How Great was Alexander of Macedon?

An Analysis of the Greatness of Alexander by Tristen Hunnewell

Question #1:

Does Alexander deserve to be called "Great"?

        Alexander of Macedon undoubtedly deserves to be called "Great", and for a number of reasons. One reason for this being the shear amount of land that he gained control in just the thirteen short years of his kingship. Alexander currently stands second in the world for the amount of land, which happens to be about 2,180,000 square miles, that he captured. This massive amount of land is extremely impressive, but the way it was obtained may be even more so. Each battle Alexander fought in he was often outnumbered by the opposing force. Alexander, being a great strategist though, never lost a single one of the battles that he embarked on. He even went so far as to lead the front phalanx himself, most likely to raise the morale of his soldiers to encourage them to fight harder.(Grossman, p.12) Military conquest is often the only thing that defines Alexander, and while it is in fact great it may not impress some.

Above a mosaic depicts Alexander of Macedon
charging into battle at the head of a deadly phalanx.

        For those people though, there are an abundance of reasons for the greatness of Alexander that lie in the culture of ancient Greek and Asian societies. Alexander's military conquest was not simply to destroy Persia, but also to join the places that he conquered together by a common culture. The name of this was Hellenistic culture, a culture that joined those of Greece, India, Egypt, and Persia.(Beck, p.146) Alexander would bring scholars of different cultures into his company to help him spread his new ways. Scholars like these often settled in the Alexandria in which Alexander's tomb now resides. This transformed Alexandria into the hub of trade that emerged from the spread of a common culture. Even though Alexander didn't live to see the strengthening of his city we can still credit him with the achievement, for it was his foundation from which Hellenistic cities like Alexandria sprouted from.  

Question #2:   

What can one learn about the values of society based on their views of greatness?

        One can learn much about values of the ancient Macedonian society from their view of the greatness of Alexander. Main value of these being a strong general to triumph over foreign powers in battle. We can observe this view from the 11 year military excursion that Alexander lead being his reign, for it was the main accomplishment of Alexander's entire time as leader of Macedon.(Grossman, p.13) So therefore we can conclude that the biggest factor taken into consideration when accessing the greatness of Alexander, and the overall definition of the word was almost entirely based on military strength. This occurs because in an ancient society, such as Macedon, for the simple reason that military strength would have been the best way to strengthen a country.

Above an image shows the phalanx formation used
by Alexander to devastate his opponents.

        We can also see from the Macedonians view of great that it was important to be connected to the cultures of foreign lands. Alexander made special stops along his route to Persia for this very reason of spreading the new Hellenistic culture.(Cooke,p.146-147) This shows that Macedonian society was not only one of immense military strength, but one of diverse cultural aspects as well.      

Question #3:

Do distance and time impact someone's popular perception?

       Distance and time are perhaps the biggest impact on the popular perception of an individual, for the daily life in society changes on an excremental level as the years progress. Although there are a few in today's world that think Alexander great, but many today would challenge my stated opinion of the

Above a map demonstrates the total mass of land gained
during the conquest of Alexander the Great

greatness of Alexander. In modern times Alexander may be considered as a crazed man who's only purpose in life was war and land gain. They looking at this from a modern point of view though, and that, in no way, even comes close to the right way of analyzing Alexander. It is absolutely necessary to examine an event with the views of that time period, for the world is always changing and advancing. When a society has advanced multiple hundreds of years in the future the interactions within it are going differ in extreme ways.

We live in a society today where we are surrounded by technology, and the jobs that technology bring have carried civilizations out of a warring nature. Now it could possibly be argued that our society is still one of war and death, but it is not at all compared to the past. This why we must examine the conquest of Alexander from the aspect of around 356 BC, and once that is done it can be seen that military was a very important part of society. If we then apply this to Alexander there is no argument to challenge the greatness of Alexander. The land he conquered in the amount of time that he did has been unmatched throughout history. His strategic brilliance has been admired and immensely studied by some of the greatest generals to ever live, including the French general Napoleon Bonaparte. Alexander should be considered great, but today's views of what society should be like challenge that opinion. That is how as time passes the reputation of a great leader becomes tainted with accusations that only reflect the views of a modern world.

Works Cited

Beck, Roger B., Linda Black, and Larry S. Krieger. McDougal Littell World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2007. Print.

Chesser, Preston. "EHistory: HistoryList: 10 Men Who Conquered the Most Square Miles." EHistory: HistoryList: 10 Men Who Conquered the Most Square Miles. Ohio State University. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/ListPreviewOnly.cfm?LID=43&PreviewOnly=yes&public=yes>.

Cooke, Tim. The New Cultural Atlas of the Greek World. New York: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2010. Print.

Emmons, Jim T. "Alexander the Great." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/575648?terms=Alexander+the+Great>.

Grossman, Mark. World Military Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Facts On File, 2007. Print.

Lacher, Nathaniel J. "Alexander and Napoleon: How Small Decisions in the Largest Battles Changed the Course of History." Http://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/. Web. 30 Sept. 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcommons.olivet.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1000%26context%3Dhist_maph>.