Describe the conquests of Alexander the Great and analyze the legacy of his empire
Introduction
Alexander the great is among the most legendary people in history. Alexander was born in 356 B.C in a small state called Pella. He was a philosophy student of Aristotle at his young age. He became king of Macedonia, a town north of primeval Greece in 336 B.C (Cawthorne, 2004). During his reign, Alexander managed to transform Macedonia into the most dominant military command in the whole of Greek. This paper seeks to give a description of the conquest of Alexander as well as an analysis of the legacy left by his empire.
After taking over Macedonia, Alexander the great came into a realization that he was encircled by adversaries in his homeland and was facing a risk of revolts abroad. Because of this, Alexander mainly focused on disposing his enemies by arranging for their execution. First, the great King of Macedonia launched an attack on Thessaly with a goal of re-establishing the Macedonian rule. He was able to accomplish this in 335 B.C after overcoming the Thracians along River Danube (Bosworth, 2005). During his return, Alexander also managed to conquer the Illyrians. In the same week, Alexander the great launched an attack on Thebes which he learnt had rebelled. He totally destroyed the city except for the temples and the house of Pindar, an ancient poet of Greek (Bosworth, 2005). He then traded about 8000 survivors of the attack into slavery. After managing to compress the rebellion in Thebes, other states in Greek submitted to Alexander’s power. Consequently Alexander’s conquest of the Persian Empire remains the most distinguished. In 334 B.C, the renowned king proclaimed war on Persia and managed to conquer the Achaemenid Empire (Bosworth, 2005). This, he was able to do after overpowering the army of Persia close to the Troy city. Again, this caused almost all states in Asia Minor to submit to him. After this victory, Alexander moved towards the South where he overcame the head of the main army of Persia, King Darius III. This battle took place in 333 B.C at Issus, the northeastern part of Syria (Bosworth, 2005).
Analysis of the legacy of Alexander’s empire
Alexander the great died at the age of thirty two years. Despite this early age of his death, the legacy left by his empire remains a dream to be achieved in the world. His conquests and ventures extended faraway and wide, resulting to fresh eras and inspirations to the world. The most distinguished legacy of his empire was the introduction of the Macedonian rule in most parts of Asia through his conquests. Notably, Alexander’s empire managed to initiate a strong spread of culture in other regions that has long survived after his death. During his reign there was great effort in spreading the Hellenistic culture (Heckel, 2008). At least twenty cities were established with the King’s name and this meant spreading the Greek culture into these regions as well as causing a fresh civilization of the Hellenistic culture. Additionally, the Empire of Alexander has since become the gauge by which military leaders evaluate themselves. This owes to the fact that Alexander the great remains a great orthodox hero (Heckel, 2008). Consequently, the tactics that were used in the conquest practices of Alexander’s empire have gained much attention and are still taught by military academics throughout the world today.
Works cited
Bosworth, A. B. (2005). The legacy of Alexander: Politics, warfare, and propaganda under the
successors. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press.
Cawthorne, N. (2004). Alexander the Great. London: Haus Publishing.
Heckel, W. (2008). The conquests of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
