If only the Bering Land Bridge was still a thing at that time... He could have done the coolest thing ever (second only to the other coolest thing, which he also did)
There's a well-known line from Die Hard about Alexander weeping because there were no more worlds to conquer, but that's actually a misquote. It's actually based on an anecdote about Alexander hearing a philosopher argue that there were an infinite number of worlds in the universe, and starting to weep. When asked why he was crying, he said "is it not a reason to weep to hear that there are an infinite number of worlds, when I haven't even conquered this one?". The guy was already thinking about interstellar conquest several millenia before the invention of space travel. I swear if he hadn't died before reaching 30 we'd all be living under the intergalactic Greek empire.
I absolutely love that. Would you mind providing a source for this? I know a guy who’d think this is hilarious, but is also too academic to just take it on face value, and I haven’t been able to find anything about it on my own so far.
@@petrospetromixos6962 It makes sense that Alexander would want only the strongest of his generals to rule the empire. If you're strong enough to take the Empire as Alexander did, you deserve to keep it.
In defense of Alexander's soldiers' rebelling and wanting to go home: Imagine in the modern day you're a soldier under a general whom you trust with you life. He's charismatic and under him you know you'll never lose a battle. Now imagine you discover life on Mars that was trying to conquer you, so you conquer them instead. Neat! Took a few years just to get to Mars but at least Earth is safe. But then your general, whom you trust with your life, takes you and your comrades in arms to conquer the martial territories around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Okaaay. Takes you a few more years just to get there and subjugate the Martian forces around those areas but you're still jazzed. Then he takes you to conquer Pluto, which by this point you've been nearly a decade out in deep, unexplored space. Pluto it turns out is rich in resources and has a advanced civilization on it but still you're like "Dude, why are we conquering mother f***ing Pluto when my beautiful wife/husband is back home on Earth?" And then after you're done conquering Pluto, your commander wants to take you to conquer the Kuiper Belt, aka the literal known edge of our solar system. AND he's made it no secret he wants to conquer anything beyond the far reaches of the Solar System as well. At that point you've been away from home in deep space for nearly ten years fighting strange alien civilizations nearly non-stop, and this mother f***er wants to take you BEYOND the borders of explored space. At that point it's not unreasonable to go "Screw you! I am NOT going beyond the known solar system! There may be alien civilizations beyond our known system, but I'm tired of fighting and I want to got home! you crazy ass b*****d!"
@@joshuasepeda3289 I mean you say that, but imagine the most tedious road trip you've ever gone on. Let's say a three day car trip. Remember how cramped it is and how bored you were and how you couldn't wait to be out by the time you were nearly there. Now imagine that feeling, but non-stop for over ten years. That was just what it took to get to Mars. That guy you hate? You ain't getting away from either. He's just there doing all the things you hate right in your face. For ten. Years. I mean, if you want to go on a cramped, twenty year car trip with no pit stops and throw yourself beyond the known solar system along with a bunch of yahoos you probably hate, go right ahead. Just make certain to hide the sharp objects
@hfar_in_the_sky Yes, true. But on the upside, we're purging FILTHY XENO SCUM AND CONQUERING MORE WORLDS FOR HUMANITY!!! So it's a fair trade, in my opinion.
Alexander is a ruler that, if we didn't have SO MUCH EVIDENCE FOR, we would write off as mythical. Makes me question how much of "myth" for less literate or state-like cultures are actually true.
Well, one guy who is more myth than legend is Ragnar Lodbrok. Basically every nordic source of him makes him basically a sort of demigod, birthed by Odin himself. The thing with Ragnar is that there are non-nordic sources about him too, so we know he must have existed in some way. And all the non-nordic sources, mostly from the Anglos of what is modern day England, say "That bastard Ragnar Lodbrok and his Vikings just came over here, killed everyone, burned everything down, and stole all our stuff. Damn Ragnar!" so yeah, there are a lot of cases like what you mention all over the world.
God, PLEASE do a video on the Wars of the Diadochi, it is genuinely such a whacky confusing period of different guys stabbing each other to take their slice of the empire. Seleucus especially is great because he truly was Alexander's equal in "dude how the actual *fuck* are you winning this hard?" He started as a barely notable general of Alexander and ended up with the better slice of the empire Alexander had conquered. Honestly, you could dedicate multiple episodes to the hellenistic period, it is SO goofy. Like that time the Spartans gave it one last go on regaining glory, or Antigonus Gonatas bullshittery into somehow becoming the most stable king of Macedonia since Philip II, or Pyrrhus' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Seriously, it's a fun period, can't recommend it enough
It is pretty underrated, most likely due to being overshadowed by Alexander himself and the complexity of the Wars in a whole, making it a hard topic to get into. If you want some content that goes over them, I would recommend Kings and Generals, they are currently remastering their previous series on the Wars of the Diadochi, although I do have some stripes with some things that are said, and they don't touch too much on the details(although when the full documentary is released they probably will include some). I believe it is nevertheless a good nose dive into the period. Also at 4:32 , Jack Rackham mentions that Alexander could have ''protected his infant son'', but a true Wars of the Diadochi enthusiast knows that Alexander's son with Roxane wasn't born only AFTER Alexander's death, which is also why a small succession crisis occurred literally days after said death.
My favorite part is Eumenes. He wasn't even a soldier, he was a mere secretary, a pen pusher, a dangnabbit desk jockey and he still managed to put do 3 of the Diadochi with a tiny army.
@@di3727 my favourite comment I’ve seen on Eumenes is the fact that is surprisingly good military skills implies Alexander was such a good general that people near him absorbed military knowledge through osmosis
@@mrscoldarrow yeah, I know which comment that is, I forgot where it was, but that's just how it happened, Eumenes had no business being that good, he's one of my favorite guys for "what ifs", imagine if he had defeated Seleucus AND Ptolemy while the rest collapsed on themselves.
