Alexander the Great: Conqueror and Cultural Harbinger

"Identify one important historical personality studied in this class through Week 6 and describe three ways this person shaped the age in which he/she lived in."

The reason Alexander the Great is considered a great military commander was that he was never defeated in battle. “Alexander the Great established an empire that spread the Greek culture, language and thought as far west as Libya in North Africa, to Bactria in the East

(Modern day Central Asia, Turkestan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan) and southeast to India”

(McKay p.131). Alexander had died before he was able to capture the Arabian Peninsula.

Alexander’s conquest spread the Hellenistic traits to all the conquered lands. Alexander the Great was able to conquer the Persians

Alexander the Great’s conquests had greatly shaped society in the Hellenistic period, 323 –

30 B.C.E. He was able to conquer the Persian Empire because Darius III did not know how to deal with Alexander or his forces. I believe that Alexander the Great, was a magnificent general conquering everything from the Aegean Sea to the Indus River. Alexander’s tactics of how he conquered the Middle East and how he treated the inhabitants of the conquered territories are still spoken about today. “Relentlessly marching on and on again, amassing his armies and devising extremely ingenious battle plans, Alexander's military exploits were astounding” (Hurst

p.124) He was a brilliant military leader as he had conquered the entire Persian empire from

Libya to Bactria, East to West. Even though he had died while planning his next campaign, he had left an empire that rapidly broke down into several kingdoms. Even more importantly though with his death in 323 B.C.E. Alexander the Great contributed to Hellenism (McKay, p.131) as the Hellenic Age was the time when Greek culture was pure and unaffected by other cultures, a time when Greeks came in contact with outsider people and their Hellenic, classic