[转载]Alexander the Great

April 13, 2014

Alexandros III Philippou Makedonon (Alexander the Great, Alexander III of Macedon) (356-323 B.C.), King of Macedonia, was born in late July 356 BC in Pella, Macedonia. He was unquestionably one of the greatest military geniuses in the history of war, and conquered much of what was then the civilized world, driven by his divine ambition of the world conquest and the creation of a universal world monarchy. He had tremendous impulsive energy and a fervid imagination.

Alexander holds the record for the most amount of land owned by a single person. He had 5.5 million kilometers of land as compared to 2.2 million kilometers of Genghiz Khan. The only difference being that Genghiz Khan conquered the land by himself, while some of Alexander's territory was inherited.

Alexander had a tremendous desire to secure for himself a place in the pantheon of Gods. The cost of his successes all over the world was tremendous but he did not seem to mind as long as his goals were being achieved.

Even as a young boy, he was fearless and strong. At the age of twelve, he tamed the beautiful and spirited Bucephalus ("ox-head" in Greek), a horse that no one else could ride. He knew the Iliad by heart. He loved Homer, and always slept with a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. His first teacher was Leonidas, a relative of Olympias.

Leonidas instilled in Alexander his ascetic nature for which he became famous during his future campaigns. Leonidas was replaced with Lysimachus, who taught Prince Alexander to play the lyre, and to appreciate the arts. In 343 Aristotles came to Pella at Philip's bidding to direct the education of his son Alexander from age 13 to 16. Aristotles taught him at the Mieza temple.

Alexander's first brush with combat came during Philip's expedition against Byzantium in 340. Alexander, then sixteen years old, was left in Macedonia in the charge of the royal seal; at that time. But the constantly restless prince perceived this as an opportunity to show his battle skills, he managed to subjugate the rebellious Maedi, a Thracian tribe. Defeating a tribe is admirable but it cannot be compared to full-fledged warfare.

At the battle of Chaeronea Philip defeated the allied Greek states of the Sacred Band of Thebes in September 338 BC. An 18 year old Alexander was leading the left wing of Philip's cavalry, He demonstrated personal valor in breaking the Band of States. In 336 Philip was suddenly assassinated, before he was able to depart, during the marriage celebration of his daughter at Aegae. The death of Philip is shrouded in mystery there is a hint of suspicion that Alexander could have been one of the perpetrators.

Soon after his father's death, Alexander reached Thessaly in seven days and Boeotia five days later. By a forced march he took the Thebans completely by surprise, and in a few days the city was his. The march for glory was well and truly on. He started with blitz campaigns against the Triballi and Ilyrians, which took him across the Danube. His army cosisted of 30,000 foot soldiers and over 5,000 cavalry.

This army had an excellent mixture of arms- the lightly armed Cretan and Macedonian archers, the Thracians, and the Agrianian javelin men; the striking force was the cavalry, and the core of the army was the infantry phalanx, 9,000 strong, armed with shields and five and one half meter long spears, the sarises, and the 3,000 men of the royal troops, the hypaspists.

Another positive outcome of Alexander's hegemonistic tendencies was that it created an economically and culturally, a single market extending from Gibraltar to the Punjab, open to trade, social and cultural exchange. There was a common thread that was visible in civilization and Greek became the lingua franca of its time. The Roman Empire, the spread of Christianity as a world religion, and the thousand years of Byzantium were all in part the consequences of his conquests.

One of the most important facts about Alexander that is often overlooked is that he died at the age of 33. He did not have the luxury of living for a long time. It is difficult to even imagine the kind of conquering that he would have managed had he lived longer.

Alexander was in Babylon to overlook the irrigation of the Euphrates, this was also coupled with a grand feast in honor of Nearchus departure for Arabia and the commemoration of the death of Heracles. He drank a huge beaker of unmixed wine in a single gulp. This led to a shooting pain in the liver. It is possible that it exacerbated an existing condition. It was during sunset on June 10, in the Palace of Nabukodonossor, that Alexander died.