worthington, Alexander the Great: Man and God, Longman 2004

(The Legend of the Hat Band)

                                                                                                                                         

Alexander the Great: Was He Really Great? [Breanna]

By spreading Greek culture Alexander opened up a whole new world to so many people. While spreading his culture he still let the people keep theirs. When the Greek culture was spread Greek language was spread as well. This is awesome because it allowed people to create new cultures based off of two completely different cultures.  

One language came out  of this called Kalish. The Kalish language also has its own culture which is somewhat similar to the original Greek culture.1

Alexander the Great: Was He Really Great?

Alexander the Great might have wanted to conquer the whole world like many other men and yes he may have done some terrible things to get his way,but think about all his characteristics and great achievements.

*He spread greek culture. 
*Defeated the Persians. 
*He let people keep their religion
*How intelligent he was.

Alexander overtook the Persians and became king of Persia. Many people were happy that the Persians were gone. Alexander’s rule of Persia included him taking in Persian culture. He started to wear Persian Robes and have people greet him in the Persian way by bowing at his feet then kissing them. He even Married the king of Persia’s daughter as his second wife. When he tried to encourage his men to inter-marry they refused 
because they were Greek and didn’t want to marry a Persian woman.

He even respected the other religions. How often do you ever see that in the ancient world? Almost never. He took in other religions and respected religious leaders. He let his people keep their own religions and didn’t force them to honor the Greek gods and goddesses.2

Alexander was extremely intelligent. He was taught by Aristotle himself as a young boy. His war tactics were smart and got the job done. Everything he did was clever and well thought out. Such as when he was fighting Porus. “He realized that he could not cross at the point where Porus was encamped, his elephants were too numerous...When Alexander saw this, he decided to move his troops in all different directions so that Porus was puzzled.”3

So the next time you think about Alexander the Great, recognize him as an intelligent, respectful military leader who conquered like half the world.

Sources:1In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great by Michael Wood, 2History Alive! The Ancient World, 3The Campaigns of Alexander bh Lucius Flavius Arrianus

Alexander Blog Cheat Sheet [Citations]

Here are some helpful hints on how to cite your sources in a blog post.  There are lot’s of options.  Just remember, blogs are NOT MLA, but you MUST cite your sources, even when you are not directly quoting something.  Not doing this is called...PLAGIARISM.  

ALWAYS use the actual document source title, NEVER USE DOCUMENT A, ETC.

For example, you may have a line with awesome voice that you don’t want to mess up with a citation:

Come on, the guy conquered 2,000,000 square miles of land.1  Continue writing your blog post.  Once you have finished typing your post, don’t forget to cite all sources that you have numbered in the post at the bottom of the entry. To include that cool little number for citation purposes, click on the Format tab at the top of Google Docs and select “Superscript”.  The shortcut for this is: Command/Period.  Another way to include evidence in your post can be seen below.

According to the “The Legend of the Helmet” by Lucius Flavius Arrianus:

“So extraordinary was the effect of this action that the water wasted by Alexander

was as good as a drink for every man in the army.”  

Source: http://www.altmedia.net.au/

Make sure to include your reasoning for giving this evidence as you continue writing your post.  The reasoning may even come BEFORE you quote.  When including photos in your blog post, make sure to download the image to your desktop.  Then, when in Google Docs, go to Insert at the top of the page and click, “Image.”  Make sure to include your source information as seen above.  We will NOT be formatting your posts, so make sure you are placing the image where you want it to be seen on the blog.  Also, if you want something to be a paragraph, or center justified, or bolded, you MUST DO IT YOURSELF!

When citing your textbook, YES, YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR TEXTBOOK AS A SOURCE, use the title of the book. For example…

The text, History Alive!, explicitly states, “In time, Alexandria became one of the ancient world’s most important centers of trade and learning” (292).

1 The Chart of Alexander’s Legacy - Created by Various Sources

helpful hints for blog writing

Writing a Blog: Checklist to Live By

#1 Is your blog post title catchy and appealing to your readers?

#2 Voice - talk to your audience!  Yes to using I, You, Me, My and asking questions of your audience!

#3 Background Info & Clear claim - don’t make your reader guess which side of the argument you are on!  This means, you have a thesis, but it doesn’t look like that perfect thesis equation some essays make you use.

#4 Assert your point with a bang!  A little attitude goes a long way!

#5 Do not be afraid of using bullet points, font styles, and center justified text when appropriate.  Blogs are NOT MLA!

#6 Include one image to support your blog post.  Under the image include the source - website name is all you need.  Google images is not your source, click on photo to find where it came from J

              

example à   Source: biography.com

#7 Facts - still required! Must include three reasons with evidence from your mini Q as to why Alexander was GREAT, or NOT.  Sources must be cited.