Alexander, who was so brilliant, died at the hands of a mosquito

First, the genius of heaven

In 356 BC, Alexander (whose name is also rumored to be derived) was born in Pyrah, the capital of the Macedonian kingdom in northern Greece. Although there are many visions like the birth of the ancient Chinese emperors, the great emperors such as the common points of personality are the same, such as: energetic, physical strength, can fight with wild beasts, brave and fearless, agile, foot speed is almost comparable to the Olympic athletes, etc., so Arian's "Alexander's Crusade" praises Alexander: We have to wonder whether Alexander's birth has divine help?

Alexander wrestles with lions

The legend of Alexander can be said to be inseparable from three characters, the first is his father Philip II, Philip II is a war maniac, heroic, decisive and capable, all his life for the rise of Macedonia, a small country in the north of ancient Greece, it is not difficult to imagine that Alexander in such a father's ears, at a young age has extraordinary talents of ordinary people, perseverance and forbearance, at the age of 32 to conquer the world, the reason for this, can be seen. From this point of view, it is somewhat similar to the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who was also the "four major military geniuses in Europe" with Alexander. (The old Hannibal fought against the Romans all his life, and when Hannibal was very young, the elder Hannibal made his son kneel before him and made a solemn oath: he would be the enemy of the Romans all his life), the difference between the two is that Alexander established the first great empire in the history of the world to span three continents, and Hannibal, although he occupied almost the entire territory of the Roman Empire with the weak strength of Carthage, ultimately failed and died in a foreign land, so historians rank Alexander at the top of the "four military geniuses in Europe", so the same is true.

Hannibal led the Carthaginian legions to sneak across the Alps

The second figure is Aristotle, who influenced ancient Greece and europe as a whole for more than a thousand years, and in fact it is difficult to give Aristotle a clear identity, the physicist (the classical laws of physics he established were not broken until the Renaissance by a young scientist named Galileo galilei who ascended the Leaning Tower of Pisa)? Statesman? Biologist? But most of us call Aristotle the great philosopher of ancient Greece. Aristotle as Alexander's teacher, under his influence, Alexander was obsessed with the history of ancient Greece, myths and legends, the worship of heroes, the fanaticism of conquering the world, three events can be seen: 1. Alexander conquered Thebes, Athens and other northern city-states, the first stop of the crusade was the Troy recorded in Homer's epic. 2. After Alexander destroyed Persia, he collected 300 pairs of persian general's armor and sent them back to the Acropolis of Athens for the first time, in order to sacrifice Athena, the god of war, 3. Whenever Alexander heard that his father had conquered another land, he secretly suffered and sighed: So many territories have been conquered by my father, where can I conquer in the future? In addition, Aristotle also influenced Alexander's way of thinking, allowing him to develop a character that was essential for great men such as courage and perseverance, perseverance, flexion and stretching, and incomparable self-confidence.

The third figure is her mother, Olympias. This great mother will be mentioned later in this article. When Alexander was 12 years old, there was an untamed wild horse in the kingdom, and his father Philip II was rewarded, but still no one could tame it, and at this moment, Alexander stood up, facing this 12-year-old child, everyone was incredible, even Philip II was a little mocking Alexander's inadequacy, and Alexander calmly walked to the horse farm, gently stroked the horse's back, muttered to himself, as if communicating with the horse, and then jumped, rode the horse to dust, leaving a stunned crowd. His father, Philip II, wept and said, "Go to the other kingdoms, Macedonia is too small." The English translation is like this, lacking a lot of charm, if it is Chinese, it should be: you are in Macedonia, such as the dragon swimming shoals? Our water is too shallow to raise you as a true dragon, right?

Second, use challenges to build a strong foundation

In 340 BC, when Alexander was 16 years old, his father Philip II set out to conquer Byzantium, and it should be noted here that Byzantium at this time was not yet the capital of the later Eastern Roman Empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire was established in 476 AD, eight hundred years away, and Byzantium at this time was only a city-state in Asia Minor, that is, the city of Istanbul in present-day Turkey. As a result of Philip II's expedition, the southern city-states of Athens, Thebes, sparta, etc., which were subject to Macedonia, began to riot and broke out in large-scale wars against Macedonia. Macedonia under the leadership of Queen Olympias, that is, Alexander's mother, organized the army to suppress, in the two armies against the Battle of Caronia, Alexander, as the commander-in-chief of the left wing of the coalition army, took the initiative to break away from the battle, long distance interspersed, detoured, found the gap between the enemy forces, decisive attack, completely annihilated the strongest team in Greece - the Holy Team of Thebes, and won the victory of defending Zhang, this battle, Alexander's genius appeared undoubtedly, and he was famous throughout Greece, at this time, Alexander was only 16 years old.

