Alexander The Great

Alexander The Great is one of the latest, most updated, and contemporary books on the life of the ancient, Macedonian king, who would extend his empire from a little slide of land in Greece through Persia, Egypt, all the way to India, forming the greatest empire the ancient world had ever seen.

When Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), he strategically bundled all of his resources and armed forces to achieve specific milestones.

If you’ve been reading Four Minute Books for a while, you’ll probably remember that I just love the Steve Jobs quote that says “focus is about saying no.” I’ve mentioned it in at least five summaries, because I feel I can’t be reminded of it often enough. In this case, it was a literal “no.”

A crucial city to take over was Miletus, which was a big base of the Persian navy at the time (334 BC). The city initially surrendered right away, but soon the word spread that the Persian navy was about to strike. While planning their battle, one of Alexander’s generals and advisors, Parmenion, spotted an eagle on one of the Greek ships, taking it as a sign to take the battle to sea (yup, that’s how war strategizing worked back in the day).

But seeing that the eagle looked towards the land, Alexander told him “no,” having had an insight: by bundling his forces to take the city, he could seize the docks and keep the Persian navy from ever reaching the shore.

After the decisive victory, he decided to bundle his resources again by disbanding the Greek navy. He knew they’d never stand a chance against the Persian fleet anyway, and replicating this strategy of not allowing them to dock along the entire Mediterranean coastline was the more focused option.

Concentrating his resources and efforts in small, but tactically important places would often lead Alexander the Great to go against what conventional wisdom of war would have him do, like leading his troops across high mountains in harsh winters or sneaking a few dancers into a city, who would then proceed to kill the soldiers they danced for at night. One of Alexander’s greatest and most worthy adversaries was King Darius III, but after his victory over Persia by taking Persepolis, the capital, a traitor named Bessus killed the former king of Persia, which spurred Alexander into a mad chase. Expecting to go home after their biggest feat, the Greek army wasn’t thrilled at the idea of chasing one guy all the way to India, but since continuing their quest was such an unexpected turn of events, Alexander managed to rally his troops with an inspiring speech. Bessus hid behind…