Alexander The Great Father

The Life of Alexander the Great

The brilliant, the devious, and the greatest successor in all of history, was Alexander the Great. With the risk taking, and quick decision making, Alexander the Great defeated the Persians and the Greeks, conquered Egypt and Asia Minor, and he secured the Mediterranean Sea.

History’s greatest successor was born July 356 BC to the king of Macedon, Phillip II and the princess of Albania, Olympias. Phillip had already claimed that Alexander would be the next to reign when the time was right. A roman writer, Justin, pointed out the difference between the father son duo. The differences were that Alexander had an open mind to war and had a greater vision for the kingdom (Cantor). Phillip was loved by many, but

for Alexander, he was feared by many people. From the age of 5, he was seen as a highly skilled soldier, and by 15, he was joining into discussions with the Greek Ambassadors (Cantor). By 338 BC, Alexander was on the battlefield with King Phillip.
As Alexander waited for his chance to reign, he formed a loyal relationship with Hephaestion. Hephaestion was a military man and a second rank general (Cantor). The only thing seen as abnormal in this relationship was that they were close in age. The couple had a strong relationship, until Hephaestion’s death, 2 decades later. Roman authors wrote about Alexanders actions after the death of his loved one. Late second and third century, roman author, Aelian, wrote that Alexander burned gold, silver, and expensive clothing items, along with the body. Another roman citizen, also a writer, Arrian, claims that Alexander would spend all day and all night next to the corpse, and even hung the doctor that cared for Hephaestion, and accused him of giving improper medication (Cantor). The death of Hephaestion, had an unexpected impact on Alexander.
Alexanders promise to become heir fell through when his father married another women, Cleopatra. Alexander states that the only women he will love is his, “terrible mother”, Olympias (Cantor). That being said, he was not fond of his father’s new wife. Phillip guaranteed him that if Cleopatra gave birth to a boy, he would become the heir and Alexander would not. That angered Alexander because he learned at a very young age about the kingdom, wars, and he knew all his father’s enemy, he was already trained to become the next heir. Cleopatra became pregnant, but she gave birth to a girl. That secured Alexanders position of being the next heir, but then Cleopatra became pregnant and this time it was a boy. Olympias and Alexander decided that it was the right time to take down Phillip and make sure Alexander would be next to reign. The night of Phillips daughter’s wedding, was when he was assassinated. It is not clear as to who planned the assassination, some say it was Alexander and Olympias, while others say it was his own body guard, Pausanias (Cantor). The assassination guaranteed Alexanders position to reign, but he went through some problems before accepting the position.
Alexander temporarily denied the position, he felt pressure, he fell in love with his mother, and his father who taught him everything was dead. Alexander accepted the position, and began his journey to become the leader.
Phillip left Alexander with many enemies, but he was also left with the strongest and most powerful army (Cantor). Alexander marched his army into the Asia Minor and took over the city of Baalbek and renamed it, Heliopolis. Alexander went into Egypt in 331 BC. He ordered that the mouth of the Nile River should be seen as a Macedonian military and trading outpost. On Alexander’s trip to a temple, the god of the sun, Zeus Ammon saw Alexander the ruler of Egypt. On this trip in the desert, he was blessed with ran and then the priest of the temple stated that Alexander was destined to rule the new world. Alexander did not stay long in Egypt, he left mid 331 BC and he took his troops to defeat the king of Persia, King Darius III (Alexander the Great).
This was at the battle of Issus, he invaded the city of Sidon and then Aleppo.

There were many battles between Darius and Alexander, in which Darius would usually flee, leaving victory for Alexander. The battles that Alexander fought usually had high death tolls and his tactics were seen as harsh (Behnke). In a message to Darius, Alexander says, “It is war that will determine the boundaries of our respective empired and each shall have what fortunes of tomorrow assign to us,” (Behnke). The last battle was at Gaugamela. As a result for the battle of Gaugamela, king Darius fled. The Persians lost about fifty thousand soldiers, and the Macedonians lost one thousand. Alexander then took his troop and marched into Persepolis and declared himself the new king, which then led to the downfall of the Persian Empire

(Cantor).
After the downfall of the Persian Empire, Alexander turned his focus to India. There was a battle between the king of Paurava, Porus, in which he charged at Alexander with elephants. That did not stop Alexander from defeating Porus. Alexander declared himself as a ruler of a larger portion and takes control of 2 cities, one named Bucephala, his horse that died in the battle (Mark). Alexander wanted to continue on his march across India and go to the Ganges River, but his soldiers were exhausted from the battle with Porus. Alexander gave up on pushing them to fight, and split the group up sending half to Susa and the other half to go through the Gedrosian Desert.
Every successful ruler leaves an impact in his kingdom.

For Alexander the Great, his downfall was his death, June 10, 323 BC. Alexander suffered mania, paranoia and could have been clinically insane. The cause of his death is still unknown, but it was said that he was partying and drank all day and night. He developed a fever, and then after he drank a glass of wine, he was dead. It was set that his cause was alcohol poisoning with the account of malaria. Alexander did not just follow up with what his dad left him, he defeated the enemies, and took control of many other cities, and while doing so, he was the most successful leader. Alexander had the reputation that not many rulers had, and he gained this reputation by being a kind leader and his strategies and tactics to fight were unique. “The age of Alexander had the good fortune to produce both many artistic achievements and many men of great talent,” (Behnke) was stated by Plutarch to sum up the reign of

Alexander.