Essay on “Alexander  The Great” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Essay No. 01

Alexander  The Great

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) was the king of Macedonia, defeater of the Persian Empire, and one of the greatest military geniuses of all times. He was the son of Philip II, King of Macedonia and Olympias. He was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. Aristotle was Alexander’s tutor. He gave Alexander thorough training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy. In the summer of 336 BC, Philip was assassinated, and Alexander ascended to the Macedonian throne. He found himself surrounded by enemies at home and threatened by rebellion abroad. However, he disposed off quickly all conspirators and domestic enemies by ordering their execution. Then, he descended on Thessaly, where partisans of independence had gained ascendancy, and restored Macedonian rule. Before the end of the summer of 336 BC, he had reestablished his position in Greece and was elected by a congress of states at Corinth. In 335 BC, as general of the Greeks in a campaign against the Persians, originally planned by his father, he carried out a successful campaign against the defecting Thracians, penetrating to the Danube River. On his return, he crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians and then hastened to Thebes, which had revolted. He took the city by storm and razed it, sparing only the temples of the gods and the house of the Greek lyric poet Pindar, and  selling the surviving inhabitants, about 8000 in number, into slavery. Alexander’s promptness in crushing the revolt of Thebes brought the other Greek states into instant and abject submission. He began his war against Persia in the spring of 334 BC by crossing the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) with an army of 35,000 Macedonian and Greek troops; his chief ‘ officers, all Macedonians, included Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. At the river Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy, he attacked an army of Persians and Greek hoplites (mercenaries) totaling 40,000 men. His forces defeated the enemy and, according to tradition, lost only 110 men; after this battle all the states of Asia Minor submitted to him. In passing through Phrygia, he is said to have cut with his sword the Gordian knot. Continuing to advance southward, Alexander encountered the main Persian army, commanded by King Darius III, at Issus, in northeastern Syria. The size of Darius’s army is unknown; the ancient tradition that it contained 500,000 men is now considered a fantastic exaggeration. The Battle of Issus, in 333 BC, ended in a great victory for Alexander. Cut off from his base, Darius fled northward, abandoning his mother, wife, and children to Alexander, who treated them with the respect due to royalty. Tyre, a strongly fortified seaport, offered obstinate resistance, but Alexander took it by storm in 332 BC after a siege of seven months. Alexander captured Gaza next and then passed on into Egypt, where he was greeted as a deliverer. By these successes he secured control of the entire eastern Mediterranean coastline. Later in 332 BC he founded, at the mouth of the Nile River, the city of Alexandria. The great ruler died of high fever in 323 BC, just one month short of attaining 33 years of age.

Essay No. 02

Alexander The Great

Alexander was the king of Macedonia (336-323 BC), conqueror of the Persian Empire, and one of the world’s greatest military leaders.

Alexander, born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia, was the son of Philip II, king of Macedonia. Aristotle was Alexander’s tutor; he gave Alexander a thorough training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy. In the summer of 336 BC Philip was assassinated, and Alexander ascended to the Macedonian throne. He found himself surrounded by enemies at home and threatened by rebellion abroad. Alexander soon disposed of all conspirators and domestic enemies by ordering their execution. He marched on Thessaly, where partisans of independence had gained control, and restored Macedonian rule. By the end of the summer of 336 BC he had re-established his position in Greece and was elected commander of the Greek forces for a war against Persia by a congress of states at Corinth. In 335 BC he led a brilliant campaign against the Thracian rebels by the River Danube. On his return to Macedonia he crushed in a single week the disaffected Illyrians and Dardanians near Lake Little Prespa, and then hastened to Thebes, which was in revolt. He took the city by storm and razed its buildings, sparing only the temples of the gods and the house of the Greek lyric poet Pindar, and enslaving the captured inhabitants, estimated at 30,000. Alexander’s promptness in crushing the revolt of Thebes brought the other Greek states into instant and abject submission.

Alexander began his war against Persia in the spring of 334 BC by crossing the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) with an army of 35,000 troops from Macedonia and the Greek city-states; his chief officers, all Macedonians, included Antigonus (later Antigonus 1) Ptolemy (later Ptolemy 1), and Seleucus (later Seleucus I). At the river Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy (in modern Turkey), he attacked an army of 40,000 Persians and Greek hoplites (mercenaries). His forces defeated the enemy and, lost only 110 men; after this battle all Asia submitted to him. On his way through  Phrygia he is said to have cut with his sword the Gordian knot. Continuing to advance southwards, Alexander encountered the main Persian army under King Darius III, at Issus, in north-eastern Syria. According to tradition Darius’s army was estimated at 5,00,000 but this is now considered a fantastic exaggeration. The Battle of Issus, in 333 BC, ended in a great victory for Alexander. Cut off from his base, Darius fled northwards, abandoning his mother, wife, and children to Alexander, who treated them with the respect due to royalty. Tyre, a strongly fortified seaport, offered obstinate resistance, but Alexander took it by storm in 332 BC after a siege of seven months. Alexander captured Gaza next and then passed on into Egypt, where he was greeted as a deliverer. As a result of these successes he secured control of the entire east Mediterranean coastline. Later in 332 BC he founded, at the mouth of the River Nile, the cityof Alexandria, which developed into the literary, scientific, and commercial centre of the Greek world. Cyrene, the capital of the ancient North African kingdom of Cyrenaica, submitted to Alexander in 331 BC, extending his dominion to the empire ofCarthage.

In order to complete his conquest of the remnants of the Persian Empire, which had once included part of western India, Alexander crossed the Indus River in 326 BC, and invaded the Punjab as far as the river Hyphasis (modern Beas); at this point the Macedonians rebelled and refused to go farther. He then constructed a fleet and sailed down the Hydaspes, where he defeated the Indian ruler Porus (326 BC), to the Indus, reaching its delta in September 325 BC. The fleet then proceeded to the Persian Gulf. With his army, Alexander marched overland across the desert to Susa which he reached in 324 BC. Shortages of food and water on the march had caused severe losses and hardship among his troops. Alexander spent about a year organizing his dominions and completing a survey of the Persian Gulf in preparation for further conquests. He arrived in Babylon in the spring of 323 BC, but in June contracted a fever and died. He left his empire, in his own words, ‘to the strongest”; this ambiguous testament resulted in dire conflicts for half a century.

Alexander was one of the greatest conquerors in history, noted for his brilliance as a tactician and leader of men and for the speed with which the could traverse great expanses of territory. He was usually brave and generous, but could be cruel and ruthless when politics demanded. It has been suggested that he was actually an alcoholic for example, he killed his friend Clitus in a drunken rage. He later regretted this act deeply. As a statesman and ruler he had scheme for uniting the East and the West in a world empire,  a new and enlightened “world brotherhood of all men”. He arranged for 30,000 young Persians to be trained in Greek Speech, Macedonian tactics, and enrolled them in his army.