Alexander the Great

(356 BC-323 BC)

BIRTH

356 BC

PLACE

Pella, Greece

DEATH

323 BC

PLACE

Babylon, Iraq

FAMILY

FATHER

Philip II of Macedon

(c. 382–336 BCE)

MOTHER

Olympias

(c. 375–316 BCE)

WIFE

Roxana

(c. 340 BC-310 BC)

WIFE

Stateira

(c. 340–338 BCE-323 BCE)

WIFE

Parysatis

(c. 350–323 BCE)

HOMES

NICKNAMES

The Great

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

GREEK POLYTHEIST

MEMBERSHIPS

AWARDS

Alexander the Great was king of Macedon who, in just over a decade, conquered the Persian Empire and built an empire stretching from Greece to northwestern India, spreading Greek culture across the ancient world. His father built Macedon into the leading power in Greece. He took Tyre after a long siege, occupied Egypt, where he founded Alexandria, and defeated Darius again at Gaugamela in 331 BC. His generals divided his empire among themselves.

EARLY LIFE

Alexander was born in 356 BC in Pella, the capital of the kingdom of Macedon, the son of King Philip II and Olympias, a princess of Epirus. From the age of thirteen he was tutored by the philosopher Aristotle, who gave him a lifelong interest in Greek literature, especially the Iliad. His father built Macedon into the leading power in Greece. At eighteen Alexander commanded the Macedonian cavalry at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, where Philip defeated Athens and Thebes. In 336 BC Philip was assassinated, and Alexander became king at the age of twenty.

Alexander III became king of Macedon in 336 BCE after the assassination of Philip II. He secured his position against rivals and reaffirmed Macedonian leadership over the Greek states. Campaigns in the Balkans suppressed challenges to his authority, and the destruction of Thebes in 335 demonstrated the consequences of rebellion. He then undertook the invasion of the Persian Empire that Philip had prepared, crossing into Asia Minor in 334 with a Macedonian-led coalition army.

Victory at the Granicus opened much of western Asia Minor to him. At Issus in 333 he defeated Darius III, but instead of immediately pursuing the Persian king eastward, he secured the Mediterranean coast. The long siege of Tyre in 332 ended in the city's capture and severe reprisals; Gaza also fell. In Egypt he was accepted as ruler and founded Alexandria.

At Gaugamela in 331 Alexander defeated Darius again and occupied Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. The burning of the Persian royal complex at Persepolis remains a contested episode whose motives ancient accounts describe differently. After Darius was killed by his own followers, Alexander claimed succession to the Persian kingship. Campaigns in Bactria and Sogdiana required prolonged fighting against local resistance.

Alexander's increasingly royal style strained relations with Macedonian companions. He killed Cleitus during a drunken confrontation and sought forms of court ceremonial that some Greeks and Macedonians regarded as unacceptable. His eastward campaign reached the Indus region. After defeating Porus at the Hydaspes in 326, he allowed him to retain a kingdom under Macedonian supremacy. His exhausted troops refused to advance beyond the Hyphasis, forcing a return. Fighting down the Indus and the difficult march through Gedrosia inflicted further losses.

Back in the imperial heartland, Alexander promoted marriages between Macedonians and Persian women and attempted to combine different military elites. These policies met resistance, including the mutiny at Opis, which he resolved through confrontation and reconciliation. He died in Babylon in 323 BCE while preparing further operations. No durable succession arrangement held his empire together, and his commanders fought over its territories. His conquests enabled the spread of Greek language and institutions across the Hellenistic world, but they also involved destruction, enslavement, and coercive rule.

CAREER

DEATH

Babylon

Hillah, Iraq

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On either 10 or 11 June 323 BC, Alexander died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, in Babylon, at age 32. There are two versions of Alexander's death, differing slightly in details. Plutarch's account is that roughly 14 days before his death, Alexander entertained admiral Nearchus and spent the night and next day drinking with Medius of Larissa. Alexander developed a fever, which worsened until he was unable to speak. The common soldiers, anxious about his health, were granted the right to file past him as he silently waved at them. In the second account, Diodorus recounts that Alexander was struck with pain after downing a large bowl of unmixed wine in honour of Heracles followed by 11 days of weakness; he did not develop a fever, instead dying after some agony. Arrian also mentioned this as an alternative, but Plutarch specifically denied this claim. Given the propensity of the Macedonian aristocracy to assassination and Alexander's relatively young age, foul play featured in multiple accounts of his death. Diodorus, Plutarch, Arrian and Justin all mentioned the theory that Alexander was poisoned. Justin stated that Alexander was the victim of a poisoning conspiracy, Plutarch dismissed it as a fabrication, while both Diodorus and Arrian noted that they mentioned it only for the sake of completeness. The accounts were nevertheless fairly consistent in designating Antipater, recently removed as Macedonian viceroy, replaced by Craterus, as the head of the alleged plot.