Before Alexander could wake up from the joy of victory, Alexander was belittled for taunting his father Philip II, and of course the biggest reason during this period was the struggle for the throne. Alexander came to his grandfather's city-state with his mother Olympias, during this period, Alexander who fell from the clouds to the bottom of the valley experienced what kind of mental journey we do not know, the great mother Olympias did to her son what kind of work is also not recorded in history, but the open repentance, respect, inner growth and progress is certainly indispensable, their mother and son are lurking standby.

In 336 BC, the year after Alexander's expulsion, Philip II was assassinated at his daughter's wedding, although Philip II's death was suspicious, and even the Persians accused Alexander of killing his father, of course, the Persian action became one of the reasons for Alexander's subsequent destruction of Persia. But the end result was still that he ascended the throne with the support of his mother Olympiacos and his great minister Antipat, and in order to ensure the firmness of the throne, it seems that this is the case in ancient and modern China and abroad, Alexander and his mother killed all the legitimate heirs to the throne, and Olympias even killed his own daughter with his own hands, so that Alexander became the only sound and legal heir to the throne in Macedonia. From a political point of view, Alexander for the stability of the kingdom, for the stability of his own rule, is beyond reproach, as Machiavelli said, politics itself has no so-called morality. During the 11-year-long Crusade that followed, there was not even a single large-scale rebellion in Macedonia. But from the perspective of human nature, Alexander's thunderous means also laid the groundwork for his untimely death, so that his death became a mystery for eternity.

Iii. Expedition to Persia

After conquering all of Greece, Alexander turned his vision to the east, northern Europe was still a wild land at this time, three of the four ancient peoples of Europe were still struggling to move forward in this land, only to the east, where there was the world's first civilization, the two river valley civilizations, with the world's largest and richest city at that time, the capital of ancient Babylon - Susa, with the world's earliest military empire - Sumerian Empire, with the world's earliest writing, the earliest library, The earliest astronomical records and so on. The south is also an ancient civilization - Egypt.

Here, it is necessary to add to the question of the relations between Macedonia and ancient Greece. Alexander promoted Greek culture throughout his life, and later historians often mention the important influence of Alexander's Crusade on cultural exchange between the East and the West. However, the ancient Greek land has Athens, Sparta, Thebes and other city-states, and we often see that the introduction of Macedonia is the small country of Macedonia in northern Greece, so many people are very confused about what kind of relationship between these people. In short, the relationship between these can be seen as the relationship between Huaxia and the Qin and Qi states in the Warring States period. At first, Macedonia was far behind Athens, Sparta and other city-states in terms of economy, culture and politics and military, but after two Greek-Persian wars, as well as the ancient Greek civil war - the Battle of peloponnesia, all the hundreds of city-states in ancient Greece were seriously injured, and finally gave Macedonia the opportunity of this small country, as early as the reign of Philip II, he had realized that this was a good opportunity for the rise of Macedonia, so he secretly developed, worked hard, practiced day and night, under the administration of Philip II. Macedonia quickly rose from a small state to a great power in the Aegean region, so much so that it later occupied most of the city-states of ancient Greece.

For Alexander, who was deeply influenced by ancient Greek culture, or for the entire people of the ancient Greek city-states, the trauma of the Greek-Persian war was extremely serious, and Greece's hatred of Persia became the main focus of the conflict between the two rivers civilization and the Aegean civilization, and Alexander's crusade was a good use of this, which his father could not match.

