Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great, was born in June, 356 BC, in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. His

parents were Philip II and Olympia. Some say that Zeus was his father but it is probably just a

myth. Aristotle taught Alexander in his early teen years. He stimulated his interest in science,

medicine, and philosophy. In the summer of 336 BC, Alexander's father was assassinated, and

Alexander ascended to the Macedonian throne. He found himself surrounded by enemies at home

and threatened by civilizations all over. But Alexander disposed of quickly of all his enemies by

ordering their execution. Then he took off to Thessaly, where partisans of independence had

gained ascendancy, and restored Macedonian rule. Before the end of the summer of 336 BC as

general of the Greeks in a campaign against the Persians, originally planned by his father before he

croaked, he carried out a successful campaign against the defecting Thracians, penetrating to the Danube River. On his return he crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians and then again

took of to Thebes, which had revolted. He took the city by storm and razed it, sparing only the

temples of the gods and the house of the Greed lyric poet Pindar, and selling the surviving inhabi¬

tants, about 8000 in number, into slavery. Alexander's promptness in crushing the revolt of The¬

bes brought the other Greek states into instant submission.

Alexander began his war against Persia in the spring of 334 BC by crossing the Hellespont

(now Dardanelles) with an army of 35,000 Macedonian and Greek troops: his chief officers, all

Macedonians, included Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. At the river Granicus, near the ancient

city of Troy, he attacked an army of Persians and Greek soldiers which totaled 40,000 men. His

forces slatured the enemy and according to tradition, only lost 110 men! After this battle all the

stated of Asia Minor submitted to Alexander. Continuing south, Alexander encountered the main

Persian army, commanded by King Darius III, at Issus. The size of Darius's army was unknown;

but ancient tradition said it contained about 500,000 men but now is considered a very big exag¬

geration. The Battle of Issus, in 333 BC, ended in a great victory for Alexander, who treated them

with the respect due to royalty. Tyre, a strongly guarded seaport, offered obstinate resistance, but

Alexander took it to by storm in 332 after a siege of seven months. Alexander captured Gaza next

and then passed on into Egypt, where he was greeted as a deliverer. By these successes the Nile

River, the city of Alexandria, which later became the literacy, scientific, and commercial center of

the Greek world. Cyrene, the capital of the ancient North African kingdom of Cyrenaica, gave up

to Alexander soon afterward, extending his dominance to Carthaginian territory.

In the spring of 331, Alexander made a trip to the great temple and oracle of Amon-Ra,

Egyptian god of the sun, whom the Greeks identified as Zeus. The earlier Egyptian pharaohs were

believed to be sons of Amon-Ra; and Alexander, the new ruler of Egypt, wanted the god to ac¬

knowledge him as his son. Amon-Ra (Zeus) agreed. I tried doing that the other day and Amon-Ra

accepted but I told him that he wasn't good enough for me. So he has cursed me by making my

right arm longer then my left are for 7 years. Crossing the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, Alex¬

ander met Darius at the head of an army of unknown size, which, according to the exaggerated

accounts of antiquity, was said to number a million men! This army he completely defeated in the

Battle of Guagamela, Oct 1, 331. Daruis fled as he had done at Issus and was later killed by two

of his own generals. Babylon surrendered after Gaugamela did, and the city of Susa with its

enormous treasures was soon taken over also by Alexander. Then, in midwinter, Alexander forced

his way to Persepolis, the Persian capital, and plundered in and the royal treasures and took the

rich by their butt, and burned the city during a drunken binge and thus completed the destruction

of the ancient Persian Empire. His domain now extended along and beyond the southern shores of

the Caspian Sea, including modern Central Asia. It had taken Alexander only 3 years to master

this vast area.

In June, 323 BC, Alexander contracted a dangerous fever and died. He left his empire, in

his own words, "too the strongest"; this resulted in huge conflicts for half a century. Alexander

was one of the greatest generals of all time, noted for his brilliance as a tactician and troop leader

and for the rapidity with which he could traverse great expanses of territory. He was usually brave

and generous, but could be very cruel and ruthless when politics demanded. Is has been said that

he was actually and alcoholic having, for example, killed his friend Clitus in a drunken fury. He

later regretted this act deeply. He himself, in his life had a few wives and a few children. He was

also reported to have had sexual relations with his close friend Hephaestion, who was a man.

"ick"