Alexander the Great: Hero or Villain?

Hero Villain
In Thebes - Unified all of Greece by - Brutally stopped Theban
stopping rebellion fight for independence

- Showed compassion - Killed 6,000 Thebans, sold

toward some Theban 20,000 into slavery,
citizens and priests destroyed the entire city

In Egypt - Enthroned as a king - Only founded the site for

- Founded Alexandria, a
great center for learning and
Greek/Near East culture
Alexandria, did not help it
grow and rise in power
- Excluded Egyptians role in
the city’s development

In Persia - Defeated the Persian army - Military campaign was

at Issus and conquered the brutal and it didn’t matter
empire how many men died

- Respected native people, - Destroyed and burned

religious tolerance, and Persepolis, the Persian
appointed Persian governors capital to the ground

In India - Defeated king Porus - Spent three years killing

- Questioned Indian holy
men to learn about
Hinduism and culture
men and selling women and
children into slavery
- Finally his own troops
demanded they return home

What do you think, was Alexander the Great a hero or a villain? In the space below,
please write 4-5 complete sentences about this topic. Be sure to pick a side and use the
information above to explain why you chose that answer.
 Macedonia

After the Peloponnesian War, Sparta and Athens continued to fight each other. Nearby in
Macedonia, King Philip II was paying attention and dreamed of controlling Greece.
Then he dreamed of moving through Persia and taking its wealth and power.

Background:
- Lots of mountains and a cold climate
- Lived in mountain villages rather than city-states
- Thought of themselves as Greeks
- Greeks looked down on them and considered them uncivilized

Army:
- Well-trained and professional army
- Used phalanxes that were 16 men across and 16 deep
- Used 18-foot pikes to page the way for cavalry strikes through enemy lines

Conquering Greece:
- Demosthenes tried to warn the Greeks of an attack by Philip and his army
- Finally, Athens and Thebes joined together to stop him, but it was too late
- The Macedonians defeated the Greeks at the battle of Chaeronea

Fall of Philip II:

- At his daughter’s wedding, a former guardsman stabbed Philip II to death
- Philip II’s son, Alexander, immediately declared himself king of Macedonia
- Alexander later became known as Alexander the Great

Hellenistic Culture

Greek culture blended with Egyptian, Persian, and Indian influences

Alexandria
- Became the foremost center of commerce and Hellenistic civilization
- Became an international community
- Had a rich mixture of customs and traditions from Egypt and the Aegean
- The center of scholarship shifted here from Athens
- Main areas of dominance were astronomy, math, physics, philosophy, and art