Read the excerpt from Alexander the Great’s speech at Opis.What I shall say to you now, Macedonians, is not an attempt to counteract your desire for home—as far as I am concerned you can go wherever you wish. But if you do go I want you to understand on what terms you are leaving—what I have done for you, and how you have treated me in response. I shall begin necessarily with my father Philip. When Philip took you in hand you were a collection of impoverished nomads, most of you dressed in skins and herding a few sheep and goats on the mountains: you were fighting a losing battle to keep them out of the hands of the Illyrians and Triballians and the Thracians on your borders.