@@di3727 his only flaw is he had a real good talent for picking the losing side. Oh that, and the fact predominantly Macedonian army fucking *hated* him for being a Greek.
When someone says you can't do something, Alexander the Great says,"Cowabunga, it is." I have no doubt his empire would have been larger than even the Mongols who came after him if he had lived.
What he actually said was "Krateros" which means the strongest but was also the name of his most trusted generals and one of his primary administrators. He wasn't there when Alexander died since it was unexpected and Alexander had put him in charge of building that whole world conquest fleet. It's a popular theory that the generals who were present just chose to willfully ignore the fact that Krateros was also a guy who existed and was the most likely man to be Alexander's heir.
@@calvinherda4986nah i don't remember the exact Greek but there's debate over whether he said "the strongest" or a dudes name that sounded a lot like "the strongest". it was like krateros vs kreitos or something like that, you get the gist. i personally wanna believe he said "the strongest" and then died.
@@calvinherda4986they also conveniently forgot Krateros was also the most decorated adult fully functional Argead left in the family. (Alexander's elder brother was mentally challenged and his cousin Amyntas had been executed for conspiring with Darius). This also the same reason Phillip became king over Amyntas the son of the previous king in the first place P. S. This was probably spurred on by Perdiccas another Argead who was actually present at Alexander's death and who tried the hardest to execute Krateros
Alexander was asked by his generals to name a successor to avoid war. I have heard his response was something like, "I leave it to the strongest." There was probably more, but I don't remember it. Alexander is my favorite general in history.
@CG-yq2xy He didn't peace out by choice. Alexander was going to go and conquer Arabia, then all of Europe, then probably just keep conquering until he had nothing left to conquer. I believe he was poisoned by one of his generals.
@@joshuasepeda3289 Broke: Alexander was poisoned by assassins Woke: Alexander drank himself to death Bespoke: Assassins kept Alexander so stressed from the constant threat of assassination that they drove him to drink himself to death :D
Alexander was the epitome of a frat boy with a goal. Cultures in the conquered Asian lands refer to him as "Alexander the accursed" and for good reason. He just kept winning, against all odds, and it scared the hell out of them.
Naah they don't... Indians calling him Sikander which has a meaning of 'The undefeated' There is also a phrase 'Jo jeeta wo Sikandar' Which means only the victorious can call himself Alexander
Wrong Only the persians called him that. Indians had no record of him because bro had no relevance in India. The "India" he discovered was a tiny ass part of the western part lmao To be more accurate, he was mentioned but not in any source from the same time period, mentioned in way later sources iirc
@SiddarthaTB He was definitely in the Indian subcontinent. Alexander fought a kingdom in the Indus Valley. And the Maurya definitely knew the Selukids, which was founded by a general under a certain man. Who was that man again? Do you know?
@morgannull4685 Europe conquered the planet man, its not Asia. What mountains have to do with anything? What i mean is most of the land mongols conquered was empty land.They could have attacked Byzantium but they didnt ,so who knows
Please do a video on Hannibal, that man was crazy too. From crossing the Alps with Elephants to putting snakes in jars and then tossing them with catapults, he had the most insane ideas on how to win battles and they worked 99.9% of the time (unfortunately for him, that 0.1% was the Battle of Zama) but its crazy that of the three Punic Wars, the only one where Carthaga was actually winning battles was the second one, and only the battles Hannibal was involved in.
@@MatthewTheWandererOnly in the US you get your license when you are a teenager. In most of the world it's common to get it's common to get it well into your 20s (if you really need or want a car at all).
The generals and soldiers were definitely tired of the constant wars even if they led to victory. A decade of time invested in just warfare is pure insanity. They definitely poisoned him.
Alexander the Great was indeed insane...but he was one of the GOATs in all of human history. He was a madlad who feared nothing and loved battle. He was one of (if not THE) greatest generals in history, he was one of the greatest warriors in history who fought on the front lines with his soldiers and (though it is lesser known) one of the greater speakers as well. He not only knew how to fight, he knew how to lead and he knew how to raise morale and keep loyalty even when his people wanted to quit. A few days before he died, his generals asked the heirless Alexander who the empire should go to. Being the giga chad that he was, he replied "to the strongest!". Alexander wasn't a great king or emperor, but among warriors and generals he was probably THE GOAT. He is remembered in history as Alexander the GREAT for a reason.
Tbf, Alexander wanted to go further south in the Indian Subscontinent and the army already struggled as it were against elephants at the Hydaspes river aaaand they had thousands more where that came from.
Alexander won Hydaspes battle and next year conquered more Indians in the Malian campaign he finished his Indian campaign by conquering Sindh after Hydaspes.
Oh wow you hear about Alexander every so often, but I'm not sure if I've heard a "full" retelling of it. That is utterly insane, and I feel like this is one of my favorite of your videos Jack. Side note, the one thing that I will probably always first associate Alexander the Great with (because I'm weird) is Warehouse 13. Its lore is that "Warehouse 1" was essentially Alexander the Great's garage where he stashed all the cool and dangerous stuff that he won while out on campaign including a trident that was capable of causing earthquakes/destroying the world (and was probably responsible for the Bronze Age Collapse). And after his death someone or another was like, "we should probably not let random people get their hands on these," and thus the warehouses were born!
Fun fact, Demetrius of Bactria nicknamed "the Invincible" continued the "go east" trend. There are Indian records of him attacking as far east as modern day Patna, Bihar. Absolutely insane
You missed couple interesting bits. Alexander's horse Bukefalos was a PC itself and even got a city named after it! Second Alexander supposedly was so pissed that his men wanted home that he marched them through a desert.
