The Pros And Cons Of Alexander The Great

It was once said by Alexander the Great that "there is nothing left to conquer". For many this quote can sum the career of Alexander as a magnificent King, commander and statesman. He achieved what no other had done in his time, but one must see both the positives and negatives of Alexander the Great as King, commander and statesman. As commander, Alexander without a doubt conquered territories on a superhuman scale and in doing so he fought many battles and defeated kings to achieve this. Though his achievements led to a stressed relationship between himself and his fellow Macedones and created a love-hate relationship between the two. This love-hate relationship followed into the aspect of Alexander being king. Alexander 's decisions and
Alexander held a giant wedding ceremony at Susa where 10,000 of his generals and noble men married Persian women of nobility. Whilst Plutarch somewhat contradicts Alexander 's vision of mixing Persians with Macedonians. Green takes Plutarch 's views and argues that by Alexander mixing the nobility of Macedon and Persia; it would then allow the intergration of Persians and Macedonians all over the empire. Curtius accounts Alexander married daughter of Darius, Roxanne for love and not for policy .Curtius 's account of Alexander which states that he has the contingency to be false, but if he is correct, the marriages could be viewed as way to eliminate tension and create equality between Persians and Macedonians. Tarn argues that Alexander acted in the brother hood of mankind in this decision, though this argument is countered by the fact that Arian tells us of Alexander purposely aligning his generals and influential men to Persian women with nobility questions Tarn 's idea of racial fusion. Since Tarn 's proposal, Badian has dismissed his idea by showing the poor interpretation Tarn used to draw the conclusion of Alexander 's policy to racial fusion . After Alexander 's death, many of his generals and troops divorced their Persian wives, clearly showing their opposition towards Alexander vision of racial unity throughout his new empire. But despite this
Badian states "His military and political greatness is beyond question, and he retained his masterly touch in these fields to the end." However as king there were flaws in his rule which led to great insecurity amongst his men, and his paranoia cannot be ignored. But to this day Alexander still has an influence on our popular culture and his life is still admired and studied by everyday people to the highest intellectuals. As a combination of statesman, king and commander "Alexander 's wider vision made him at the same time something more and something less than the greatest king of Macedonia"