Alexander the Great

       1. I believe that Alexander deserves the title great because of his military success, because of how he shaped the culture in such a way that would have never happened without him, and because of the way he treated people that he conquered. Alexander's empire had what was undoubtedly the best military at his time.  They conquered the Persians, fought their way across the East through Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,  Pakistan, and into parts of India and the only reason they stopped was because the soldiers refused to go any further forcing Alexander to turn back, and when they were doing so they never lost a battle. Although Alexander was occupied with expanding his empire rather than making it better he still deserves to be great partly due to his military accomplishments. Alexander did not govern his empire well at all but, I believe that even if he did attempt to govern his great empire then it would have been too big and too diverse to do so. There would be wars over the different ethnic groups that he tried to join together and therefore his empire would have broken apart. In a way, it was better for him not to try to govern his empire and join them all together. When he conquered all this land he spread Greek culture and allowed it to mix and blend with other cultures in his empire. Alexander created the Hellinistic age by allowing the customs of places he conquered to continue instead of throwing them out and replacing them with Greek customs. Alexander conquered these people and let them have a chance at a good life instead of turning them into slaves. For the most part, he treated the people he conquered with respect. At the Battle of Issus when Darius retreated he left his mother, wife, and daughter behind. When Alexander captured them he treated them very well. Alexander became very close with the mother of Darius. The mother of Darius became one of Alexander's most trusted advisors and was right next to Alexander when he died. Although Alexander was responsible for the death of thousands of people, didn't govern his empire very well, and didn't care much about his soldiers feelings, I believe he still deserves to be called Alexander the Great.
     
       2. You can learn a lot from who they consider great. If an empire thinks of someone like Alexander great then they would most likely value military and power like Spartans rather than education and the arts like Athenians would have. Athenians would have thought that someone like Archimedes or Aristotle were great while Spartans would most likely think that someone like Alexander was great. If Alexander was the ruler of an empire that had the same values asAthens then they would not have thought of him as great and most likely gotten a new king into power. I think that if Alexander wasn't the ruler of Macedon or an empire that had the same values as Macedon then I don't think Alexander would've ever gotten the chance or had the support to be called great.

       3. Time and Distance have a major impact on the way people view things. Greeks that Alexander ruled over definitely had a different view on Alexander than we do in the United States today. Greeks most likely thought of Alexander as a harsh ruler who was only concerned with gaining power but Macedonians probably thought of Alexander as a great king who made their kingdom better and did things with the best intent for his kingdom. People in the South back when he abolished slavery probably thought of Abraham Lincoln as someone who was trying to due away with their way of life and cause them to lose everything while people in the North loved him and thought of him as one of the most successful presidents there ever was. In this case the distance caused a difference in how people viewed the same thing. In todays age I would think that a major part of the South thinks of Abraham Lincoln as one of the best presidents ever unlike Southerners back when Abraham was alive thought of him. Time is the cause of the change in the perception of Abraham Lincoln in this case.

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