Thursday, September 4, 2008

Was Alexander the Great good or bad?

Well it's getting close to crunch time and I hope that you are all ready for the unit test. We have a long way to go and I am pleased by the way the year has begun. Let's start a discussion about Alexander the Great.

We are going to have a mock trial. I will randomly assign you a role but there are big time points available if you familiarize yourself with the accomplishments and controversies surrounding Alexander's Eastern campaign.

The first person to respond intelligently gets 10 extra credit points. Any first time responder will receive 5 EC points.

21 comments:

Gabsters said...

Hi Mr. Parker. Its Gabby J.

Yeah I'm a first time blogger and to answer the question...

I think that Alexander the Great was actually good for many reasons. He became a king of Macedonia at a young age and also the fact that he was a great conqueror of his time, who conquered Persia even.
Whenever he conquered a country he used Greek ideas to run them.

Although he had his good side, his ambition is one of the aspects that stopped him from being an entirely good man or ruler.

Indyfan said...

Hi Mr. Parker it's me Ted the Colts fan. I'm also a first time responder because I finally managed to get on. Anyway I believe that Alexander the Great was good in the aspect of his country's point of view. Mainly because he was a tactical genius in wars. For Example he designed a plan where his troops would point their spears outwards and charge at the enemy just like a porcupine. Well talk to you Tuesday Ted.

MeTheRunner said...

Hey Mr. Parker,

I am not a current student, but a current admirer of your work.
"Good" is defined in many ways, one of the earliest and most thorough being the meaning found by Plato. The philosopher's opinion was that "good" was "truth."
Now, this presents a problem, as Plato's student, Aristotle, had a completely different idea of what "truth" was. And Aristotle taught Alexander the Great...

So in the end, the question ends up being a convenient excuse for me to be a nerd.

Sincerely,
3.14159265358979323846264338327950128841971693993751058

dw said...

He wasn't good, or bad, he was great! According to Tony the Tiger, he was Grrrrrrrrr....eat! I so got to get one of these newfangled things. Awesome.

marta_flinn said...

Hey there Mr. Parker....it's Marta(yay)...I think Alexander was an amazing guy. When he was young he wanted to know everything and loved to learn.....Alexander was only 20 when he became king of Macedonia(omg) but he did some harm to...but i still think he was good.
okay well
peace out and see you tomorrow

Mr. Parker said...

Good points,
We are going to do a Mock Trial this week so I'd like to start analyzing the life and motivations of A the G. His age is amazing, and given the aggressiveness with which he pusued empire, I wonder what the world would have looked like had he lived longer. Of the people encountered so far in our journey, he had the greatest impact, in my opinion.

LyssaRenee said...

Hi. Its Alyssa G.

Yeah its my first time on. I think that Alexander the Great was a fairly good person for many reasons. He was very young and he was very motivated. He knew exactly what he wanted and he went after it. This is always a good quality to have. Also, he had to be very intelligent in order to be able to conquer so many places. Obviously, not everyone can just go out and conquer other countries he must of been really smart when it came to war. Alexander was not perfect, but no body is right? So in my opinion i think Alexander was good for the most part.

katiebaby11 said...

Hey Parker!

SO. Alexander the Great; He was an infamous, successful conquerer. Was he good or bad? ... I think that he was good AND bad. Although he conquered and took control of much land, that is what made him a hero to much of Europe and Central Asia. On the other hand, he destroyed many people's lands and towns, which could also make him bad. He was obviously very driven to success, which caused him to trample over anyone or anhything that got in his path.
So I think it depends on who you ask and how they interperet it.

x_melissa. said...

Okayy, I'm really wanting that extra credit so here I go....

Well, depending on what point of view you look at Alexander the Great, he was either good or bad.
To the empires that he took over, the people might have seen him as a ruthless person. Or maybe some veiwed him as a savior if they didn't like their original leader in the first place.
To me I guess he was a good man for uniting so many separate empires into one. And for being so young and happily accetping the role of the king of Macedonia after his father died was really responsible of him. And conquering so many places in a couple of years he must've been strategic and a good leader for men to follow under his instruction. But then again he must have killed a lot of innocent people, although since when do people not die when a war is happening.
So in the end of my response I'd like to conclude that Alexander the Great was a great conquerer of his time and pretty impressive when he conquered Persia.

rickyricardo said...

Hey Mr. Parker!

Honestly, he is sort of a good and bad person. Bad because of the killing he did, but good because he set the stage for our future. Because of him we now have the future we have now. Also because he brought "some" prosperity to Macedonia.
Now I don't really want to associate his age with his "good" side because in the past we've had other kings do amazing things when they weren't even in their teens(ie king tut, pharoah = king? either way they ruled) Most of his accomplishments were "Great" advances, not really "good" or "bad". Which is why we call him Alexander the Great. You can't really tell if someone is good or bad just by reading about them...if we did then we'd have to associate him as a bad guy because he killed countless people(ie hitler?). Like Ms. Hesik told us, anyone with power(king in this case) will become corrupted by it!

