Alexander The Great – His Death Speech

Friends, Macedonians and Countrymen, Do lend me your ears for a moment, in respect for one of the only kings to be known as “The Great”.  In all his actions, Alexander was inspired by great people, including Dionysios, Hercules, Cyrus the Great, Achilles the great, Homer who appeared in his dreams and Illiad, who was his manual at war.Alexander was tough and could tolerate any eventualities including pain, hunger, thirst, suffering and desperation without complaining.  He took extremely dangerous steps in order to defend his motherland and protect us from our enemies.

Alexander had an uncanny knack for politics and warfare.  The Persian Emperor, Cyrus the Great, inspired Alexander hugely.  He wanted to create a universal empire extending from Macedonia and including Cilicia, Lydia, Syria, Media, Babilonia, Persis, Bactriana, Gedrosia, Aria and India.Alexander respected the traditions and the religions of people.

  He had a multitude of emotions, images and souls inside himself, such that it was difficult for him to please everyone.  In one personality so many aspects may be very difficult to exist, harmoniously.Alexander had a unique way of doing thing.  For this reason he was considered to be a military genius of all times.

  He liked warfare, poetry, hunting, the flute, drama.   He hated a rich and lavish lifestyle and instead preferred a life filled with glory, courage and valor.Even Alexander’s father – Philip was very proud of him following his courage demonstrated during the Bucephalus incident.  His mother Olympia gave him the best of education through Aristotle and Nyphaeon.Following his father’s death, Alexander came to rule at the young age of 20 years.

  He ensured that all obstacles to the throne were removed.  The first war he had was to ensure a strong campaign in the north of Macedonia by progressing towards the Danube River.  During this period he put his foothold on Greece.He marched on to the city of Thebes and Athens and laid a very strong hold over there.  He soon set his eyes over Persia and managed to conquer it within a few months with 35000 Macedonian and 7500 Greek soldiers.  During this war, Alexander only lost 110 men.

  In this war, he clearly demonstrated the weakness of the Persian army.One of the main reasons for him to conquer Persia was to ensure revenge Persia for taking over several Greek cities.  He purposefully attacked the Persian Army during the day time and not during the cover of night, because he wanted them never again to raise an army against the Macedonians and the Greeks.The head of the Persian army was Darius.  As Alexander’s troops were destroying the Persian Army, Darius had no choice but to escape.  Alexander could now occupy the throne of Persia and Babylon.

  Soon Alexander had won the loyalty of the Persian aristocrat class and Persian governors, such that they considered him to be the King of Persia.Alexander even put down the old palace of the Persian emperors and build a new one to put Macedonia on the world map.  Alexander had a lot of concern for Darius.  He went in search of him for long and found him dead in his coach, killed by his own men.

Alexander killed these men in revenge and gave Darius a respectable funeral.  During his conquests, Alexander included architects, engineers, scientists and historians in his army.  As king of Persia, Alexander tried to adopt local culture to ensure that the people considered him as king and were happy with his rule.Alexander also introduced the city Alexandria, named after himself in Egypt.

  This is one of the most important cultural centers in the Mediterranean regions.  Alexander was the King of Egypt and following his visit to Amon-Ra, he was acknowledged as the son of the Egyptian God of the Sun.  He even went through the desert and was blessed with rain as a sign from the Sun God.In his visits to the Temple of Zeus Ammon, the temple priest proclaimed that Alexander was in fact the son of Amon-Ra and was destined to rule the world soon.Alexander had even more motivation to progress further and face stronger armies.

  He went on eastwards to conquer India and the region beyond the Hindukush mountains.  Alexander had a very big army and wanted it to be broken into two.  So he divided his army into two and gave each part to Hephaestion and Cleitus.However, Cleitus, put his army to a lot of hardships often taking longer routes through the mountains and ceasing significant amount of losses for the army.  Alexander had to hence put an end to Cleitus’s life.  He did not do so in a fit of rage.

Alexander managed to capture portions of India near the Indus River, but did not want to move forward considering that his army was very tired.  Alexander was once injured in India, and during this period had to take rest.  An Indian philosopher had strong talks about philosophy with Alexander.  He also felt that he should retrieve back and come to Macedonia.Alexander had great respect for the Macedonians and Greeks.  He gave a lot of importance to each ethnic group in his army.

  Many of the Macedonians officials may not like Alexander for his attitude and behavior towards them.However, I feel that not every human being is perfect and would have a deficiency in some way or the other.  Alexander was a great man and had due consideration for every Macedonian official.  He had given greater interest in doing big things and hence did not concentrate on the small thing of life, which are so important to us.The Army may have not liked him because he dressed as a Persian.

  However, Alexander had to do this in order to project himself more closely to the people of Persia.Even when dying Alexander spoke that only the strongest and the best could take over from his position, and he himself did not assign any heir to his throne.  Let us all pray for the wellbeing of this great emperor after his death.ReferencesMacedonia (2000). Alexander The Great, Retrieved on November 30, 2008 from Macedonia Website:http://faq.

macedonia.org/history/alexander.the.great.htmlPopovic, J. J.

(2002). Alexander The Great, Retrieved on November 30, 2008 from Massimo Aquila Website: http://1stmuse.com/frames/Unterekers, J. (1996). Alexander the Great, Retrieved on November 30, 2008 from WSO Website: http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/