Biased Biography: Alexander the Great

I personally concluded that Alexander the Great was truly “great”. I have come to this profound conclusion after I put together a couple facts and crucial opinions.

This biography will be about Alexander the Great III of Macedon. At the age of twenty, this mighty leader took over the empire his dad had created and made it the most fascinating empire of that horrid time. After many battles and successes, people gave Alexander the title, “the Great”. Why? Finish reading this biased biography and I am sure you will agree, that Alexander the Great, was truly great.

To begin with, Alexander was a great leader and conquered many lands which later formed the greatest empire of all time. He was also very courageous which could be seen in his recordings and many risky battles. Firstly, Alexander the Great extended his empire all the way from the Balkans to the Indus River. This means he conquered and organized many lands, including Macedonia, Greece, India, Egypt and many more. Secondly, the miraculous Alexander conquered the whole Persian Empire while still in the twenties. You have to bring in mind that at the time, the Persians were one of the strongest and most developed empires. This action was the actual action that earned the nickname, “the Great”. Finally, Alexander was a great leader and taught his warriors many battle aspects. For example he taught many members how to carry their own equipment, which allowed more weapons to be carried. As I mentioned earlier, Alexander was very courageous and fought every battle with great determination. This could be seen in his constant defeats of various empires or lands. After all, Alexander was a determined and vigorous leader, which is one aspect that made him “Great”.

Another ingredient to Alexander’s “greatness” is that he actually cared about his people and the populations of the empires he conquered. Alexander respected their cultures and everyday lives too. Most importantly, Alexander the Great allowed the populations he conquered to stick to their culture but he also instilled the Greek culture among them. This brave action’s effect was that the people gradually began to trust Alexander, which was later on a crucial aspect of a leader. The second supporting reason is that Alexander did not torture his people unlike many other rulers. This once again raised the trust in Alexander the people had. Don’t misunderstand Alexander and my point, because Alexander new to get dirty and agitated too. Finally, Alexander tried to assure that his people had trust in him. There are many ways he tries this including the examples I mentioned earlier. He also sometimes adopted the culture himself. (He actually wore some Persian clothes once he conquered the civilization) Here is another cause and effect example. Once the people had trust and respect toward him, it was much easier to command and rule them. Now Alexander would have a higher amount of warriors as well as more organization throughout the cities. In fact, the more famous Greek historian Plutarch wrote about how much the people obeyed Alexander and how much trust they had in him: “If Alexander wishes to be a god, we agree that he be called a god”. (Plutarch, Moralia 219 e/the Decline and Fall of Ancient Greece) This demonstrates how much trust the populations had toward this mighty leader. I don’t think that any leader could become a god himself, whenever he aspired to. To conclude, the second key ingredient to this “cake” or “greatness” is that Alexander the Great really cared about his group of people.

The third major factor on why Alexander was truly “great” is because he faced plenty of time and thoughts to culture (he had a great appreciation for culture) and had great plans on improving education. To start, Alexander’s knowledge started with Aristotle, (a Greek philosopher) who was Alexander’s teacher. Aristotle taught Alexander science, philosophy and literature. Because of this, Alexander increased his mind level which helped him in his further leadership. Secondly, Alexander the Great most importantly tried to educate his swarms of people. This was a sign of a great human and leader because he didn’t only care about power and size, but cared about quality. An example of this would be the creation of the museum, which would later be the base of people studies. The museums contained many types of studies and people attended the museum for exploring the world. Thirdly, Alexander the Great wanted to develop his civilizations and improve the education of the people and youth. This is sign and aspect not many leaders had and this is what made Alexander truly “Great”. This developing improved the knowledge of his people which had many positive effects on Alexander’s leadership. To sum this paragraph up, the concluding factor of the 3 is that Alexander the Great had extra appreciation for education and culture. (In my opinion the person that is most engaged for this aspect is Aristotle, Alexander’s to say spiritual teacher)

To sum this biased biography off, I generally believe that Alexander the Great was truly “Great” because of the earlier defined reasons. Being a great leader, caring about your people, and most importantly caring about education, is a combination not many leaders possess. This is the reason on why I back up anyone who thinks Alexander the Great was truly “Great”. Alexander the Great is a world wide mystery that not many people will ever uncover.