Everything about Alexander The Great totally explained
Alexander the Great (
Greek: Αλέξανδρος ο Μέγας or Μέγας Aλέξανδρος,
Megas Alexandros;
July 20 356 BC
June 10 323 BC), also known as
Alexander III, was an ancient
Greek king (
basileus) of
Macedon (336–323 BC). He was one of the most successful military commanders in history, and was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he'd conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks.
Alexander assumed the kingship of Macedon following the death of his father
Philip II of Macedon. Philip had united most of the
city-states of mainland
Greece under Macedonian rule (the so-called
League of Corinth). After reconfirming Macedonian hegemony by quashing a rebellion of southern Greek
city-states, and staging a short but bloody excursion against Macedon's northern neighbors, Alexander set out east against the
Achaemenid Persian Empire, which he defeated and overthrew. His conquests including
Anatolia,
Syria,
Phoenicia,
Judea,
Gaza,
Egypt,
Bactria, and
Mesopotamia, and extended the boundaries of his own
empire as far as
Punjab,
India.
Prior to his death, Alexander had already made plans for military and mercantile expansions into the
Arabian peninsula, after which he was to turn his armies to the west (
Carthage,
Rome, and the
Iberian Peninsula). His original vision had been to the east, though, to the ends of the world and the
Great Outer Sea, as described by his boyhood tutor
Aristotle.
Alexander integrated many foreigners into his army, leading some scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He also encouraged marriages between his soldiers and foreigners; he himself went on to marry two foreign princesses.
Alexander died after twelve years of constant military campaigning, possibly as a result of
malaria,
poisoning,
typhoid fever, viral
encephalitis or the consequences of alcoholism. His legacy and conquests lived on long after him, and ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and cultural influence over distant areas. This period is known as the
Hellenistic Age, and featured a combination of Greek, Middle Eastern and Indian culture. Alexander himself was featured prominently in the history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. His exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appeared as a legendary
hero in the tradition of
Achilles.
Early life
Born in
Pella, capital of
Macedon, Alexander was the son of King
Philip II of Macedon and of his fourth wife
Olympias, an
Epirote princess. On his mother's side, he was a second cousin of
Pyrrhus of Epirus, who himself would go on to become a celebrated general; thus, there are notable examples of military genius on both sides of his family. According to Plutarch, his father was descended from
Heracles through
Karanus of Macedon and his mother descended from
Aeacus through
Neoptolemus and
Achilles. Plutarch relates that both Philip and Olympias dreamt of their son's future birth. In Philip's dream, he sealed her womb with the seal of the
lion. Alarmed by this, he consulted the seer
Aristander of Telmessos, who determined that his wife was pregnant and that the child would have the character of a lion. Another odd coincidence is that the
Temple of Artemis in
Ephesus was set afire on the night of his birth. Plutarch's explanation is that the
Gods were too busy watching over Alexander to care for the temple.
According to five historians of antiquity (
Arrian,
Curtius,
Diodorus,
Justin, and
Plutarch), after his visit to the
Oracle of
Ammon at
Siwa, rumors spread that the Oracle had revealed Alexander's father to be
Zeus, rather than Philip. In support of this, Plutarch (
Alexander 3.1,3) claims that Philip avoided Olympias' bed because of her affinity for sleeping in the company of snakes.
In his early years, Alexander was raised by his nurse
Lanike, who was
Cleitus' older sister. Later, Alexander was educated by a strict teacher:
Leonidas, himself a relative of Olympias. Leonidas' frugal ways are known to us through the extant record: reportedly, when Alexander threw a large amount of sacrificial incense into a fire, Leonidas reprimanded him, telling him that he could waste as much incense as he wished once he'd conquered the spice bearing regions. Years later, following Alexander's conquest of Gaza, a city directly on the Persian spice trade route, the young king sent back over 15 tons of
myrrh to Leonidas as a retort. It was
Aristotle, though, who was Alexander's most famous and important tutor. The famous philosopher trained Alexander in
rhetoric and
literature, and stimulated his interest in
science,
medicine, and
philosophy. His gift to Alexander, a copy of the
Iliad, was purportedly among the young king's most prized possessions--and was kept under his pillow, along with a dagger.
When Alexander was ten years old, a
Thessalian brought a horse of such quality to sell to Philip that it was labeled a prodigy. As it turned out, though, the horse was so wild that no man could mount him. Young Alexander, recognizing that the horse's own shadow was the source of its fear, went to the steed and turned him towards the sun. Upon doing so, the horse calmed down, and the young king easily mounted and rode him. His father and other people who saw this were very impressed; Philip kissed him with tears of joy and said "My son, seek thee out a kingdom equal to thyself; Macedon hasn't room for thee." This horse was named
Bucephalus, meaning "ox-headed"--though there's the possibility that the name refers to the brand that denoted the horse's origin. Bucephalus would be Alexander's companion throughout his journeys, and was truly loved: when the horse died (due to old age, according to Plutarch, for he was already 30; other sources claim that Bucephalus died of wounds sustained in a battle in India), Alexander named a city after him called Bocephia or Bucephala.
