Alexander the Great

Ptolemy I Soter, Alexander's general and later king of Egypt, wrote a history that ancient tradition ranked first among the works about him, praising its accuracy and restraint¹. Aristobulus, who marched with Alexander, wrote his account in old age at Cassandrea, recording careful observations on geography, ethnography, and natural science¹. His book is highly praised for its trustworthiness, but only fragments have reached us¹.

Cleitarchus was notoriously untrustworthy and inclined to believe in the marvellous, yet his narrative made him the most popular of all the writers on Alexander¹. His book was the main authority for the narratives of Diodorus, Pompeius Trogus and Quintus Curtius Rufus¹. Curtius Rufus, a Roman rhetorician of about the mid first century AD, wrote a history of Alexander in ten books¹.

Callisthenes, the court historian who accompanied Alexander to Asia, offended the king by refusing to pay him servile homage in the Persian fashion¹. He died in captivity in 328 BC, probably as a result of maltreatment¹. Nearchus took part in the Indian expedition and returned as commander of the fleet, sailing down the Indus and along the coast to the mouth of the Tigris¹.

Philip II was born in 382 BCE and ruled as the eighteenth king of Macedonia from 359 to 336 BCE⁴. By 339 he had gained domination over all of Greece by military and diplomatic means, laying the foundations for his son's expansion⁴. He was assassinated in 336 BCE⁵.

Improved catapults and siege machinery, and a new kind of infantry equipped with the enormous sarissa pike, placed Philip's armies at the forefront of military technology⁶.

At Aigai was rooted the royal dynasty of the Temenids, the family of Philip II and Alexander the Great⁷. Among the tombs are those of Euridice, mother of Philip II, and the unlooted tombs of Philip II and his grandson Alexander IV, discovered in 1977-8 and a worldwide sensation⁷.

Alexander III was born in 356 BCE at Pella in Macedonia, the son of Philip II and Olympias, daughter of King Neoptolemus of Epirus⁵. Ancient tradition held him, on his father's side, a descendant of Heracles through Caranus, and on his mother's side a descendant of Aeacus through Neoptolemus⁸. The claim was accepted without any question⁸.

On the night before her marriage was consummated, Olympias dreamed that a thunderbolt fell upon her womb and kindled fire that spread and then went out⁸. A serpent was once seen lying by her side as she slept, a sight that dulled Philip's ardour more than anything else⁸. Such stories were already gathering around him in his lifetime⁵.

From age 13 to 16 Alexander was taught by Aristotle, who inspired him with an interest in philosophy, medicine, and scientific investigation⁵. A rougher education came from horses: Philoneicus the Thessalian brought Bucephalas, offering to sell him to Philip for thirteen talents⁸. The animal proved savage and altogether intractable, letting no one mount him⁸.

Alexander tamed him; Philip is said to have shed tears of joy and told his son to seek out a kingdom equal to himself, for Macedonia had not room for him⁸. Left in charge of Macedonia in 340 during Philip's attack on Byzantium, Alexander defeated the Maedi, a Thracian people⁵. Two years later he commanded the left wing at Chaeronea, where Philip defeated the allied Greek states, and displayed personal courage in breaking the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite corps of 150 pairs⁵.

Pausanias, outraged at the instigation of Attalus and Cleopatra and denied justice by Philip, slew the king, and most of the blame devolved upon Olympias⁸. In 336, on Philip's assassination, Alexander, acclaimed by the army, succeeded without opposition⁵. Plutarch puts the moment starkly: at twenty he received a kingdom exposed to great jealousies, dire hatreds, and dangers on every hand⁸.

Thebes was the first test: when the Thebans refused to surrender, Alexander razed their city to the ground, sparing only the temples and Pindar's house; 6,000 were killed and all the survivors sold into slavery⁵. He had marched 240 miles from Illyria to Thebes in 14 days to do it⁵.

Greece was settled to his purpose: at an assembly of the Greek League of Corinth he was appointed generalissimo for the invasion of Asia, already planned and initiated by Philip⁵. At Delphi, when the priestess refused to prophesy on an inauspicious day, he pressed her until she called him invincible, and he said he desired no further prophecy⁸. In spring 335 he advanced into Thrace, forced the Shipka Pass, crushed the Triballi, crossed the Danube to disperse the Getae, and shattered a coalition of Illyrians who had invaded Macedonia⁵.

