Numismatic and History Discussion Forums > History and Archeology

Alexandros III Philippou Makedonon--was he really so great?

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LordBest:
Looking at him from a military and cultural perspective, the answer has to be yes, he does deserve the title. He might have been a bit of an uncultured git himself (thugh we dont actually know) but through his actions he spread Hellenistic culture accross a massive area and shaped the development of all the nations in that area, Turkey, Persia/Iran, Egypt, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India etc all developed from a synthesis of nativeand Greek culture to some extent.
Militarily he never lost a battle (that we know about) and conquered the ancient "hyperpower" of Persia at the height of its power. In my opinion, the only military leader to surpass him is Napoleon Bonaparte, but he surpasses every military leader, and A3 is still a close second.
                                                              LordBest. 8)

Ecgþeow:
I don't know, LB, at least Alexander's empire lasted until his death.  Napoleon's empire collapsed completely even before his death, and he spent the rest of his life in exile.

AlexB:
Hi

He forced the release via coinage of he massive reserves of Gold and Silver kept in the Persian treasurery albeit via the soldiery initially. This helped boost the trade and interaction within the 'known world' which brought about greater prosperity or more misery depending on your point of view and situation no doubt.

However, it could be seen as the first attempt at globalisation, inline with our current trade orientated economies (again for better of worse!).

And yes he wasnt a bad general/statesman either at the highest level. Napoleon, great as a tactician, never got the strategic bit quite right...

Brgds

AlexB

virtvsprobi:
In my opinion, Alexander was about as great as Temüjin. No one ever says anything nice about the spread of the Mongol culture, it's always "hellenistic this" and "hellenistic that". What would we ever do without airag? Sheesh!

Genghis /<han

slokind:
Well, his lifetime certainly is a watershed...What I always wondered about, reading of his conquests, was whether those wonderfully capable generals of his (wouldn't the father that brought Aristotle to teach him make sure he had great chiefs of staff on his campaigns?) weren't the real military geniuses.  I don't say that the boy wasn't an apt pupil; I don't know.  It took a lot of strategy and logistics, however, not to end up as badly as Xerxes had done in Greece.  It is one thing to look great on a horse or in a chariot (facing Darius V), quite another to manage and consistently lead a bunch of men twice your age in some cases, not nearly so delicately reared, not to mention all the cliques and interest groups in a large army.  I tend to think that Caesar was a more seasoned general than Alexander, and didn't he have trouble sometimes?  (the thoughts girls think waiting their turn to recite in Greek class).  Pat L.

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