Ascent of Macedon
In 340 BC, Philip led an attack on
Byzantium, leaving Alexander, now aged 16, to act as regent of Macedon. Shortly after, in 339 BC, Philip took a fifth wife,
Cleopatra Eurydice. While Alexander's mother
Olympias was from
Epirus, Cleopatra Eurydice was a true Macedonian; this led to political machinations over whether Alexander was the best heir for the Agead throne. During the wedding feast,
Attalus, the uncle of the bride, supposedly gave a toast for the marriage to result in a legitimate heir to the throne of Macedon. Alexander responded by hurling his goblet at Attalus, shouting "What am I, a bastard then?" In response, Phillip drew his sword and moved towards Alexander, but fell in a drunken stupor over the drinking couches. Alexander then famously remarked: "Here is the man planning on conquering from Greece to Asia, and he can't even move from one table to another." Following this episode, Alexander and his mother left Macedon; his sister (also named
Cleopatra) remained.
Eventually Philip and Alexander would reconcile; the son returned home, but Olympias remained in Epirus. In 338 BC Alexander fought under his father at the decisive
Battle of Chaeronea against the city-states of
Athens and
Thebes. Phillip entrusted Alexander with the left wing of his army, which entailed facing the
Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite hoplite corps hitherto regarded as invincible. Though few details of the battle survive to us, what is known is that Alexander annihilated this corps. After the battle, Philip led a wild celebration; Alexander is notably absent from the accounts describing it. It is speculated that Alexander personally treated Demades, a notable orator of Athens, who had opposed Athenian alignment against Philip. He went on to draw up and present a peace plan, which the assembled Athenian army voted on and approved. Philip was content to deprive Thebes of its dominion over
Boeotia and leave a Macedonian garrison in the citadel. A few months later, the
League of Corinth was formed, and Phillip was acclaimed Hegemon of the Hellenes.
In 336 BC Philip was assassinated at the wedding of his daughter
Cleopatra to her uncle
King Alexander of Epirus. Theories abound regarding the motives behind the killing, but a common story presented the
assassin as a disgraced former lover of the king--the young nobleman
Pausanias of Orestis. He held a grudge against Philip because the king had ignored his grievances regarding an outrage on his person. Some believed that Philip's murder was planned with the knowledge and involvement of Alexander, Olympias, or both. Still other theories pointed to
Darius III, the recently crowned King of Persia. Regardless, after Philip's death, the army proclaimed Alexander, then aged 20, as the new king of Macedon.
Greek cities like Athens and Thebes, which had been forced to pledge allegiance to Philip, saw in the relatively untested new king an opportunity to regain full independence. Alexander moved swiftly and Thebes, which had been most active against him, submitted when he appeared at its gates. The assembled Greeks at the
Isthmus of Corinth, with the exception of the
Spartans, elected him to the command against Persia, which had previously been bestowed upon his father. The next year (335 BC), Alexander felt free to engage the
Thracians and the
Illyrians in order to secure the
Danube as the northern boundary of the Macedonian kingdom. While he was triumphantly campaigning north, the Thebans and Athenians rebelled once again. Alexander reacted immediately and while the other cities once again hesitated, Thebes decided this time to resist with the utmost vigor. The resistance was useless; in the end, the city was conquered with great bloodshed. Thebes was razed to the ground and its territory divided between the other Boeotian cities. Moreover, the Thebans themselves were sold into slavery; Alexander spared only the priests, the leaders of the pro-Macedonian party, and the descendants of
Pindar, whose house was the only one left standing.
The end of Thebes cowed Athens into submission. According to
Plutarch, a special Athenian embassy led by
Phocion, an opponent of the anti-Macedonian faction, was able to persuade Alexander to give up his demand for the exile of leaders of the anti-Macedonian party, most particularly
Demosthenes.
Period of conquests
Fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire
Alexander's army crossed the
Hellespont with approximately 42,000 soldiers from Macedon, various Greek city-states, and mercenaries and tribute soldiers from
Thrace,
Paionia, and
Illyria. After an initial victory against Persian forces at the
Battle of the Granicus, Alexander accepted the surrender of the Persian provincial capital and treasury of
Sardis and proceeded down the
Ionian coast. At
Halicarnassus, Alexander successfully waged the first of many
sieges, eventually forcing his opponents, the mercenary captain
Memnon of Rhodes and the Persian
satrap of
Caria,
Orontobates, to withdraw by sea. Alexander left Caria in the hands of
Ada, who was ruler of Caria before being deposed by her brother
Pixodarus. From Halicarnassus, Alexander proceeded into mountainous
Lycia and the
Pamphylian plain, asserting control over all coastal cities and denying them to his enemy. From Pamphylia onward, the coast held no major ports and so Alexander moved inland. At
Termessos, Alexander humbled but didn't storm the
Pisidian city. At the ancient Phrygian capital of
Gordium, Alexander "undid" the hitherto unsolvable
Gordian Knot, a feat said to await the future "king of
Asia." According to the most vivid story, Alexander proclaimed that it didn't matter how the knot was undone, and he hacked it apart with his sword. Another version claims that he didn't use the sword, but simply realized that the simplest way to undo the knot was to simply remove a central peg from the chariot--around which the knot was tied.
