Alexander the Great
Great PeopleThe Boy from Macedon
Alexander was born in 356 BC at Pella, capital of the warrior kingdom of Macedon, the son of King Philip II. As a teenager he was tutored by the greatest mind of the age, the philosopher Aristotle. In 336 BC, when his father was assassinated, Alexander became king at just twenty years old.
He Attacked the Superpower
Rather than defend his borders, Alexander went on the offensive. In 334 BC he crossed into Asia and invaded the Persian Empire — the two-hundred-year-old superpower of its age. He won his first great battle at the Granicus River in 334 BC, throwing open the gateway to Asia.
Gaugamela and the Fall of Persia
On 1 October 331 BC, at Gaugamela, Alexander was outnumbered at least two to one — yet he charged straight at the heart of the Persian army and won. The Achaemenid Empire collapsed. He took and burned the ceremonial capital, Persepolis, in 330 BC. Along the way, in Egypt, he had founded a city and given it his own name: Alexandria, which still stands more than 2,300 years later.
To the Edge of the World
Alexander pushed on past the edge of every map the Greeks had ever drawn. In 326 BC, at the Hydaspes River, he crossed a monsoon-swollen river and defeated King Porus, whose army rode war elephants — his hardest-won victory. But two rivers and months of monsoon marching later, at the Hyphasis, his exhausted, homesick soldiers refused to go a step farther. The undefeated king was stopped not by an enemy, but by his own men, and turned back.
An Empire, and a Mysterious Death
By about the age of thirty, Alexander ruled roughly two million square miles — from Greece and Egypt to the banks of the Indus — one of the largest empires the ancient world had yet seen, built in only about thirteen years, and he had never lost a battle he personally commanded. In June 323 BC he died at Babylon at just thirty-two, after about two weeks of fever. What killed him has never been agreed upon.
Legend and Legacy
The cities Alexander founded spread Greek culture across three continents, and for centuries conquerors from Julius Caesar to Mehmet the Conqueror studied his campaigns. One famous line — that he 'wept because there were no more worlds to conquer' — turns an ancient story on its head: Plutarch wrote that he wept on hearing there were infinite worlds, because he had not yet conquered a single one. They called him Megas Alexandros: Alexander the Great.
Key Dates to Remember
- 356 BC — Born at Pella, Macedon, son of King Philip II
- c. 343 BC — Tutored by the philosopher Aristotle
- 336 BC — Becomes king of Macedon at age 20
- 334 BC — Battle of the Granicus — his first great victory over Persia
- 1 October 331 BC — Battle of Gaugamela — the Persian Empire collapses
- 331 BC — Founds Alexandria in Egypt
- 326 BC — Battle of the Hydaspes; the Hyphasis mutiny forces him to turn back
- 10–11 June 323 BC — Dies at Babylon, age 32, after about two weeks of fever