Scientiea Amor

Alexander the Great: Ambition and Fragility

September 17, 2025

I would once again like to start off with a quote:

This time by the greek philosopher Aristotle; “What lies in our power to do lies in our power not to do”

Introduction

What makes a human great? How far is too far in the pursuit of success and glory. All throughout history we have seen men and women push the boundary for what it means to be human.

In my life success is really important to me. As a 23 year old in 2025 it feels like the time for building and creating my own “Empire”. I try as hard as possible to learn from those who came before as I think that is the whole point of our long and complicated history. I think as a society one of our largest drawbacks is repeating that same history. Time and time again we fail to learn from the past. I think this is fundamental to improving as a species. I think looking back on people who have done great and difficult things and trying to understand how they work and what gave them that ability to do the great and impossible. I want to separate the positive personality traits from men and women who have gone above and beyond and apply them to how I live.

One of those men is Alexander the Great

The name speaks volumes itself. But who was he really? What really made him “great”? The story of the dashing and confident young man Alexander is difficult and a lot is forever lost to the expanse of time. For example, his relationship with the famous Philosopher Aristotle. Little is known though we do know from 13 - 16 Aristotle was almost a sort of high school teacher to the young Alexander. Though how much this actually affected what was to immortalize him later is unclear. I think it definitely would have given an important perspective on people and the world around him allowing Alexander to use that to his advantage.

Context: His father

Son of Philip II who built the foundation for what Alexander would go on to expand. There are stories that Alexander at the tender age of 16 was left in charge by his father during Philips attack on Byzantium. I could not imagine what it would be like to be 16 years old and in charge of defending my fathers empire. As a young man he defeated the Maedi, a Thracian people, with sheer will and determination. I am sure this would have hardened the young man. Something like this we know now mentally must have really changed him and in a way set him up for what was to come. I also imagine this was not the last time in his teen youth that he would have to deal with things like death, war, and destruction. People sometimes forget that these stories in history were lived by human beings like ourselves. Humans with feelings and a mental state. To have faced that at a young malleable age probably very much drove the outcome of him becoming a decisive and ruthless leader.

In 336 BCE, Alexander’s father, Philip II of Macedon, was assassinated in the theater of Aegae. His killer was none other than Pausanias, one of his trusted bodyguards and, according to ancient sources, a former lover of the king. The murder was carried out in full public view, and Pausanias was quickly captured as he tried to escape to his waiting horses. The motives behind this shocking act reveal a much darker story. Pausanias had once held Philip’s affection, but he was eventually cast aside for another companion. His humiliation only deepened when he was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted by relatives of Philip’s new favorite, an attack that left him disgraced. When Philip failed to punish the offenders, likely because they were politically powerful, Pausanias turned his anger on the king himself. We go back to the mental side of things. I can not imagine the trauma and embarrassed emotions he would have faced. It makes me feel bad for him. That rage culminated in one of the most infamous assassinations of the ancient world, a moment that cleared the path for Alexander the Great to take the throne.

Taking and keeping power

At the age of 20 years old Alexander took power and swiftly took action to keep it. He was a master of thinking ahead by quickly wiping out opposing factions, crushing rebellions and taking complete control of the military. I think it is safe to say he wasn’t taking any chances. Alexander knew that he needed control to keep his fathers empire alive and to do that he needed loyalty to himself. He would have appointed these loyal individuals to important positions that would keep the power centralized around him. In a way his narcissistic personality helped him take control and allowed him to be worshiped. He deified himself and this reinforced with cultural norms that already painted kings in a godly image made it easy for Alexander to unite Macedonia under his rule. Being able to unite people is a difficult and important skill and it feels sometimes narcissism is often required for that power. I listened to a Lex Freidman podcast earlier this year where he was interviewing Saagar Enjeti, an American journalist, and he was the first person to bring this to my attention. It is an interesting idea about human psychology as we can probably all agree being a narcissist isn't a good thing but there seems to be a quality there that can allow an individual to gain control and maybe even bring stability by the way of selfishly uniting people around you. As a leader you are the figure head of your movement.

