History is littered with greatness, invention and incredible courage. For Example, Cyrus the first Persian King and founder of the Achaemenid dynasty might have deserved to earn this title. While supporting and helping his people, he established the Persian empire, the largest empire the world had seen (at that time). Cyrus also instituted great policies of tolerance and allowed conquered lands to maintain their religions and cultures. After building and leading this great society for years, we was killed in battle fighting for the Persian empire. After his death, Cyrus was buried in a tomb that was surprisingly austere for someone of such great stature and accomplishment. We can then look at Darius, another great ruler of the Persian empire. Darius, a great ruler, expanded and strengthened the Persian empire. Despite his conquering, Darius's true impact was in his management and administration of the Persian empire. Throughout his rule, he maintained and incredible policy of tolerance and built a new Persian capital at Persepolis. He commissioned the Royal Road and developed a carrier service to help run his growing empire. Both Darius and Cyrus showed a great capacity to organized and conquer, but whats more they were excellent administrators of the Persian empire and deserved to be called "great."
It cannot be denied that Alexander the Great did great things. He conquered an incredible number of people and had an excellent mind for military strategy. There is more to being "great," however, than conquering millions of people. Alexander, unlike Cyrus and Darius, was not all that great of an administrator. Although he had thrown around some ideas to administer his rapidly growing empire, he never officiated anything that would be substantial or help his peoples. While Darius and Cyrus both created and administered and empire, Alexander only conquered an empire. Alexander also had a great deal of personal flaws. Along with being an arguably aggressive alcoholic, he also seemed to be rather weak willed. He burned down the city of Persepolis on the whim of a Greek woman and killed one of his friends in an argument. Theses are not qualities you would expect a strong leader and ruler to show, and I think having deep personal demons such as these should disqualify his title of "the Great." Alexander might have done great things, but he was not a great man.
Alexander the Great, Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonynetone/2511707733/,
Photo Licensed under Creative Commons public Domain