Alexander's army crossed the
Cilician Gates, met and defeated the main Persian army under the command of
Darius III at the
Battle of Issus in 333 BC. Darius was forced to flee the battle after his army broke, and in doing so left behind his wife, his two daughters, his mother
Sisygambis, and a fabulous amount of treasure. He afterwards offered a peace treaty to Alexander, the concession of the lands he'd already conquered, and a ransom of 10,000 talents for his family. Alexander replied that since he was now king of Asia, it was he alone who decided territorial divisions. Proceeding down the
Mediterranean coast, he took
Tyre and
Gaza after famous sieges (see
Siege of Tyre).
During 332–331 BC, Alexander was welcomed as a liberator in
Persian-occupied Egypt and was pronounced the son of Zeus by Egyptian priests of the deity
Amun at the
Oracle of
Siwa Oasis in the
Libyan desert. Henceforth, Alexander often referred to Zeus-Ammon as his true father, and subsequent currency depicted him, adorned with ram horns as a symbol of his divinity. He founded
Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the
Ptolemaic dynasty after his death.
Leaving Egypt, Alexander marched eastward into
Assyria (now northern
Iraq) and defeated Darius once more at the
Battle of Gaugamela. Once again, Darius was forced to leave the field, and Alexander chased him as far as
Arbela. While Darius fled over the mountains to
Ecbatana (modern
Hamedan), Alexander marched to
Babylon.
From Babylon, Alexander went to
Susa, one of the
Achaemenid capitals, and captured its legendary treasury. Sending the bulk of his army to the Persian capital of
Persepolis via the
Royal Road, Alexander stormed and captured the
Persian Gates (in the modern
Zagros Mountains), then sprinted for Persepolis before its treasury could be looted. It was here that Alexander was said to have stared at the crumbled statue of Xerxes and decided to leave it on the ground--a symbolic gesture of vengeance. During their stay at the capital, a fire broke out in the eastern palace of
Xerxes and spread to the rest of the city. Theories abound as to whether this was the result of a drunken accident, or a deliberate act of revenge for the burning of the
Acropolis of Athens during the
Second Persian War. The
Book of Arda Wiraz, a Zoroastrian work composed in the 3rd or 4th century AD, also speaks of archives containing "all the
Avesta and Zand, written upon prepared cow-skins, and with gold ink" that were destroyed; but it must be said that this statement is often treated by scholars with a certain measure of skepticism, because it's generally thought that for many centuries the Avesta was transmitted mainly orally by the
Magi.
Alexander then set off in pursuit of Darius anew. The Persian king was no longer in control of his destiny, having been taken prisoner by
Bessus, his
Bactrian satrap and kinsman. As Alexander approached, Bessus had his men murder the Great King and then declared himself Darius' successor as Artaxerxes V before retreating into
Central Asia to launch a
guerrilla campaign against Alexander. With the death of Darius, Alexander declared the war of vengeance over, and released his Greek and other allies from service in the League campaign (although he allowed those that wished to re-enlist as
mercenaries in his army).
His three-year campaign, first against Bessus and then against
Spitamenes, the satrap of
Sogdiana, took Alexander through
Media,
Parthia,
Aria (West Afghanistan),
Drangiana,
Arachosia (South and Central Afghanistan),
Bactria (North and Central Afghanistan), and
Scythia. In the process of doing so, he captured and refounded
Herat and
Maracanda. Moreover, he founded a series of new cities, all called Alexandria, including modern
Kandahar in
Afghanistan, and
Alexandria Eschate ("The Furthest") in modern
Tajikistan. In the end, both of his opponents were defeated after having been betrayed by their men--Bessus in 329 BC, and Spitamenes the year after.
Hostility
During this time, Alexander adopted some elements of Persian dress and customs at his court, notably the custom of
proskynesis, a symbolic kissing of the hand that Persians paid to their social superiors, but a practice that the Greeks disapproved. The Greeks regarded the gesture as the province of
deities and believed that Alexander meant to deify himself by requiring it. This cost him much in the sympathies of many of his countrymen. Here, too, a plot against his life was revealed, and one of his officers,
Philotas, was executed for failing to bring the plot to his attention. The death of the son necessitated the death of the father, and thus
Parmenion, who had been charged with guarding the treasury at
Ecbatana, was assassinated by command of Alexander, so he might not make attempts at vengeance. Most infamously, Alexander personally slew the man who had saved his life at Granicus,
Cleitus the Black, during a drunken argument at
Maracanda. Later in the Central Asian campaign, a second plot against his life was revealed, this one instigated by his own royal
pages. His official historian,
Callisthenes of
Olynthus (who had fallen out of favor with the king by leading the opposition to his attempt to introduce
proskynesis), was implicated in the plot, however, there never has been consensus among historians regarding his involvement in the conspiracy.
Invasion of India
After the death of
Spitamenes and his marriage to
Roxana (Roshanak in
Bactrian) to cement his relations with his new Central Asian satrapies, in 326 BC Alexander was finally free to turn his attention to the
Indian subcontinent. Alexander invited all the
chieftains of the former satrapy of
Gandhara, in the north of what is now
Pakistan, to come to him and submit to his authority.
