In The Footsteps of Alexander the Great
In the footsteps of Alexander the Great In this award winning adventure Micheal Wood embarks on a 2000 mile journey in the foot steps of Alexander's triumphal march from Greece to India. Traveling with Lebanese traders, Iranian pilgrims and Afghan guerrillas, by jeep, train, boat, camel and on foot, he interweaves the momentous events of the past with present day reality and brings us new insights into a man whose myth and achievements still resonate down the centuries.
He was one of the most successful military commanders in history, and was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks. Following the unification of the multiple city-states of ancient Greece under the rule of his father, Philip II of Macedon (a labour Alexander had to repeat because the southern Greeks rebelled after Philip's death), Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia and extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as the borders of Punjab.
Before his death, Alexander had already made plans to also turn west and conquer Europe. He also wanted to continue his march eastwards in order to find the end of the world, since his boyhood tutor Aristotle had told him tales about where the land ends and the Great Outer Sea begins. Alexander integrated foreigners into his army, leading some scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He encouraged marriage between his army and foreigners, and practiced it himself. After twelve years of constant military campaigning, Alexander died, possibly of malaria, West Nile virus, typhoid, viral encephalitis or the consequences of heavy drinking.
I learned in the first episode that Alexander was a member of the ancient LGBT community.
Great documentary ! Michael Wood at his very best ! I also enjoyed his series on Troy. It's a bit dated ( circa 81-82 ) I wish he would consider redoing the project. There is much more information available now.
so many experts, people have trouble figuring out their ex's and are experts on someone who lived thousands of years ago. remarkable
Darius was a little b*tch who got slaughtered by the King Of Macedon!
Lmao at this documentary. He was a thief like the rest of them. Came straight into Egypt (Africa) and tried to conquer; Even blew the Afro nose off of the Great Sphinx b/c he was so jealous of the advancements of Egyptians. He's certainly not Great to anyone, the Moors are Great
Stumbled across this site and I realize that some of the comments are as much as 10 moths old and as old as 3 years.
I am a retired military museum curator, have a large home library of military history which includes over 75 volumes on Alexander the Great. Just a couple of points that people overlook. Alexander the Great embarked on a war of revenge and encountered "Victory Disease", which means he went far above what he expected.
His attempts at merging of the Persian armies and Macedonian armies had to happen as his army was only about 40,000 at the time and worn out from over 21,000 miles of marching and he was outnumbered by millions of Persian and other racial groups.
Bessus, who was one of Darius's generals and who later killed Darius and who was in turn killed by Alexander was in my opinion a national resistance hero of the Persians! Remember he was hauling around the weak and cowardly Darius who lost all of the battles against Alexander. He ran away in two of those battles. Darius was like hauling around Richard Nixon! Bessus was the last nationalistic resistance leadership left.
I think he has gotten a "bad rap". Just my thoughts.
Please watch Michael Woods documentary show and read the early sources and many of the modern books.
Alexander the Great was not one of the greatest military generals of all time; he was by far THE one greatest in all of recorded history. If you know your western civilisation chronology; choosing anyone else is simply silly. Certainly he learned from his father and from Aristotle and many others...as anyone with a mind would want to do. However, he became king at the age of 19. He never carried more than 50 thousand troops on the ground at one time and his initial first test he soundly defeated Persia, the greatest empire in all the world at that time. He did this, by the way, in 3 days against upwards of a million troops. Following that, he lead from the front, engaged in 157 major battles, never lost once and ended up conquering the entire known world. All of his military tactics are taught at West Point to this day. There isn't enough room...but please don't say otherwise out loud; it won't help your reputation as an expert on the topic.
.....so in a way sometimes i think he just stood on the shoulders of those before him (i.e. phillips army, cyrus's empire, etc.) and too much credit is given him. saying all that i do admire him greatly, and do think he was the greatest general ever. oh yeah, cool doco's as well!
im so tired of listening to greeks and maceo's argue about the same old thing, (i live in melbourne) leave politics to the polititions! Let it go! Nobody else cares anymore.
i think it was the size and greatness of the persian empire that alex conquered that helped him become known as the great. alex was a great general, but Cyrus and Darius I were the great empire builders.
im reply to hawks2012, i belive his father was macedonian and his mother was from epirus (nowaday albania) therfore he would not be greek but I could be wrong...either way Macedon was a kingdon before greece even existed (they were still city- states, if that).That said I think hostorians have categorized macedonians as greek whereas it should be the opposite, especially when you consider alexander created a macedonian empire not greek empire
in reply to history lives on...what were we arguing about i forgot. Which book do you suggest?
i find comments more entertainig dont you
Great documentary.. Each year I make my new students watch this documentary so they can really appreciate what a great warrior Alexander was. But what's with all the politics guys? This certainly doesn't belong here. This is history documentary.
Incidentally, all politics aside, he was unequivocally and irrefutably Greek..This is a historic fact..I'm a history lecturer and teach Roman and Greek history so I would know. So everyone please, stop with all the silliness.
Sorry to burst your bubble dude but your wrong on all accounts! ...im prob older than you..judging by the "lol' on your previous msg im guessing your the young one right? you guys just crack me up! Anyway...Im certain your being fed that rubbish by your dad and other Slavs your whole life...i know this because my dad fed it to me my entire life!! Yep...I speak your language but consider myself half Bulgar which is likely what you are(not some fake ethnicity you call Macedonian)..and it's not a Greek website I offered, its universal..scholars all over the world support it..but you know more that they do right? give me a break..please..And what are your sources? Some pseudo history-maco antiquisation website full of c*** and propaganda? Probobly..anyway enough wasting my time with amateurish rubbish..keep wasting your time though in your fake fight..if spread your garbage on the web long enough you may one day find some ignorant m*ron who believes you..
hmm be your typing you sound british or australian, and by the "hahaha' and offering a greek website for 'proof', I'm going to say that you're just a teenager from the diaspora who is repeating what his father has taught him. I don't blame you, I have seen what greek parents can do to their kids. I think you should be more concerned with the state of greece right now rather than the history of Macedonia. I don't think your country will have any more money to pollute the world with it's 'proof' that everything in the world is greek. Sorry to burst your bubble!
