Alexander_the_Great

Alexander the Great Background and early career influences – Olympia’s – She was proud, intelligent and ambitious. Plutarch describes her as “A women of jealousy and vindictive temper who incited Alexander to oppose his father’ Olympia’s was obsessed with her son and his eventual success of becoming The King of Macedonia. Her influence was considerable. She spoilt him and boosted his confidence. Phillip – King of Macedonia, had recently rebuilt the Macedonian state and promoted it to a leading position within the Balkan peninsula, both politically and militarily. Alexander represented Phillips hopes to extend and develop that power. Leonidus ( First Tutor) – Served discipline and taught him how to be physically fit, through a Spartan upbringing. Through Leonidus he gained the power of endurance, fighting skills and he learnt to be frugal. Lysichmachus (Second Tutor) – Furthered Alexanders education by teaching him creative arts. Some of these included, music, literacy skills, swordsmanship, javelin and archery. Peter Green asserts that Alexander loved all of these things all of his life. Aristotle (Final Tutor) – Taught Alexander from the ages of 13 – 16, He encouraged Alexander to seek glory at the expense of the barbarian (ethno centric attitude) He also taught Alexander to despise the Persians. Green argues the Alexander valued self control, he gave away booty and he ate sparingly. He taught him to hero worship the Greeks. Aristotles philosophy dealt with experiment and observation. As they were the only proper basis for scientific advancement. Alexander absorbed his curiosity and began to study the following subjects – zoology, botany, surveying, medicine and biology. The Persian Wars. Themistocles and the Persian Wars – He was an Athenian statesman and general. He strove for greatness in action and longed to distinguish himself from others both politically and militarily. When Xerxes invaded Greece (480 BC) the Athenians were sent to Delphi to seek guidance from the Oracle. There was much argument regarding the Oracles decision to defend themselves with “wooden walls”. However, Themistocles insisted that this was the best decision and interpreted them to be the ships of the navy. While the Spartans attempted to hold the pass at Thermopylae, a fleet of 300 ships, 200 of which were Athenian aimed to stem the advance of the Persian Navy at Artemisium. Although the Greeks were outnumbered, the narrow straights worked to their advantage and the battle ended in a draw. Concerned that the Greeks would be surrounded they withdrew to Salamis. When Themistocles left Artimisium he had an inscription carved on the beach where he assumed the Persians would land, urging the Greeks from Ionia to change sides. Even if none of them did so Themistocles calculated, the Persians would still be suspicious that some of the Greeks might defect and might not deploy them as efficiently as they might otherwise do. As Athens was assumed to be Xerxes main target all the occupants evacuated the city to the island of Salamis. Xerxes burnt Athens to the grounds killing all those who were left behind. Worried that the Greek states might retreat due to this, Themistocles sent a slave to Xerxes and told him that this might happen, pointing out that if this did happen the Persians would get bogged down in a long drawn – out war. Xerxes believed Themistocles advice was sincere and attacked the next day. Again the Persian outnumbered the Greeks but were unable to take advantage of that because of the narrow straits they were fighting in. Although the Greeks won the Persians still had a huge army in Greece. Themistocles tricked Xerxes again by sending the same slave with a message that the Greeks were going to burn down the bridge they built in Hellespont and trap their army in Greece. Xerxes hurried home. It was generally agreed that Themistocles was the saviour of Greece and he was given the prize of intelligence.