Last speech of Alexander the Great
Alexander of Macedon have gone on a podium, and with all determination to start a fierce rhetorical
argument, shouted to the Macedonians:
- The purpose of my speech is not to prevent your return home, as for me, you can return home
whenever you want.
The purpose of my talk is to find out what kind of people you have became now and how grateful you
are to the ones that gave you so much wealth and grandeur.Before talking about what I did for you, let
me start with my father, Philip.
- When my father find you, you were homeless and poor, dressed in animal skins and feed a few sheep
on the mountain slopes.
He found you when with little success defending yourselves from the Illyrians, and Thracians Triballians.
Instead of your animal skins,he offered you gowns. From the mountains, brought you down in the
lowlands. But most of all, he gave you courage, courage to fight the barbarians, who were everywhere.
You no longer rush to take shelter in remote places and cracks in the rocks of your unconquerable
mountain stronghold. You stood firmly on the ground and fought for that which justly belonged to you.
He made you colonizers and introduced to you laws and customs that not only cared about your safety,
but also brought the dawn of new era of culture and life.
From slaves and impoverished subjects, he made you rulers not only in your country but over the
barbarians who had threatened you with your property devastation and intercepting your benefits.
He made you rulers of the Thessalians, which always had a deep and mortal fear. By defeating Focians
he provide you with approach to the Peloponnese through roads that were passable and broad, not
narrow and inaccessible.
He humiliated Athenians and Thebans so much in this campaign, I personally helped at Chaeronea so
that these nations rather than constantly attacking Macedonia you pay tax on the first and rule as
vassals of the second, they are now relying on our assistance and intervention to ensure their safety.
He entered the Peloponnese and after ensuring control over their affairs, was elected chief commander
of the expedition Peloponnese against the Persians, that fame has not appropriated only for him but
also the whole Macedonian nation.
These advantages you gained from him, they are great if you read separately, but are small in light of
what you received from me.
Although from Philip I inherited a few silver and gold cups, I was struck with an empty treasury and
enormous debts of his. I Borrowed on your behalf, to lead an expedition from that country could not
support you and immediately opened a passage through the dangerous Hellespont Sea, which was
controlled by the Persians.
After our cavalry's defeated Darius vice-kings , we won ions Eolija, Phrygia and Lydia, and the siege
Acquire Miletus.
All other nations voluntarily surrendered to us.
Get you the privilege to adopt endless treasure that we found at each conquest.
Treasures of Egypt and Kire, who won without a fight, came into your hands. Treasures of Syria,
Palestine and Mesopotamia are yours, yours are the treasures of Babylon and Susa Baktra. Treasures of
the Persians and the Indians endless resources are also yours.
You are vice-kings now, you are commanders and leaders of this campaign.
For me I took nothing, except the purple robe and the diadem. Nobody can say that I have something
other than what you have or what I have to protect.
And now, when I want to send home those who are old and sick, and believe that every home will envy
all you want to leave.
Go, then, and tell people that your home leader, who won the Persians and Baktrians, who submit
Uksians who crashed Parkians crush, and who marched through the Caucasus and the gates of Persia,
and he who crossed the large rivers Oxus and Indus that were not crossed since Dionus, who reached
the mouth of the ocean, and who marched through the Gedrozian dessert through which no army
managed to march alive, go and tell people at home that after all the effort, you have left behind the
man who led you through all this, and you left him in the hands of people who you conquered.
Maybe your words will be loved and will make you a source of envy and respect in the eyes of men and
women and pious in the eyes of God.
Go back to Macedonia. Leave.
After this speech, Alexander withdrew to his tent and appeared two days.
The speech had hypnotic effect on people. They rushed to the palace and waited for Alexander to
appear, and said they will not leave the place until Alexander comes out to meet them. When he finally
appeared, he was so touched by their moan, so that from his eyes rolled tears.
An officer from the squad heroes stepped forward and told him:
Oh Our Leader, we the most Macedonians are worried that you made some Persians your relatives -
they have the honor to call themselves "relatives of Alexander" and can greet you with a kiss. And yet,
none of the Macedonians had never before enjoyed the honor.
Alexander adjourned the headman:
- "But you all, without exception, you are my relatives, and from now I will call you so."
All disagreements were resolved. And as at the time of church service, everyone turns to its neighbors,
shaking hands and utters: "peace", all troops greeted with handshake, tap on the shoulder or hugged
their friends - regardless of their nationality.