Liz's Work Cited:
http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/AlexandertheGreat.html
http://www.biography.com/people/alexander-the-great-9180468
http://www.history.com/topics/alexander-the-great
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/alexander_the_great.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=524NsuNR-l0
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Abby's Blog Post
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Abby Schmidt
1&2. Alexander the Great might not be considered so great by today's standards, but he certainly met the criteria for greatness during his era. As a twenty year old, he accomplished way more than what most rulers twice his age could have done. For example, he became the king of Macedonia in 336 B.C. Alexander subdued Persia, Egypt, and part of India by the age of thirty-two. As a soldier in Alexander's army, I can personally attest to the strength of the entire military that fell under his command. It was our strength that played a big part in how Alexander came to be known as great. Alexander was able to overturn many cities with the help of our strategic army, and we never lost a battle. Although this left cities with thousands of fatalities, many people still looked up to him as a god on earth. All of his men looked up to him in the same way that many citizens of the newborn Hellenistic culture did. They saw him as a great man who conquered and blended together Persian, Egyptian, and Indian influences. Koine, the dialect that arose from the blending of these cultures, was widely spoken by Alexander's new Hellenistic settlers and was spoken by most all of his soldiers, including me. With Koine being the common language, it improved our trade and communication across the East and the versatility throughout the Hellenistic world.
3. Like Alexander the Great, Ulysses S. Grant may not be considered great in modern times, but he was the "Alexander the Great" of his age. Grant and Alexander were both two strategic and determined military generals. Grant even continued on to become President of the United States in 1868. Although many people today disregard these two men and their greatness, they both conquered vast amounts of established land that sculpted continents and cultures of the world into what they are today. While Grant was General-in-Chief, he cut the Confederacy in half after fighting a battle at Vicksburg, took control of the Mississippi Valley, and won countless other battles that molded the backbone of America after the Civil War. Like Grant, Alexander conquered many countries in the East and was able to mold a new culture out of the many that he conquered during his time. Both of these men are great because of their contributions to the military and their strategic attitudes, even if they may not be considered great according to today's standards.
Works Cited:
Watkins, Thayer. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013.
<http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/alexandergreat.htm>.
Cohane, Krista, Gustafson, Stefanie, and Lazaridis, Zinovia ed. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://faculty.fairfield.edu/rosivach/cl115/people/alexander.htm>.
Freidel, Frank, and Hugh Sidey. "Ulysses S. Grant | The Presidents of the United States of America." The White House. White House Historical Association, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ulyssessgrant>
Abby Schmidt
1&2. Alexander the Great might not be considered so great by today's standards, but he certainly met the criteria for greatness during his era. As a twenty year old, he accomplished way more than what most rulers twice his age could have done. For example, he became the king of Macedonia in 336 B.C. Alexander subdued Persia, Egypt, and part of India by the age of thirty-two. As a soldier in Alexander's army, I can personally attest to the strength of the entire military that fell under his command. It was our strength that played a big part in how Alexander came to be known as great. Alexander was able to overturn many cities with the help of our strategic army, and we never lost a battle. Although this left cities with thousands of fatalities, many people still looked up to him as a god on earth. All of his men looked up to him in the same way that many citizens of the newborn Hellenistic culture did. They saw him as a great man who conquered and blended together Persian, Egyptian, and Indian influences. Koine, the dialect that arose from the blending of these cultures, was widely spoken by Alexander's new Hellenistic settlers and was spoken by most all of his soldiers, including me. With Koine being the common language, it improved our trade and communication across the East and the versatility throughout the Hellenistic world.
3. Like Alexander the Great, Ulysses S. Grant may not be considered great in modern times, but he was the "Alexander the Great" of his age. Grant and Alexander were both two strategic and determined military generals. Grant even continued on to become President of the United States in 1868. Although many people today disregard these two men and their greatness, they both conquered vast amounts of established land that sculpted continents and cultures of the world into what they are today. While Grant was General-in-Chief, he cut the Confederacy in half after fighting a battle at Vicksburg, took control of the Mississippi Valley, and won countless other battles that molded the backbone of America after the Civil War. Like Grant, Alexander conquered many countries in the East and was able to mold a new culture out of the many that he conquered during his time. Both of these men are great because of their contributions to the military and their strategic attitudes, even if they may not be considered great according to today's standards.