-Ricardo M.

Becca Griva said...

Hey Parker, it is Becca! Yay!
Alexander the Great accomplished a lot in his short life. He defeated Persia, and that time Persia was a meddler in every civilization. He spread Greek culture in all of the places he conquered and adopted a few traditions such as the kissing of the hand. His subjects were against that tradition because it made him look like a God. However, there was a belief that him and his mother Olympia killed his father. Alexander's motive for this could have been when his father disowned him and labeled him a bastard, Therefore taking away Alexander's right to the throne. This cannot be proven. In my opinion, Alexander helped Greece along in their development and helped to spread the richness of Greek culture to other civilizations so he was good for Greece.

Alyssa said...

Alexander the Great was both good and bad. He helped the world to become what it is today, but he also killed or otherwise harmed many people, some of which were his own men, or even his own family members and many times for unclear or selfish reasons. He harmed many people when he didn't need to. However, he spread Hellenistic ideologies while he was ruling and greatly influenced future civilizations through these ideologies.
~Alyssa Pierce

Anonymous said...

yah, im here yet agian...you must be tired of reading my comments already eh?? lol

Well, I don't think Alexander was bad for killing people..okay wait, he was bad for killing people but hey, thats war. Yeah I know i sound cold and mean but it's the truth. I think Alexander was a bad ruler in a way because he mainly concerned himself with the EXPANSION of the empire and not so much as the PEOPLE of the empire. As the textbook said, Alexander started campaigns one after another and wore his people down until they refused to fight for him anymore. However he was indeed a great tactician and an intelligent man. Especially since he acended the throne at such a young age and was still able to not only keep his country in control but he was also able to expand it into an empire. Also, the fact that he was even able to build an empire so vast in such a short period of time during his reign is amazing. The military that he built was also brilliant and he made them quickly.

yah, thats it i guess, maybe more later if i have time

laterz Mr.Parker!!

-KarenC.

Cosmic Faultline said...

well...
I think that Alexander the Great did some bad things, but (in his mind) he did them for good reasons, making him an overall good person who has inspired many rulers and leaders over time.
So, I think he was mostly good.

stan said...

elow..
the mock trial was fun,, but i had a hard time defending someone who said he(she actually) was guilty..haha..
i did prepare for it but i just didn't know the mechanics of a court trial and stuff.. haha.. i was not aware that it'd be that organizd.. i thought it was just a debate or something.. well,, nyways,,i hope i did good even if i got kickd out of the court.. haha
and about th topic..,,
alexander did incredible things for his country.. why would you care for the opposing countries(that have been trying to conquer your lands)?? its nonsense..if alexander did anything hard on the persians,,they sure did deserved it..infact.. these persian scums were the first one to implement a war.. they disturbrd the quiet city of sparta..barging in and telling spartans to bow down to someone they didnt even know..that's madness! (got that from 300) haha..well,,i hope i made my point..

umiiPOCKY said...

Heii Parker! This is Melea :]

The mock trial was really fun and hilarious! I learned quiet a lot from my classmates.

After going through the mock trial, it made me think if Alexander was really a GOOD person or a BAD person. I was actually thinking about that the whole time. Depending on the way you look at Alexander the Great, it would seem like he was good but at the same time he was bad.

My thoughts of Alexander the Great:

GOOD- Because he let other people believe in their own religion instead of forcing them to believe in just one religion. That gave people more freedom of what they want to practice and believe in. There were a lot of areas where people were forced to believe in one religion.

Like what Katie said, Alexander wanted to claim more land so that other areas wouldn't war as much if the land became as one.

BAD- Just because he was a great ruler doesn't mean he had the right to rape many women, kill helpless people, and burn down towns while he was out claiming more land. Why would he burn down a town when hes probably going to remodel it later on after he claims it? I don't think its necessary to rape the beautiful women he came across. They have their own opinions weather or not they want to do IT with Alexander [LOL].

Alexander killed his own father when he got drunk. Alexander was old enough to have known what drinking could do to one's head once you have too much of it. His father did not deserve death after he was the one who taught his own son to be the great leader he was once then.

I still think Alexander was a great man, but then I do have my other thoughts of thinking he was a bad man because of the unnecessary actions he has done.

Other then the opinions I just stated, I'm going to have to say that Alexander the Great was a pretty good man for most of the part.

Anonymous said...

He was noob ruler

Anonymous said...

He was a noob ruler

Anonymous said...

he was a noob ruler

Anonymous said...

Gold Chainz
He was a noob ruler

Anonymous said...

he was a bad person