Alexander III of Macedon: Life and Achievements

The story of human civilizations since the dawn of man is told not only by the great achievements which have shaped history, but also by the men and women whose legacies will be remembered for as long as there exist people to relate them. Arguably, one of the most important of those great personalities was Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great. This paper will examine the life and achievements of Alexander and describe several ways in which he shaped both the age in which he lived and how he altered the course of human history.

Alexander was born on or around 20 July, 356 B.C.E. in the Macedonian city of Pella. His parents were King Philip II and Philip’s third wife Myrtale – commonly known as Olympias. A number of legends surrounded the birth of Alexander. One such account was that of a Persian Magi, who interpreted his birth and the near-simultaneous destruction of the temple of Artemis at the hands of Philip, as a portend for the destruction of Asia. Another story claims that Olympias was seen coupling with a serpent who was said to be an incarnation of the god Zeus-Ammon. In Alexander of Macedon, Peter Green and Eugene Borza state that these legends served a very specific purpose, as follows: “to attack or defend Olympias, to give Alexander’s conquests, and his supposed divine relationship to Zeus-Ammon, the retrospective endorsement of Fate.” A competing theory is that the legends were created to give Philip reason to doubt Alexander’s legitimacy as his heir. Despite such suspicions, Philip raised Alexander in a manner appropriate for a future king: classically trained and educated in the arts, sciences and philosophy.

Alexander’s first tutor was Leonidas, a relative of Olympias, not to be mi...

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...dom of Macedon and unified Greece under one banner. He was history’s most memorable and important military leader and subsequently conquered Persia and much of Southern Asia in an eleven year campaign which brought Hellenic culture and language to Asia and the near East. He established a vast empire, founded several cities in his wake, and his legacy and achievements shaped the course of human history inexorably for millennia.

Works Cited

Anson, Edward M. Alexander the Great: Themes and Issues. Huntingdon: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013

Green, Peter and Borza, Eugene N. Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012

Kets de Vries, Manfred F.R. Are Leaders Born or Are They Made? : The Case of Alexander the Great. London: Karmac Books, 2004

Stoneman, Richard. Alexander the Great. New York: Routledge, 2004