Essay question

[Dan]

Hey everyone im doing an essay on Alexander the great's acomplishments, and how he changed the world....I decided it would be smart to come here and ask what your ideas are towards what Alexander the great changed about our world.Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly aprieciated! thanks a lot.

[ancientlibrary]

Opinion here is somewhat split, but slanted
toward the "Alexander was great" side--some
member pounce at any contrary opinion. There
are also some who take a more sober
assessment, and one or two who despise
Alexander on--I believe--nationalist grounds. A
few others prefer to avoid the question, thinking
it pointless, uninteresting, or tending to create
repetitive, sometimes heated conversation..There's some kind of disclaimer here about
essay questions. I don't think your question will
get a lot of responses, but a more focused one
probably will. What interests you about his
legacy?

[Link]

My view is that he made cultures/tribes today more tolerant towards each other (except for the Lacedeamonds of course;-)
Look:Greek Member State Committee of EBLUL

The Greek Member State Committee of European Bureau for Less Used Languages is deeply concerned about an incident that took place at the Greek State Television (ERT) and constitutes a flagrant abuse to the core principles of respect to diversity and multiculturalism. GMSC was informed that NET, the 2nd channel of ERT, indefinitely postponed the broadcast of SundayGÇÖs (21.3.2005) GÇ£Taxidevontas stin ElladaGÇ¥ (Traveling in Greece), dedicated to Florina region of W. Macedonia. According to the presenter of the show, the official justification for this decision was that in the edited (ready-to-air) version some inhabitants of villages in the region said on camera that their mother tongue was Macedonian and was completely banned from the Greek state for decades. The ERT directors obviously concluded that such public statements could found claims for existence of a linguistic minority that Greece does not officially recognize and decided to ban the broadcast.GMSC of EBLUL wishes to condemn such acts with the most categorical way. Especially when they come from an E.U. member state that only a few months ago hosted the Olympic Games under the motto GÇ£Celebrating cultures, celebrating diversityGÇ¥. Not only that but the above incident happened during the European Week Against Racism.Seems that for yet another time, Greece chooses not to respect the basic right of its own citizens to freely express their opinion and continues the policy of extremely limited and absolutely selective presentation of cultural and linguistic diversity at the state-owned media. A PPresident of GMSC of EBLUL

[marcus]

That reads like a very unsubtle excuse to include modern political wrangling on this forum, which, I'm sorry to say, has nothing to do with Alexander, what made him great, or his legacy.That's very naughty.Marcus

[yiannis]

This is obviously the wrong forum & way for spreading political propaganda, replying to a studen't request.
You must be Mr. Parisis. In any case it seems that you have no more places to be heard, since even the Greek Helsinki Monitor describes you as "inaccurate" and "exxadurating". By trolling historical forums you only show the level of desperation & self-abasement you have descended yourself to! Disgraceful (& distasteful)...PS
It's Laecedemonians or Lakedemonians, not... whatever was it that you wrote.

[ancientlibrary]

Lacedaemon(ia) (Latin) or Lakedaimon(ia( (Anc.
Greek). There are no other valid spelling I know
of.As for modern Gk. pronunciation,
Lake(episilon)dai(alpha iota)mo(omega)n is, I
presume, today pronounced "Lake(th)imon," the
delta a voiced-th and alpha-iota now
pronounced like iota, eta. etc. But correct me if
I'm wrong.

[Link]

LOL Have a good cry.Greece: Its Genetic Lineage
An in depth study conducted by the University of Oxford in the United
Kingdom in human gene distribution has heralded some concrete news that
has stunned Greece. The university's leading professors have lead the
research into DNA testing of the peoples of Europe and the following
conclusions were drawn:
The genetic compound found of the people of Greece and Turkey is identical.
The researchers were stunned to find that the DNA samples they obtained
had identical features. After exhaustive , complex and re-verified
analysis they concluded that on the evidence they have before them,
modern Turks and Greeks are the same people. To substantiate their
findings, the Oxford Professors gave visual examples of the genetic
maturity of the genes between Greeks and Turks. Amongst many other
indicators the genes growth, metabolism, and DNA is 100% identical.
The news was viciously attacked by the Greek government, labeling it a
"conspiracy" .
As is custom, the Greek government's stance was lead by their
Archbishops and Priests. However, all their arguments to a homogeneous
race were dismissed by Oxford University, which said that there was
irrefutable scientific proof that could not be denied.
The Oxford team also stated that this officially means that modern
"Greeks" have no genealogical descent and therefore no lineage with
the Hellenes and Hellas . This remark did not please the Greek
government. These findings from the team at Oxford University were
screened in a documentary on the "Discovery" channel on Galaxy TV on
25/12/97. A repeat of the program has been scheduled for a later date.

