Alexander the Great

A detailed Summary of Alexander the Great

In 334 B.C. Alexander crossed the Hellespont. Something that his father had planned but didn't fully achieved. He defeated the Persian forces that were gathered on the Asian side of the River Granicus. After this victory Alexander sent three hundred suits of Persian armor back to Athens. The message that went with them read, Alexander, the son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the Spartans, have won this spoil from the barbarians of Asia, thus expressing in one brief and self-assured sentence his contempt for the Persians, his even greater contempt for the Spartans, and his conviction that he was furthering a Greek cause. Of all the generals of the ancient world Alexander was surely the greatest. He possessed an almost clairvoyant insight into strategy and was a consummately resourceful tactician.

Alexander could be compared to Napoleon in swiftness and in movement, but Alexander could be patient as well. As he showed in his siege of the fortress of Tyre, which lasted for about seven months. The old port of Tyre had been abandoned for some time, and the Tyrians were now securely enclosed behind massive walls on an island that was half a mile from the shore. Alexander made attempts to negotiate an entrance into the

For thirteen years Alexander remained unbeaten in his campaigns in Persia, Egypt, and India. His battles against enemy forces were all foresight and his brilliant tactics were executed to achieve victory after victory. Alexander's fear of being overcastted by his fathers shadow was just, but his conquests dwarfed those of his father. Alexander, driven by brilliance and his view of a Hellenistic world, seized every opportunity to go one step beyond his father. Those steps brought him a great empire that he governed fair and honorable. He treated his captures with both dignity and respect, which enabled him to maintain order for so long. He brought with him the Greek culture that he so strongly believed in, and spread that culture all over Asia in the cites that bear his name; Alexandria(s). Nevertheless, the ingeniousness tactics and strategies that he created brought him great success which he rightfully deserved.

Bucephalas, Alexander's famous steed died of wounds suffered in battle. He was thirty years old, but the two had been through crisis and triumph for most of their lives. A city, Bucephala, was founded in the horse's name on the west bank of the Jhelum. Alexander, just inside modern India, had every intention of crossing the Beas River. Like most men of his time, he believed that the Indian continent was a small peninsula jutting eastward that reached to a body of water, called simply Ocean that supposedly encircled the world. Alexander expected to reach Ocean and explore it as the climax of his long campaign. However, his soldiers had heard rumors of vast deserts and fierce warriors with great armies of elephants lying ahead. Veterans who had crossed the Hellespont eight years before felt that they had marched their limits and wanted to return to Macedonia. Alexander waited three days for them to change their minds. When he was convinced that they would not, he agreed to start home. In the spring of 323 B.C. he reached Babylon, and began at once to regroup his army and plan an invasion of Arabia. But in June a fever struck him and on the thirteenth of June, 323 B.C., not even 33 years old Alexander died.

Despite the resent experiences, Alexander turned south and headed into India. Nearly two centuries before, in the reign of Darius I, the Persian Empire had included part of that subcontinent. Determined to recapture it Alexander crossed the Hindu Kusk mountains, followed the Kabul River down to the Indus River and crossed overland to the Hydaspes River. It was here where Alexander would fight one of the most difficult battles of his entire career. His opponent was the Indian King, Porus, whose army was several times larger than Alexander's and superbly trained. It included war elephants which reduced Alexander's striking power because his horses would not go near them; however Alexander devised a technique that transformed them into a hazard to their own masters. The elephants were positioned fifty feet from the Indian front line. Alexander launched a two-phase cavalry charge against the horsemen and chariots on Porus's own wing first. When Porus committed horsemen from both wings to an attack against what he thought was Alexander's entire cavalry, hiding horsemen would suddenly appear having Porus's horsemen in a trap. These tactics enabled Alexander's infantry, who had been specially trained for the purpose, to deal with the elephants when the enemy was in a state of confusion. Alexander's men would strike

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Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History