Alexander was born a year
after Olimpias and Phillip II were married which was in in 357 B.C..
Alexander probably took Olimpias's side of the family because of his unnatural
seriousness. He did not do the usual things that other boys would do
like drinking. Alexander also probably got his beautifulness from
Olmpias who was supposed to be killed from 200 soldiers, but as the
story goes, once they saw her, they left without hurting her. Alexander
did not just get qualities from Olmpias though. He also got the quality
of daring from Phillip, something that he needed in battles.
The
only thing Alexander wanted to do was achieve great things. He was obsessed
with this and it showed when his father had conquered some city and
Alexander said " Phillip, my father will have everything and I
won't have anything left to conquer!" Alexander's first experience
of power was at age 16 and was because of Phillip fighting at Byzantium
and Alexander being called to Pella to be king in the time of his father
being away. Many people didn't think Alexander was ready. After all, he
was still learning grammar and arithmetic, but Alexander treated this
job like he had been working at it for a long time, and proved them
wrong.
At 337 B.C. Phillip saw another
woman. He was tired of Olmpias with her pet snakes (it was part of her
religion) and her cold premium ways so he decided to divorce her and
married this new woman. Olmpias and Alexander were very worried about
this. If Phillip had a baby boy with this woman he might name this son
his heir (a person who will take over the throne after the king dies).
After awhile Alexander couldn't take this stress anymore and said to
Phillip one night "What am I then? Worthless?" Phillip was
very drunk at the time because when he got up and lifted his sword in
the air, he then fell in the middle of the room. Very angry Alexander
said "Look at this!" He is trying to march from Europe to Asia
and he can't even walk from one couch to another." On the last
events of the day of the wedding for Phillip he was murdered by one of
his body guards. Some people say that it was Olmpias who plotted
the murder but it was never proven. Immediatly after the wedding
however, there was a new king: Alexander. Alexander had high
expectations for being king but he couldn't of expected what he was
going to do after all, he would conquer almost all of the world. His
father had just set the stage for him. |