The desert thing was not a punishment. It was a big mistake simply, or a silly attempt to make another achievement only for bragging rights than actually gaining something.
You're leaning into the humour of Alex's life but I think it's important to note that Philip was planning to invade persia himself, everything was planned and ready, and the motivation on paper was to avenge the destruction of Athens during the sexond persian war. Even if Philip hadn't conquered persia, we probably would have called him Philip the great if it hadn't been that his son was even more brilliant than himself. Philip's death probably delayed the invasion of Persia since the people that Philip had subjugated started rebelling because they didn't think the young alexander could match philip's prowess and the first battles Alexander had to face were west, north and south of macedon, and right from the start Alexander is onconventional, daring and somehow also incredibly lucky. Would have loved a longer series of videos, but it could be an infinity project. just describing the Siege of Pelium could have been an entire video itself.
Philip’s plan was pretty shit, Alexander had to spend 2 years putting down the celt cucks before he went east and Philip didn’t take that into account.
Wait... The Macedonians sided with the Persians though... And the Athenians hated the Macedonians... And he also conquered Athens and his adopted home of Thebes... So that doesn't make a lot of sense... I legitimately think they were just insane.
@@CollinMcLean I don't quite understand were you are coming from? Philip planning the invasion of Persia is very well documented, in fact when philip was murdered he'd already sent advance armies into Anatolia, but after his death the plans got severely delayed since Alexander wasn't respected as Philip was. Alexander had to put his foot down and prove himself by beating up a bunch of neighboring people before assuming leadership of the invasion into Persia
"and so it was decreed that no man could have an Empire as big as his" 1st place: Alexander 2nd place: Genghis Khan 3rd place: Tamerlane Queen Victoria: no *man* eh?
The best 7 minutes on Alexander I ever spent. Somehow, you skimmed over the death of his father that gave him the crown at 22. Not like Prince Charles who had to wait around the palace until he was a doddering old royal to wait for Queen Elizabeth to give up.
@@oceanberserker no? Plato was Aristotle’s teacher, and his name (Plato) translates to “broad shoulders”, which he earned in the ring. Being taught by THAT GUY certainly would have had an impact on how Aristotle taught his own student!
@@prettypic444 Huh. Interesting. I know Plato was renowned for his wrestling skill, but I never heard that Aristotle was involved in any sort of athletic exploits.
Great summary. Studied Aristotle in college, 100% accurate. If anyone's interested in the longer version of Alexander's stories, there's a great documentary "In the Footsteps of Alexander", where Michael Wood traced his path on foot, and told some great stories about the battles and myths :)
Another reason Alexander was insane is that Macedon could absolutely not afford an army large enough to conquer Persia, especially after Alexander decided to abolish taxes. So how did he afford such an army? He took out giant loans from a bunch of rich guys planning to pay for everything with the plunder he’d get conquering Persia. He needed to fight quickly and win or he wouldn’t be able to pay his army and keep them together. A general for the Persians name Memnon, an ethnic Greek, tried to warn the Persians. He told them, accurately that the only way Alexander could afford to keep his army together was by winning a battle, and that Macedon could be defeated by simply pulling back in a scorched earth strategy. Naturally, the Persians were a little suspicious of a Greek guy telling them not to resist a Greek invasion, so they met Alexander in Battle, providing him the income he needed to keep invading.
You should do a video about the Wars of the Diadochi (make them about Perdiccas, Antipater, Antigonus and/or Cassander), because Alexander's empire didn't just collapsed after his death, it lasted 14 years, it started as wars for the regency and ended with each comander creating their own kingdom
Considering that Australia couldn’t defeat a bunch of flightless birds during the Emu war, trying to conquer North America would be beyond hopeless for them.
The Persians had a Greek mercenary, who knew Greece's strength, had suggested a scorched earth strategy, which would have ruined Alexander's plans, but Persia got rejected the idea. Alexander has a lot of plot armor.
@@CollinMcLean Same with Genghis. Genghis was more lucky than Alexander. The only one who wasn't lucky in the historical conquerers list is probably Tamerlane.
Any chance of doing a video on Anabasis' The March Up Country (or "What normally happens to large Greek armies in this situation":) ? I thought you did one on this, but I can't find it.
Lol I love the Age of Empires 1 reference: that was the first triple A game I ever played, back in the day even! And it makes up for no Iron Maiden references. Bravo, Jack.
@@MatthewTheWanderer Well, some would consider it to be a middle name, which is how I read your comment. Still flattered you guys were guessing though, made my day tbh.
My brother, i am Greek, and i thank you very very much for showing how cool was Alexander the Great. For those who don't know, western from Greece, people called him Alexader the magno. Thank you very much for boosting the greatest leader ever! Be well!!
Alexander died in one of his first battles. His top men never told anybody and then couldn't go back to Greece so they just went the other way. A guy in his armor died a few more times until they ran out of volunteers. It came to me in a dream.
Throw in a bit of Persia-booing out, possibly arranging his father's death, stopping by the ruins of Troy to do Achilles/Patroclus live RP with his boyfriend...
The men of Alexander wanted to go home after the battle with King Porus of the small NW Indian kingdom because they suffered higher than expected casualties from that battle and were afraid of rumors saying the larger Indian kingdoms had thousands of war elephants. Furthermore, some modern scholars say the battle may actually have been a pyrrhic victory where Alexander suffered so much casualties that morale nose dived and his army was handicapped.
Lol he was such a completionist, when he heared about a tribe in the Persian heartland which even the Persians couldnt subjugate, he went straight for them.
