Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Alexander "The Great"
I think that Alexander, although he was an accomplished leader, did not deserve his title of "The Great". It's true that he conquered a lot of land and was a highly skilled military leader. He also expanded his empire and was a strong leader to his men, but his motives don't match up to his title. His whole reason for wanting to conquer Persia was for revenge on a war that happened years ago. He burned the palace in Persepolis as a form of revenge on what Xerxes did, and he killed Bessus just for taking away Alexander's opportunity of killing Darius. He had a huge ego and sense of pride that often brought him consequences; his drinking made him even more a violent, arrogant man. He took a lot of risks and acted on impulse many times. If he was more cautious, more respectable, and more sober, he would have deserved his title completely.
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Alexander the Great
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Yeah, his motives are a key component to this. But what motive would you accept in order for him to be the Great? Would he need to be acting out of altruism? What if he had pure motives but were still a drunk? Or the opposite--bad motives, but pure morals? Check plus
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