Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) was king of Macedonia and one of the greatest generals in history. He conquered the Persian Empire, which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to India and formed much of what was then considered the civilized world. Alexander’s conquests furthered the spread of Greek culture in western Asia and Egypt.
His youth.
Alexander was born in Pella, the capital of the Macedonian kingdom. His father was Philip II, a shrewd king and general who conquered Greece. His mother was Olympias, a strong-willed princess from Epirus in western Greece. Alexander traced his ancestry, through his mother, to the hero Achilles, made famous by the epic poem the Iliad Alexander also traced his ancestry, through his father and Macedonian royalty, to the hero Hercules (also called Heracles), who in Greek mythology was a son of the god Zeus. Alexander strove to outdo both heroes.
There are many stories about Alexander’s life. Some are true, but others are legends. According to one story, the boy Alexander tamed the great horse Bucephalus. This magnificent steed later carried Alexander as far as India, where it died. Alexander built a city there and named it Bucephala after the horse.
In 343 or 342 B.C., Philip hired the great philosopher Aristotle to tutor Alexander. Aristotle may have encouraged Alexander’s interest in foreign places and his curiosity about animals and plants.
Alexander’s education followed the Greek principle of “a sound mind in a sound body.” He studied literature, philosophy, and politics, and received training in sports, physical fitness, and warfare. When Alexander was 16, Philip appointed him regent (temporary ruler) of the kingdom while Philip was away attacking Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey).
In 338 B.C., the 18-year-old Alexander commanded one section of Philip’s army in the Battle of Chaeronea. This battle brought Greece under Macedonian control. Philip next prepared to invade the Persian Empire in Asia. But he was murdered before he could do so. Thus, at the age of 20, Alexander became king of Macedonia. There were rumors that Olympias, and even Alexander, had plotted Philip’s death, but the evidence they did so is weak.
After Philip’s death, some Greek cities under Macedonian rule revolted. In 335 B.C., Alexander’s army stormed the walls of the rebellious city of Thebes and demolished the city. About 30,000 Thebans were sold into slavery. Alexander’s action against Thebes discouraged, for a time, rebellion by other Greek cities.
Invasion of Asia.
With Greece under control, Alexander turned to his father’s plan for attacking the Persian Empire. The official reasons for the campaign were to avenge the Persian invasion of Greece in 480-479 B.C. and to free Greeks under Persian rule. In 334 B.C., Alexander led an army of about 35,000 infantry and cavalry across the Hellespont from Europe to Asia. The Hellespont is a strait now known as the Dardanelles. The Persians sent out troops that met Alexander’s forces at the Granicus River. Alexander and his cavalry charged across the river and won the battle. This victory opened Asia Minor (now part of Turkey) to Alexander.
After marching along the southern coast of Asia Minor, Alexander and his army headed north to the city of Gordion. There, according to legend, Alexander found a wagon with an ox yoke tied by a tight, complex knot. An ancient prophecy said that whoever could untie this Gordian knot would become ruler of Asia. According to the most famous version of the story, Alexander first tried unsuccessfully to untie the knot and then drew his sword and cut it in a single stroke.
By 333 B.C., Alexander had reached the coast of Syria. There, in a fierce battle at Issus, he defeated the king of Persia, Darius III, but could not capture him. Alexander’s army then marched south into Phoenicia to capture the naval bases of the Phoenician navy that fought for Darius. One such base was the city of Tyre, which stood on an island about 1/2 mile (800 meters) offshore. Unable to capture the island from the sea, Alexander ordered his engineers to build a causeway out to the island, converting it into a peninsula that remains today. His troops used such weapons as battering rams, catapults, and mobile towers in their attack. The Tyrians on the island surrendered in 332 B.C., after seven months of fighting. Alexander’s use of huge siege machines at Tyre introduced a new age of warfare.
Alexander next entered Egypt. The Egyptians welcomed him as a liberator from Persian rule, and they acknowledged him as their king. On the western edge of the Nile Delta, Alexander founded a city in 331 B.C. and named it Alexandria after himself. Alexandria became a great metropolis.
