Alexander the Great Biographies

In class MG we have been working on autobiographies and biographies and thought we would share some of our biographies on Alexander the Great. We hope you enjoy reading them. We would like to ask our friends in Class P6 at Kafuro to consider which famous people in Uganda’s history are worthy of a biography? Could they tell us who they are?

Alexander the Great

A biography about his greatness

 Not many people know what it is like to be called great. I think you have already guessed from the small amount of people which one is going to be the subject. Yes, Alexander the III of Macedonian or more commonly known as Alexander the Great. He was and is called that not only because of the scale of the land he conquered but also the speed in which he did it.

 In July 356BC Alexander the Great was born into the care of no less than Philip the II of Macedonia and his wonderful wife, Olympias. He was destined to become king of Macedonia so he needed a good education, the man who taught him was… The philosopher Aristotle! Aristotle was undoubtedly the cleverest man of his day. It was him that taught him all he needed to be king and also started his love of poetry.

Alexander’s reign of Macedonia started at the age of nineteen when his father, Philip the II, was murdered. He quickly noticed he had enemies and wiped them out as soon as he could. Then he started his job as king. His first battle was the battle of Gaugamela (now northern Iraq) which he decisively won against the Persians led by Darius II. This victory probably spurred him on to do all the battles, and of course all the winning.

All the victories started to make Alexander the great think he was a god and he often stayed up all night drinking lots of alcohol. This led him to do some stupid things he wished he hadn’t done when he was sober again. Two of these things are once striking down an old friend, and setting fire to a whole city.

Alexander had at least two wives. One of them was a woman called Roxana. They married in the city of Bactria and had one child called Alexander the IV. However, he was killed before he reached adult hood and was born after Alexander the Great died. Alexander’s best friend was a man called Hephaestion, he was a Macedonian nobleman and part of Alexander the great’s bodyguards.

Alexander the Great may have led a heroic life, but was his death heroic? Well, no he died of a fever staying in Babylon, aged 32. When he died his empire, the biggest Greek empire ever, collapsed.

Overall Alexander the Great was a military genius, a great soldier and leader, but most of all a hero to Greece.

By Thomas Gosney

Alexander the Great

Alexander was born July the 20th 356Bc. His father Philip died when Alexander was only 20 years Alexander became king in 337Bc .He was very upset that his father died but very surprised because he had become King.

When he was younger his teacher was Aristotle . Alexander loved doing poetry .Alexander had a very good imagination, in later life he was trying to make his dreams of a splendid and glorious Greek empire come true.

He grew a big empire and defeated Darius 111 in 333Bc then he was named Alexander the great. The soldiers were expected to carry their own weapons and bags including bedding.

He also invaded Persian territory in 334Bc and then pressed on through Asia Minor,  then south and east to Egypt , Afghanistan and India.

He had a fierce pride but he wasn’t always known as good. Once he was drunk he set fire to the city of Persepolis

He was married to a woman called Roxanne, she was pregnant when Alexander died.

By Rebecca Sedgewick

Alexander The Great’s Biography

Just imagine being so successful at what you do that you become known throughout history as being great.  Well that is exactly what happened to Alexander III of Macedonia – a king of Ancient Greece from 336BC to 323BC – who created a huge empire and was undefeated in battle.

Alexander was 20 years old when his father Phillip II of Macedonia was murdered by one of his bodyguards, Pausanias of Orestis, at the wedding of Phillip’s daughter, Cleopatra.  Alexander was taught by Aristotle.  He was taught sword fighting, horse riding, and poetry, which he grew up to love.

When Alexander became king he realised that he was surrounded by enemies.  Alexander was a military genius so he immediately went to battle with many countries, the first being the Archaemenid empire.  In the next ten years, he overcame more empires, most notably the Persian empire, overthrowing Darius III.

It wasn’t all successful though.  In 326BC Alexander invaded India, but was forced to turn back by his troops.  He died in Babylon in 323BC at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II after developing a fever.  There are many varied reports of how this came to happen.

Although Alexander married a number of times, he had no legitimate heir at the time of his death, his current wife, Roxane, being pregnant with their child at the time.  Apparently, on his deathbed, he requested his succession be offered “to the strongest”.  Eventually, after much argument, Alexander’s half brother,  Phillip Arrhidaeus, and Alexander’s son, Alexander IV, were named joint kings.

Alexander’s success on the battlefield and his ever expanding empire, became legendary, and he became the stuff of legends and myths as well as in reality founding the basis of many further empires (such as the Byzantium empire) and his name lives on in the more than twenty cities that carry his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt.

Written by Ollie Frost

      Alexander The Great

Can you imagine doing something so great that you were named after it? Have you imagined ruling 2-3 country all in one go? Well that was exactly what happened to Alexander the great! Alexander accomplished things that anyone else can only dream of, because, feet stamping, he led his powerful army through many battles, all of witch he won!

Alexander the great was born in 356bc his mum was called Olympias. At that time Philip II (his dad) was powerfully ruling Macedonia. As Alexander grew up, he trained a horse called Bucephales, and his father became very pleased with him for doing that. The meaning for his horses name was ox head. He named  it knowing this because his horses head did look like an ox head. And his horses fear was his own shadow!

Alexander the great had many loved siblings, five in total but only one shared the same mother and father. The other 4 were from His Mothers and Fathers previous marriages.

Alexander came to the throne in 337bc when he was only twenty! This  was caused  by his fathers death. Philip the second was murdered by Pausanias. It was a grave consequence that it happened at all. Then, he married 3 times but the one that Is remembered most today is Roxanna.

When Alexander the great came to the throne he wasted no time. He gathered an huge army together and started his long and tiring journey across many countries – though he did not know it then.  He went to Persia, and won the battle in 334bc. Alexander was handsome, and stronger, and braver than any of his solders. He then had control of Asia Minor. Soon after that he won the battle of Issus and was crowned king of Egypt, but was still not satisfied. Would you be satisfied if you were king? 450 people died in the battle of issus, which was in 333bc.

He conquered Persia and then marched his huge army down the African coast, into Egypt and created the great city of Alexandria. He drove his army onwards into India but his army rejected and shouted that they wanted to return back home. When Alexander finally agreed, they did go back home and found Alexander’s wife Roxanna pregnant!

Soon after Alexander caught a fever and died of it in Babylon. This had a tremendous affect on the whole country. Also this meant he didn’t see his newborn son or his wife and what became of themselves, for they were murdered, Roxanna, and her new born son.

Alexander the great is remembered today for his pure courage and his speed in which he achieved all the things he did. That’s were he got his name from, for he was actually Alexander III.

By Anna Lezdkan

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