In spring 334 he crossed the Dardanelles, leaving Antipater as his deputy in Europe with over 13,000 soldiers⁵. He himself commanded about 30,000 foot and over 5,000 cavalry, of whom nearly 14,000 were Macedonians and about 7,000 allies sent by the Greek League⁵. The Metropolitan Museum of Art counts some 43,000 infantry and 5,500 cavalry, the most formidable expedition ever to leave Greece⁶. He needed the wealth of Persia to maintain the army built by Philip and pay off the 500 talents he owed⁵.

The core of the army was the phalanx, 9,000 heavy infantry with 13-foot spears and shields, and the 3,000 hypaspists of the royal battalions; the Companion cavalry were arguably the finest equestrian unit in the ancient world⁹. After visiting Ilium he confronted his first Persian army, led by three satraps, at the Granicus River near the Sea of Marmara in May or June 334⁵. Plutarch has him declare that the Hellespont would blush for shame if he feared the Granicus, and plunge in with thirteen troops of horsemen⁸. The fight nearly killed him: as Spithridates raised his arm for another stroke, Cleitus, 'Black Cleitus', ran him through the body with his spear⁸.

At Issus, in autumn 333, Alexander won a decisive victory: the struggle turned into a Persian rout, Darius fled leaving his family in Alexander's hands, and the women were treated with chivalrous care⁵. The World History Encyclopedia dates the encounter to November 333 BCE¹⁰. Darius offered a ransom of 10,000 talents and the cession of his lands west of the Euphrates; Parmenio said he would accept, were he Alexander, and Alexander retorted that he too would, were he Parmenio⁵.

Earlier, at Gordium, he saw the waggon bound fast with bark of the cornel-tree, and heard the story that whoever loosed the fastening was destined to become king of the whole world⁸. Most writers say that, at a loss how to proceed, he cut the knot through with his sword⁸.

The Phoenician coast resisted longest at Tyre, where the Tyrians refused him entry and held out for seven months⁵. The storming of the city in July 332 was his greatest military achievement; it was attended with great carnage and the sale of the women and children into slavery⁵. Further south, bitter resistance at Gaza halted him for two months, and he sustained a serious shoulder wound during a sortie⁵.

In November 332 he reached Egypt, where the people welcomed him as their deliverer and the Persian satrap Mazaces surrendered⁵. At Memphis he sacrificed to Apis, the sacred Egyptian bull, and was crowned with the double crown of the pharaohs while the native priests were placated⁵. He founded Alexandria near the western arm of the Nile, between the sea and Lake Mareotis, protected by the island of Pharos, and had it laid out by the Rhodian architect Deinocrates⁵. Alexandria was the capital of Egypt from its founding in 332 BCE until its surrender to the Arab forces led by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in 642 CE¹¹.

Plutarch relates that after his conquest of Egypt Alexander wished to found a large and populous Greek city that should bear his name⁸. Viewing the site, he pronounced Homer not only admirable in other ways but also a very wise architect, and ordered the plan drawn accordingly⁸. The journey south produced his most famous honour: at the oasis oracle of Amon the priest gave him the salutation of a pharaoh, as son of Amon, and Alexander consulted the god but revealed the reply to no one⁵. Plutarch preserves the wordplay: the prophet's greeting, heard as 'O paidios', was taken as 'O pai Dios', or son of Zeus, a slip Alexander was pleased to accept⁸.

The decisive encounter followed a year later: a lunar eclipse gives the exact day, September 20 of 331, on which the Macedonian army crossed the Tigris⁹. On October 1 the Battle of Gaugamela decided the fate of the Persian Achaemenian Empire⁹. In front of the Persian line were the scythed war chariots, 50 on the right and centre and 100 on the left; Darius had levelled the plain to give them a clear run⁹. From afar Alexander saw Darius towering through the deep ranks: a fine-looking man and tall, standing on a lofty chariot, fenced about by a dense array of horsemen⁸.

The Macedonian victory spelled the end of the Achaemenian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great and left Alexander the master of Southwest Asia⁹. The World History Encyclopedia writes that after this victory Alexander was, without question, the King of all Asia¹⁰. Arrian gives the Macedonian dead as 100, although Diodorus and Quintus Curtius give higher figures⁹.

The royal centres fell in turn: Alexander occupied Babylon, where Mazaeus, who surrendered it, was confirmed as satrap beside a Macedonian troop commander and quite exceptionally granted the right to coin⁵. Susa, the capital, also surrendered, releasing treasures amounting to 50,000 gold talents; there Alexander established Darius's family in comfort⁵. At Persepolis he ceremonially burned the palace of Xerxes as a symbol that the war of revenge was over, an act tradition later explained as a drunken frolic inspired by Thais, an Athenian courtesan⁵. Plutarch records Thais urging the revel, so that men might say the women in Alexander's train punished Persia more than all her famous commanders by sea and land⁸.

