اسکندر مقدونی: فاتح جهان

Signature Lives

by Michael Burgan, شیوا مقانلو (Translator)

پدر اسکندر شاه فیلیپ دوم و مادرش ملکه المپیاس هر دو در خاندان‌های سلطنتی به دنیا آمده بودند. بر طبق برخی افسانه‌ها که اسکندر هم باورشان داشت، نسب اجداد پدری اسکندر به هرکول قهرمان باستانی یونان می‌رسید. این قصه‌ها همگی عظمت از پیش معلوم اسکندر را نشان می‌دهد. وقتی مادرش او را باردار بود، در خواب غرش تندر شنید و دید که آذرخشی رحمش را شکافت. این آذرخش آتشی برافروخت که تا دوردست‌ها دامن کشید. رؤیای او حاکی از آن بود که نوزادی که المپیاس حمل می‌کند، همان‌قدر خیره‌کننده و مخرب خواهد بود که نور و آتش تندر. در روز تولد اسکندر که به احتمال زیاد بیستم ژوئیه سال ۳۵۶ قبل از میلاد اتفاق افتاده، نشانه‌های بیشتری از موفقیت‌های آتی او نمایان می‌شود. جنگ‌ها و فتوحات، و در نهایت و به گفته پلوتارک، مورخ باستانی، پیشگویان گفته بودند تولد اسکندر با سه پیروزی قرین بوده که همگی نشانه شکست ناپذیری او خواهد بود. در ۲۵۰۰ سال پیش در یونان باستان دگرگونی‌های فرهنگی و سیاسی رخ داد و این کشور وارد عصر طلایی تاریخ خود شد که طی آن بنیان دموکراسی و سرچشمه‌های پژوهش دانشگاهی شکل گرفت.

Genres: Biography

110 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2006

Reviews

[Reagan Faith Waggoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

My boy, you must find a kingdom big enough for your ambitions. Macedonia is too small for you. -King Philip III about Alexander the Great

My notes as I read this biography.. interesting that most info comes from Plutarch, other historians from several centuries later.

Grew up son of a religious fanatic of Greek religion; her name was Olympics. Educated well in all things, most famous stint under Aristotle in school for 50 boys of Macedonian nobility.

Attalus = uncle of Phillips new wife Cleopatra, toast to that new wife would bear a better son than Alexander, drunken argument, Alexander and Olympia fled. Pausanias charged Phillip and rumors Alexander and his mother were even involved.

Olympiad had Philip’s wife Cleopatra and their infant son killed; Alexander ordered killing of Attalus.

Squashed rebellions after father’s death
Brutally attacked Thebes after they refused to turn over leaders of rebellion

Let conquered areas maintain democracy to take care of local affairs to keep them in check.

Did not return Darius family but did treat them with respect, used avengement as excuse

Alexadrus named after him but known as great library, lighthouse
Actively engaged in construction but not engineer or architect, never saw it finished.

Began to call him son of Zeus
Small man
Compassionate at times? Tortured war people?

Darius died they were still in pursuit of him


Began acting more Persian

Alexander and Roxane - most beautiful woman except Darius wife and daughter of a local commander

Argued with Cleitus about his power as king. Cleitus had saved his life numerous times. He killed Cleitus with a spear then filled with regret - tried to kill himself. Wept and fasted.

Several plots to kill hom

Enemy used elephants
Let Porus keep land because he respected him.

Officer Coenus - Sir, if there is one thing above all others a successful man should know, it is when to stop.”


Angry but men wouldn’t change mind. Marked a spot with 12 alters furthest point they made it in Asia.

Arranged a mass wedding, 92 leading officers married Persian royal women.

Lots of drinking and anger.
Fell ill after a celebration and died in Egypt. Buried in Memphis then buried in Alexandria.

Said the next successor was to be left “to the strongest”

Split among generals

[Alex Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alexander the Great: World Conqueror chronicled Alexander's life really well (I like this book almost as much as the Andrew Carnegie biography). Readers get a true feeling for the good and evil person of Alexander through this book. He often committed gracious acts such as keeping the royal family of places he conquered alive and letting them rule. He often allowed people that he conquered to continue practicing their own religion. However, his good nature was sometimes tainted by sin. For example, he sometimes had his top generals executed if there was even a small hint of treason. He let his men plunder cities, killing women and children. The author does an amazing job properly balancing these two sides of Alexander by showing his two personalties pretty equally throughout the book. Burgan also does a wonderful job illustrating how Alexander viewed himself. Alexander was extremely arrogant, as seen by his belief that he was descended from gods. The author makes it clear that Alexander connected himself to Hercules through blood and thus to Zeus (Hercules' father), the king of the gods. One of my favorite parts of this is how the author subtly hints at Alexander's changing mindset throughout his life. Before conquering so much land, Alexander believed he was only distantly connected to the gods because his family was royalty on both of his parents sides. However, as he completes his conquest and takes over new lands, he begins to believe that Zeus was his real father. This wonderfully and cleverly displays how Alexander changes his mindset. Perhaps my favorite part of the book was the fact that it included information that the biography of Carnegie lacked - specifics. This book provided a detailed account of just how Alexander conquered much of the known world at that time. His march from Troy to Persia to the edge of India is riddled with details including how he made each military decision, what each decision was, the outcomes of significant battles and what he did after these battles. This was very interesting to me, as I am not well informed about military matters.

The only suggestion I would make to increase the effectiveness of this book would be to include more about Alexander's early life and personal life. Much of the book was filled with his military campaign, which was a big part of his life. However, if the author had made the book a bit longer and included just a little more about how Alexander was raised and how his relationships developed, the book would have been even better. However, I still give it a 5 star rating because it effectively chronicled the most important part of Alexander's life, using specific details. So, if you want to read about how Alexander nearly conquered the entire known world (which I did) then this book is for you. However, if you would like to discover more about the life of Alexander the Great, I would suggest trying another book.

[Michelle Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy to read history on Alexander the Great. Good for a broad idea of his life.