Ambhi (Greek: Omphis), ruler of
Taxila, whose kingdom extended from the
Indus to the
Jhelum (Greek:Hydaspes), complied. But the chieftains of some hill clans including the
Aspasioi and
Assakenoi sections of the
Kambojas (
classical names), known in Indian texts as
Ashvayanas and
Ashvakayanas (
names referring to the equestrian nature of their society from the Sanskrit root word Ashva meaning horse), refused to submit.
Alexander personally took command of the shield-bearing guards, foot-companions, archers, Agrianians and horse-javelin-men and led them against the
Kamboja clans—the
Aspasioi of
Kunar/
Alishang valleys, the Guraeans of the Guraeus (
Panjkora) valley, and the Assakenoi of the
Swat and
Buner valleys. Writes one modern historian: "They were brave people and it was hard work for Alexander to take their strongholds, of which
Massaga and
Aornus need special mention." A fierce contest ensued with the Aspasioi in which Alexander himself was wounded in the shoulder by a dart but eventually the Aspasioi lost the fight; 40,000 of them were enslaved. The Assakenoi faced Alexander with an army of 30,000 cavalry, 38,000 infantry and 30
elephants. They had fought bravely and offered stubborn resistance to the invader in many of their strongholds like cities of
Ora,
Bazira and Massaga. The fort of Massaga could only be reduced after several days of bloody fighting in which Alexander himself was wounded seriously in the ankle. When the
Chieftain of Massaga fell in the battle, the supreme command of the army went to his old mother
Cleophis (q.v.) who also stood determined to defend her motherland to the last extremity. The example of Cleophis assuming the supreme command of the military also brought the entire women of the locality into the fighting. Alexander could only reduce Massaga by resorting to political strategem and actions of betrayal. According to
Curtius: "Not only did Alexander slaughter the entire population of Massaga, but also did he reduce its buildings to rubbles." A similar slaughter then followed at Ora, another stronghold of the Assakenoi.
In the aftermath of general
slaughter and
arson committed by Alexander at Massaga and Ora, numerous
Assakenians people fled to a high fortress called
Aornos. Alexander followed them close behind their heels and captured the strategic hill-fort but only after the fourth day of a bloody fight. The story of Massaga was repeated at Aornos and a similar carnage of the tribal-people followed here too.
Writing on Alexander's campaign against the Assakenoi,
Victor Hanson comments: "After promising the surrounded Assacenis their lives upon capitulation, he executed all their soldiers who had surrendered. Their strongholds at Ora and Aornus were also similarly stormed. Garrisons were probably all slaughtered.”
Sisikottos, who had helped Alexander in this campaign, was made the governor of Aornos. After reducing Aornos, Alexander crossed the Indus and fought and is believed to have won an epic battle against a local ruler
Porus (original Indian name Raja Puru), who ruled a region in the
Punjab, in the
Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC.
After the battle, Alexander was greatly impressed by Porus for his bravery in battle, and therefore made an alliance with him and appointed him as satrap of his own kingdom, even adding some land he didn't own before. Alexander then named one of the two new cities that he founded,
Bucephala, in honor of the horse who had brought him to India, who had died during the
Battle of Hydaspes. Alexander continued on to conquer all the headwaters of the Indus River.
East of Porus' kingdom, near the
Ganges River (original Indian name Ganga), was the powerful empire of
Magadha ruled by the
Nanda dynasty. Fearing the prospects of facing another powerful Indian army and exhausted by years of campaigning, his army mutinied at the
Hyphasis River (the modern
Beas River) refusing to march further east. This river thus marks the easternmost extent of Alexander's conquests:
Coenus, was convinced that it was better to return. Alexander was forced to turn south. Along the way his army ran into the
Malli clans (in modern day
Multan). The Malli were the most warlike clans in South Asia during that period. Alexander's army challenged the Malli, and the ensuing battle led them to the Malli citadel. During the assault, Alexander himself was wounded seriously by a Mallian arrow.. His forces, believing their king dead, took the citadel and unleashed their fury on the Malli who had taken refuge within it,perpetrating a massacre,sparing neither man,woman nor child. Following this, the surviving Malli surrendered to Alexander's forces, and his beleaguered army moved on.He sent much of his army to
Carmania (modern southern
Iran) with his general
Craterus, and commissioned a fleet to explore the
Persian Gulf shore under his admiral
Nearchus, while he led the rest of his forces back to Persia by the southern route through the
Gedrosian Desert (now part of southern
Iran and
Makran now part of
Pakistan).
Alexander left forces in India however. In the territory of the Indus, he nominated his officer
Peithon as a
satrap, a position he'd hold for the next ten years until 316 BC, and in the
Punjab he left
Eudemus in charge of the army, at the side of the satrap
Porus and
Taxiles. Eudemus became ruler of a part of the Punjab after their death. Both rulers returned to the West in 316 BC with their armies. In 321 BCE,
Chandragupta Maurya founded the
Maurya Empire in India and overthrew the Greek satraps.
