Millennia after his death in 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt not because he particularly needed to invade Egypt, but because he wanted to do what Alexander had done. And long before Napoleon, the Romans really worshipped Alexander, particularly the Roman general Pompey, aka Pompeius Magnus, aka Pompey the Great. Pompey was so obsessed with Alexander that he literally tried to emulate Alexander's boyishly disheveled hairstyle. In short, Alexander is great because others decided he was great because they chose to admire and emulate him. Yes, Alexander was a great general. Yes, he conquered a lot of land. The situation is also really good at picking up girls of a certain type.