Philip: You are going to be a great leader one day, take my place and even challenge Persia. You need to understands your destiny Olympias: YOU ARE THE SON OF ZEUS!!! GO CONQUER THE WORLD!!!
"We want to go home!"
"Ok"
"Plea...really?"
"Sure, I have been told that the world is round"
10/10 line
@@JackRackam ha thanks
200 IQ response.😎
Alexander problems require Alexander solutions
If only the Bering Land Bridge was still a thing at that time... He could have done the coolest thing ever (second only to the other coolest thing, which he also did)
I love how "they were winning so much they were tired of winning" is now an actual expression lol
It's like completely rolling a game in tf2 at some point It's not even fun. It's wow they're losing REALLY HARD, it's impressive.
Suffering from success.
Suffering a victory!
"By going east."
Holy shit, what a line.
There's a well-known line from Die Hard about Alexander weeping because there were no more worlds to conquer, but that's actually a misquote. It's actually based on an anecdote about Alexander hearing a philosopher argue that there were an infinite number of worlds in the universe, and starting to weep. When asked why he was crying, he said "is it not a reason to weep to hear that there are an infinite number of worlds, when I haven't even conquered this one?". The guy was already thinking about interstellar conquest several millenia before the invention of space travel. I swear if he hadn't died before reaching 30 we'd all be living under the intergalactic Greek empire.
That makes a LOT more sense! Alexander knew that he hadn't even come close to conquering the whole world in real life.
That's the Line he says after he conquer all the worlds.
Some world in those infinite worlds is....and it's only a matter of time before he invades the multiverse
Who do you think the Emperor of Man is?
I absolutely love that. Would you mind providing a source for this? I know a guy who’d think this is hilarious, but is also too academic to just take it on face value, and I haven’t been able to find anything about it on my own so far.
"Ok. If we lose we can turn around."
"We're not going to lose!"
Had me DYING!!!!!!
Yes cuz writes are on our side
Imagine the horror of his soldiers upon coming to the realisation that "going east" involves alot more than "just" persia.
I think with the resources of the massive Persian Empire now at his disposal he would have even conquered Northern India
@@zippyparakeet1074 his successors certainly did
@@dane1382Not for long
@@zippyparakeet1074 He would have reached Japan man
@@petrospetromixos6962ehh the Himalayas might stop him
Imagine winning SO much as a general, that your own army wants to go home because they dont see any chance of losing in sight.
imaging him being a blondie like the cartoon he shows XD the armour is so off too...
It was more that they spent 16 years at war away from their families and while they did win, all the spoils and glory went to Alexander alone.
@@iverkjellkken6569”oh boo hoo, you should have understood the consequences”
@@29Manuu tbf he could've been rose gold blond. and his hair does curl in this
@@iverkjellkken6569that's not even true. Inform yourself before spilling your verbal diarrhea all over the place 🎉🤪
Alexander is dying, and his generals go: "So, who inherits?"
Alexander:"To the strongest"
*refuses to elaborate*
*dies*
Based.😎😎
Alexander: 🗿
He said krateros=strongest , some say he left it to his trusted general Krateros but the rest didnt accept it and start fighting
@@petrospetromixos6962 It makes sense that Alexander would want only the strongest of his generals to rule the empire. If you're strong enough to take the Empire as Alexander did, you deserve to keep it.
@@joshuasepeda3289 But he should know that would lead to civil war breaking of his empire and threatening of his succesors life
In defense of Alexander's soldiers' rebelling and wanting to go home:
Imagine in the modern day you're a soldier under a general whom you trust with you life. He's charismatic and under him you know you'll never lose a battle. Now imagine you discover life on Mars that was trying to conquer you, so you conquer them instead. Neat! Took a few years just to get to Mars but at least Earth is safe. But then your general, whom you trust with your life, takes you and your comrades in arms to conquer the martial territories around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Okaaay. Takes you a few more years just to get there and subjugate the Martian forces around those areas but you're still jazzed.
Then he takes you to conquer Pluto, which by this point you've been nearly a decade out in deep, unexplored space. Pluto it turns out is rich in resources and has a advanced civilization on it but still you're like "Dude, why are we conquering mother f***ing Pluto when my beautiful wife/husband is back home on Earth?"
And then after you're done conquering Pluto, your commander wants to take you to conquer the Kuiper Belt, aka the literal known edge of our solar system. AND he's made it no secret he wants to conquer anything beyond the far reaches of the Solar System as well. At that point you've been away from home in deep space for nearly ten years fighting strange alien civilizations nearly non-stop, and this mother f***er wants to take you BEYOND the borders of explored space. At that point it's not unreasonable to go "Screw you! I am NOT going beyond the known solar system! There may be alien civilizations beyond our known system, but I'm tired of fighting and I want to got home! you crazy ass b*****d!"
Honestly, I would be stoked to continue. LET'S GO ALREADY!!!
@@joshuasepeda3289 I mean you say that, but imagine the most tedious road trip you've ever gone on. Let's say a three day car trip. Remember how cramped it is and how bored you were and how you couldn't wait to be out by the time you were nearly there.
Now imagine that feeling, but non-stop for over ten years. That was just what it took to get to Mars. That guy you hate? You ain't getting away from either. He's just there doing all the things you hate right in your face. For ten. Years.
I mean, if you want to go on a cramped, twenty year car trip with no pit stops and throw yourself beyond the known solar system along with a bunch of yahoos you probably hate, go right ahead. Just make certain to hide the sharp objects
@hfar_in_the_sky Yes, true. But on the upside, we're purging FILTHY XENO SCUM AND CONQUERING MORE WORLDS FOR HUMANITY!!! So it's a fair trade, in my opinion.
