Step #4 : Ancient Age. Aristotle and Alexander

As Athens and Sparta fell the Macedonian Empire emerged. Philip of Macedonia, considered a barbarian by his fellow Greeks, forged a kingdom over Hellas by copying the dominant culture of Athens. He even hired its greatest philosopher, Aristotle, pupil of Plato, to be the mentor of his son Alexander teaching him the knowledge of its civilization. Aristotle did more he taught him discernment, something more precious than knowledge. Un uncanny sense of judgement that completed his atavistic inheritance from Philip to be conqueror of the world.

What Alexander learnt from father and mentor he would apply to his life. His mother Olympia, princess from nearby kingdom of Pella, was convinced her son had the mythical blood of both Achilles and Hector, going back a thousand years to that age of heroes.

Nourished on these dreams and ambitions, Alexander would achieve conquests like none other, going to the confines of the known world, to the rivers Indus and Syr Darya; he founded cities wherever his conquests took him, only to die of fever at age 33; an unconquered hero, like his role model Achilles, master of the old world of Mesopotamia, where civilization began.

Great as had been his brilliant but short lifetime his legacy would die in the sands of time, apart from his symbolic city Alexandria in Egypt; where one of his generals, Ptolemy, founded a new Empire that lasted three hundred years. The iconic moment in this 10 year saga of a brilliant march of conquest is Alexander's decision to cut the Gordian knot, symbolic act showing western's man mindset; where achieving result is epitomised as sublime virtue.

The subsequent distancing of mentor Aristotle from Alexander's decision to make Babylon capital of his Empire; where he ostensibly shows his determination to fusion the three cultures of Egypt, Greece and Persia into one united whole, incarnated by his demi-god persona, shows how a man's Heroic perception of himself, his superhuman ego, can lead him to imposing an impossible dream on his mortal successors. His Empire will collapse after his death as the cultural divides amongst people, historical and cultural traits ingrained over centuries, are too difficult for one man to abolish by the whims of his own personal will.

But the great discovery of that age belonged to Aristotle, the universal philosopher, who would invent Analytical logic and Metaphysics and lay the foundations of the scientific method. His treatise and teachings would fascinate the scholars, both Arab and Western, for over one thousand five hundred years, until the Renaissance Age brought with it a new dawning in Western civilization.

He invented modern Man, just like Alexander invented the modern conqueror. Each in his domain would stay icon for the ages.