Alexander the Great

           You may have heard about Alexander the Great, and one or two of his successes, but did you know that there is more? For example: Did you know that Alexander was taught by Aristotle? Here is a short summary on his childhood and when he was king until his death.

          At the age of ten, Alexander and his father were trying to mount and buy a stubborn, but frightened horse. Alexander then realized that the horse would kick every time it saw his shadow, so he turned the horse to face the sun and mounted it. This surprised his father (King Philip II of Macedon) very much, so he bought the horse, and Alexander named it Bucephalas.

          Alexander’s father had conquered a lot of land by the time he was assassinated, and Alexander decided to be Philip’s successor. Within the same year that Alexander became king, 336 BC, he started to conquer Greece, then to Asia, then to Egypt. However, he spared Jerusalem because a certain prophecy said a Greek king would conquer the Persians. So, instead of fighting, the Jews opened their gaits and let King Alexander in, for Alexander obviously thought it was himself.

          Have you ever heard the story of the Gordian Knot? It was a large knot that was extremely difficult to undo. The legend says that whoever untangled the knot would eventually be the ruler of all Asia. Well, when King Alexander came, he took his sword and sliced through the not, basically undoing it.

          No one is really sure how he died, but we do have two pretty accurate theories. We know that he was sick for about two weeks before he died, so he could have died from that. Or, he could have been murdered by someone, somehow. It was very common for Macedonian kings to be murdered for some reason.

           The gigantic empire that Alexander built from Macedon to parts of India sadly did not last very long afterward. Some of it fell apart on its own and others were conquered by Rome. However, Egypt lasted about 300 years later. King Alexander became Alexander the Great because he never lost a battle, but sadly, he was named Alexander the Great after his death.

            You may have realized that King Alexander lived before Jesus, which was something I did not already know. I hope you learned something in this essay; I know I did. I am so excited to eventually learn more about King Alexander the Great and King Phillip II of Macedon, and I hope you do too.