Alexander ther Great
Classsic View - Alexander the Great is seen as an awesome person, enforcing equaltiy and expanding this huge empire, while also spreadng hellenism from Greece to India. His goal was to unite different civilizations and cultures; his love for science, success in military strategies, and overcoming the insantiy of his family made Alexander a hero of his time period. His faults - excessive killing, murdering friends and family, drunken - were dismissed because of his many heroic deeds. He was successful in conquering many civilizations, but he basically slaughtered anyone that got in his way.
Modern View - Contrary to the classical view of Alexander, the modern view portrays this historical figure as an evil villian. Alexander the Great did indeed create an incredible and expansive empire, but he didn't do it all with good intentions. He was a believer of "casual" killing. Any time he had the chance, he killed civilians and innocent people in order to conquer every part of Europe or Asia that he could. He was ruthless when it came to the domination of current civilizations. He did do good, like spreading hellenism, but he did just an equal amount of awful things to the world as well.
Conrad Patrick -- I believe that Alexander the Great was a villain without a shadow of a doubt in my mind. He wanted to create a unity between people and cultures; however, in order to do this he had to conquer Greece and Persia. When he did this, he slaughtered people ruthlessly and without mercy. Also, you can't have unity if you murder everybody.
Reese Harris -- In my opinion, Alexander the Great was more of a villain than hero. Even if he was attempting to unite eastern and western culture he went about this in a very violent and ruthless way. The classical view of him is mostly incorrect; he slaughtered thousands of people for no reason other than to advance his selfish ambitions. I'm sure he would not be called a hero by the countless innocent people whom he senselessly murdered. If Alexander's actions can be considered heroic then I would not want to be a hero. Anyone else who sees the facts of his tyrannical conquest should agree with that.
Kayla Fornek -- Alexander the Great, although in some ways a good person, was not a hero. He was ruthless and shrewd when it came to killing people, and he didn't care who lived or survived, as long as he was ruling. It may have been thought that all he did was for the good of the empire or because he wanted to expand his empire and hellenism, but the truth is that he just wanted to be in charge; he wanted to rule, and he wanted to rule everything. He cleared a major path for the mixing of cultures and future development of western civilization, but all of the good he did would've never been able to cover up for or even measure up to the amount of bad he brought on the people of his time. He was a cold-blooded killer.
Meghan Meehan -- I believe Alexander was, in every way, a villain. He killed 250,000 people and wanted to do it. Not only because he had great military power, but because he was a killer. He enslaved thousands of people because he wanted money to aid his military, which helped him kill more people. Everything he did was negative in some way. Historians said he wanted to unite the world, but who can unite people when they're all dead?
Ricardo Zacarias -- My view on Alexander the Great is like most. Like all others, I believe that Alexander the Great is a villain or along the lines of that thought. This man was truly crazy saying he wanted to equalize humanity, but what he was actually doing was using his power for his benefit. What he wanted was to ethnically cleanse the world for everyone to truly be equal. Although he was earlier seen as a hero, he is now known to be a Hitler-like figure; he used casual extermination, ethnic cleansing, and many other forms of killing the innocent, proving my point.