Bessus, the satrap of Bactria, had Darius stabbed and left him to die, and Alexander sent the body for burial with due honours in the royal tombs at Persepolis⁵.

Strain grew between the king and his Macedonians: Philotas, Parmenio's son and commander of the Companion cavalry, was implicated in an alleged plot, condemned by the army and executed, and Parmenio was then assassinated on Alexander's orders⁵. Alexander murdered Cleitus, one of his most trusted commanders, in a drunken quarrel, and his excessive display of remorse led the army to pass a decree convicting Cleitus posthumously of treason⁵. At Bactra he tried to impose the Persian prostration, proskynesis, on Greeks and Macedonians, to whom it was intolerable before a human being⁵.

Reconciliation took the form of marriage: when the crag of Oxyartes was seized, his daughter Roxana was among the captives, and Alexander married her⁵. In June he fought his last great battle on the left bank of the Hydaspes, founded Nicaea and Bucephala, the latter named after his horse Bucephalus, which died there, and Porus became his ally⁵.

The limit of conquest was set by his own men: at the Hyphasis his army mutinied, refusing to go farther in the tropical rain, and Coenus, one of his four chief marshals, spoke for the troops⁵. In the speech Arrian gives him, Alexander complains that when he would lead them on a new venture they no longer follow him with their old spirit¹². The return was worse than the advance: the march through Gedrosia proved disastrous, waterless desert and shortages of food and fuel causing great suffering, and many, especially women and children, perished in a sudden monsoon flood while encamped in a wadi⁵.

Six engagements frame the campaign, from the Granicus to the Hydaspes in June 326 BCE⁵.

Where Persian officials submitted, they were kept: Mazaeus, who surrendered Babylon, was confirmed as satrap and exceptionally granted the right to coin⁵. Susa released treasures amounting to 50,000 gold talents, and there Alexander established Darius's family in comfort⁵.

The policy of fusion was personal as well as political: at Susa he and 80 of his officers took Persian wives, he and Hephaestion marrying Darius's daughters Barsine, also called Stateira, and Drypetis, and 10,000 soldiers with native wives were given generous dowries⁵. Resistance came to a head at Opis in 324, when Alexander's decision to send home Macedonian veterans under Craterus was interpreted as a move toward transferring the seat of power to Asia⁵. In autumn 324 Hephaestion died in Ecbatana; Alexander mourned extravagantly and gave his closest friend a royal funeral in Babylon with a pyre costing 10,000 talents⁵.

By then the reach of the conquests was unprecedented: during his leadership, from 336 to 323 BC, he conquered the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire and founded more than 70 cities, an empire across three continents covering about two million square miles¹³. The Hellenistic period his conquests opened is dated by the British Museum to 323-31 BCE¹³.

The end came in Babylon, while he was planning to improve the irrigation of the Euphrates and settle the coast of the Persian Gulf⁵. He was taken ill after a prolonged banquet and drinking bout, and 10 days later, on June 13 of 323 BCE, he died in his 33rd year, after a reign of 12 years and eight months⁵. The World History Encyclopedia gives 10 or 11 June 323 BCE, an age of 32, after ten days of high fever¹⁴.

Most writers, Plutarch notes, think that the story of the poisoning is altogether a fabrication⁸. As evidence, they note that his body, though it lay without special care in moist and stifling places during the disputes of his commanders, showed no sign of decomposition⁸. There was nevertheless much speculation about the cause of death, the most popular theories claiming that he either contracted malaria or typhoid fever or that he was poisoned⁵.

No heir had been appointed: his generals adopted Philip Arrhidaeus and Alexander's posthumous son Alexander IV as kings, sharing out the satrapies after much bargaining⁵. Ptolemy, who became ruler of Egypt, founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, which reigned longer than any other dynasty of the Alexandrian empire and only succumbed to the Romans in 30 BCE¹⁵. In the end three dynasties emerged from the wars of the successors, remaining in power until the time of the Romans¹⁶.

The legend had begun to outstrip the record: already in his lifetime Alexander was the subject of fabulous stories, and he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical career⁵. His campaigns became legendary after his death, influencing the tactics and careers of later Greek and Roman generals¹⁴. Modern historians have taken a more critical approach than earlier accounts, criticising his destruction of Persepolis and treatment of Tyre's citizens, but his fame remains intact¹⁴.

Passages quoted verbatim from the ancient sources and modern reference works used in this profile.