Alexander The Great

4 Pages 900 Words

Alexander the Great was a great military leader for many reasons. His life was filled with events that would provide him with valuable experience. The people with whom he was close while growing up urged him to try his hardest, and this also contributed to his great leadership. In the following paper, I will explain how Alexander’s parents and education, among other things, helped him to gain the necessary experience and qualities of a good leader, and how he used this experience as he got older and became a greater military leader. Alexander’s youth played a great role in his development into a great military leader. Many aspects of his youth contributed to this development, including his parents, his education, and the military experience he had early on in his life. Alexandros was born in the summer of 356 BC to Philip II and Olympias (“Alexander the Great” 1). Alexander’s parents both wanted him to become a great leader, both pushing him to do his best. When Alexander was young, his mother, Olympias, poisoned Philip’s other son so that he could not compete with Alexander. She also once commanded Cleopatra to commit suicide, and then threw Cleopatra’s infant son into a fire (Roselle 28). Alexander received not only support from his mother, but probably inherited her hot temper. One of the men who played the greatest role in Alexander’s life was his father, Philip II. As Alexander was growing up, Philip always treated him like an adult, and Alexander in turn treated him with respect (Gunther 8). This bond between father and son was never broken, although it was weakened by one event. When Alexander was a teenager, his father and he got into an argument, and Alexander then ran away from home. Alexander soon returned, and although he and his father made peace, he never actually forgave his father (“Alexander the Eckert 2 Great” 1). There was one other man who affected Alexander’s life nearly as much as Philip did. ...