Alexander the Great

Life in Athens was no as good as it was while in his rule but it was better then before his rule. They knew their was a way around every glitch or corner. Alexander the great was a massive improvement from the Romans who ruled before him.

Alexander the great took over when his father died and he had victory over Eygpt and Persia but then sadly after a couple of wars he died as well

Alexander the Great spread Hellenism, the Hellenic (Greek) culture of the Macedonians, to all the lands he conquered, over the Middle East and far into Asia. After his death in 323 BCE, the influence of Greek civilization continued to expand over the Mediterranean world and West Asia. This was known as the Hellenistic Era.

He did not institute pogroms - he tried to unite the varied peoples of the empire he took over from Persia.

His killings, apart from the slaughter of conquest and putting down rebellions, were the execution of some of his generals he thought disloyal or plotting against him.

It was May of 323 BC and Alexander the Great was in Baghdad. The thirty-two-year-old King of Macedonia had spent the past thirteen years conquering much of the known world. In the process, he created an empire that reached from Macedonia through Greece and the Persian Empire to the fringes of India. He had plans to expand his holdings, but these dreams would never be realized.

Alexander's Empire, 323 BC

Alexander's campaign of domination had started when he crossed the Hellespont to conquer the Persian Empire (see Alexander Defeats the Persians, 331 BC). Victorious after three major battles and the death of the Persian leader Darius III in 330 BC, Alexander continued his march eastward into the area to the west and north of India. He vanquished all who challenged his authority and would have extended his dominion into India and the lands beyond if his army had not balked, forcing him to abandon his plans to continue his march eastward.

Now that he had returned to Baghdad after years of military campaigning, Alexander took the opportunity to rest and to plan his next conquest. On May 29 he attended a dinner given by a close friend. Alexander joined in the heavy drinking during the day-long event. Complaining that he did not feel well, he went to bed. Alexander's health steadily deteriorated as fever wracked his body. Finally, too weak to leave his bed, the conqueror of the world died ten days after he was stricken.

The exact cause of Alexander's death is unknown. Historians have debated the issue for centuries, attributing it to poison, malaria, typhoid fever or other maladies. What is agreed upon is that the Macedonian king died in early June 323 BC while suffering a high fever that had lasted ten days. His empire was carved up by his generals and soon disintegrated.

"... he lay now in continual fever the whole night."

The following description of the death of Alexander was written by Arrian a Greek historian who wrote his account approximately 350 years after the event. Although not a contemporary of Alexander, Arrian based his account on the Royal Diaries - contemporaneous chronicles of Alexander's campaign. We join Arrian's account as Alexander begins to feel ill.

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"A few days later he (Alexander) had performed the divine sacrifices (those prescribed for good fortune and others suggested by the priests) and was drinking far into the night with some friends. He is said to have distributed sacrificial victims and wine to the army by detachments and companies. Some state that he wanted to leave the drinking-party and go to bed, but then Medius met him, the most trusty of his Companions, and asked him to a party, for he promised that it would be a good one.

Day 1

The Royal Diaries tell us that he drank and caroused with Medius. Later he rose, had a bath and slept. He then returned to have dinner with Medius and again drank far into the night. Leaving the drinking, he bathed, after which he had a little to eat and went to sleep there. The fever was already on him.

Day 2

Each day he was carried on his couch to perform the custom­ary sacrifices, and after their completion he lay down in the men's apartments until dusk. During this time he gave instructions to his officers about the coming expedition and sea-voyage, for the land forces to be ready to move on the fourth day, and for those sailing with him to be prepared to cast off a day later. He was carried thence on his couch to the river, where he boarded a boat and sailed across to the garden where he rested again after bathing.

Day 3

The next day, he again bathed and performed the prescribed sacrifices. He then entered his room, lay down and talked to Medius. After ordering the officers to meet him in the morning, he had a little food. Carried back to his room, he lay now in continual fever the whole night.

Day 4

In the morning he bathed and sacrificed. Nearchus and the other officers were instructed to get things ready for sailing two days later.

Day 5

The following day, he again bathed and sacrificed, and after performing them, he remained in constant fever. But in spite of that he summoned the officers and ordered them to have every­thing quite ready for the journey. After a bath in the evening, he was now very ill.