After India
Discovering that many of his
satraps and
military governors had misbehaved in his absence, Alexander executed a number of them as examples on his way to
Susa. As a gesture of thanks, he paid off the debts of his soldiers, and announced that he'd send those over-aged and disabled veterans back to Macedonia under Craterus, but his troops misunderstood his intention and mutinied at the town of
Opis, refusing to be sent away and bitterly criticizing his adoption of Persian customs and dress and the introduction of Persian officers and soldiers into Macedonian units. Alexander executed the ringleaders of the mutiny, but forgave the rank and file. In an attempt to craft a lasting harmony between his Macedonian and Persian subjects, he held a mass marriage of his senior officers to Persian and other noblewomen at Susa, but few of those marriages seem to have lasted much beyond a year.
His attempts to merge Persian culture with his Greek soldiers also included training a regiment of Persian boys in the ways of Macedonians. Most historians believe that Alexander adopted the Persian royal title of
Shahanshah (meaning: "The King of Kings").
It is claimed that Alexander wanted to overrun or integrate the
Arabian peninsula, but this theory is widely disputed. It was assumed that Alexander would turn westwards and attack
Carthage and
Italy, had he conquered Arabia.
After traveling to Ecbatana to retrieve the bulk of the Persian treasure, his closest friend and possibly lover
Hephaestion died of an illness, or possibly of poisoning. Alexander mourned Hephaestion for six months.
Death
On the afternoon of
June 10–11, 323 BC, Alexander died in the palace of
Nebuchadrezzar II of
Babylon. He was just one month short of attaining 33 years of age. Various theories have been proposed for the cause of his death which include
poisoning by the sons of
Antipater or others, sickness that followed a drinking party, or a relapse of the
malaria he'd contracted in 336 BC.
It is known that on May 29, Alexander participated in a banquet organized by his friend
Medius of
Larissa. After some heavy drinking, immediately before or after a bath, he was forced into bed due to severe illness. The rumors of his illness circulated with the troops causing them to be more and more anxious. On June 9, the generals decided to let the soldiers see their king alive one last time. They were admitted to his presence one at a time. Because the king was too ill to speak, he confined himself to moving his hand. The day after, Alexander was dead.
Cause
The poisoning theory derives from the story held in antiquity by Justin and Curtius. The original story stated that
Cassander, son of Antipater, viceroy of Greece, brought the poison to Alexander in Babylon in a mule's hoof, and that Alexander's royal cupbearer,
Iollas, brother of Cassander, administered it. Many had powerful motivations for seeing Alexander gone, and were none the worse for it after his death. Deadly agents that could have killed Alexander in one or more doses include
hellebore and
strychnine. In R. Lane Fox's opinion, the strongest argument against the poison theory is the fact that twelve days had passed between the start of his illness and his death and in the ancient world, such long-acting poisons were probably not available.
The warrior culture of Macedon favoured the sword over strychnine, and many ancient historians, like Plutarch and
Arrian, maintained that Alexander wasn't poisoned, but died of natural causes. Instead, it's likely that Alexander died of
malaria or
typhoid fever, which were rampant in ancient Babylon. Other illnesses could have also been the culprit, including
acute pancreatitis or the
West Nile virus.
The testament, described in Diodorus XVIII, called for military expansion into the Southern and Western Mediterranean, monumental constructions, and the intermixing of Eastern and Western populations. Its most remarkable items were:
- The completion of a pyre to Hephaestion
- The building of "a thousand warships, larger than triremes, in Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, and Cyprus for the campaign against the Carthaginians and the other who live along the coast of Libya and Iberia and the adjoining coastal regions as far as Sicily"
- The building of a road in northern Africa as far as the Pillars of Heracles, with ports and shipyards along it.
- The erection of great temples in Delos, Delphi, Dodona, Dium, Amphipolis, Cyrnus and Ilium.
- The construction of a monumental tomb for his father Philip, "to match the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt"
- The establishment of cities and the "transplant of populations from Asia to Europe and in the opposite direction from Europe to Asia, in order to bring the largest continent to common unity and to friendship by means of intermarriage and family ties." (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historia, XVIII)
Personal life
Alexander's lifelong companion was
Hephaestion, the son of a Macedonian noble. Hephaestion also held the position of second-in-command of Alexander's forces until his death, which devastated Alexander. The full extent of his relationship with Hephaestion is the subject of much historical speculation.
Alexander married two women:
Roxana, daughter of a
Bactrian nobleman,
Oxyartes, and
Stateira, a Persian princess and daughter of
Darius III of Persia. There is also an accepted tradition of a third wife- Parysatis whom he's supposed to have married in Persia though nothing is known about her. Another personage from the court of Darius III with whom he was intimate was the male eunuch
Bagoas. His son by Roxana,
Alexander IV of Macedon, was killed after the death of his father, before he reached adulthood.
Alexander was admired during his lifetime for treating all his lovers humanely.
Legacy and division of the empire
Philip Arridaeus and Alexander's son Alexander IV. However, since Philip was apparently feeble-minded and the son of Alexander still a baby, two regents were named in
Perdiccas (who had received Alexander's ring at his death) and
Craterus (who may have been the one mentioned as successor by Alexander), although Perdiccas quickly managed to take sole power.
Perdiccas soon eliminated several of his opponents, killing about 30 (Diodorus Siculus), and at the
Partition of Babylon named former generals of Alexander as
satraps of the various regions of his Empire. In 321 BC Perdiccas was assassinated by his own troops during his conflict with
Ptolemy, leading to the
Partition of Triparadisus, in which
Antipater was named as the new regent, and the satrapies again shared between the various generals. From that time, Alexander's officers were focused on the explicit formation of rival monarchies and territorial states.