From Alexandria, the Macedonian king made a long, difficult trek through the Libyan Desert, part of the Sahara, to the oasis of Siwah. He consulted the oracle of the god Zeus-Ammon, and, according to legend, the oracle pronounced Alexander the son of the god.
Victory over Darius.
Alexander left Egypt in 331 B.C., traveling eastward into the Persian Empire. King Darius had formed a huge army that met Alexander’s forces on a vast plain between the villages of Gaugamela and Arbela, just east of the Tigris River. The Persians far outnumbered Alexander’s army, but Alexander’s tactics and the training of his troops proved superior. Darius was forced to flee and escaped across the Zagros Mountains into Media. This clash of armies, known as the Battle of Gaugamela or the Battle of Arbela, ended more than two centuries of Persian rule in Asia.
Alexander easily captured the city of Babylon and then the Persian capital at Susa. In the winter of 331-330 B.C., Alexander’s army marched to Persepolis. There, Alexander seized the royal palaces and captured a vast storehouse of gold and silver. Before leaving Persepolis, Alexander had his soldiers burn down the palaces.
In the spring of 330 B.C., Alexander swung north toward the Caspian Sea to find Darius. The Persian king was killed by his own nobles, one of whom named himself King Artaxerxes (V). The capture and execution of Artaxerxes in 329 B.C. left Alexander the undisputed king of Asia.
Central Asia and the Indus.
Alexander moved his army into Bactria and then across the Hindu Kush mountain range into Sogdiana, overcoming local military challenges as he went. In 327 B.C., Alexander married the Bactrian princess Roxane.
By 326 B.C., Alexander’s forces had reached the upper Indus River Valley, in what is now Pakistan. Alexander wanted to continue east toward the Ganges River. But his homesick troops were tired of traveling and refused to follow him farther eastward.
During his years in central Asia, Alexander began to adopt the customs of the Persian kings. Many of his troops resented this change. They considered their king a fellow warrior, not an Asian sovereign. Plots against Alexander’s life appeared, and he executed several prominent Greeks and Macedonians who he believed had conspired against him. Two of these alleged conspirators were Alexander’s second-in-command, Parmenion, and Parmenion’s son. In a drunken brawl, Alexander killed his veteran general Cleitus, who had saved his life at Granicus.
Return westward.
After Alexander’s army refused to march eastward in 326 B.C., Alexander marched down the Indus River and subdued the local population. In 325 B.C., Alexander had ships built that sailed westward from the mouth of the Indus River. Their mission was to explore the northern shore of the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Alexander sent part of his army back along the main road to Carmania, in what is now Iran. He led the rest of his troops west across the Desert of Gedrosia. Many of the women and children who accompanied the troops died in the desert.
Upon his return to Babylon, Alexander became busy with the administration of his vast domain, which stretched from Greece to the Indus. He probably intended to make Babylon his capital. Alexander planned new expeditions to northern Africa and Arabia. He tried to encourage trade and commerce and develop a greater spirit of cooperation between Macedonians and Persians. He married a Persian princess who was a daughter of Darius, and he performed a mass marriage ceremony joining thousands of his soldiers to Persian women. Alexander also tried to incorporate large numbers of Persians into his army. But he failed to establish a stable kingship to maintain what he had won.
His death.
In the spring of 323 B.C., Alexander became seriously ill with a fever at Babylon. He also suffered from exhaustion and the effects of several battle wounds. He died at the age of 32 on June 13, 323 B.C. His body was placed in a golden coffin, later replaced by a glass coffin, in a tomb at Alexandria.
After Alexander died, his half-brother, Philip III Arrhidaeus, became king of Macedonia. At the time of Alexander’s death, Roxane was pregnant with his son, Alexander IV, who later shared rule over the Macedonians with Philip. But Philip was murdered in 317 B.C., and young Alexander was killed about seven years later.
No one succeeded Alexander the Great in the rule of his vast empire. His leading generals became governors of various areas and fought among themselves for control of the empire. By 300 B.C., Alexander’s empire had split into a number of independent states. The three most powerful states were led by Alexander’s generals Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus.
