How Alexander the Great Conquered Persia

[kenny]

Marcus hailThanks for your post, I aint bothering arguing with this ppost as we all know Persia had weeknesses, Yet it was still magnificent for a 20 year old boy genius to take it head on, No diplmacy or mind games just head on and nailed it.Indeed I was careless with one extra nought.Im keeping pretty quite with this guy as he dont have a good thing to say about Alexander which is why I wonder what on earth he is doing here.Id suggest reading your dutch heroes,,, sorry I cant think of any.Kenny

[jona]

"And I don't think this (nor your original reply) detracts in any way from Alexander's genius - it still takes an exceptional character to see the weaknesses and possibilities and to exploit them."Exactly. The Nazi's were not as strong as the Allies, and would sooner or later have collapsed. That does not diminish the greatness of men like Churchill, Montgommery, or Eisenhower.Jona

[marcus]

Aw, Kenny, that's not fair. One doesn't have to *like* Alexander to be interested in him, and even to admire him. CheersMarcus

[amyntoros]

I agree that you certainly don't *have* to like or even to admire Alexander to participate in this forum. People are interested in Alexander for all sorts of reasons and this is an open forum for the discussion of *everyone's* views.Kenny, no one questions your devotion to Alexander - I certainly don't - but not everyone feels the same way, and I'm not just talking about Jona. For example, I am passionately interested in Alexander, but I don't think he was perfect by any means. In my estimation, he is an unbelievably fascinating but ultimately flawed human being, and it is probably the contrasts in his nature that draw me to him more than anything else. However, I will defend *your* right to express your beliefs just as much as I will defend those who have opposing views. And the latter applies even when they disagree with me! What I hate to see here is personal criticism and derogatory comments about any Pothosian who has a different opinion on the subject at hand.I am sure that you remember how you felt about a personal comment made on one of the movie threads, so I do hope that you understand what I am trying to say here.Best regards,Linda Ann

[Heinrich]

Id suggest reading your dutch heroes,,, sorry I cant think of any.

[Heinrich]

Kenny, there is nothing that will stop you when you make an "admiration site" where you can show your admiration. No one will stop you. But neither can you stop other people from being just intrigued by Alexander.As to Dutch heroes, I seem to remember that William III, being invited by a small minority of powerless protestant hardliners, defeated the British troops and simply conquered Britain. By your own definition of heroism, there you have a Dutch hero.HM

[marcus]

Heinrich,Good call on William III!It also depends on what one means by a hero. One could just as easily include Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Erasmus, Baerentz (if that's spelled correctly).CheersMarcus

[xxx]

It does not matter whether one likes or dislikes Alexander, the reason the Persians lost the war boil down to a few simple facts (and let us not forget Alexander had to fight rebellions when he became King as well):I will not make excuses for Darius GÇô he had superior numbers and both times he chose the field of battle. Portents be damned. Alexander had superstitious men under him too.Darius was overconfident.Alexander was a vastly superior field commander.AlexanderGÇÖs army was a well-trained standing one. The Persian army was something else entirely.Darius lost to the better man - three times and twice with Darius on the field!Regards,Tre

[abm]

Hi Kenny,this is a site for people who are interested in Alexander, not only for those who admire him.Maybe you should read Jona's book before you reject his view. I think it provides a very balanced (and as objective as possible) description of Alexander.It's not Jona's fault that Alexander is more interesting than Pim Fortuyn :-)regards,abm

[kenny]

abm hailregards Id rather get my eyeballs eaten out by ants than read such books,,, Put it down to preference.kenny

[kenny]

ill stand by your posts, spot on, It appears Alexander just strolled into Persia whilst they were having a tea break.The Persians were not in disaray they were so much confident of victory Darius had his whole family at Issus to watch the great king chase the macedonian back home.Kenny

[kenny]

Marcus hailSorry if my comments are not fair, But the only thing I hear from this joker no matter what Alexander did,tried to do or achieved , he just belittles or makes excuses.Maybe a little credit would be a change,the guy seems to think Alexander was a lucky oportinist,, Is that the case I think not.Much more astute and intelligent for a young man than a dutch bookworm I would wager.I may get into hot water for lashing out but as you all know I stand by Alexander tooth and nail so to this clown I make no apologies.I would guess Porus was a spent force with no real tactics or ideas and Alexander got lucky with that one as the Time Commanders showed luck didnt play much part in hes genius.
KennyKenny

[luisfc1972]

its obvious jona has strong love for persia. (i think hes hiding something from us). as for your reference jona, any idiot can take information taken as fact and twist all that around and come to any conclusion he/she wants.i suppose hannibal doesnt deserve his great victory at cannae because of varos huge blunder? should we take that victory away from hannibal?jona, it seems all you ever do here is try to mislead people. here is one mind you canott corrupt.
yor agenda wont work on me.
by the way, i thought jona was a female's name

[jan]

Regarding the Dutch connection: I noticed in a military history on Indonesia that the last reference had to do with Dutch rule. That struck me as significant since I associate the Tsunami with the filming of Alexander in Thailand now. I don't know if there were Dutch heroes there or not, but maybe Jona would know.

[marcus]

Why has this suddenly become a thread of personal attacks on Jona, who hasn't done anything except contribute a valid answer to the original question?Is it the weather?