I think Donald Trump is a great example of this. He himself has created a government which is centered around him. He has made himself the picture of American Nationalism and appointed loyal cabinet members to enforce the ideals of his movement. They all bend the knee to one man. It is so interesting to see how Trump has grown his MAGA movement. I mean look at the republican movement they all super focus on Donald Trump and will defend his actions no matter what. Now let's get one thing straight. Both the American left and right are in my opinion terrible. I think democrats have just as much greed and selfishness just coded in a kinder way but, there's a reason why these two parties have such a foothold. Recently republicans more so as they found a powerful leader to unite behind. It has always been like this throughout history; and it always collapses sooner or later people get sick and tired of being unheard. It's a vicious cycle.

So the question boils down too would Alexander still have been able to achieve great military accomplishments without his selfish, sometimes narcissistic attitudes. I am not so sure. I am not so sure a good moral man would even want to. Alexander was clearly no saint. He was a brutal conqueror as they all were and no amount of impressive human discipline will change that. I hope there is a way to do things without violence and selfishness. Maybe there is a world where power is shared and bestowed upon individuals focused on the greater good. I understand all of this is idealistic and frankly it's my privilege I'm even able to question these ideas but as someone who deeply cares about the human race in its totality i can dare to dream.

His conquests

Alexander reshaped much of the known world. His campaigns began in 334 BCE and swept across Asia Minor, where he crushed the Persian forces and forced King Darius III, the last Persian king, into retreat. After his victory at Issus in 333 BCE, Alexander rejected Darius’ peace offers and, proudly but some would say arrogantly, titled himself “Lord of Asia.” By 332 BCE he had entered Egypt, where he was welcomed as a liberator and founded Alexandria, a city that would later flourish under the Ptolemies and Romans and still bears witness to Alexander's legacy. I had the pleasure of going to Alexandria last year, and it was amazing to see the Greek and Roman influence on the Egyptian city. It felt different from all the other places I had gone to in the country. Darius, betrayed during his retreat by the satrap Bessus, was murdered in 330 BCE, clearing the way for Alexander’s march through Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, which he famously set ablaze, an act remembered as the final symbolic fall of Persia. Between 330 and 327 BCE he pressed into Bactria and Sogdiana, marrying Roxana, a local noblewoman, to secure loyalty in the region. Pushing farther east, he invaded India, defeating King Porus at the Hydaspes in 326 BCE. Yet at the Hyphasis River, his exhausted army refused to march farther. Forced to turn back, Alexander endured the disastrous Gedrosian Desert crossing in 325 BCE before finally reaching Babylon in the spring of 324 BCE. There he was already planning new campaigns. I could imagine that Alexander wanted to go into Arabia and add more land to his empire. He had created a monstrous killing machine and I am sure was ready to build again to continue conquering. Yet like every human being big or small, strong or weak, there is always one thing that stops us in our tracks: death.

The End

In June 323 BCE Alexander the Great died suddenly at just 32 years old. He was not taken in battle or by some dramatic end, but by illness, at least as far as we know. It is strange that someone so powerful, ambitious, and determined did not meet the kind of death we might expect. If Alexander could look back at his life, I wonder if he would have done things differently. He was capable of great things and he did great things, maybe not always morally good, but still great. I wonder if he came as a ghost and looked at his entire life if he would regret that or feel bad. I mean he is a human being after all. He left behind so much unfinished. He never chose a successor and he never secured the stability of his empire. His ambition blinded him to what truly mattered. When he died, everything he built fell into a brutal power struggle. His empire split apart and in many ways it all crumbled. It shows how fragile life is and also how fragile civilizations are, no matter how strong they seem. When I first started this I said I wanted to take lessons from those who went beyond, and I still do. But I also hope to avoid their mistakes. I want ambition without blindness, strength without violence, and freedom without taking it from others.

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