Was Alexander Of Macedon Really Truly Great?

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Alexander of Macedon, also known as Alexander the Great is one of the most well-known conquerors in history. When a historian wants to know if a ruler really was great, then he compared the ruler to Alexander, but no one really questions whether or not Alexander was truly “great.” He had many great accomplishments in his rule, but he also had numerous times where he was not the best of people. Buried beneath all of his inflated accomplishments is the hard truth that Alexander really was not all that great. He rarely showed mercy to the people that he conquered, he had little regard to the well-being of his troops, and he was very strict when it came to what religion the conquered people would follow. Alexander conquered numerous lands during his …show more content…

The vastness of his empire not only meant that he had more resources at his disposal, he also had more people under his control. One characteristic of a “great ruler” is that they had respect, even if it was just a little bit, for the people that they conquered. This was not Alexander. When Alexander took over Thebes, he showed absolutely no mercy to the Thebans. He killed thousands of people and when he was finished with the killing, he sold over 20,000 of the women and children into slavery. He took an innocent people and turned them into slaves, with zero regard to what they might have wanted. After conquering Thebes, Alexander moved on to conquer Persia. The Persians and Greeks had a long going dispute, and this caused Alexander to be even more harsh when dealing with them. After killing all of the people that he did in the actual war, he sold over 30,000 people into slavery and also while chasing a retreating army, he killed 40,000 people. The army, that was retreating should have been left to retreat. Alexander had won the battle, but his greed and bloodlust caused him to want more, and therefore he pursued the army until he was satisfied that they were gone for good.

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