The
Confessions of Alexander the Great: 33 Lessons
in Greatness
“I should be
glad, Onesicritus, to come back to life
for a little while after my death to discover
how men read these present events then.
If now they praise and welcome them do not
be surprised; they think, every one of them,
that this is a fine bait to catch my goodwill.”
Alexander The Great
I was born on July 20th,
356 BC in Pella, Macedonia. On the very
same day, one of the Seven Wonders of the
World, the temple of Artemis, burned down.
For the past twenty-four
hundred years, I have wondered what my legacy
would be. After all, between 356 BC and
up to my untimely death in 323 BC –
one month shy of my thirty-third birthday
– I traveled the known world, from
modern day Greece, to Egypt, then to Iran
and India only to see my life being taken
away from me in Babylon.
I
traveled twenty-two thousand miles in twelve
years and lived a Great life as soldier
and commander.
Of course, back in the day, Iran was Persia
– the dominant empire before my era
– the one that had scorched much of
Ancient Greece in the 6th century BC during
King Xerxes rule. For this reason, you can
imagine that Greeks were fairly peeved,
sought to avenge revenge and inflict much
pain to the Persians.
But before doing this,
there were some internal matters to address.
Which takes us to my father, Philip, who
was incidentally also King of Macedonia
and de facto ruler of Ancient Greece.
I wasn’t your ordinary
rich, spoiled child mind you. I was certainly
not handed anything on a silver platter.
Prophetically, my father told me: “If
you have many competitors for the kindgom,
prove yourself honorable and good, so that
you may obtain the kingdom not because of
me, but because of yourself.”
I listened and I prevailed.
But had it not been for
some divine intervention, shrewdness, determination,
persistence and considerable brutality,
I might have been a mere asterix in history
books. Instead, I am remembered as the greatest
military commander of all time and the greatest
secular figure in history.
Continue
>>
|
