Alexander the Great

3 Pages 804 Words

Alexander the Great, was born in June, 356 BC, in Pella, the ancient
capital of Macedonia. His parents were Philip II and Olympia. Some say that Zeus
was his father but it is probably just a myth. Aristotle taught Alexander in
his early teen years. He stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and
philosophy. In the summer of 336 BC, Alexander's father was assassinated, and
Alexander ascended to the Macedonian throne. He found himself surrounded by
enemies at home and threatened by civilizations all over. But Alexander disposed
of quickly of all his enemies by ordering their execution. Then he took off to
Thessaly, where partisans of independence had gained ascendancy, and restored
Macedonian rule. Before the end of the summer of 336 BC as general of the
Greeks in a campaign against the Persians, originally planned by his father
before he croaked, he carried out a successful campaign against the defecting
Thracians, penetrating to the Danube River. On his return he crushed in a single
week the threatening Illyrians and then again took of to Thebes, which had
revolted. He took the city by storm and razed it, sparing only the temples of
the gods and the house of the Greed lyric poet Pindar, and selling the surviving
inhabi¬ tants, about 8000 in number, into slavery. Alexander's promptness in
crushing the revolt of The¬ bes brought the other Greek states into instant
submission.

Alexander began his war against Persia in the spring of 334 BC by
crossing the Hellespont (now Dardanelles) with an army of 35,000 Macedonian and
Greek troops: his chief officers, all Macedonians, included Antigonus, Ptolemy,
and Seleucus. At the river Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy, he attacked
an army of Persians and Greek soldiers which totaled 40,000 men. His forces
slatured the enemy and according to tradition, only lost 110 men! After this
battle all the stated of Asia Minor submitted to Alexander. Continuing south,...