Ultimately, the conflict was settled after the
Battle of Ipsus in
Phrygia in 301 BC. Alexander's empire was divided at first into four major portions:
Cassander ruled in
Macedon,
Lysimachus in
Thrace,
Seleucus in
Mesopotamia and Persia, and
Ptolemy I Soter in the
Levant and
Egypt.
Antigonus ruled for a while in
Anatolia and
Syria but was eventually defeated by the other generals at Ipsus (301 BC). Control over Indian territory passed to
Chandragupta Maurya, the first
Maurya emperor, who further expanded his dominions after a settlement with Seleucus.
By 270 BC, the
Hellenistic states were consolidated, with
» *The
Antigonid Empire in Greece;
*The
Seleucid Empire in Mesopotamia and Persia;
» *The
Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt, Palestine and
Cyrenaica
By the 1st century BC though, most of the Hellenistic territories in the West had been absorbed by the
Roman Republic. In the East, they'd been dramatically reduced by the expansion of the
Parthian Empire. The territories further east seceded to form the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250-140 BC), which further expanded into India to form the
Indo-Greek kingdom (180 BC-10 AD).
The Ptolemy dynasty persisted in
Egypt until the epoch of the queen
Cleopatra, best known for her alliances with
Julius Caesar and
Mark Antony, just before the Roman republic officially became the
Roman Empire.
Alexander's conquests also had long term
cultural effects, with the flourishing of
Hellenistic civilization throughout the
Middle East and
Central Asia, and the development of
Greco-Buddhist art in the
Indian subcontinent. Alexander and his successors were tolerant of non-Greek religious practices, and interesting syncretisms developed in the new Greek towns he founded in
Central Asia. The first realistic portrayals of the
Buddha appeared at this time; they're reminiscent of Greek statues of
Apollo. Several
Buddhist traditions may have been influenced by the ancient Greek religion; the concept of
Boddhisatvas is reminiscent of Greek divine heroes, and some
Mahayana ceremonial practices (burning incense, gifts of flowers and food placed on altars) are similar to those practiced by the ancient Greeks.
Zen Buddhism draws in part on the ideas of Greek
stoics, such as
Zeno .
Among other effects, the
Hellenistic, or
koine dialect of
Greek became the
lingua franca throughout the so-called civilized world. For instance the standard version of the
Hebrew Scriptures used among the Jews of the
diaspora, especially in Egypt, during the life of
Jesus was the
Greek Septuagint translation, which was compiled ca 200 BC by seventy-odd scholars under the patronage of the Macedonian ruler
Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Thus many Jews from Egypt or Rome would have trouble understanding the teachings of the scholars in the Temple in
Jerusalem who were using the Hebrew original text and an
Aramaic translation, being themselves only acquainted with the Greek version. There has been much speculation on the issue whether Jesus spoke Koine Greek as the Gospel-writers, themselves writing in Greek, don't say anything decisive about the matter.
Influence on Ancient Rome
In the late
Republic and early
Empire, educated Roman citizens used Latin only for legal, political, and ceremonial purposes, and used Greek to discuss philosophy or any other intellectual topic. No Roman wanted to hear it said that his mastery of the Greek language was weak. Throughout the Roman world, the one language spoken everywhere was Alexander's Greek.
Alexander and his exploits were admired by many Romans who wanted to associate themselves with his achievements, although very little is known about Roman-Macedonian diplomatic relations of that time. Julius Caesar wept in Spain at the mere sight of Alexander's statue, when asked to see other great military leaders Ceaser said Alexander was the
only great one.
Pompey the Great rummaged through the closets of conquered nations for Alexander's 260-year-old cloak, which the Roman general then wore as the costume of greatness. However, in his zeal to honor Alexander,
Augustus accidentally broke the nose off the Macedonian's mummified corpse while laying a wreath at the hero's shrine in Alexandria, Egypt. The unbalanced emperor
Caligula later took the dead king's armor from that tomb and donned it for luck. The Macriani, a Roman family that rose to the imperial throne in the 3rd century A.D., always kept images of Alexander on their persons, either stamped into their bracelets and rings or stitched into their garments. Even their dinnerware bore Alexander's face, with the story of the king's life displayed around the rims of special bowls.
In the summer of 1995, during the archaeological work of the season centered on excavating the remains of domestic architecture of early-Roman date, a statue of Alexander was recovered from the structure, which was richly decorated with mosaic and marble pavements and probably was constructed in the 1st century AD and occupied until the 3rd century.
Character
Modern opinion on Alexander has run the gamut from the idea that he believed he was on a divinely-inspired mission to unite the
human race, to the view that he was a
megalomaniac bent on
world domination. Such views tend to be
anachronistic, and the sources allow for a variety of interpretations. Much about Alexander's personality and aims remains enigmatic. There were no disinterested commentators in Alexander's own time or soon afterward, so all accounts need to be read with skepticism.
