[Marcos Cantu]

Who remembers this song? It was one of my favorites and keeps popping into my head lately. How accurate is it?


'My son ask for thyself another
Kingdom for that wich 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

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 of 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 at the battle of Arbela
Entering Babylon
And Susa treasures he found
Took Persepolis the capital of Persia

Alexander the Great
His name struck fear into hearts of men
Alexander the Great
Became a god 'mongst mortal men

A Phrygian king had bound a chariot yoke
And Alexander cut the 'Gordian knot'
And the legend said that who untied the knot
He would become the master of Asia

Helonism 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

[Wolfgang Armbruster]

Actually quite true
Except that Arbela is Gaugamela, but this is just another name for the same place.
Apart from that it sums up his story quite nicely for such a short text *g*

You might want to read Arrianus or a modern monography about Alexander, much more thrilling than the da vinci code

ps.: skip the oliver stone movie, it's a real disaster.

[Shahril Dzulkifli]

Marcos,
I do remember this song. This song is taken from the album Somewhere in Time (1986).
The song opens with King Philip of Macedon's passage, read by Nicko McBrain, Iron Maiden's drummer.

[Brian K.]

I still listen to Iron Maiden periodically. I love the long duo guitar solo's they play in the middle of songs.

Any Maiden fan should treat themselve's to the "Rock in Rio" DVD, where they play in front of 250,000 fans.