Notes on Alexander the Great

1. Alexander the Great was born in Macedon in the shadow of Mt. Olympus
2. He was born to King Phillip of Macedon. His father was a gruff old guy who had been in a lot of wars. He had one eye and was a manly man. Phillip had a lot of enemies. When Alexander was 19 years old his father was assassinated. He then took the throne.
3. The first thing he did was take revenge of the assassins. He then returned to Macedon and had to decide what to do as a 19 year old king.
4. He decided he was going to be the guy who finally takes revenge on the Persians for the war. He is going to Invade Persia.
5. By the end of the story, Alexander the Great who starts at age 19 is going to conquer the entire known world.
6. He went to Troy and when he gets there he lands on the shore. It is a symbolic gesture and he hurls a spear at the seashore and it lands in the sands. He says by this spear I claim Persia.
7. He entered his first battle down along the coast and won. He continued to Gordia. It is a town on the coast of Anatolia.
8. The legend of the town says if you can figure out the knot on the ox cart you will be the ruler of the world. The ends of the knot are all tucked underneath and inside. He says it does not matter how the knot is undone so he slashed the knot with his sword.
9. He then decided to head down along the coast and battles Persians along the wall. He continues along the Nile and comes down through Syria and Palestine across the Sinai peninsula and into Egypt. The Egyptians loved him and hailed him as king. Egyptians hated the Persians.
10. The city of Alexandria was founded in Egypt because of him.
11. He decided to take a road trip into the desert and go to the Libyan desert to Siwa.
12. He went to the oracle in Siwa and as he walked in they greet him as the Son of God. They said he was son of the god Amon (the Egyptain version of Zeus).
13. He went back across the dessert ready for war. He knows that the Persian capital is Persepolis. The Persian kings were honored as gods and it was the greatest empire. He headed into Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. He met the Persians on the battlefield.
14. In 333 BCE Alexander met Darius, the king of Persia, on the battlefield in the Battle of Issus. The best warriors they had were the mercenaries that were around the king. Alexander takes his own calvary and within the first minute of the battle they rush across the river.