Trpkovski you are either deluded, being brainwashed by FYROM propagandist or damn bloody ignorant...i think it may be a bit of all..Do you realize that Pella or ????? is a prefecture in Greece? Louuttt Chovack! Hate to break it to you bud but the only "clean" Macedonians are the Greeks..your kind are frauds and i think the term you were looking for is steal not "steel"...something your country is very familiar with given your trying to steal Greek history and every other nations as we speak.. Absolutely disgraceful
Its amazing how long propaganda lasts - I am studying Alexander III at the moment. What a despicable man - slaughtered anyone who stood in his way, and sacrificed his father's army in his youth so as to make a name for himself. He nearly lost a battle to the tiny joint army of Thebes and Athens (in 335 BCE at Thebes.) You know how he won that battle? He initially had his Father's army attack in a relay formation, (instead of Philip's usual staggered phalanx attack) which exposed the men to attacks on both flanks. He didn't care how many men he lost though; he ordered them to continue attacking in relay formation, until it became apparent he would lose the battle if he continued such tactics. (The Thebans were defending their city ferociously) So Alex sent his last contingent of forces to search for unlocked city gates. They found one, poured through, and started murdering women and children. Naturally, the Theban/Athenian line retreated inside the city so as to save their families. Alexander (The Great?!) then had 30,000 women and children enslaved, he crucified 3,000 Theban prisoners, and refused the dead Thebans the rights to an honourable burial. (In fact, the fee for an Athenian honourable burial had to be paid for directly to Alexander. Thebans were refused the chance to pay for one.)
The title "Great" is laughable. Nowadays, I see the US and UN doing tsimilar deeds, and we applaud them because their actions are so "Great"
Forget the propaganda, Alexandar the Great called himself, was regarded as, and was a Macedonian. Macedonians are not greeks. If Macedonians were greeks, then the greeks would have called themselves Macedonians, and not greeks. It's very simple, not as complicated as the greeks would like you to think it is. The truth is that greeks today flat out deny the existence of a large minority in what is today their country, and they continue to deny rights to the Macedonians living there. These are people who have lived there since ancient times, whose families remained there even after the great balkan wars that made parts of Macedonia become greek territory. A so-called "democratic" country such as greece should really have no problem giving rights to, or at least acknowledging, a large minority of people in their northern region that self-identify as Macedonians. Grow up!
mounixos read this and learn the real truth for once.....!!!
at teh
what do you mean it was partly greek?
also have you read my comments?
please identified me the Geographical limits of ?????????( MACEDONIA and no makedonija, makedonija is serb or something like that) do you have any evidence to to support your comment or you just wrote something senseless.
Also the The Sun of Vergina and no the land of the sunshine as you wrote which the have put on their Flag does not proves something, if i put at my Lada the label of Ferrari it does not change my car, but make me silly.
Sorry again for the poor use of English!!!!
at teh
what do you mean it was partly greek?
also have you read my comments?
please identified me the Geographical limits of ?????????( MACEDONIA and no makedonija, makedonija is serb or something like that) do you have any evidence to to support your comment or you just wrote something senseless.
Also the The Sun of Vergina and no the land of the sunshine as you wrote which the have put on their Flag does not proves something, if i put at my Lada the label of Ferrari it does not change my car, but make me silly.
Sorry again for the poor use of English!!!!
it is incomplete
it is incomplete
at munixos
alexandar is macedonian, and though it was partly greek back then, it is the former yugoslav republic -makedonija -land of the sunshine (see the flag)
Alexander the Ignominious may have been an unwitting victim of a gods-superstition, but then we are all of us victims (and perpetrators!). Alexander the Ignominious' plight as victim weighed against his role as the perpetrator of unspeakable horrors is clear: that 'thing' was as close to pure, unadulterated 'evil' as can be imagined.
Despite our obvious nature as a species to define our social identities in relation to the number of people an alpha-male might successfully murder in order to victimize survivors, turning the rest of us into slaves, each of us harbors within ourselves a less celebrated yet equally powerful dimension of our species' nature: the power to invent writing, science, art, and medicine; the power to discover logic, mathematics and all attending philosophical plausibilities; the power to do all this, and much more, in spite of pigs like Alexander and DickCheney and Obama. Also inherent to our nature resides within each of us the ability to reflect and to judge. According to the playwright Peter Weiss, during the French Revolution an ex-priest, Jacques Roux, wrote (ca. 1790), the following:
"We demand that everyone do all he can
"To put and end to war, this DAMNED war
"Which is run for the benefit of profiteers
"And leads only to MORE war."
"We demand that those who started the war
"Be made to pay the cost of it!
"The idea of the glorious army fighting the glorious cause
"Must be WIPED OUT!"
"NEITHER side is glorious; on either side
"They are just frightened men, messing their pants,
"And they all want the same thing: not to lie under the earth,
"But to walk upon it -- WITHOUT CRUTCHES!"
Alexander the Ignominious, be damned
I've viewed the entire documentary now
and this is what I think:
I am writing this BEFORE I view this documentary and will do a follow-up AFTER watching the piece, in its entirety. That having been said:
I hate it when we teach our children that if you kill enough people (and get away with it) then you are somehow 'Great'.
What rubbish!
He should be labeled 'Alexander the Ignominious! And the title of this documentary should read:
"In The Footsteps of a Megalomaniac Sociopath."