Alexander The Great: The Greatest Warrior Who Ever Lived

Alexander the Great Name: Institution: Course Code: Date: Alexander the Great Alexander the great was the heir to Phillip II of the kingdom of Macedon. He has left an indelible mark in history as possibly the greatest warrior who ever lived. By the time of his death, he had conquered three continents and asserted his rule on a land mass over 2 million square miles in just thirteen years. His strong leadership on the battlefield won him the battles and respect from his friends and enemies alike. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and was educated by Aristotle among other notable scholars of his time. His lifelong desire was to conquer Persia, and he lived up to his dream and died shortly later. His victory on the battlefield was majorly from his luck, ingenuity and military sharpness. He was known for using the terrain and the environment to his advantage. For seven years, he pursued Darius III, the king of Persia and defeated him on all the battles they fought. He liberated most Persian cities from Darius III despite having a bigger army. In his lifetime, he quelled the resistance that was within his kingdom, Macedon, conquered Egypt, Persia and India. Some people dissented his leadership after the death of his father, but he moved and quashed the resistance starting in Thebes even against the advice of his advisers. Following his hard stance on the local resistance, all the other rebellions within Greek were silenced, and he moved to secure and protect his kingdom from the Persians. At first, Darius III underestimated Alexander’s power, but he was forced to come out to face the relentless young leader who had alienated much of his soldiers in various battles and took his territories. Alexander wanted the cities which were under the Persian empire to perceive him as a liberator, and after each city he conquered, he appointed new leadership and allowed self-governance. The three most significant battles between Alexander and Darius III were in Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela. The battle of Issus came shortly after his victory in Granicus. In Granicus, he had fought and defeated over 40,000 Persian soldiersCITATION Mar07 \p 12 \l 1033 (Grossman, 2007, p. 12). After the battle, he got sick and sent some spies to collect intelligence on the Persian king, Darius III who had decided to silence Alexander. On the way, he left some of his soldiers who were wounded and sick hurrying to find a good position for his army to battle Darius III. His intelligence was flawed, and the Persian army which greatly outnumbered Alexander’s army came from the rear slaying and mutilating the troops who had been left to recover. Finally, when they reached Issus and collected on the other side of Prinarius river ready to battle Alexander. However, Darius III military strategy was poor and despite his vast army, was unable to position them strategically to defeat Alexander. The poor strategy led to a humiliating defeat in which he fled after he lost most of his troops and his, wife and daughters were captured by Alexander. However, Alexander never took Darius III family as captives nor did he exploit them but instructed that they must be treated as royalties and honoredCITATION Tho12 \p 68 \l 1033 (Martin & Blackwell, 2012, p. 68). Having humiliated Dar...