Works Cited:
Beck, B. Rodger
<http://my.hrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=9780547521084>.Watkins, Thayer. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013.
<http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/alexandergreat.htm>.
Cohane, Krista, Gustafson, Stefanie, and Lazaridis, Zinovia ed. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://faculty.fairfield.edu/rosivach/cl115/people/alexander.htm>.
Freidel, Frank, and Hugh Sidey. "Ulysses S. Grant | The Presidents of the United States of America." The White House. White House Historical Association, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ulyssessgrant>
Alexander the Great- Jackson Nowlin
1/2) Fighting alongside a great leader like Alexander the Great was a life changing experience. One of the one things that made Alexander so great is that he treated his soldiers like he treated himself. In his mind he believed that we were all equal and that he shouldn't get more/better food than us or be treated any better than us. Alexander was always in the front of our army leading us to victory. He never stayed back just to give commands and orders, he was always doing the dirty work in the battlefield. Unlike most leaders, Alexander knew his soldiers. He knew everyones name and would come talk to us every night before a major battle. At first I thought it could be a huge mistake choosing to join forces with Alexander because some of his stupid decisions but then as time progressed and we didn't lose a single battle I learned to trust him. Fighting for/with this great man makes me realize that I am lucky to have a guy like him as my leader. Since we have conquered all of this land, we have had new religions and new languages that have completely changed our culture. They have taken Greek, Egyptian, and Persian beliefs and formed them in to a new Hellenistic culture. Also, we have learned a lot more languages in out new culture. This allows us to have better communication with other countries or cultures so we can better understand each other. Also, this allows us to improve more on our education. From what I've heard, we have significantly improved in areas like Math, Science, and Physics.
3) Alexander and George Washington were both great people. Like Alexander, George Washington is considered to be one of the greatest leaders of all time. George Washington (as a huge underdog) led his small army to defeat the most powerful army at the time, Great Britain. Like Washington, Alexander was outnumbered in a lot of his battles. But with his great strategic and leadership skills, Alexander was able to defeat everyone he came up against. These men were both very strategic and great leaders. They were brilliant and fearless when it came to war. These men are considered to be "Great".
"Alexander the Great." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d. Web. 19
Furdock, Corey. "The Empire of Alexander the Great." . N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sep 2013. <http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/a/s/asg198/Final Project/alexempire.html>.
Alexander The Great by Mallika Yedla
- As a soldier in Alexander's army, I believe him to be a fantastic military leader and conqueror, however, he is also a horrid excuse for a human being. He is widely known as a great military leader because he has been able to conquer an astoundingly large number of lands and groups of people in since he has become our leader. I have heard from many reliable sources in the army that he commits innumerable atrocities against both his enemies and his own people. For example, in a Greek city called Bactria, there lived some people whose ancestors were Greek priests that had worked with the King of Persia one hundred fifty years ago. The living descendants of the priests were some of Alexander’s most loyal people, and they greeted him with much happiness when he visited Bactria with us. That is, of course, until Alexander had each one of them murdered in cold blood by us, his army, for their ancestors’ collaboration with our enemy, Persia. Alexander is bipolar, vicious, even with his close friends, and abusive of alcohol. I have been in his army for several years know, and I know this to be true, for I have seen it myself on several occasions. One time, I was told a story about a person named Black Cleitus. Cleitus had fought alongside Philip, Alexander’s father, and after Philip died, he fought alongside Alexander. Black Cleitus even saved Alexander’s life once. Because they were so close, Alexander promoted Cleitus into a more powerful position, governor of Bactria. At the celebratory dinner of Cleitus’ new appointment, Alexander became highly intoxicated, and started saying nasty things about Philip, his father. Cleitus became upset and told Alexander that the only reason he had his glory was because of his father, Philip. This made Alexander murderously angry, and the next time Cleitus made a comment, Alexander fatally wounded him with a javelin. Alexander has alarmingly little control over his temper, mainly because of his alcoholism. One time, while he was intoxicated, he made the decision to make us raze an entire city, Persepolis, to the ground. I do not believe that it is wise for him to be making these huge decisions while drunk, but I am just a lowly soldier, so my thoughts do not make a difference.
