I think that Alexander of Macedonia deserves to be referred to as “the great” because he did so much within his short-lived career as a conqueror, military genius, and ruler of the Persian Empire. He knew exactly how to strategize plans to lead his men because he himself was a disciplined and optimistic leader. By 333 B.C.E, he was able to take over Ionia, Anatolia, then Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, some of which had presented themselves to be headstrong and powerful civilizations that only a man with Alexander’s will and grit would have been able to usurp. Before he miraculously conquered the Persian Empire, he took control of Pasargadae then burned an Archaemenid palace at Persepolis around 331 B.C.E. After claiming himself supreme ruler of the vast and powerful Persian Empire, Alexander did not stop there. His army went into India and traveled all the way past the Indus River into Punjab, overthrowing the local rulers within any civilization he pleased. Another great trait about Alexander was that he didn’t always just focus on expanding his empire. At times, he allowed his troops to relax and celebrate how far they had come, like they did in Susa in Mesopotamia instead of pursuing India. On top of the fact that he was an excellent conqueror, he also established many cities which came to serve as cultural centers, Ptolemies’ administrative headquarters, and bureaucratic centers. He was very skilled when it came to government managing like his idea to restrict his officers to marry Persian women, which would cause a ruling class consisting of Greek, Macedonian, and Persian ancestry. To this day, historians refer to the time when Alexander t came into control and his successors as the Hellenistic age because the Greek cultural traditions spread beyond Greece into a more immense world. After making this much of a difference by expanding and conquering so much, I think it is only fair, and even an understatement, to refer to this remarkable leader as Alexander the Great.