@@wizardzh don't worry i think he's 12, no way an actual adult/young adult or even teenager maybe would say that.
Lmao great analogy
Alexander was the protagonist and everyone was a secondary character.
r/iamthemaincharacter
@@pierrebegley2746r/iamthemaincharecter butwhyareyiuaware?
*is
Yeah tell that too Porus.😂
@@uselesshero.official Porus was encircled at hydaspes, got his son and most of his men killed….. porus got whopped 🤣
This has to be the most hilarious and well-presented one you've done
Alexander is a ruler that, if we didn't have SO MUCH EVIDENCE FOR, we would write off as mythical. Makes me question how much of "myth" for less literate or state-like cultures are actually true.
Well, one guy who is more myth than legend is Ragnar Lodbrok. Basically every nordic source of him makes him basically a sort of demigod, birthed by Odin himself. The thing with Ragnar is that there are non-nordic sources about him too, so we know he must have existed in some way. And all the non-nordic sources, mostly from the Anglos of what is modern day England, say "That bastard Ragnar Lodbrok and his Vikings just came over here, killed everyone, burned everything down, and stole all our stuff. Damn Ragnar!" so yeah, there are a lot of cases like what you mention all over the world.
@@CSLucasEpicAlexander is the myth and the legend and the truth. All of them at once and so undeniably so that everyone agrees on it.
Reality is stranger than fiction
Reality my friend is crazier than some stories and fiction
Well, you know what they say. There's a kernel of truth to every legend.
Alexander really was the first first map painter
Cyrus the great had the same hobby.
So was Nebuchadnezzar and his predecessors
Painted it red
Sredny Stog Koryos laughing in proto indo european
God, PLEASE do a video on the Wars of the Diadochi, it is genuinely such a whacky confusing period of different guys stabbing each other to take their slice of the empire. Seleucus especially is great because he truly was Alexander's equal in "dude how the actual *fuck* are you winning this hard?" He started as a barely notable general of Alexander and ended up with the better slice of the empire Alexander had conquered.
Honestly, you could dedicate multiple episodes to the hellenistic period, it is SO goofy. Like that time the Spartans gave it one last go on regaining glory, or Antigonus Gonatas bullshittery into somehow becoming the most stable king of Macedonia since Philip II, or Pyrrhus' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Seriously, it's a fun period, can't recommend it enough
It is pretty underrated, most likely due to being overshadowed by Alexander himself and the complexity of the Wars in a whole, making it a hard topic to get into. If you want some content that goes over them, I would recommend Kings and Generals, they are currently remastering their previous series on the Wars of the Diadochi, although I do have some stripes with some things that are said, and they don't touch too much on the details(although when the full documentary is released they probably will include some). I believe it is nevertheless a good nose dive into the period.
Also at 4:32 , Jack Rackham mentions that Alexander could have ''protected his infant son'', but a true Wars of the Diadochi enthusiast knows that Alexander's son with Roxane wasn't born only AFTER Alexander's death, which is also why a small succession crisis occurred literally days after said death.
My favorite part is Eumenes. He wasn't even a soldier, he was a mere secretary, a pen pusher, a dangnabbit desk jockey and he still managed to put do 3 of the Diadochi with a tiny army.
@@di3727 my favourite comment I’ve seen on Eumenes is the fact that is surprisingly good military skills implies Alexander was such a good general that people near him absorbed military knowledge through osmosis
@@mrscoldarrow yeah, I know which comment that is, I forgot where it was, but that's just how it happened, Eumenes had no business being that good, he's one of my favorite guys for "what ifs", imagine if he had defeated Seleucus AND Ptolemy while the rest collapsed on themselves.
@@di3727 his only flaw is he had a real good talent for picking the losing side. Oh that, and the fact predominantly Macedonian army fucking *hated* him for being a Greek.
When someone says you can't do something, Alexander the Great says,"Cowabunga, it is." I have no doubt his empire would have been larger than even the Mongols who came after him if he had lived.
I agree. It's one of my favorite alternate history scenarios: What if Alexander the Great lived for several more decades?
@@MatthewTheWanderer Im kinda glad he didnt. The prospect is frightening
@MatthewTheWanderer, I don't think we would've had the Roman Empire if he did. It is a very interesting alternative history story.
@@joshuasepeda3289 Yeah, probably not. Everything would have been different.
@@Freekymoho Why?
Given the whole "to the strongest" thing, he probably wanted that battle royale after he died all things considered
What he actually said was "Krateros" which means the strongest but was also the name of his most trusted generals and one of his primary administrators. He wasn't there when Alexander died since it was unexpected and Alexander had put him in charge of building that whole world conquest fleet. It's a popular theory that the generals who were present just chose to willfully ignore the fact that Krateros was also a guy who existed and was the most likely man to be Alexander's heir.
@@calvinherda4986 the balls on that guy's parents though; naming their kid 'the strongest'
@@calvinherda4986nah i don't remember the exact Greek but there's debate over whether he said "the strongest" or a dudes name that sounded a lot like "the strongest". it was like krateros vs kreitos or something like that, you get the gist.
i personally wanna believe he said "the strongest" and then died.
@@calvinherda4986they also conveniently forgot Krateros was also the most decorated adult fully functional Argead left in the family. (Alexander's elder brother was mentally challenged and his cousin Amyntas had been executed for conspiring with Darius).
This also the same reason Phillip became king over Amyntas the son of the previous king in the first place
P. S. This was probably spurred on by Perdiccas another Argead who was actually present at Alexander's death and who tried the hardest to execute Krateros
Alexander was asked by his generals to name a successor to avoid war. I have heard his response was something like, "I leave it to the strongest." There was probably more, but I don't remember it. Alexander is my favorite general in history.