- Speaking from the perspective of a soldier, the blending of all the cultures that are now under Alexander's rule helped the empire greatly. After we conquered Persia, Egypt, India, and Greece, we blended all of their cultures together and created one culture, called Hellenistic culture. Hellenistic culture is mainly influenced by Greek culture, and everyone has to speak a dialect of Greek called Koine, but major aspects of the other cultures are blended in and have positive effects. Alexandria, Egypt is the main Hellenistic city, and it is a busy, successful center of trade and commerce that is greatly improving the economy. Alexandria's population is extremely diverse, and rich traditions and culture have developed there. Philosophy, science, and the arts have been flourishing since the inception of our Hellenistic culture. The philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle continue to influence our culture, but new schools of thought are being developed. The new schools of thought that philosophers are introducing are there to help teach people how to live their lives and tell us what values to have. Egypt and Greece are the main influences in the sciences, and there has been a lot of growth lately! We are using a book written by Euclid, called Elements, to learn about geometry, and Archimedes is making new physics discoveries everyday. Our Greek astronomers are learning more about the planets, sun, and earth all the time, but they have trouble with accepting new ideas, in my opinion. In the arts, a new style of sculpture is developing. Sculptors have nearly stopped trying to make humans look perfect, and are starting to make them look more natural and realistically flawed. Alexander, our leader, has married a Persian and started to wear Persian clothes. He encourages us soldiers to marry people from other cultures and make the population more diverse. Basically, I believe that the Hellenistic ways have helped us grow and develop our ideas and culture.
- Alexander is comparable to Adolf Hitler. Both men are considered by many to be both great and terrible. Alexander is considered great because he conquered an extremely large number of lands and people, and he led his army well. Hitler is considered great because, after World War I, when Germany was destroyed and in debt and had to rebuild itself, Hitler took charge and brought about great, positive change for the nation of Germany. Because of his work, he won many honors, and was even named the Time Magazine Man of the Year. However, after a while, he started to impose his personal beliefs on the world. He believed in a pure race of humans, where no people of the Jewish faith existed. He got together a large group of followers, called the Nazis, and began slaughtering innocent Jewish men, women, and children by the millions. He was a powerful leader and an extremely influential figure in society. Eventually, he caused one of the most terrible and bloody wars in history, World War II, and over sixty million people died. Time changed most people's opinions of Hitler. Where before he was thought of as a glorious leader who was working hard to rebuild Germany, he was eventually thought of as an insane, cruel killer. Alexander did not hesitate to kill in order to achieve his goals and neither did Hitler. Both men were terrific as leaders and strategists, and were able to accomplish many amazing things during their lifetimes, but they were terrifying, vicious people that were eventually hated.
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| Adolf Hitler |
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| Alexander Fighting while Riding a Horse
Works Cited
"Alexander's Empire." Holt McDougal Online. Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, n.d. Web. 26
Sept. 2013. <http://my.hrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=9780547521084>.
Ancient-Greece.org. Ancient-Greece.org, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/helleninstic.html>.
Gabriel, Richard. "Alexander the Monster: Historians Say the
Battlefield Atrocities of the Macedonian King Were Part of His Brilliant
Military Strategy. But Were They Really Born of His Personality?" 2013. MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military
History. N.p.: n.p., 2013. pg.38. Gale
Power Search. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.
San José State University Department of Economics. San José State
University Department of Economics, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/alexandergreat.htm>.
"The Spread of Hellenistic Culture." Holt McDougal Online. Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
<http://my.hrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=9780547521084>.
Walbank, Frank W. "Alexander the Great." Britannica High School. N. pag. Print.
