Without Philip, No Alexander the Great

Running head: WITHOUT PHILIP, NO ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
Without Philip, No Alexander the Great
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WITHOUT PHILIP, NO ALEXANDER THE GREAT1
1.
Alexander the Great is a well-known historic figure who is famous for his military
power and is also considered to be one of the most controversial and exciting figures of the
antiquity. It is due to his victory that he gained against the Persian Empire as well as his huge
range of conquests. There was no single general who took over more number of territories
before him. It was only until the time of Mongols empire, i.e., in 1206 to 1368 that an empire
would exceed the size of the empire of Alexander (Manville 2014). Not only the greatest
general in the world, but Alexander is also known for his bravery and is also considered to be
the greatest commanders of all that the world has even seen. However, it is doubtful that
without Philip II of Macedon, his father, Alexander could have achieved this popularity. This
essay is going to elaborate on claiming that without Philip, there would have been no
Alexander the Great.
Alexander III of Macedon is often regarded as the Alexander the Great and is among
the greatest exciting figures in the world. He is so famous that probably Jesus Christ is more
famous than him from the ancient world. He was just 20 years old when he was given the
authority of becoming the Kind of Macedonia during 336 BC. He even facilitated the
spreading of the Greek civilisation towards the East and had broaden the contacts in between
west and east (Muller 2018). He was the one to bring a sense of belongingness to the Greeks
to a greater world than just in the Mediterranean. There were many Greeks who used to
worship Alexander as a god when he was still alive. He was the first to take the vast number
of territories until the Mongolian empire. According to Griffith (1980), Alexander was a
legend during his own lifetime and he still remains as a legend today in the heart of the
people, as a result of the outpouring of books, novels about him and also the movies prove
the same. He is considered to be the bravest and greatest general in the world till date.

WITHOUT PHILIP, NO ALEXANDER THE GREAT2
However, it is to note that Alexander is regarded to be the greatest and bravest general
the world has ever seen due to the situations that others have put him in and not due to his
own general--ship and leadership quality. He could not have done anything without the help
of Philip II, who became the king in the 359 BC and ruled until 336 BC, when he was
assassinated. It is to mention that Philip has no such imperialistic ambitions initially but he
was much concerned with the unification of Macedonia and the border security (Griffith
1980). Without the help of Philip and what he did for the Macedonia, socially, culturally,
politically, economically and militarily, there would have been no Macedonian King who
would have been potential of undertaking the bold and strong venture of Asian invasion.
However, although Philip did not conquer on such a large scale that Alexander did, he has
changed the course of history of Greek forever and has made the Macedonia a significant
superpower during the ancient world (Buckler 2002). It is to note that prior to the reign of
Philip, Macedonia was in a very bad state. There were no centralised government and with
full of weak armies who were conscripted ones. Also, there was no sense of unity, no
economy in Macedonia (Markovic and Nikolov 2018). The nation was oscillating on the
verge of utter collapse. It was a victim of dynastic interferences and invasions from its
neighbouring Greek states and tribes like the Thebes and Athens. Furthermore, this chaos
was more intensified when the immediate predecessor of Philip and the other 4000 troops
were all killed in the battle.
According to Muller (2018), it was Philip who saved Macedonia from getting
collapsed and forged it as the first nation state in Europe. He was the one to left Alexander
with a well-developed, united Macedonia for the very first time in the history and with an
empire that was stretching right from the Greece to Danube; the then centralised monarchy;
the urban centres as well as a top class well trained and formidable army who became the
best in the Greek world (Worthington and Hammond 1994). Without his help and what he did