Alexander III: The Parallel Life: Alexander The Great

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Alexander the III

Alexander III the Great, the king of Macedonia and the conqueror of the Persian Empire is one of the most known personalities from the ancient civilization. According to the primary source “The Parallel Lives” the Greek writer Plutarch 46-119 A.D., "Alexander was born early in the month Hecatombaeon, the Macedonian name for which is Loüs, on the sixth day of the month, and on this day the temple of Ephesian Artemis was burnt"(Plutarch, “The Parallel Lives” ~ 100 A.D). He was the son of the Macedonian king Fillip the second and his wife Olympia the princess of Epirus. He spent his childhood watching his father turning Macedonia into a great military nation. He attended most of the political meetings with his father, “he entertained the ambassadors from the king of Persia, in the absence of his father, and entering much into conversation with them, gained so much upon them by his affability, and the questions he asked them, which were far from being childish or trifling...“ (Plutarch, “The Parallel Lives” ~ 100 A.D). When Alexander was 13 years his father hired the great Greece philosopher Aristotle to be his tutor. Alexander said to him, “At my parents I own my life; at my teacher i own my wellfare" (Plutarch, “The Parallel Lives” ~ 100 A.D). Aristotle taught him rhetoric, literature, science and medicine which was very important to his future life.
After the mysterious death of the great conquer Phillip the second, Alexander the III came and took the throne and was left with his father’s dream to conquer the Persian Empire. His journey started when he was 20 years old. In 335 B.C., According to “The Parallel Lives” when Alexander came to Thebes he asked for Phoenix and Prothytes, the authors of the rebelli...

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...onths later Macedonians burned the palace in Persepolis and from that moment they ended the period of Persian Empire. Alexander the great continued to move east, to the central Asia. “In 11 years, from 335 B.C. to 324 B.C., Alexander and his army battled their way across 22,000 miles.“ (Chris Whitten, Alexander the Great World conqueror, 2001). Finally, the rise of Rome put an end to the Macedonian kingdoms. Plutarch once said about Alexander’s achievements, “Having founded over 70 cities among barbarian peoples and having planted Greek magistracies in Asia, Alexander overcame its wild and savage way of life” (Plutarch, ~ 100 A.D). Alexander has indeed opened the enormous immigration in East. Alexander the Great from Macedonia brought together the civilizations such as Greece and the Middle East. After his death the period in history known as Hellenic age started.

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