Weekly 4b

 Does Power Corrupt? How or How Not? Why or Why Not? Do you think Alexander was corrupted? And who influenced whom the most: Did Persia become more Greek or did Alexander becoming more Persian?


     Power can corrupt, but it doesn't necessarily always happen. Many rulers and leaders in the past have had a HUGE amount of power. But, some of them didn't know how to deal with it, therefore, they were overthrown or killed. These rulers either became too controlling, lost their minds, or just became plain evil. In some cases, leaders and rulers actually know how to use their power for the better. They use it to help the people, and to benefit their countries. Power is a very hard thing to handle, and in some instances rulers just can't handle it.


     Alexander was corrupted, to a point. Alexander knew how to use his power to protect himself and his land, but he also knew how to use it to manipulate people. Before conquering other cultures and people. Alexander used his power to build up his army and to become strong enough to conquer other parts of the world. Also, he used his power to convince his army that they needed to fight as much as they could in order to avenge Persian wrongs. By having this power and authority, he was able to build the best army in the world at that time and he was ready for anything that ANYONE threw at them. 


     Alexander also used his power to show other parts of the world that he was the greatest and the best. He conquered anywhere he could, and he even slaughtered an entire village of Greek people that fought with the Persians when they went against Greece. This shows that Alexander had too much power for himself, and he thought that he could do anything; including killing an entire village of people. Alexander was not as corrupt as he could have been; many times he was civil with Persians and his army. But, he still didn't use his power to benefit sometimes; he used it to show the world that he controls.


     Alexander used his power mainly to make himself a myth. As soon as his father died, he decided to hire a biographer to write about his future adventures, and set out on a journey to "avenge Persian wrongs." Yes, avenging Persian wrongs was a thing that the Greeks had wanted to do for years, but why hire a biographer? Obviously he wanted to be remembered and he wanted people to know how great he was. Also, he changed his name to "Alexander the Great;" this shows that he thought highly of himself and he wanted other people to think the same way. Finally, Alexander seems as if he only avenged Persian wrongs, hired a biographer, and killed thousands of people just to be remember. 


    In the end, Alexander seemed to become more Persian. During the wars, he took mercy on many different Persian people, and occasionally when the Persians complained about how he treated them and their traditions, he would stop. For example: When Alexander took over the Persian Palace, he flipped the table over and stood on it. One of the Persian people cried that it was such a disgrace what he was doing and how he could disrespect the Persian leader's table like that. Alexander actually felt bad about and was about to turn the table back to its original position before one of his soldiers stopped him and told him that what he was doing was perfectly okay. Alexander also took in many Persian traditions towards the end, which really upset his army. Alexander didn't truly care about what his army thought, he wanted to pursue Persian traditions so he did.


    As you can see, Alexander had many rights and many wrongs. Overall, he kept himself together and fulfilled his dream of conquering the Persian empire; along with many other empires. Alexander the Great kept moving on no matter what anyone had said, or who got in his way.