Alexander the Great
(356--323 BC)
Alexander III, king of the ancient dynasty of Macedonia, was born in Pella. He was the son of Philip II of Macedon, and of Olympias, the daughter of King Neoptolemus of Epirus. From age 13--16, he was tutored by the great philosopher, Aristotle. When Alexander was 16, Philip was planning a crusade to punish the Persians for the invasion of Greece (some 150 years before), and while he marched against Byzantium (340 BC) Alexander acted as regent. At the age of 18, Alexander commanded the left wing of the Macedonian army at the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC). Philip was assassinated two years later, possibly with his son's complicity, and Alexander, having disposed of his rivals, inherited the task of conquering Persia.
He first had to win control of the Greek cities in W Turkey. He crushed the rebellious Illyrians, razed Thebes to the ground (335 BC), crossed the Hellespont (334 BC), and the same year won a major victory over the Persians at Granicus, opening the way to the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Near Issus in Cilica he defeated Darius III, King of Persia (333 BC), occupied Damascus, and after a long, hard siege destroyed Tyre (332 BC). He then marched on to Palestine, liberated Egypt from the Persians, and founded the city of Alexandria (331 BC). Such was his status by this time that, on an expedition through the desert to consult the oracle of Zeus Amon at Siwah, he was hailed as "son of Amon' - a greeting reserved for a pharaoh. This and other, later incidents contributed to his growing deification as the son of Zeus.
Alexander set out again to meet Darius, and defeated him near Arbela (Gaugamela) in 331 BC. Darius fled, and was eventually murdered. Alexander entered Persepolis, the capital of Persia, in triumph. He then continued to consolidate his empire, dealing with conflicts between Macedonians and Persians, and founding more cities. In 329 BC he overthrew the Scythians, and during 328--327 BC attacked Spitamenes at Sogdiana, where resistance was fierce. Oxyartes' stronghold finally fell to Alexander, and he married his beautiful captive, Princess Roxana (328 BC), who was Oxyartes' daughter.
Meanwhile, Alexander's relations with his followers had become increasingly violent. He murdered many of his colleagues and friends, often for political reasons, sometimes through drunken brawls.
In 327 BC, he made a start on his conquest of India, and at the R Hydaspes (Jhelum) overthrew the ruler Porus in a costly battle. Only a mutiny of his exhausted army at the R Hyphasis (Beas) forced him to abandon plans to go further E, and he began the return march in 326 BC. Two years later, at Babylon, he was taken ill after a long and drunken banquet, and died aged 32. His body was eventually buried in a golden coffin at Alexandria.
The legends that sprang up around Alexander during his lifetime and after his death preclude historians from agreeing on whether he was a far-sighted statesman or a ruthless conqueror. Nevertheless, his conquests were instrumental in spreading the language and culture of the Greeks across the continent to the East.