Day 6

The next day, he was carried to the house by the diving place, where he sacrificed, and in spite of being very poorly, summoned the senior officers to give them renewed instructions about the voyage.

Day 7

The next day he was carried with difficulty to perform the sacrifices, and continued to give orders just the same to his officers about the voyage.

Day 8

The next day, though very weak, he managed to sacrifice. He asked the generals to stay in the hall, with the brigadiers and colonels in front of the doors. Now extremely sick, he was carried back from the garden to the Royal Apartments. As the officers entered, he clearly recognized them, but he said not a word to them.

Days 9 and 10

He had a high fever that night;another day as well. all the next day and for another day as well.

This information comes from the Royal Diaries, where we also learn that the soldiers wanted to see him, some hoping to see him before he died and others because there was a rumor that he was already dead, and they guessed that his death was being kept back by his personal guard, or so I think.

Dying Warrior

From an ancient Greek temple

Many pressed into the room in their grief and longing to see Alexander. They say that he remained speechless as the army filed past him. Yet he welcomed each one of them by a nod with his head or a movement of his eyes.

The Royal Diaries say that Peithon, Attalus, Demophon, Peucestas, Cleomenes, Menidas and Seleucus spent the night in the temple of Serapis and asked the god whether it would be better and more profitable for Alexander to be carried into the temple to pray the god for his recovery. A reply came from the god that he should not be brought into the temple, but that it would be better for him to remain where he was. The Companions brought this news, and, shortly after, Alexander died; for this was what was better. That is the end of the account given by Aristoboulos and Ptolemy."

References:

This account appears in: Workman, B.K., They Saw it Happen in Classical Times (1964); Lamb, Harold, Alexander of Macedon, the journey to world's end (1946); Worthington, Ian, Alexander the Great: man and God (2004). by SuVaNsH

Cultural Diffusion is often associated with Hellenism.

He is so important because he invented the elevator. And if it wasnt for him inventing the elevator we woulndt be able to get on the elevator and every body would have to take the stairs all the time.

His allies were the Greek city-states who provided him with additional soldiers and then reinforcements. Also various petty kings glad to turn against the Persians who had ruled them aided him.

Then there were the tribes which provided him with mercenary cavalry and light infantry, and the states which he took over from the Persians who had no option but to serve him as he had taken them over from Persia.

Chandragupta was the ruler of the Mauryan empire. He was the founder of the mauryan dynasty. His son was King Bindusara. On the other hand, Alexander was a great ruler. He wanted to be a world conquerer. Of course, he didn't conquered the world. But he managed conquer part's of west Asia.

Alexander the Great - 323BC

Julius Caesar- 44BC

Genghis Khan - 1227

Marie Antoinette - 1793

i really did that much

yes right Alexander the great died first

It was split up between his generals. After much fighting and culling, they ended up establishing dynasties - Ptlomaic in Egypt, Seleucid in Syria, and a variable one in Macedoni.

The empire slowly shrivelled to pieces because Alexander did not leave an heir to take the throne, and the successors first fought each other, then succumbed to Rome's expansion.

In Asia Minor, where the battle of Granicus 334 BCE which gave Alexander hi first victory over the Persians.

Hi

How might history have been different if Hitler won world war 2.

How might history have been different if the Cuban missile crisis was not resolved.

These are questions that take up time when we should be trying to make history.

How will our future turn out if we turn to personal home power systems.

How will our future turn out if we power our transport and automobiles by renewable sources.

How will our future turn out if we change to compressed air cars for city transport.

The past has brought use here, how do we go forward on a planet that is 7 billion and rising.

Principally by establishing scores of cities on the Greek model (many called Alexandria after himself). These cities were self-governing and had temples, market places, theatres, baths and, for the men, perfume shops. He also married his senior soldiers to Asian women to breed up hybrid populations reared in Greek ways. He also allowed Greek carpetbaggers to gain commercial influence. Even the Jewish aristocracy adopted Greek ways, and even had operations to restore their foreskins so that they wouldn't look mutilated at the baths.

Hellenistic is a modern word used to describe this world he left behind when he died - not Greek below the aristocracy, but a veneer of Greek culture, which progressively returned to other ways as the Hellenistic Kingdoms which his generals carved out for themselves shrank from covering the Middle East and Central Asia to Egypt, Syria and parts of Asia Minor.

