Iron Maiden - Alexander The Great
"My son ask for thyself another
Kingdom, for that which I leave
is too small for thee"
(King Philip of Macedonia - 339 B.C.)
Near to the east
In a part of ancient Greece
In an ancient land called Macedonia
Was born a son
To Philip of Macedon
The legend his name was Alexander
At the age of nineteen
He became the Macedon King
And he swore to free all of Asia Minor
By the Aegian Sea
In 334 B.C.
He utterly beat the armies of Persia
[Chorus:]
Alexander the Great
His name struck fear into hearts of men
Alexander the Great
Became a legend 'mongst mortal men
King Darius the third
Defeated fled Persia
The Scythians fell by the river Jaxartes
Then Egypt fell to the Macedon King as well
And he founded the city called Alexandria
By the Tigris river
He met King Darius again
And crushed him again in the battle of Arbela
Entering Babylon
And Susa, treasures he found
Took Persepolis the capital of Persia
[Chorus:]
Alexander the Great
His name struck fear into hearts of men
Alexander the Great
Became a God amongst mortal men
A Phrygian King had bound a chariot yoke
And Alexander cut the 'Gordian knot'
And legend said that who untied the knot
He would become the master of Asia
Hellenism he spread far and wide
The Macedonian learned mind
Their culture was a western way of life
He paved the way for Christianity
Marching on, marching on
The battle weary marching side by side
Alexander's army line by line
They wouldn't follow him to India
Tired of the combat, pain and the glory
Alexander the Great
His name struck fear into hearts of men
Alexander the Great
He died of fever in Babylon
"Alexander the Great, (Alexander III of Macedon) (356-323 B.C.), King of Macedonia, was born in late July 356 BC in Pella, Macedonia, he was one of the greatest military genius in history. He conquered much of what was then the civilized world, driven by his divine ambition of the world conquest and the creation of a universal world monarchy.
"Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war.
Above all, we are free men, and they are slaves.
There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service — but how different is their cause from ours!
They will be fighting for pay — and not much of at that;
we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it.
As for our foreign troops — Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes — they are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe,
and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia.
And what, finally, of the two men in supreme command?
You have Alexander, they — Darius!"
Alexander The Great - Addressing his troops prior to the Battle of Issus, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian Book II, 7.