Alexander the Great
Uploaded by Admin on Sep 14, 1999
"It is a lovely thing to live with great courage and die leaving an everlasting fame."
Alexander The Great
Long before the birth of Christ, the land directly above what we know as Greece today, was called Macedonia. Macedonia still exists, but it is now Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and modern Greece. Macedonia was considered to be part of ancient Greece, but the people of these two countries couldn't be more different. No people in history ever gave so much to the human race as the ancient Greeks. They produced architectural monuments, four of the greatest dramatic actors who ever lived, one of the most brilliant statesmen and two of the greatest historians. Scientists, philosophers and artists all thrived in this country. The political system we call democracy had its roots in this culture.
The Macedonians in comparison with their Greek neighbors were crude and fierce in their outlook. They were a rough people. They never produced any artists, philosophers, or great actors. But they produced Alexander The Great - a man with a legacy so remarkable that it has challenged the minds of men ever since.
Alexander was born to conquer the world. His life was bold and from beginning to end, it was etched with dramatic clarity. Every important event in his life brought him one step closer to fulfilling his ambition. He was the first leaders, like Caesar and Napoleon, who partly be accident and partly by design, set out to gather the whole world into their fists, unify it, rule it and enlighten it.
But unlike the other great giants of history, Alexander was a shooting star whose blaze of glory ended with his death, at not quite thirty-three years old...
Alexander was born in 356 BC to King Philip of Macedonia and his wife, Olympias. On the day of Alexander's birth, Philip was away in battle. A courier brought Philip the message of his son's birth, along with two other messages - Philip's horse had won first prize in the Olympic Games and his army had just won a very important battle. With three pieces of good news at once, Philip always thought his son's arrival into the world came with an omen of good luck.
As Crown Prince of Macedonia and at that time, his father's only heir, Alexander was raised to inherit his father's kingdom. Alexander was good at sports and even as a young child showed a very ambitious streak....