Alexander the Great - Episode 2

Good morning, we are going to finish our series on Alexander the Great.  At sixteen he was co-regent to his father.   The last episode left off with King Philip’s murder.  Alexander seized the Macedonian throne.  He campaigned against King Darius of Persia.  The run time for this episode is 43:51.

Alexander the Great along with 37,000 soldiers, crossed the straights into Turkey in spring.  He has a mission: he was going to liberate the Greek Colonies in Turkey.  His first destination was Troy.  Here he would have his weapons blessed at the grave of Achilles.  He was going to avenge the Greeks and conqueror Persia itself.  With the blessings of the gods, Alexander the Great was going on a holy war.  The Persians tried to stop them, however, they failed.

The Persians had underestimated Alexander the Great.  Alexander’s men were facing professional soldiers, not Darius’s imperial soldiers.  Alexander the Great employed clever tactics and promised the cities that surrendered without a fight a constitution modeled on the Athenian Constitution.  Additionally, he promised that they would no longer have to pay tribute to King Darius.  Alexander the Great was looking to avenge the conquest of Athens and wanted to conquer Persia itself.  King Darius would have to step up and lead his troops into battle.

Alexander continued to lead his troops.  The Greek colonies welcomed Alexander as a liberator.  He would eventually have large parts of Turkey under control.  Alexander wintered in Gordian and discovered the chariot of King Gordias.  Legend has it that he was chosen as King because he was riding on a cart.  It was here that Alexander the Great encountered the Gordian Knot and the legend has it that whoever untied the knot would rule the Persian Empire.  Alexander managed to untie the knot with his sword.

Alexander the Great wanted to knock Darius off the throne.  They passed each other on the Syrian plain.  It was here Darius and Alexander would clash in battle.  King Darius believed that it would be an easy victory, relying on his superior numbers.  However, Alexander the Great had cavalry and this would decide the battle in favor of Alexander the Great.  The Persians had the upper hand in some of the battles, however, King Darius’ life was soon in danger.  He had to flee for his life.  Alexander the Great was successful because he operated unpredictably.   

The War was not over, Darius fled into the desert.  The Macedonians continued to move south and liberated many people.  The Egyptians welcomed Alexander the Great with open arms.  He admired the Egyptian culture and when he took control of Egypt he made sacrifices to the gods and consulted the oracle.  His image was carved in Egypt and showed him as the son of Ammon-Re.  Eventually, he would establish Alexandria.  He would establish ten cities that bore his name, but Alexandria, Egypt would be the most important city.

However, he still wanted to do one thing: conquer Persia.  Eventually, his army crossed the Euphrates.  He was not interested in peace with Darius.  Eventually, Alexander’s troops crossed the Tigris River.  Darius and Alexander would meet again, this time on the plains of Gaugamela.  Here, Alexander the Great would have seen the biggest army he had ever seen.  Over 100,000 Persian soldiers were sent to the battle. 

Even with the battle on the plains of Gaugamela turned decisively for Alexander the Great.  King Darius had fled from the battle scene, closing the final chapter on his rein.  Other cities opened their gates to Alexander the Great and his troops.  He was impressed when he marched into Babylon.  What would happen when he marched into Persia?  Would revenge be enough?  Would he capture King Darius?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

All in all, this was a very good two-part documentary about Alexander the Great.  It is seriously nice to see a lot of updated documentaries, especially when they use actors to play the parts of historical people.  The recreations we well done and the historians were fantastic.  This would be one series to add to your documentary list.  This second episode did have an instance of violence toward the end, but other than that it was well-done documentary.