Alexander the Great
October 13, 2026
Alexander the Great, Prince of Macedonia, was a boy who would become a prince, a prince who would become a ruler, and a ruler who would become the greatest conqueror the Ancient World would ever know.
On the day Alexander was born, his father, King Phillip the Great, was nervous because of a horse race he wagered on. Horses are a common theme in the historical biography, which felt very similar to the Confessions of Young Nero (historical novel) because the book about the Macedonian prince was very easy and enjoyable to read.
Much like Phillip, Alexander is a fond lover of horses. He even adopts a horse that only he can tame and ride. The horse survives to a ripe old age in horse years. Finally, when the horse dies in battle, Alexander has an ancient town built and named in his favorite horse’s honor.
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Alexander had two sides of his personality, which are both captured in the historical biography by Phillip Freeman. In another scene, Alexander and his trusted men burn a cave and torture a group of their enemies who were holding back a Macedonian invasion.
However, by the end of the novel, Freeman wrote that for the time and place that Alexander lived (the Mediterranean during the age of Classical Antiquity), the rival Persians would have been just as vile had they had the advantage over Alexander and his Macedonian empire (Freeman, 2011).
By John Federico
Reference
Freeman, P. (2011). Alexander the Great. Simon & Schuster.
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