Alexander the Great

Life

Alexander was the son of Philip II of Macedon and Olympias, a princess of Epirus. Tutored by Aristotle, he grew up loving Homer and saw himself as a new Achilles. As a boy he tamed the wild horse Bucephalus, and at eighteen he commanded the cavalry at the battle of Chaeronea. When Philip was assassinated in 336 BC, Alexander became king at just twenty.

Conquest

In 334 BC he crossed into Asia with a Greek and Macedonian army. He defeated the Persians at the Granicus, at Issus and finally at Gaugamela, and King Darius III was killed by his own officers as he fled. Alexander was welcomed as pharaoh in Egypt, where he founded Alexandria, and he pressed on through Persia and Central Asia into India, until his exhausted soldiers refused to go further.

Death and legacy

Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, aged 32, possibly of fever, though rumours of poison spread at once. His empire quickly broke apart among his generals, but the kingdoms they founded carried Greek language, cities and ideas across a vast area, creating the Hellenistic world. He remains one of the most admired and most debated figures in history.