Alexander the Great

After watching ancient Greece, I decided to watch Alexander the Great, one of the greatest commanders in the world, the first European who conquered almost the known world at that time. 

Growing up

In 356 BC, Alexander was born in Macedonia, which is far away from Athens. At that time, the belief of gods was quite normal in Macedonia. In a thunderstorm night, Alexander was born, and his mother Olympia believed that he was the son of Zeus and she wanted Alexander to live up to his purpose. 

Growing up, Alexander practiced combat and fight. Aristotle, the great philosopher, taught him many subjects including medicine, science, and philosophy, and Homer. Because of that, Alexander was familiar with the story of Iliad and Odyssey and his role model is Achilles, the greatest warrior. 

Knowing the history, Alexander, in his early age, had a great ambition and wanted revenge against Persian who once invaded Athen 150 hundred years ago. 

His mother Olympia and Aristotle had a big influence on him. Other than Olympia and Aristotle, he had some wonderful childhood friends who later on fought together with him, one of them is called Hephaestion. 

Conquering the world. 

Due to a perceived conflict between Macedonia and Athen, Alexander fought a battle with Athenians when he was only 16 years old and this is his first great victory. After Philip II was assassinated, Alexander became the king and by power, he secured peace within Greece. 

• In 334 BC, he sought revenge against king of Persia, and he defeated Darius at issus. 
• In 331 BC, Alexander moved to Euphrates (today’s Iraq), and again defeated Darius, at the battle of Gaugamela. 
• In the spring of 326 BC, he moved to today’s pakistan, and the Indian king attacked Alexander with war elephants, and this was his last big battle, in which he lost his horse, who was with him when he was 13 years old. This broke his heart. 

The ending

Although he wanted to become and exceed his role model, Achilles, his troops were tired of wars,. Eventually, he decided to go back to Greece. On the way home, he lost his dearest friend, Hephaestion and Alexander mourned for him for a long time. Half a year later, Alexander died. And the kingdom was splitted and his son did not inherit it.  

Reflection

The rise and fall of Alexander the Great was prophesied by Daniel in the book of Daniel in bible, which was written around in 600 BC. 

“After he has arisen, his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised, because his empire will be uprooted and given to others.”, Daniel, 11:4 

It was quite emotional when I watched this documentary at the end, seeing Alexander lost his horse, his best friend, and finally his life due to a disease. 

God is in control of the history.