Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great was born in 356 BC in Central Macedonia and was the son of King Philip II. Alexander conquered internal opposition after the death of his father to ensure total control over Greece. Moreover, by the moment of his death, Alexander had acquired 5.2 million kilometers empire after conquering the neighboring countries. Alexander the Great was always considered the first superhero of Western civilization because of his leadership, strategic and military skills.

Alexander the Superhero of Western Civilization

One of the reasons making Alexander an outstanding personality is that he became regent at the age of sixteen of the Kingdom of Macedonia. At quite a young age, he was given numerous military responsibilities and later became the king after the assassination of his father, at the age of 20. Besides, Alexander headed east and south to conquer Persia, Egypt and Asia Minor as well as other powerful nations across the world during his time. He was never defeated in any war and was always on the frontline of every battle (Hammond 43).

Alexander was the first person in history to comprehend that his image and the people’s attitude to him was crucial and, therefore, he strived to promote himself as the great king. Alexander achieved his strategy by employing a personal sculptor, a painter and autobiographer in order to leave the proper historical view on his personality.

Alexander the Great was the first person to unite Greece against the Persians. He wanted to secure his northern frontiers before his Asian campaign. Alexander crushed the Thracian revolts in an attempt to unite Greece and make the western empires work together. Also, he was the first individual to raise the idea of a globalized world, which was grounded on his wish to build an international Hellenistic empire by conquering and Hellenizing (Hammond 49).

My Opinion

It is quite a controversy opinion that Alexander was the first superhero of Western civilization. Throughout his reign, Alexander was spreading the ideas of Aristotle, but not his own. Also, Alexander never invented new military tactics as he used the ones his father applied. For instance, the Macedonian army would beat any army because they attacked without anyone knowing.

Moreover, Alexander was basically spreading the Greek culture to other parts of the world and not the western values. The western civilization depended severely on Jewish theology, Roman jurisprudence and Greek philosophy. Instead, the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire was responsible for influencing the western civilization in Europe. Moreover, his approach to influence the historians’ opinion about him could lead to a distortion of the real facts about his achievements.

Conclusion

Alexander the Great had effective military and leadership skills that made him to be considered as an outstanding personality of the ancient times. He managed to ascend to a leadership position at an early age, and his ideas influenced many leaders in future. However, it is not correct to call him the first superhero of western civilization because all his achievements were based on others’ ideas and inventions. Alexander also concentrated on spreading the Greek culture to other empires and not building the western region.

Works Cited

Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière. The Genius of Alexander the Great. Duckworth, 1997.