Alexander The Great FActs

Alexander III was a great leader spending 13 years battling and conquering cities. He was considered one of the greatest leaders ever. At the end of the 13 year conquest Alexander III was viewed almost as a God.

Alexander's dad Philip hired a friend Aristotle to tutor his child. Aristotle’s wise but worldly approach had sunk in. According to legend, while still a prince in Greece, Alexander sought out the famed ascetic Diogenes the Cynic, who rejected social niceties and slept in a large clay jar.

Alexander's teaching and military methods are still used today by present day soldiers. He accomplished these goals at the age of 18. The centerpiece of Alexander’s fighting force was the 15,000-strong Macedonian phalanx, whose units held off the sword-wielding Persians with 20-foot-long pikes called sarissa.

Alexander named his mission by founding dozens of cities, usually built up around previous military forts, which he named Alexandria. The most famous of these, founded at the middle of the Nile in 331 B.C., is today Egypt’s second largest city. Other Alexandria's trace the path of his armies advances through present day Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

After his spectacular capture in 327 B.C. of Sogdian Rock, a seemingly impregnable mountain fortress, the 28-year-old Alexander was surveying his captives when Roxanne, the teenage daughter of a Bactrian nobleman, caught his eye. Soon after, in a traditional wedding ceremony, the king sliced a loaf of bread in two with his sword and shared it with his new bride. A few months after Alexander’s death, Roxanne gave birth to the couple’s only son, Alexander IV.

Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans written 400 years after Alexander’s death, reports that a most agreeable odor came from Alexander’s skin, and that his breath and body smelled really fragrant. The olfactory detail was part of a tradition, begun during Alexander’s lifetime, of saying god like attributes to the conquering king. Alexander himself called himself Son of Zeus during a visit to Siwah in 331 B.C.

There are a lot of theories and thoughts about Alexander's death. Some think that he was killed by his own bodyguard. Some might think he died of poison or a disease. There is no real evidence on how or when Alexander III passed away.

The End.

By: Keelan Helms

Credits:

Created with images by kudumomo - "Alexander the Great" • Tilemahos Efthimiadis - "Alexander the Great" • zeevveez - "ג'ארה" • Albion Europe ApS - "Albion_Arn_Film_Sword_07" • edwardotis - "Old City" • Xuan Che - "alexander the great" • stevepb - "perfume scent body spray" • webandi - "post it list memo"

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