Nope that was it. Bro woke up, decided to one-punch his way to the east, and then peaced out.
@CG-yq2xy He didn't peace out by choice. Alexander was going to go and conquer Arabia, then all of Europe, then probably just keep conquering until he had nothing left to conquer. I believe he was poisoned by one of his generals.
@@joshuasepeda3289 Broke: Alexander was poisoned by assassins
Woke: Alexander drank himself to death
Bespoke: Assassins kept Alexander so stressed from the constant threat of assassination that they drove him to drink himself to death :D
@@Simpson17866 300 iq uber-assassin lmao
@@Simpson17866 you know ? situations before 25 centuries ??
drink tekila .
Alexander was the epitome of a frat boy with a goal.
Cultures in the conquered Asian lands refer to him as "Alexander the accursed" and for good reason. He just kept winning, against all odds, and it scared the hell out of them.
Naah they don't... Indians calling him Sikander which has a meaning of 'The undefeated'
There is also a phrase 'Jo jeeta wo Sikandar'
Which means only the victorious can call himself Alexander
Wrong
Only the persians called him that. Indians had no record of him because bro had no relevance in India. The "India" he discovered was a tiny ass part of the western part lmao
To be more accurate, he was mentioned but not in any source from the same time period, mentioned in way later sources iirc
@SiddarthaTB He was definitely in the Indian subcontinent. Alexander fought a kingdom in the Indus Valley. And the Maurya definitely knew the Selukids, which was founded by a general under a certain man. Who was that man again? Do you know?
the frat boy alexander edit is such a mood
The horse with engine sound killed me
Bucephalus was just built different.
Alexander's Conquests according to K&G VS Alexander's Conquests according to Jack Rackam
VS Alexander the Pretty Good's Conquests according to Overly Sarcastic Productions
I love who you finally have an Alexander the Great video.
Just in time for my exams.
Never loses, beats a superpower, creates an empire,dies.Truly thinking on a galactic brain on par with Otto Skorzeny.
The King of Conquerors and his kick ass black stallion that is also a Heroic Spirit. That horse was amazing.
The age of empires 1 reference is just gold.
Subutai, the Mongolian, was kind of like that. He won so much that it took the Khan dying to make him turn around and not conquer all of Europe
If you subscribe to the multiverse theory, there's at least one Mongol Europe out there!
Could they conquer Europe though? Europe wasnt a vast empty step
@morgannull4685 Europe conquered the planet man, its not Asia. What mountains have to do with anything? What i mean is most of the land mongols conquered was empty land.They could have attacked Byzantium but they didnt ,so who knows
@@CoochSmooch If that was the case islam would have taken over Europe but they lost every time
Conquering Europe isn’t a big deal when someone has already conquered China with less men than him.
Doing the podium meme with Alexander second behind Genghis and above Tamerlane? That’s what puts you above the rest 😂
The quality of production has increased exponentially since you first started!! Love ya Rackham!!
I’ll never get tired of the animation of the boats (both here and in the Pacific Theatre vid) just warping in as if exiting hyperspace.
Please do a video on Hannibal, that man was crazy too. From crossing the Alps with Elephants to putting snakes in jars and then tossing them with catapults, he had the most insane ideas on how to win battles and they worked 99.9% of the time (unfortunately for him, that 0.1% was the Battle of Zama) but its crazy that of the three Punic Wars, the only one where Carthaga was actually winning battles was the second one, and only the battles Hannibal was involved in.
as a 22 year old, the pressure to measure up is so high its non existant xD i think ill focus on getting my license
Your driver's license? At 22!?
@@MatthewTheWanderer yes xD
@@MatthewTheWandererOnly in the US you get your license when you are a teenager. In most of the world it's common to get it's common to get it well into your 20s (if you really need or want a car at all).
Also tamed a horse (rather than using a domesticated one like a normal guy).
Ah, yes! Bucephalus. He was so sad when that horse died in battle that he named a city "Alexandria Bucephalous".
Ur logo reminds me of a country from ck3
Alexander: I can't go east.... south or west it is
General 1: poison?
General 2: poison....
Or so some people say...
Its literally this or Alexandros was finally run out of luck, a misfortune struck and finished him in the end.
I'm not sure what's funnier. That, or he got WAY too drunk at victory festivities on the way home for his own liver to handle. xD
The generals and soldiers were definitely tired of the constant wars even if they led to victory. A decade of time invested in just warfare is pure insanity. They definitely poisoned him.
Alexander had main character energy
Because he was
Love this!! Lots of Alexanders in my family but not related to this one. Another winner, Jack Rackam. Well done!
I've always thought that Alexander was a really cool sounding name.
Alexander the Great was indeed insane...but he was one of the GOATs in all of human history.
He was a madlad who feared nothing and loved battle.
He was one of (if not THE) greatest generals in history, he was one of the greatest warriors in history who fought on the front lines with his soldiers and (though it is lesser known) one of the greater speakers as well.
He not only knew how to fight, he knew how to lead and he knew how to raise morale and keep loyalty even when his people wanted to quit.
A few days before he died, his generals asked the heirless Alexander who the empire should go to.
Being the giga chad that he was, he replied "to the strongest!".
Alexander wasn't a great king or emperor, but among warriors and generals he was probably THE GOAT.
He is remembered in history as Alexander the GREAT for a reason.
It should be more like "Alexander, The Greatest*"
Is it me or the animations are getting much more lively and funny than ever?
Tbf, Alexander wanted to go further south in the Indian Subscontinent and the army already struggled as it were against elephants at the Hydaspes river aaaand they had thousands more where that came from.
