Alexanders choice of conquest.

[Xehh II]

Why did Alexander go east with his army? Why not west into italy? Or north into... er whatever's north?

[blitzkrieg80]

Alexander did fight in the North (maybe not far North, but North for them )

[Detlef]

His father had already planned an invasion of persia.

[pseudocaesar]

It was a cultural thing, the Greeks have always hated the Persians, and Alexanders pretence of his invasion was the liberation of Ionian Greeks.

[Quintus Aurelius]

and the Persians were very rich

[Thaatu]

Weather was nicer in the east.

[Intranetusa]

It was a cultural thing, the Greeks have always hated the Persians, and Alexanders pretence of his invasion was the liberation of Ionian Greeks.

Greeks have always respected the Persian culture and civilization. They never "hated" the Persians.

[Horst Nordfink]

Why not west into italy? Or north into... er whatever's north?

Because there was sod all there worth going for!!

[Erik Bloodaxe]

There is no doubt that Alexander the great, son of Zeus himself, wouldn't be [I]that [/I ]great without the preparations made by his father, Philip. About why he chooses the Persian Empire, well, what I would say is that it was the only obviously threat, this was where the challenges and riches could be found. His father was about to invade the Persians, maybe he got his father killed so the awaiting glory would be his? Who knows? It had always been the Greek dream to go East, though the Macedonians were not Greeks, but they tried. I guess this dream had been adopted by them as well. There were many reasons, I'm not sure if there exist a 100% correct answer.

Cheers.

[russia almighty]

Yeah one thing he had was he was bold . He threw out the military maxim of numerical superiority which was pretty stupid regardless of how you look at it . I think it would be interesting to see how say Gaugamela went if he had man for man the same #'s as the Persians.

[Megas Methuselah]

Funny I can see him getting distracted and taking out Ethiopia and Nubia while he was at it .

lol! Based on some books I've read, I don't find this hard to imagine at all!

He went east because that's where the enemy were

"March to the sound of the guns!"

[Spoofa]

There is no doubt that Alexander the great, son of Zeus himself, wouldn't be [I]that [/I ]great without the preparations made by his father, Philip. About why he chooses the Persian Empire, well, what I would say is that it was the only obviously threat, this was where the challenges and riches could be found. His father was about to invade the Persians, maybe he got his father killed so the awaiting glory would be his? Who knows? It had always been the Greek dream to go East, though the Macedonians were not Greeks, but they tried. I guess this dream had been adopted by them as well. There were many reasons, I'm not sure if there exist a 100% correct answer.

Cheers.

I'd say they were Greeks.

[Erik Bloodaxe]

I'd say they were Greeks.

Why do you think so? please explain

They were not considered as Greeks, by the Greeks. I also remember reading somewhere that they were not Greeks ethnically either. (If that made any sense, English is not my mother tongue sry>.<)

[Bootsiuv]

It made sense erik.

Anyways, weren't the macedonians thought to be of the same descent of the 'dorian' greeks who overthrew mycanaean (sp) culture c. 1200 BC i.e. the athenians and makedons would have shared some blood ties....as the athenians were 'barbarians' from the north a 1000 years prior.

Just curious....

[keravnos]

First of all people do not remember that the "west" at the time was occupied- another guy had invaded there already. Alexandros of Epeiros had gone there and fought many winning battles until being assasinated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Epirus

When Alexandros of Makedonia started out, his uncle was already fighting in Italia.

But I guess people don't know that Epeiros didn't start with Pyrrhos, nor did it end with him.

Second, from all I have read of Alexander, he seems to me to have more of a desire for glory, wonderlust extreme, not to mention the money was good... Now, I fully blame him for succumbing to the whims of an Athenian whore when she asked him to burn Persepolis down, but that is another story.

Third, QwertyMIDX is right, Persia WAS THE CENTER OF THE WORLD AT THE TIME. Imagine Alexandros heading west, kicking the crap out of all the Italic penninsula, Gaul and reaching "Kassitereides nesous"=islands of tin, aka Brittain. Would he hope to have earned a percentile of the total loot, people, territory and fame he did when invading Asia? I guess not.

Fourth, the story of 12.000 hoplites (which were cut down to 10.000 so that it would fit the "myrioi"=10.000 title better) going up until the Persian capital then retreating under constant harassment, but basically 8.000 of them made it back. That did prove that it was feasible.

Fifth, and let's not be afraid of words, THIS was the greek "Eastern Expansion". Russians expanded to Siberia, Greeks expanded to the East, Messopotamia, Persia, Baktria. Aristoteles hoped that a common enemy would unite the Greeks. So long as Alexandros was alive this was possible. Aristoteles had also written in his Meteorologika, " The earth is quite small and round" thus Aristoteles wrote "you can get to whatever point in the world you want whether you start from the east or from the west". It is unknown whether this has had an effect on Alexander, still it did take the 14th century and Thomas Akinates to translate it into Latin, so the rest of the world would know. Overpopulation constantly led to conflict, which was in the eyes of many of the greeks then and now, a civil war. Only way out, a common enemy, and that common enemy was the Persians.

Sixth, abolish all pre-concepts of "civilized greeks" conquering "unwashed beardmen". In all intents and purposes, Persia was much more civilized then Greece. The lush lifestyle of the Persian elite and those residing in the royal palaces were reported by Xenophon in "Kyrou paideia" brings in mind the Roman era of the first two centuries AD. In this case, looting slashing and burning was the norm rather than the exception. And the worst part of it is that it wasn't Alexandros who ordered all those massacres, but his allies holding a grudge.

Seventh, blind luck. So many others before him or after him tried to do the same but wound up killed. Looking at Gaugamela, I really can think of 10 ways he could be defeated, EASILY.

[cmacq]

the persians were to the greeks... as the kelts were to the romans.