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Alexander the Great Neelesh
Question 1
Today Alexander has become great. Although we had not heard of his many deeds before, rumor has it that he never attended the royal academy. We did not hesitate and with Alexander's great strategy we gracefully won. He has proven himself Great because of his strategy that was able to bring Persia to her knees in two battles, both Issus and Granicus. His great strategy was shown in the battle of Granicus when he surprised the army by breaking the lines with our finest men, myself included, and then the other men charged making the troops disintegrate and the foul King Darius fled, effectively defeating an army that held 5,000 more trained men than his. Even when he was at his worst drinking, killing fellow generals he was still very charismatic and cunning when he successfully stopped the Opis revolution that was caused by the rift between us Macedonians and the Persians, by quickly creating a concord where the men of all nationalities sipped from the same cup and, being very charismatic, convinced us to put aside our differences and become a real army. In this way he has shown himself to be cunning by breaching the rift between different nationalities, and shown to be charismatic, which are both qualities of a good leader. One of his many conquests was his triumph at Hydaspes in India, against the savage king Porus, we managed to defeat his army and his elephants with our brilliant army and his unwavering courage, and then he showed what a generous king he was by sparing his life and even granting him land. In this way he has shown multiple qualities of his greatness, he is both a great leader, a brilliant strategist, and has a compassionate heart.
Question 2
These new cultures that I have interacted and met over my time with Alexander has aided this empire by bringing new ideas and the blending of cultures has made a new culture now being penned, Hellenistic. Because of Alexander's conquest of most if not all of the known world, a new culture having aspects of Egyptian, Greek, Indian, and lastly Persian has created this new, rich culture that had Alexander not been there would never have flourished. A prime example of this would be the great city of Alexandria, I have heard stories but they say that the city is breathtaking, they say that there is a huge lighthouse named the Pharos that guides ships to the bay and illuminates the entire night! The movement of new ideas can be clearly seen with the Lighthouse because it was Alexander himself that conquered and named the city Alexandria, but also, he was the one who commissioned his general Ptolemy to create it. Through this we can see how a man from Macedonia took an idea and created it in Egypt, miles away from Macedonia, because of Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt. Besides architecture, Hellenism allowed many scholastic achievements to be made in science and technology such as the great scholar Eratosthenes who some say has proven the size of the earth using numbers! Another mathematician Euclid has written a book about shapes and numbers that is translated into three languages. This last statement shows that without any doubt Hellenistic culture has allowed thoughts and ideas to spread in multiple languages, as in Euclidean's case, to help us understand the world around us, and help us better our life, as in Ptolemy's case when he created the Lighthouse. Not to forget our great leader Alexander has created this Hellenistic culture with his conquest of the known world and subsequently spread ideas all over his empire.
Question 3
I think that Alexander the Great can be compared to Paul Revere, which was the man who alerted all the townspeople on the eve of the Revolutionary War to gather up their armory for the British were coming. I think that Alexander the Great can be compared to him because history has seemingly glorified both their images as being very heroic and skipping out any other details of their life. For example many people know that Alexander the Great conquered all these places and did good things, but many people seem to overlook the fact that he was bipolar, drank excessively, ordered hundreds and thousands of civilians killed and on top of that killed his best friend and main general over a trivial matter when he was drinking. Likewise, while Paul Revere did not do things that were as bad as Alexander, many people forget that there was two other people besides him that went on the midnight ride through the countryside, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott which he did not give credit to. Also another point of comparison between these two important is that they both did their own separate deeds on a sort of blind, dumb, luck. For example when Alexander conquered parts of Asia he was only interested in achieving more land and exploring Asia, the Hellenistic period and the blending of cultures was only blind luck that happened after he died and his empire was split up between his generals. Likewise Paul Revere was one of the many that alerted the townspeople and actually did not make the full ride, many believe the reason we only remember Paul Revere is because of his reputation of him being in the Boston Tea Party that made Henry Longfellow make a poem about him. Others speculate that he was the only one in the poem because his name was easier to rhyme than Dawes and Prescott, which is obviously dumb luck, so Revere was therefore lionized and made to have a bigger role than he actually had in the Revolution, which is exactly how Alexander the Great was lionized and made to have a much bigger role in Hellenistic culture than he really had. In both these ways these two historical men have been lionized and become greater than what they truly were.
. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/arc/ugaritlight/ugarit/Pages/The Investigation/AncientLighthouses.htm>.
Knox, Skip. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://europeanhistory.boisestate.edu/westciv/alexander/06.shtml>.
Brown, Bryan. "Alexander the great: in the fourth century b.c, this 20-something military genius conquered half the known world." Junior Scholastic 9 May 2011: 20+. General OneFile. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
Gabriel, Richard. "Alexander the monster: historians say the battlefield atrocities of the Macedonian king were part of his brilliant military strategy. But were they really born of his personality?" MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military HistorySummer 2013: 38+. General OneFile. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
Untereker, J., J. Kossuth, and B. Kelsey. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/india.htm>.