Alexander won Hydaspes battle and next year conquered more Indians in the Malian campaign he finished his Indian campaign by conquering Sindh after Hydaspes.
Dropped everything to watch this as soon as I saw notification!
the mighty algorythm have show me your channel and iam addictet, greetings from germany send no help
Bro started royal rumble with Last words "To the Strongest😂"
Another video satiating my appetite for my favorite individual from history, Thank you JR
Please cover " the tamil kings they got spices, and they are merchent probably "
HEY! Nobody conquers the tamil kings....
Oh wow you hear about Alexander every so often, but I'm not sure if I've heard a "full" retelling of it. That is utterly insane, and I feel like this is one of my favorite of your videos Jack.
Side note, the one thing that I will probably always first associate Alexander the Great with (because I'm weird) is Warehouse 13. Its lore is that "Warehouse 1" was essentially Alexander the Great's garage where he stashed all the cool and dangerous stuff that he won while out on campaign including a trident that was capable of causing earthquakes/destroying the world (and was probably responsible for the Bronze Age Collapse). And after his death someone or another was like, "we should probably not let random people get their hands on these," and thus the warehouses were born!
Man is the embodyment of "I just kept going, and it just kept working"
I think the whole cutscene format of Alex getting himself into some sitcom type stuff is one of the most hilarious things you've done.
"This man is insane"
Didnt we know that about Alexander for centuries...
I am adoring the quality improvements on the animations. They're so fluid and expressive
It was my first time seeing this channel and especially as a Alexander the Great fan, this had me killed, loved every second of it 😂
Hey jack! Love your content ! And so early!❤❤❤😊😊
Fun fact, Demetrius of Bactria nicknamed "the Invincible" continued the "go east" trend. There are Indian records of him attacking as far east as modern day Patna, Bihar. Absolutely insane
If Alexander was born later, he would have made Long Connecticut a reality.
You missed couple interesting bits. Alexander's horse Bukefalos was a PC itself and even got a city named after it!
Second Alexander supposedly was so pissed that his men wanted home that he marched them through a desert.
The desert thing was not a punishment. It was a big mistake simply, or a silly attempt to make another achievement only for bragging rights than actually gaining something.
@@something4179well he did cross the desert, something that not even cyrus did
@@elmascapo6588 Did i stutter?
So happy to see The Life & Time back!
"My son, ask for thyself another kingdom, for that which I leave is too small for thee..."
Absolutely underrated channel. The humor is great and amazing facts
0:40 Very nice and fluid animations there Jack.
You're leaning into the humour of Alex's life but I think it's important to note that Philip was planning to invade persia himself, everything was planned and ready, and the motivation on paper was to avenge the destruction of Athens during the sexond persian war. Even if Philip hadn't conquered persia, we probably would have called him Philip the great if it hadn't been that his son was even more brilliant than himself.
Philip's death probably delayed the invasion of Persia since the people that Philip had subjugated started rebelling because they didn't think the young alexander could match philip's prowess and the first battles Alexander had to face were west, north and south of macedon, and right from the start Alexander is onconventional, daring and somehow also incredibly lucky.
Would have loved a longer series of videos, but it could be an infinity project. just describing the Siege of Pelium could have been an entire video itself.
Philip’s plan was pretty shit, Alexander had to spend 2 years putting down the celt cucks before he went east and Philip didn’t take that into account.
It was the siege of tyre
Wait... The Macedonians sided with the Persians though...
And the Athenians hated the Macedonians...
And he also conquered Athens and his adopted home of Thebes...
So that doesn't make a lot of sense...
I legitimately think they were just insane.
@@CollinMcLean I don't quite understand were you are coming from? Philip planning the invasion of Persia is very well documented, in fact when philip was murdered he'd already sent advance armies into Anatolia, but after his death the plans got severely delayed since Alexander wasn't respected as Philip was. Alexander had to put his foot down and prove himself by beating up a bunch of neighboring people before assuming leadership of the invasion into Persia
"and so it was decreed that no man could have an Empire as big as his"
1st place: Alexander
2nd place: Genghis Khan
3rd place: Tamerlane
Queen Victoria: no *man* eh?
She wasn't realy general or leader more of a figure head
@@JammesJack-td6gv I know (I'm British).
@@jonathanwebster7091 don't you mean bri'sh
@@JammesJack-td6gv no, no I don't.
@@jonathanwebster7091 bo'le uv watar
Holy shit dude you animations have improved so much! Looks amazing!
The best 7 minutes on Alexander I ever spent.
Somehow, you skimmed over the death of his father that
gave him the crown at 22. Not like Prince Charles
who had to wait around the palace until he was a doddering old royal
to wait for Queen Elizabeth to give up.
Alexander became king at the age of 20 not 22
Thanks Matthew,
It is nice to find someone that actually reads.
Good hunting
@@arailway8809 Thank you, lol
before 25 centuries FILIP KING ON MAKEDONIJA .
ALEXANDER THE GREAT TSAR ON MAKEDONIJA ! ! !
@@tatjanavelkova5814Thank you, Tatjana, for another stupid comment.
i dont even like history but these videos make everything so much more fun lol i could binge watch these all day
Loved the podium bit.
Alexander is basically the living example of that meme "Yes"
Aristotle’s whole deal makes A LOT more sense when you realize HIS teacher was such a big pro wrestler, we call him by his ring name TO THIS DAY!!!
Wait, what? Are you sure you're not confusing him with Plato?
@@oceanberserker no? Plato was Aristotle’s teacher, and his name (Plato) translates to “broad shoulders”, which he earned in the ring. Being taught by THAT GUY certainly would have had an impact on how Aristotle taught his own student!
