Lost In Beauty-

Monday, February 12, 2007

hey check this out! It's pretty cool.
P.s you don't have to read this but i have to read it anw and i thought it was quite interesting haha. miss van rooyen's really cool.
What you need to know about Alexander the Great
Born: 20 July 356 BC
Like all Macedonians, alex liked his liquor, which fuelled his ourbursts of rage.
What he longed for more than anything was to be remembered with glory and valour(seems to be what everybody in the olden times wanted.eg Achilles)
Alex was very mature for his age and is said to have impressed foreign envoys more than his father Philip would have, this at the age of 6.(so young la. haha.)
His folks only wanted the best for their son. They hired Aristotle from Athens to tutor Alex.
The teachings of Aristotle came in very handy during the later years.
Alex and Aristotle had a disagreement (big nasty argument and never spoke again) about foreigners.
Aristotle saw them as barbarians; Alex sought to merge the people in one nation without tyranny and oppressions. *who is the real philosopher?(strangely enough, the student is right this time. haha.)
Alex had huge "father" issues(ooh. attitude mann. haha.) and favoured his mother better(momma's boy). they still acknowledeged eache other but had very little common interests.
philip(his father) was murdered and alex became king *convienient? (very.)
Alex then went hog-wild in Asia for 11 years using his dads extremely well trained, hihgly skilled, elite fighting machine(the Macedonian Army) to go crazy in Asia.
Philip had dedicated most of his life to the development and polishing of his army and their fighting tactics. He made military duty a full time option with pay.(quite cool. i wouldn't mind doing that. haha.)So guys could stand around all day, every day throwing spears, drinking and playing war games...men(haha.)
After alex became kind at the age of 20(super young la) the little people thought they could push him around and all over his kingdom skirmishes broke out.
alex quickly put them in their place and separated the men from the boys.(not literally.) he stormed Thebes, killing almost everyone in sight, woman and children. the rest of greece quickly rethought their decision to abandon alex(woohoo!)
alex wasn't crazy but he wasn't well either. he believed he was invincible, godlike. A descendent from hercules. he was blessed with lucky omens and prophets from oracles that fuelled his ideals. he saw himself as a saviour sent to rid the world of tyranny and oppression. and he wanted revenge on persia because they really hurt greece. oh and he really really wanted to see the sea.(sounds like some psycho if you ask me. but he still managed to become Alexander the Great so i guess being a bit crazy pays off. haha.)
King Darius(the king of the Persians) led the persian army. alex spent a long time pursuing darius and his army. before final battle alex's army had spotted the persian camp during the night. alex refused to use the cover of night and catch the persians unawares. he wanted to face Darius man-to-man, army-to-army and prove he was the best on equal terms.(obviously believes in a fare fight) Obviously alex crushed the persians. While on the run, dariuys was assassinated by his own men. Alex was so furious with the assassins he executed them and gave Darius a royal burial.(he was really wierd.)
alex suffered from prarnoia. The rumours that his friends were plotting to assassinate him didn't help. Alex tortured and executed his friend, Phiotas, the leader of the conspiracy(so poor thing la.oh and for those people who don't know what conspiracy means[like me] it is:to be in harmony)
alex then hit the bottle in a big way(again not literally) and after a night of heavy drinking. alex and a very good mate of his. Cleitus got into a nasty argument. Alex was furious,(and drunk) and decided to teach Cleitus a lesson and ran him through with a spear. (if he carries on like this he's not going to have any friends left man.) the Macedonians were not happy. They were a little worried about alex and his anger management issues(i would be too if i were them)
Luckily, ALEX HAD CHARISMA. and soon the macedonians were back in the game.
alex perused his mission to liberate the world and unite the nations creating training programs to teach the greeks and persians about each other's cultures. His troops were not happy. Alex then adopted the persian way of dress rather than the macedonian, he married a persian dancer and then took one of Darius's daughters as a second bride in an attempt to unite Greeks and Persians...his troops were REALLY not happy.
but ALEX HAD CHARISMA...
and led his troops through Egypt, and India. In India, he was badly wounded and his favourite horse was killed in battle. Alex decided to head for home.
at Susa, Alex decided to further his mission to assimilate Macedonian and Persain cultures and arranged thousands of marriages between the Greek soldeirs and Persian women...his troops were very happy with him...(haha. again MEN...)
At their stop over in Babylon, things turned bad. There were many evil omens that Alex was no longer the chosen one, omens such as:
His best lion being kicked to death by an ass..(it's pretty hilarious if you think about it. haha.)
a man with a deformed liver being sacrificed in the king's honour(gross gross gross.)
Ravens fighting over the city wall with some falling dead right in front of him.
there are many theories about how alex died. some say he was poisoned, some that he died of fever(which must have been a really bad fever since he was so great). What we DO know is after several nights of serious drinking and partying alex fell ill.(tsk tsk). His condition deteriorated. Alexander the Great died at the age of 33 on June 10, 323BC( a really long time ago. haha.)

WELL, that's it. it must be the longest post i've typed so far. haha. but it's pretty interesting hey? haha. i put in some of my own comments to make it more interesting. haha.
but that was from a handout by my history teacher miss Van Rooyen. haha. we watched Troy today during the history period and saw how Achilles(brad pitt) died so majestically. haha. not really la. hahaha. but it was a good movie and miss Van Rooyen was like making it funny. haha.
anw,ENJOY!

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