Ah yes, Alexander the Great. Perhaps the greatest military strategist that even lived, no?
But what did he want? What were his goals? William Woodthorpe Thorn, the great classicist, birthed the Napoleonic notion that Alexander was after nothing more than “the Brotherhood of Man” or uniter of nations. This view was later popularized by Mary Renault in a series of popular novels.
I disagree.
Alexander wanted merely the same thing that all other conquerors (and all colonists for that matter) want:
- Land
- Money
In other words, the booty.
Let’s not romanticize these militarists too much.
