Invasion of Persia.
Alexander was now ready to invade Persia now that Greece was secure. Alexander matched with 35,000 men to attack Persia. Persian rushed 40,000 men to meet Alexander. That victory alarmed the Persian King, Darius III. His response was to raise a huge army ranging between 50,000 to 75,000 men. Alexander in Egypt. Alexander was welcomed into Egypt as a liberator even though Egypt was a Persian territory. Alexander still wanted to kill King Darius III of Persia so he pursued him. This pursuit made him a great conquered but bad at governing the land he conquered. He eventually found King Darius, dead, one of his own men had killed him. Married a Persian Princess. He even wore a Persian dress and presided over a mass marriage of 80 of his men to Persian women. Very interesting cultural impact. spreading Hellenistic culture. At the time of his death, Alexander had conquered a vast amount of land. Generals fought over who got the power of the empire.
What is your overall opinion of Alexander the Great? He definitely wasn't just a barbaric person. He did have barbaric thoughts though. All he wanted to do was conquer land and kill the Persian king which made him seem barbaric. He would just go through land and take over and then keep moving on to take over more land but he would never rebuild an area. But the reason he wasn't a barbaric person was how smart he was. He was extremely good at planning and tactics for wars. He would not have been able to take over that much land if he wasn't as good at leading his army. That was a huge part of it.
The city Alexandria was the center of Hellenistic culture. Located on western edge of the Nile delta. Easy for people throughout the Macedonian Empire to get to by ship. Booming economy due to all the different customs and items that came to Alexandria some similarities to Ellis island. The rulers spent a lot of money and time into making the city of Alexandria attractive. The two greatest attractions were the museum and library. It was said that Alexander found those buildings because Aristotle had given him a love for learning. The library was the first true research library, it was used for a gifted group of scholars to do their work.
Astronomy. The museum contained a small observatory where astronomers could study the stars and planets. Astronomer named Aristarchus made two very important conclusions. the sun was bigger the earth. The planets revolve around the sun. Unfortunately no one supported this theory and another philosopher stated that Earth was the center and every believed that for another 14 centuries.
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