@@prettypic444 Huh. Interesting. I know Plato was renowned for his wrestling skill, but I never heard that Aristotle was involved in any sort of athletic exploits.
@@oceanberserker I don’t think we know anything about Aristotle’s athletics?
ARISTOTEL and ALEXANDER SPOKE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE ! !
the animation this episode is smoother than usual
Your Aristotle made me giggle madly!
Been watching a lot of your videos lately and you’re amazing. Heard about you through useful charts and you’ve definitely earned a new subscriber
Great summary. Studied Aristotle in college, 100% accurate. If anyone's interested in the longer version of Alexander's stories, there's a great documentary "In the Footsteps of Alexander", where Michael Wood traced his path on foot, and told some great stories about the battles and myths :)
Another reason Alexander was insane is that Macedon could absolutely not afford an army large enough to conquer Persia, especially after Alexander decided to abolish taxes.
So how did he afford such an army? He took out giant loans from a bunch of rich guys planning to pay for everything with the plunder he’d get conquering Persia. He needed to fight quickly and win or he wouldn’t be able to pay his army and keep them together.
A general for the Persians name Memnon, an ethnic Greek, tried to warn the Persians. He told them, accurately that the only way Alexander could afford to keep his army together was by winning a battle, and that Macedon could be defeated by simply pulling back in a scorched earth strategy. Naturally, the Persians were a little suspicious of a Greek guy telling them not to resist a Greek invasion, so they met Alexander in Battle, providing him the income he needed to keep invading.
Alexander truly was the greatest
You should do a video about the Wars of the Diadochi (make them about Perdiccas, Antipater, Antigonus and/or Cassander), because Alexander's empire didn't just collapsed after his death, it lasted 14 years, it started as wars for the regency and ended with each comander creating their own kingdom
the animation is so good and there's so much life! keep it up!
At last, hysterically accurate!
Gods, your animation has impeccable a LOT!
Jack! You're amazing! Please do papa doc or rafael trujillo
Jacobo Arbenz
Considering that Australia couldn’t defeat a bunch of flightless birds during the Emu war, trying to conquer North America would be beyond hopeless for them.
The Persians had a Greek mercenary, who knew Greece's strength, had suggested a scorched earth strategy, which would have ruined Alexander's plans, but Persia got rejected the idea. Alexander has a lot of plot armor.
Memnon of Rhodes right?
Well, in terms of population it was like canada invaded the us or even worse.
Alexander is one of those historical figures where we REALLY underestimate his sheer luck.
@@CollinMcLean Same with Genghis. Genghis was more lucky than Alexander. The only one who wasn't lucky in the historical conquerers list is probably Tamerlane.
A little sad you didn't bring back the Fate version of Alexander for this, but I appreciate how good your animation has gotten!
Any chance of doing a video on Anabasis' The March Up Country (or "What normally happens to large Greek armies in this situation":) ?
I thought you did one on this, but I can't find it.
Yup, I did a video about Xenophon a couple years ago, it was a lot of fun!
Do subutai next he fought in east Asia and eastern Europe
First ever paradox game speedrunner be like:
Lol I love the Age of Empires 1 reference: that was the first triple A game I ever played, back in the day even! And it makes up for no Iron Maiden references. Bravo, Jack.
Yesssssss Jack rackham dropped the videoooooooo
Sub 100, love your stuff Jack - I was partially named for Alexander, and at the age of 25 I've done almost nothing haha.
Alex? Xander? Alexa? Ander(s)?
@@houseplant1016 Maybe he meant "partially" because he has a middle and last name that are not Alexander?
@@MatthewTheWanderer Bingo! It's actually partially my first name.
@@pete9320Then the other person was closer to being right than I was...
@@MatthewTheWanderer Well, some would consider it to be a middle name, which is how I read your comment. Still flattered you guys were guessing though, made my day tbh.
finally, a vid about alexander the great!
My brother, i am Greek, and i thank you very very much for showing how cool was Alexander the Great. For those who don't know, western from Greece, people called him Alexader the magno. Thank you very much for boosting the greatest leader ever! Be well!!
before 25 centuries TSAR ALEXANDER LIVE IN MAKEDONIJA ! !
Great animations!
A couple of months ago I asked my wife if she had any idea who Alexander the Great was and she responded “nobody knows”
i dont get it.
@@theconductor2969 neither did she
1:50 this would not be unusual cus Alex did adopt a lot of persian customs
1:47 - Best depiction of Aristotle I've ever seen.
Alexander died in one of his first battles. His top men never told anybody and then couldn't go back to Greece so they just went the other way. A guy in his armor died a few more times until they ran out of volunteers.
It came to me in a dream.
They should make a documentary about Alexander à la The Last Dance .
Throw in a bit of Persia-booing out, possibly arranging his father's death, stopping by the ruins of Troy to do Achilles/Patroclus live RP with his boyfriend...
Make a video on Tamerlane
The cheat codes theory does explain a lot! 🤣
Crazy how you and History Matters published an Alexander video on the same day
The men of Alexander wanted to go home after the battle with King Porus of the small NW Indian kingdom because they suffered higher than expected casualties from that battle and were afraid of rumors saying the larger Indian kingdoms had thousands of war elephants. Furthermore, some modern scholars say the battle may actually have been a pyrrhic victory where Alexander suffered so much casualties that morale nose dived and his army was handicapped.
Lol he was such a completionist, when he heared about a tribe in the Persian heartland which even the Persians couldnt subjugate, he went straight for them.
Philip: You are going to be a great leader one day, take my place and even challenge Persia. You need to understands your destiny
Olympias: YOU ARE THE SON OF ZEUS!!! GO CONQUER THE WORLD!!!