In 334 BC, with the slogan "Avenge his father, shame for Greece, and liberate the Greek city-states of Asia Minor", Alexander gathered 12,000 infantry, 1,500 cavalry, and 160 warships on an expedition to Persia. Their first stop was Asia Minor, Troy in the eastern Mediterranean, and of course it was his mother who remained in Macedonia. Due to the emptiness of the treasury, Alexander brought only 30 days of grain and grass. Coming to the eastern Mediterranean, Alexander found that the Greeks here had long been accustomed to Persian rule and did not want to be "liberated", but at this time Alexander was eager to replenish, and could only force war, and to fight quickly. Persia had three governors in Asia Minor, and it was precisely because they saw this in Alexander that they hoped to implement a scorched-earth policy, but the Persian king Darius, reluctant to grant his possessions in the three eastern Mediterranean provinces, failed to grant their advice. But despite this, the three Persian governors still had an absolute advantage in military numbers, and the three persian governors had 40,000 Greek-Polish troops (20,000 Persian cavalry, 20,000 Greek mercenary infantry, and the Greek army was a bit of cannon fodder), and Persia had the strongest navy in the world, which Alexander was ashamed of. And in the eyes of the Persian army, Alexander's expedition was exhausted and unstable, and the war was not won or lost. But Persia obviously underestimated Alexander's military ability, his army in the father Philip II was already very strong combat literacy, and Alexander himself was brave and fearless, can be described as "the first Batulu in the Western world", and the military quality compared with the Persian general, is already a dimensionality reduction blow, the end of the war, the balance of victory soon tilted like Macedonia, in the Granicus Armageddon that decided the three provinces of Asia Minor, although Alexander's helmet was cut in half, However, in the end, the war was won in the fastest time, and the three governors of Persia were also beheaded by Alexander in the war. After the war, Alexander executed most of the Greeks who had worked for Persia, sent the remaining small number of the old, sick and disabled back to Greece as slaves, and selected 300 pairs of Persian generals' armor to send back to the Acropolis of Athens for sacrifice to Athena, the goddess of war. From this moment on, the Persians were also slowly beginning to taste the fear of alexander, the "god of death" of the people of the Aegean region, and this was only the beginning, and their nightmare had only just begun.

Judging from the slogan of the Crusades, Alexander's goal is to completely solve Persia, his goal is to directly destroy the Persian nest capital of Persiapolis, but in the battle between Asia Minor and Persia, Alexander found that the Persian navy is by no means a waste of time, if you go directly to the east regardless of the disregard, the Macedonian legion will have to worry about the future, and the Persian navy in the Mediterranean can reach the Greek mainland in a very short time, which Alexander is not willing to face, but the strength of the Persian navy makes Alexander really feel "pressure mountain". So he thought of taking a method, along the eastern Mediterranean land, all the persian ports and warship bases were destroyed, so that all the countries in the Middle East were hit by pond fish, from Syria to Palestine, in the south of the two river valleys, and finally to Egypt, Alexander's army was invincible, in the first decisive battle between Suis and the Persian king, the Persian king completely annihilated 600,000 troops, the Persian king fled into the wilderness, his mother, sister, and queen became Alexander's captives, the name shook the two rivers, and when they arrived in Egypt, Stunned without a single soldier, Egypt automatically hung a white flag, the brazen Egyptian king even named Alexander as the Egyptian pharaoh, the son of the sun god Amun, this trip, Alexander's legion was greatly replenished, along the way the conquered areas were also successively sworn in allegiance, it is worth mentioning that the city of Alexandria, built at the mouth of the Nile, became one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the world at that time, like this, there are more than twenty cities.

Fourth, the decisive battle against Persia and the conquest of India

After completely solving his worries, Alexander turned back to the north, continued the crusade, and once again fought a decisive battle with the Persian army claiming 1 million in the Battle of Gaugamela, of course, this number is extremely exaggerated, but from various historical sources, at least 100,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry are still there, and there are 15 war elephants used for the first time in the history of the world, but this number is unprecedented in the entire Western world. In this war. The Persian king Darius once again fled from the battlefield, the troops were defeated and lost, Alexander this time did not want to give Persia a chance to breathe, ordered a rapid march to pursue the remnants of the enemy, the Persian upper echelons feared that Darius surrendered, they assassinated Darius, just when Alexander thought that the Persian kingdom was completely solved, he fell into the quagmire of Persian guerrilla forces, and it took nearly half a year to completely solve the Persian remnants.

Alexander fought the Persian army

After three battles with the Persian army, Alexander completely changed the perception of the Persians as barbarians, which had immeasurable effect on spreading The culture of the East and the West and promoting the exchange of culture, although these exchanges were more bloody.