[Link]

Well,how about this then, is it Alexanderesqe enough for you?CIA REPORT-GREEK/MACEDONIAN DISPUTE BECAUSE OF MACEDONIAN LAND.The secret study of the CIA reads that Alexander was not Greek, and that the current problem between Macedonia and Greece are not only because of the origin of this emperor.This information, presented by the Greek TV station 'ANTENA', that the content of the document explains the attitude of Washington in the Greek-Macedonian dispute. The report also reads that Alexander the Great and Macedonians at that time were Illyrians and enemies to Greece, and that Macedonia was not Greek. The authors claim that Greece refuses to recognize Macedonia not only because of the ancient emperor, but also because of its fear that Macedonia might require a returning of its predecessors' land and a compensation for the violence in the past. Greece is also afraid, reads the report, that Macedonians might ask for their homes to be returned to them, which might become one of the most serious in this part of Europe.The report ends with the statement that, after the Second Balkan War, 'a policy of Hellenization was applied in the Aegean Macedonia, and hundreds of thousands Greeks were settled in the area.'

[ancientlibrary]

Can we please remove these posts? They are pure ethnic propaganda, and I am getting very tired of them. They also violate posted rules. If I wanted to hang out with illiterate biggots, I would be at stormfront.com.

[ancientlibrary]

Can we please remove these posts? They are pure ethnic propaganda, and I am getting very tired of them. They also violate posted rules. If I wanted to hang out with illiterate biggots, I would be at stormfront.com.

[yiannis]

Hi Tim,In my previous post, I spelled Lakedaimon, the way it was spoken, not writen.In modern Greece we call the region "Lakonia" (term used also in ancient Greece) and the people as "Lakones".
When we refer to ancient times, we use -of course- the ancient term as it was: "Lakedaimonia" for the land and "Lakedaimonians" or simler "Spartans" for the people. (not "Lake(th)imon", but D is spelled like a voiced-th and alpha-iota pronounced like eta (not iota)), so we say "Laketh(d)emonia".It would be great if we knew for sure how ancient Greek language was being pronounced, but one thing is for sure, there were as many pronounciations as Greek dialekts, that means too many!

[Pamm]

What happened here? Whenever I have posted a question in the past, and for that matter whenever I've read others questions, I've always seen intelligent discussion follow. I have recommended this forum to many people having questions about Alexander because I have great respect for many of you on this forum. I must say though that looking through these responses I have been shocked. Nobody even bothered to answer Daniels question and it was a good one. I think I shall repost it if you don't mind because I am interested in what you all think was Alexanders lasting contribution to our world; I have only had the opportunity to read a couple of books about Alexander and would appreciate more input.Anyway, Daniel, if you are out there still. Please check the final chapter of 'Alexander the Great' by Robin Lane Fox; he talks a lot about the lasting effects of Alexander's rein.

[marcus]

Hi Pamela,Well, unfortunately, that's what happens when people start publishing nationalist propaganda on the site - the original question/comment gets lost. Whether or not others would have responded to Daniel's original post, it was hardly going to happen after Pela's post.So apologies to Daniel, but perhaps with your re-statement of the question there'll be more answers, and possibly even sensible and relevant ones at that.ATBMarcus

[Aris]

You know, ignorance of history can be amusing sometimes... To the person who posted that Greeks and Turks are genetically "exactly the same" (no matter how rediculous that sounds). I don't know whether that genetical research was actually done or not, but I wouldn't finds its results for the following reaons. People tend to get mislead by the name of the modern Turkish nationality which is also referred to as "Turk". The question of Greeks and Turks being genetically similar has nothing to do with Greeks being the true ancestors of ancient Greeks, it has to do with Turks being the ancestors of the Ottomans who sacked Constantinoupolis. You see the original Turkic people (Seljuks and Ottomans) who fought against Byzantium, they had invaded from central Asia and were physically closer to Chinese and Mongolian people. The presence of Greek peoples in the region of Anatolia (modern Turkey) had been dominant since Alexander the Great's conquest and the start of the Hellenistic Age in the 4th century BC. When Turks occupied Anatolia in the 11th century AD, that land was almost FULLY inhabited by Greeks and people who had been Hellenized the past 1500 years. So what do you think that happened then? That some heaps of millions of Greeks migrated to the remaining Byzantine peninsula, or that they converted to Muslim and became Ottoman? Almost 400 years later the Ottomans sack Constantinoupolis. The Asiatic "Turkic" warrior tribes was assimilated with the Greeks of Anatolia and all the Hellenized and Ottomanized people (Kelts, Hittites etc) who had been to that region. The during the 400 years of Ottoman rule, the muslim (Ottomans) are not allowed BY LAW to mix with Christian (Greek) subjects, unless the Christians converted to Muslim (hence Greeks or Slavs becoming Turks). So during the long rule of the Ottoman period thousands of Balkan people converted. What's most ironic, is that most of the modern-day population of Turkey has ancestry traced to people who were enslaved to the Ottomans, rather than the Ottomans themselves. So if you're too slow I'll sum this up for you: Real Turks looked like Chinese and Mongolians. Modern Turks don't. They look Southern European. Why? Because racially they're are. The Modern Turkish is a mixture of the Anatolian, Greek and Slavic populations who inhabited those regions when the Ottoman ARMIES invaded, and the Turkic element is probably as present as it is in Hungaria and Finland. So it is certain that Greeks and Turks have gene