It is one thing to conquer and empire but another thing to sustain one.

Alexander's empire stopped expanding because when, after a lot of hardships, his army reached the western edges of India, the men refused to continue eastwards. They were tired of conquest and wanted to get home.

They returned to Persia (after a terrible forced march through the desert, where many died) which was intended to be the centre of his Empire. On the way there, Alexander's lover Hephastion died, possibly poisoned, possibly from poor medical care after a bout of dysentery.

The loss seems to have driven Alexander partly insane - at one point he seems to have tried to starve himself to death. He recovered, and devised an immense state funeral for Hephastion, but was never the same again.

Although he was still young he had also received terrible injuries during the various battles he fought on his journey eastwards - including one where an arrow pierced his lung, shattering the rib and permanently damaging his breathing. He had recovered and continued to lead his army from the front, but it was taking its toll too.

When Alexander reached Babylon he caught a fever, possibly due to bad water, refused treatment, stayed up late drinking with his men (a Macedonian custom) and developed an infection from which he soon died. Overwork, grief and much damage to his body probably played its part.

He had no child and no obvious successor. His lesser wife (the daughter of of Sogdian king) was certainly pregnant, and gave birth to his son some months later. His chief wife (the daughter of the last Persian emperor Darius) may have been pregnant, too, but she was quickly murdered. His half-brother, Philip, was thought to be an idiot: he was there with the army but never considered as a serious successor. If Hephastion had survived, he (as second-in-command) would probably have had a good chance of taking over, but he was dead.

Without the dynamic, charismatic leader, the Empire he had only just put together collapsed. Each of his generals grabbed what he could, and they all fought each other. One of them kidnapped Alexander's surviving wife and his son, and later had them murdered. The Hellenistic empire became a number of different, often warring, empires, each of them ruled by a Greek-speaking dynasty descended from one or other Macedonian war leader.

The most successful was Ptolomy, who grabbed Egypt - and kept it. His line lasted until the rise of the Roman Empire. Cleopatra was a descendant of his.

alexander the great became king when his father died in 336 B.C.E

Alexander assumed control of the empire, appointing his generals and some Persians as provincial governors. Alexander soon died of plague or assassination and the provincial governors turned their provinces into kingdoms of their own.

Cleitus condemned Alexander for his achievements compared to Philip's. He later accuses Alexander of trying to sideline him and criticises Alexander for the murder of Attalus (who he murdered at the beginning of his reign). Alexander became hot with anger and murdered Cleitus, not realising what he had done until after and felt regretful.

Cleitus was one of Alexander's childhood friends, but he murdered him because he couldn't handle what he said although it was true. He basically couldn't handle the truth!

Aristotle was the philosopher and teacher who had Alexander the Great as one of his students.

they had elements from Persia until Philip the 2 came.

Armies back then were principally fed with wheat, the soldiers would have likely ate plain whole wheat bread loaves. They would supplement this with whatever they could forage, wild animals, fruits, vegetables etc.

Built Alexandria

His main goal can be summarized as "One world, One people, One ruler".

As a matter of fact he wanted people to freely trade and travel/live wherever they want to. He wanted to combine the best and the worst of all the cultures and create 1 nationality where everybody is equal.

These goals can easily be seen in EU and also ASEAN.

EU: European Union

ASEAN: Association of South East Asian Nations

It is remarkable that Alexander the Great was able to conquer as much of the world as he did, with the military power of Macedonia, a relatively small country, and using the relatively primitive technology of the day. If your best method of transportation is horseback, the world is extremely large. It takes months to travel on horseback a distance that can be traveled by plane in a few hours. Messages had to be sent by courier, also taking months, rather than by instantaneous modern methods. This makes it ridiculously difficult to coordinate the administration or military maneuvers of a large empire.

In 327 B.C., Roxane, a Bactrian princess and the daughter of Oxyartes, married Alexander the Grat Roxane gave birth to Alexander's posthumous son, Alexander Aegus and had Alexander's second wife, Stateira (Barsine), killed. Alexander Aegus was accepted by the Macedonian generals as co-ruler with Alexander the Great's half-brother Philip III Arrhidaeus. Roxane went to live with Alexander the Great's mother Olympias in 319, but then was captured by one of Alexander the Great's successors, Cassander, in 316. Cassander had Roxane and her son killed.