Jed Untereker, J. K.. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/>.
Edmonds, Molly. "What happened to the two other men on Paul Revere\u0027s ride?" 12
March 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/paul-
revere-ride.htm> 25 September 2013.
Beck, Roger B., Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, and Dahia Ibo Shabaka. Holt McDougal World History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012. 143-144. eBook.
N.d. Photograph. n.p.
http://callisto.ggsrv.com/imgsrv/FastFetch/UBER1/ZI-0HVC-2011-MAY09-LASON-22-1
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Ju. Web. 26 Sep 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:J_S_Copley_-_Paul_Revere.jpg>.
Dune Jimmy, . N.d. Photograph. n.p.
http://www.touregypt.net/images/touregypt/pharos2.jpg
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| Alexander's Empire at its Greatest |
Question 2
| Lighthouse of Pharos |
Question 3
I think that Alexander the Great can be compared to Paul Revere, which was the man who alerted all the townspeople on the eve of the Revolutionary War to gather up their armory for the British were coming. I think that Alexander the Great can be compared to him because history has seemingly glorified both their images as being very heroic and skipping out any other details of their life. For example many people know that Alexander the Great conquered all these places and did good things, but many people seem to overlook the fact that he was bipolar, drank excessively, ordered hundreds and thousands of civilians killed and on top of that killed his best friend and main general over a trivial matter when he was drinking. Likewise, while Paul Revere did not do things that were as bad as Alexander, many people forget that there was two other people besides him that went on the midnight ride through the countryside, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott which he did not give credit to. Also another point of comparison between these two important is that they both did their own separate deeds on a sort of blind, dumb, luck. For example when Alexander conquered parts of Asia he was only interested in achieving more land and exploring Asia, the Hellenistic period and the blending of cultures was only blind luck that happened after he died and his empire was split up between his generals. Likewise Paul Revere was one of the many that alerted the townspeople and actually did not make the full ride, many believe the reason we only remember Paul Revere is because of his reputation of him being in the Boston Tea Party that made Henry Longfellow make a poem about him. Others speculate that he was the only one in the poem because his name was easier to rhyme than Dawes and Prescott, which is obviously dumb luck, so Revere was therefore lionized and made to have a bigger role than he actually had in the Revolution, which is exactly how Alexander the Great was lionized and made to have a much bigger role in Hellenistic culture than he really had. In both these ways these two historical men have been lionized and become greater than what they truly were.
Burke Justin, . N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/j/r/jrb5453/ART 002/assignment7.htm>.
. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/arc/ugaritlight/ugarit/Pages/The Investigation/AncientLighthouses.htm>.
Knox, Skip. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://europeanhistory.boisestate.edu/westciv/alexander/06.shtml>.
Brown, Bryan. "Alexander the great: in the fourth century b.c, this 20-something military genius conquered half the known world." Junior Scholastic 9 May 2011: 20+. General OneFile. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
Gabriel, Richard. "Alexander the monster: historians say the battlefield atrocities of the Macedonian king were part of his brilliant military strategy. But were they really born of his personality?" MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military HistorySummer 2013: 38+. General OneFile. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.
Untereker, J., J. Kossuth, and B. Kelsey. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/india.htm>.
Jed Untereker, J. K.. N.p.. Web. 25 Sep 2013. <http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/>.
Edmonds, Molly. "What happened to the two other men on Paul Revere\u0027s ride?" 12
March 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/paul-
revere-ride.htm> 25 September 2013.
Beck, Roger B., Linda Black, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, and Dahia Ibo Shabaka. Holt McDougal World History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012. 143-144. eBook.
N.d. Photograph. n.p.
http://callisto.ggsrv.com/imgsrv/FastFetch/UBER1/ZI-0HVC-2011-MAY09-LASON-22-1
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Ju. Web. 26 Sep 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:J_S_Copley_-_Paul_Revere.jpg>.
Dune Jimmy, . N.d. Photograph. n.p.
http://www.touregypt.net/images/touregypt/pharos2.jpg
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