Alexander is remembered as a legendary hero in
Europe and much of both
Southwest Asia and
Central Asia, where he's known as
Iskander or
Iskandar Zulkarnain. To
Zoroastrians, on the other hand, he's remembered as the conqueror of their first great empire and as the destroyer of
Persepolis. Ancient sources are generally written with an agenda of either glorifying or denigrating the man, making it difficult to evaluate his actual character. Most refer to a growing instability and megalomania in the years following Gaugamela, but it has been suggested that this simply reflects the Greek
stereotype of an orientalizing king.
The murder of his friend
Cleitus, which Alexander deeply and immediately regretted, is often cited as a sign of his paranoia, as is his execution of Philotas and his general Parmenion for failure to pass along details of a plot against him. There is also the view that this may have been more prudence than paranoia.
Modern Alexandrists continue to debate these same issues, among others, in modern times. One unresolved topic involves whether Alexander was actually attempting to better the world by his conquests, or whether his purpose was primarily to rule the world.
Partially in response to the ubiquity of positive portrayals of Alexander, an alternate character is sometimes presented which emphasizes some of Alexander's negative aspects. Some proponents of this view cite the destructions of
Thebes,
Tyre,
Persepolis, and
Gaza as examples of atrocities, and argue that Alexander preferred to fight rather than negotiate. It is further claimed, in response to the view that Alexander was generally tolerant of the cultures of those whom he conquered, that his attempts at cultural fusion were severely practical and that he never actually admired Persian art or culture. To this way of thinking, Alexander was, first and foremost, a general rather than a statesman.
Alexander's character also suffers from the interpretation of historians who themselves are subject to the bias and idealisms of their own time. Good examples are
W. W. Tarn, who wrote during the late 19th century and early 20th century, and who saw Alexander in an extremely good light, and
Peter Green, who wrote after
World War II and for whom Alexander did little that wasn't inherently selfish or ambition-driven. Tarn wrote in an age where world conquest and warrior-heroes were acceptable, even encouraged, whereas Green wrote with the backdrop of
the Holocaust and
nuclear weapons.
Greek and Latin sources
There are numerous Greek and Latin texts about Alexander, as well as some non-Greek texts. The primary sources, texts written by people who actually knew Alexander or who gathered information from men who served with Alexander, are all lost, apart from a few inscriptions and some letter-fragments of dubious authenticity. Contemporaries who wrote full accounts of his life include the historian
Callisthenes, Alexander's general
Ptolemy,
Aristobulus,
Nearchus, and
Onesicritus. Another influential account is by
Cleitarchus who, while not a direct witness of Alexander's expedition, used sources which had just been published. His work was to be the backbone of that of
Timagenes, who heavily influenced many historians whose work still survives. None of these works survives, but we do have later works based on these primary sources.
The five main surviving accounts are by Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, Diodorus, and Justin.
Anabasis Alexandri (The Campaigns of Alexander in Greek) by the Greek historian Arrian of Nicomedia, writing in the 2nd century AD, and based largely on Ptolemy and, to a lesser extent, Aristobulus and Nearchus. It is considered generally the most trustworthy source.
Historiae Alexandri Magni, a biography of Alexander in ten books, of which the last eight survive, by the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus, written in the 1st century AD, and based largely on Cleitarchus through the mediation of Timagenes, with some material probably from Ptolemy;
Life of Alexander (see Parallel Lives) and two orations On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great (see Moralia), by the Greek historian and biographer Plutarch of Chaeronea in the second century, based largely on Aristobulus and especially Cleitarchus.
Bibliotheca historia (Library of world history), written in Greek by the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus, from which Book 17 relates the conquests of Alexander, based almost entirely on Timagenes's work. The books immediately before and after, on Philip and Alexander's "Successors," throw light on Alexander's reign.
The Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus by Justin, which contains factual errors and is highly compressed. It is difficult in this case to understand the source, since we only have an epitome, but it's thought that also Pompeius Trogus may have limited himself to use Timagenes for his Latin history.
To these five main sources some scholars add the Metz Epitome, an anonymous late Latin work that narrates Alexander's campaigns from Hyrcania to India. Much is also recounted incidentally in other authors, including Strabo, Athenaeus, Polyaenus, Aelian, and others.
The "problem of the sources" is the main concern (and chief delight) of Alexander-historians. In effect, each presents a different "Alexander", with details to suit. Arrian is mostly interested in the military aspects, while Curtius veers to a more private and darker Alexander. Plutarch can't resist a good story, light or dark. All, with the possible exception of Arrian, include a considerable level of fantasy, prompting Strabo to remark, "All who wrote about Alexander preferred the marvelous to the true." Nevertheless, the sources tell us much, and leave much to our interpretation and imagination. Perhaps Arrian's words are most appropriate: » One account says that Hephaestion laid a wreath on the tomb of Patroclus; another that Alexander laid one on the tomb of Achilles, calling him a lucky man, in that he'd Homer to proclaim his deeds and preserve his memory. And well might Alexander envy Achilles this piece of good fortune; for in his own case there was no equivalent: his one failure, the single break, as it were, in the long chain of his successes, was that he'd no worthy chronicler to tell the world of his exploits.
