Alexander the Great is known as one of the greatest military geniuses and the creator of the largest empire in the world. We come across many inspiring facts and how he was great. But there were also certain fun facts that one would definitely find amusing.
The following are a list of fun facts about the Legendary Conqueror and King Alexander the great:
Alexander had eyes of two different colours
Alexander the great had a rare condition that affected his eyes. It is today known as heterochromia. It is a condition where both eyes are of a different colour. In his case, one eye was blue and the other one was green.
Alexander had a similar medical condition to another Great Emperor in History
Alexander the Great suffered from a medical condition that is today called Grand Mal Epilepsy. It is due to this that he was often taken ill and was caught unawares by sudden seizures. It is interesting to note that this is a trait that he shared with another great leader, Julius Caesar.
He always seemed to look upwards
Alexander the great was also born with a problem in his bone structure. This resulted in him having a slightly deformed spine. Also, his neck was always bent, which gave him the appearance of always looking slightly upwards.
Alexander was a Work Hard, Party Harder type of a person
Alexander was known for organizing lavish drinking competition. He got into a drinking habit which many scholars have pointed out to as a cause of huis early death. He had his friend, cleitus executed in his drunk form and even is said to have ordered his soldiers to burn the city of Persepolis as a revenge for the burning of Athens while drunk.
Alexander had 3 wives and all of them were Persian
Alexander the great had three wives. However, Roxana, the Bactrian princess was the only one that he married out of love.
Alexander’s last wife murdered his first wife
Roxana, the bacterian princess is believed to have murdered Alexander’s first wife Stateira out of jealousy.
Alexander suffered from Paranoia in childhood
Alexander the great, after the age of 16, suffered from mental disorders and exhibited signs of megalomania and paranoia as well.
Alexander named a city on the name of his Horse in India
Alexander had one horse that he always rode to all of his battles. It was called Bucephalus. The name means “ox-head”. He had the horse since the time that he was 14 years of age.
Alexander can be called a Geek in modern terminology
Alexander was a quite different from other Macedonian kings. They were generally considered great warriors but intellectually and culturally inferior to the Greeks so Philip his father wanted the legitimacy and respect for his son among the Greeks and brought in Aristotle, one of the greatest Greek philosophers to tutor Alexander. He consumed Greek literature from his childhood being a great fan of Homer. He even carried Aristotle’s books on his journey across the world and also took with him historians, artists, philosophers along with his army in his invasions around the world to record his journey and as also to engage in intellectual conversations.
Alexander believed himself to be the son of Zeus
Alexander believed his mothers words, that he was the son of Zeus and this, combined with his megalomania, made him try to deitify himself.
Alexander had serious anger issues
Alexander was also known to have major rage issues. His temper tantrums were supposedly legendary and feared greatly by all the people that he associated with.
Alexander used to exaggerate the abilities of his horse
Alexander has often stated that his horse was extremely brave which is why he rode it to all his battles. The truth however, was that the horse was afraid of its own shadow!
Military tactics of Alexander is even studied in military schools across the modern world
Alexanders tactical exploits and strategic command is known to be the amongst the best even to this day. In fact, many military academies across the world still teach their pupils his tactics and strategies.
Alexander had a Indian as his counsellor
Calanus was an Indian aesthetic whom Alexander had met in the jungles of Taxila during his invasion of the Indian subcontinent. He was amazed by his knowledge and asked him and also his associates to join him. But only Calanus joined him in his journey as a counselor. He traveled to Persia with Alexander where it said that felt weak and decided to self emulate himself rather than become invalid.
Alexander was rather short in height
Although he was so powerful, he was not very tall. Alexander was considered to be rather stocky by Macedonian standards. However, he was still extremely strong for his size and despite all the health problems.
Alexander was once offered 300 women for impregnation
An Amazonian princess supposedly brought 300 women to him once begging him to impregnate all of them. She said that this was in the hope that she could build a race of men who were all as strong and intelligent as he was!