The conquest of Persia, Alexander took three years, but at this time Alexander was also a young man in his early twenties, but his name had already resounded throughout the Western world, but this obviously could not satisfy the male lion's desire to conquer, he led his legion to continue to the east, in the Battle of Haidaspes in the Indus Valley, the Indian problem was solved in World War I, and captured the Indian king Bora, but Alexander admired The bravery of Bosra, and at the same time in order to gain local support, he comforted him and let him continue to serve as the king of India. Although Two of Bosrah's sons, one grandson, were killed in battle, Bosrah was so moved that he was impressed by Alexander's charisma and declared his eternal allegiance to Alexander.

At this point, the easternmost footprint of Alexander's army has been close to the Onion Ridge (today's Pamir Plateau region), and further east is the territory of China, if history can be assumed, Alexander further east, may encounter the Chinese god of war White, Macedonia became China's "Warring States Eight Heroes" may also be possible.

Jokes aside, at this time Alexander had to consider the problem of returning to the division, because his soldiers followed him on the crusade, had not returned home for nearly ten years, and had war-weary emotions, Alexander was great, and then genius, the emotions of many soldiers he had to carefully consider. So the strongest fighting corps in the Western world embarked on the way home. Along the way, Alexander also solved the problem of rebellion in the conquered areas, and at the same time sent emissaries to carry out numerous expeditions to find out the inlet of the Indus River, explore whether the Caspian Sea was a sea or a lake, search for the Persian Gulf, draw nautical maps, and learn from the experience of Persian naval construction.

Fifth, he died young, but left infinite wealth to the world

When passing through ancient Babylon, Alexander was deeply impressed by the civilization of this ancient civilization, he secretly decided to build the new imperial capital in Babylon, he reorganized the army in Babylon, as a military genius of great talent, outstanding politician, there are too many places where he can learn from and improve on this crusade, and it has completely changed the short-sighted concept that only Greeks are civilized, and the rest of the region is barbarians, and he is also planning to merge the eastern and western parts of the empire into a three continents. In Babylon, Alexander held the grand "East-West Joint Banquet" in Babylon, a great empire compatible with the common kingdom of The Persian nation of Different Civilizations, at which 5,000 Greek soldiers married Asian women, at which time Alexander's prestige reached its peak with the empire he had built. He was thrilled with the unprecedented feats he had built for himself, he was extremely proud to have the support of the peoples of the East and the West, and at the same time he admired the extraordinary civilization of ancient Babylon, and he stood in front of the ruins of the tower of Babel, once the landmark of Babylon, muttering, perhaps he was planning how to build a great capital that had never been seen before, or perhaps he was thinking about how to conquer Arabia in the south, perhaps. But just as the great genius was muttering to himself, something unfortunate happened, he was bitten by a mosquito, and even more unfortunately, the mosquito suffered from fever (malaria), which was hopeless at the time, unless Comrade Tu Youyou sent her a pair of artemisinin, and perhaps there was a glimmer of life. But history cannot be assumed, from the onset of illness to death, heaven only left ten days for this genius who had never been defeated in the southern conquest and northern war in his life, but was only 32 years old. Fate was so unfair, so short that he did not even return to his native Macedonia, and what was even worse, when ministers gathered around him to ask for heirs, he left only a vague decision: let the strongest one inherit the throne. It is a pity that this decision caused the great empire that the greatest military commander in European history spent 11 years to build fall apart in a short period of time.

It seems that great figures will fall behind on the issue of heirs, such as Qin Shi Huang, Tang Taizong, and Kangxi Emperor; Many historians are trying their best to explore the question of Alexander's heir, his way of governing the army, his far-reaching influence on the East and the West, and the cause of his death. Or did his teacher, Aristotle, poison his students with his own hands? Or did his moody personality kill him? Or some other secret that is not known? Many puzzles have drifted away with the wind of history.

Reference works:

Ancient Greece, Arian's Expedition of Alexander;

Ancient Rome, Plutarch's Alexander of Greco-Roman Celebrities

Britain, Fuller, "Alexander's General and The Way"

CCTV "100 Episodes of World History"

Author: Gongqu Old Farmer, post-90s, high school history teacher, graduate student of history, and lover of historical figures.