Legend
Alexander was a legend in his own time. His court historian Callisthenes portrayed the sea in Cilicia as drawing back from him in proskynesis. Writing after Alexander's death, another participant, Onesicritus, went so far as to invent a tryst between Alexander and Thalestris, queen of the mythical Amazons. When Onesicritus read this passage to his patron, Alexander's general and later King Lysimachus reportedly quipped, "I wonder where I was at the time." (Plutarch, Alexander' 46.2)
In the first centuries after Alexander's death, probably in Alexandria, a quantity of the more legendary material coalesced into a text known as the Alexander Romance, later falsely ascribed to the historian Callisthenes and therefore known as Pseudo-Callisthenes. This text underwent numerous expansions and revisions throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, exhibiting a plasticity unseen in "higher" literary forms. Latin and Syriac translations were made in Late Antiquity. From these, versions were developed in all the major languages of Europe and the Middle East, including Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Serbian, Slavonic, Romanian, Hungarian, German, English, Italian, and French. The "Romance" is regarded by many Western scholars as the source of the account of Alexander given in the Qur'an (Sura The Cave). It is the source of many incidents in Ferdowsi's "Shahnama". A Mongolian version is also extant. Some believe that, excepting certain religious texts, it's the most widely-read work of pre-modern times.
Alexander is also a character of Greek folklore (and other regions), as the protagonist of 'apocryphal' tales of bravery. A maritime legend says that his sister is a mermaid and asks the sailors if her brother is still alive. The unsuspecting sailor who answers truthfully arouses the mermaid's wrath and his boat perishes in the waves; a sailor mindful of the circumstances will answer "He lives and reigns, and conquers the world", and the sea about his boat will immediately calm. Alexander is also a character of a standard play in the Karagiozis repertory, "Alexander the Great and the Accursed Serpent". The ancient Greek poet Adrianus composed an epic poem on the history of Alexander the Great, called the Alexandriad, which was probably still extant in the 10th century, but which is now lost to us.
In the Bible
Daniel 8:5-8 and 21-22 states that a King of Greece will conquer the Medes and Persians but then die at the height of his power and have his kingdom broken into four kingdoms. This is sometimes taken as a reference to Alexander.
Alexander was briefly mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees. All of Chapter 1, verses 1-7 was about Alexander and this serves as an introduction of the book. This explains how the Hellenistic influence reached the Land of Israel at that time.
In the Qur'an
Dhul-Qarnayn, Arabic for the "Two-Horned One", possibly a reference to the appearance of a horn-headed figure that appears on coins minted during his rule and later imitated in ancient Middle Eastern coinage. Accounts of Dhul-Qarnayn appear in the Qur'an, and so may refer to Alexander.
References to Alexander may also be found in the Persian tradition. The same traditions from the Pseudo-Callisthenes were combined in Persia with Sassanid Persian ideas about Alexander in the Iskandarnamah. In this tradition, Alexander built a wall of iron and melted copper in which Gog and Magog are confined.
Some Muslim scholars disagree that Alexander was Dhul-Qarnayn. There are actually some theories that Dhul-Qarnayn was a Persian King with a vast Empire as well, possibly King Cyrus the Great. The reason being is Dhul-Qarnayn is described in the Holy Quran as a monotheist believer who worshipped Allah (God). This, it's claimed, removes Alexander as a candidate for Dhul-Qarnayn as Alexander was a polytheist. Yet contemporaneous Persian nobles would have practiced Zurvanism, thus disqualifying them on the same basis.
In the Shahnameh
The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, one of the oldest books written in modern Persian, has a chapter about Alexander. It is a book of epic poetry written around 1000 AD, and is believed to have played an important role in the survival of the Persian language in the face of Arabic influence. It starts with a mythical history of Iran and then gives a story of Alexander, followed by a brief mention of the Arsacids. The accounts after that, still in epic poetry, portray historical figures. Alexander is described as a child of a Persian king, Daraaye Darab (the last in the list of kings in the book whose names don't match historical kings), and a daughter of Philip, a Roman king. However, due to problems in the relationship between the Persian king and Philip's daughter, she's sent back to Rome. Alexander is born to her afterwards, but Philip claims him as his own son and keeps the true identity of the child secret.
Names
Alexander is also known in the Zoroastrian Middle Persian work Arda Wiraz Nāmag as "Alexander the accursed",, in the Persian language Guzastag, due to his conquest of the Persian Empire and the destruction of its capital Persepolis. He is also known as Eskandar-e Maqduni (Alexander of Macedonia") in Persian, al-Iskandar al-Makduni al-Yunani ("Alexander the Macedonian, of Greece") in Arabic, אלכסנדר מוקדון, Alexander Mokdon in Hebrew, and Tre-Qarnayia in Aramaic (the two-horned one, apparently due to an image on coins minted during his rule that seemingly depicted him with the two ram's horns of the Egyptian god Ammon), الاسكندر الاكبر, al-Iskandar al-Akbar ("Alexander the Great") in Arabic, سکندر اعظم, Sikandar-e-azam in Urdu and Skandar in Pashto. Sikandar, his name in Urdu and Hindi, is also a term used as a synonym for "expert" or "extremely skilled".
In ancient and modern culture
Around seventy towns or outposts are claimed to have been founded by Alexander. Diodorus Siculus credits Alexander with planning cities on a grid plan.
Alexander has figured in works of both "high" and popular culture from his own era to the modern day.
Further Information
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