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 ALEXANDER III was educated by Aristotle,
whom Philip invited to his court for that purpose. Succeeding
his father at the age of 20, he spent the first year of his reign
in consolidating his power in Europe. In 334 he crossed into
Asia, whence he was never to return. His army of 35,000 men was,
for training, scientific organization, variety of equipment and
adaptation, incomparably superior to anything the world had yet
seen; and the military genius of its leader has perhaps only
been paralleled by Hannibal and Bonaparte. The remaining eleven
years of his short life were spent in almost continuous marching
and campaigning. Traversing Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and Palestine,
he entered Egypt; thence back into Mesopotamia, and so by Babylon
and Susa to Persepolis in Farsistan. Then turning north to Ecbatana
(Hamadan), and skirting the southern shore of the Caspian, he
passed out of the kingdom of Persia by way of Meschid, and, crossing
the Paropamisus, descended by Herat to Candahar. Thence by way
of Cabul, Balkh, and Samarcand he penetrated to the Jaxartes
(Syr-Daria) in the Khanate of Khokand, the northernmost point
of his conquests. Returning to Cabul, he sent a division down
the Khyber Pass, himself marching through Kaffiristan to the
Indus. Crossing the river near Attock, he pushed through the
Punjaub to the Sutlej, with the intention of conquering India.
But his soldiers refused to follow him further, so, unwillingly
retracing his steps, he passed down the Indus to its mouth and
thence through Beluchistan and Persia to Babylon. There he died,
at the age of 32, from a fever brought on by excessive drinking,
to which, like his father, he was addicted. [This is the traditional
explanation of Alexander's death. However, some modern researchers
have suggested that he may actually have been a victim of the
West Nile Virus. The symptoms of his two-week illness match those
of the recently identified disease, and, according to historical
accounts, flocks of ravens dropped dead at Alexander's feet upon
his entry into Babylon--another clue supporting this new theory.]
The stupendous achievements of Alexander, their far-reaching
political importance--affecting the world as they did for many
centuries after his death--and their yet more important result,
the wide diffusion of Greek art, science, and philosophy, make
it impossible to deny him the title of "Great," which
the common consent of mankind has added to his name. Yet it must
be confessed that in his character and career there is too much
that reminds us of Bonaparte. There is the same overweening egotism,
the same insatiate thirst for what the Corsican called "glory,"
the same appetite for adulation, the same brutal contempt for
other human beings whether friends or foes. There are also frenzied
outbursts of passion which Bonaparte only simulated. And as all
these vices were growing upon him with appalling rapidity, it
was well for him and for others that his career closed so early.
But it might be suggested that Alexander is lifted from the level
of Bonaparte by the fact that his principal work, the overthrow
of Persia, was indispensable for the due development of ancient
civilization. Anterior Asia, at all events, became more or less
Hellenized; and the danger in after ages from the Arsacids, from
Timur and from Zenghis, must make us hesitate to condemn his
attempt to bridle the barbarous Turanians of Central Asia. But
his invasion of India, like the march to Moscow, was prompted
by a diseased craving for universal dominion and a vulgar desire
to dazzle mankind.
He was contemplating, and would doubtless have effected, the
conquest of Carthage and of Italy, where Rome had just entered
on the Samnite War. His vast empire was carved up by his generals
into several kingdoms, the chief of which, Macedon, Syria, and
Egypt, remained under Macedonian dynasties till their subjugation
by Rome.
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| This biography is
reprinted from The New Calendar of Great Men. Ed. Frederic
Harrison. London: Macmillan and Co., 1920. |
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