Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great was Alexander III of Macedonia. His period was extended from 356 to 323 BC. So it can be safely derived that Alexander the Great was Macedonian. Macedonia is located in the northeast of Greece. Alexander has the honour of creating one of the greatest empires of the ancient history that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas. Alexander the Great remained undefeated and was thus considered a most successful commander. The record of history shows him born in 356 BC. He was not illiterate rather well educated by the well known philosopher, Aristotle. He was throned in 336 BC after the assassination of his father, Philip II of Macedonia. His father had bought most of the city states of Greece who were under Macedonian hegemony at that time and her military and diplomatic resources.

         

Alexander the great inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army after the death of his father. His well managed authority helped him to launch his plan of the expansion of military. Most of these plans had remained unfulfilled by his father. He invaded Persia in 334 BC along with Asia Minor and continued his ruling spree for the ten years. In this connection the battles of Issus and Gaugamela are very important. During theses wars he overthrew the king of Persia, King Darius III and conquered entire Persia. With this conquest his kingdom stretched from Adriatic to the Indus.

Alexander the great had the inborn desire of ruling the world. He wanted to reach the end of the world and the “Great Outer Sea”. He invaded India in 326 BC but ha had to retreat due to mutiny in his own forces. He finally died in Babylon in 323 BC. He never realized that he had planned a series of invasion of Arabia. The death of Alexander turned to be the downfall of his empire. It tore apart into number of states.

A Hellenistic culture arose from the Greek colonists which remained visible in the traditions of the Byzantine Empire until 15^th century. Therefore, Alexander became a legendary hero in the classics of Achilles that has an important place in mythology of Greek and non Greek culture. Alexander became a measure for the modern world generals and military academies all over the world in order to teach his military tactics. Alexander” is one of the most popular names in the world, perhaps because of the legendary exploits of Alexander the Great.Even Chinese today have started using his name in their business even traveling. Their version of Alexander in china is often named as Yalshanda that means “under a mountain of pressure.”