Alexander the Great: Conquests, Army, and Legacy

Introduction: Alexander's Early Life and Rise to Power

King Philip II did not leave his son Alexander's destiny to chance. He had the boy learn how to play the lyre, recite, and debate, and placed him under the tutorship of no less than Aristotle (Smitha 1998), so that visitors from Athens later praised the boy as "thoroughly Greek" for his remarkable memory and speaking ability. At only 16, Alexander was placed in charge of Macedonia during his father's siege of Thrace and later headed a force that crushed a rebellion by the Maedi people in the famous Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC (Marx 2000). He eventually became king of Macedonia, the conqueror of the Persian Empire, and one of the greatest military geniuses of all time (Microsoft 2004).

Alexander was born in 356 BC in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia, to King Philip II and Olympias, a princess of Epirus (Microsoft 2004). He received thorough training in rhetoric and literature from Aristotle and developed a strong interest in science, medicine, and philosophy. After his father was assassinated in 336 BC, Alexander became king of Macedonia at the age of 20 during a period of intense internal and external unrest.

As a first and immediate step, he ordered the execution of his domestic enemies and all their conspirators. He then led an army of 35,000 to Thessaly to regain Macedonian supremacy from independence forces, re-established his position in Greece in 336 BC, and was elected by a congress of states in Corinth (Microsoft 2004). The following year, as general of the Greeks, he subdued defecting Thracians and won the campaign against the Persians that his father had been unable to complete.

Military Campaigns and the Conquest of Persia

From Thrace, Alexander wiped out threatening Illyrians in a single week and proceeded to Thebes, which had revolted. He nearly decimated the city, sparing only the temples of the gods and the house of the Greek poet Pindar. He sold approximately 8,000 defeated inhabitants into slavery and brought Thebes and other Greek states into quick and humiliating subjection, prompting them to offer ships and warriors for his next attack on the Persians in Asia Minor (Microsoft 2004).

In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander overcame a strong Persian force of 40,000 at the Granicus River, then proceeded south along the coast and secured the Greek cities of Aeolis and Ionia. After this, all the states of Asia Minor submitted to him. The following year, Alexander marched east across ancient Phrygia and cut the legendary Gordian Knot, associated with Gordius, founder of Phrygia. He reached northern Syria, where he encountered and toppled a large Persian force led by King Darius III at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC (Marx 2000). King Darius fled and abandoned his mother, wife, and children to Alexander's forces. Alexander, however, showed them respect and compassion, as befitted their royal status (Microsoft 2004).

He met strong resistance at Tyre, a fortified seaport, but conquered it after seven months in 332 BC. Capturing Gaza afterwards, he gained control of the entire eastern Mediterranean coastline and founded the City of Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile River in 332 BC (Microsoft 2004). The city became the center of literary, scientific, and commercial activity in the Greek world. Alexander's power extended toward Carthage when Cyrene, the capital of the ancient North African kingdom of Cyrenaica, yielded to him.

In the meantime, Darius sought terms of peace with Alexander, offering all his territories, 10,000 talents, and his daughter in marriage. Alexander nevertheless pressed forward through Syria, across the Euphrates and Tigris rivers into Assyria, where he confronted Darius' forces once again and defeated them (Marx 2000). Darius fled through the mountains to Media as Alexander took Babylonia with little resistance and then marched into Persia, seizing, plundering, and burning its capital, Persepolis, in 330 BC. This completed the destruction of the Persian Empire — the aspiration his father had carried before him.

By this time, Alexander's dominion extended beyond the Caspian Sea and included modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan, reaching north into Bactria and Sogdiana, comprising modern Western Turkistan, also known as Central Asia (Microsoft 2004). It took him only three years — from the spring of 330 BC to the spring of 327 BC — to conquer this vast area.

Expanding the Empire: Egypt, Central Asia, and India

At Ecbatana, Alexander confronted Darius a third time. There, Alexander's officers killed the fleeing Persian leader as he traveled toward the Persian province of Bactria, north of the Hindu Kush mountains (Microsoft 2004).

Alexander's claim to divinity was related to a pilgrimage he made in the spring of 331 BC to the great temple and oracle of Amon-Ra, the Egyptian sun god identified with the Greek Zeus. Earlier Egyptian pharaohs had been considered sons of Amon-Ra, and since Alexander had become the new ruler of Egypt, he sought recognition as one of those sons. The negotiations appeared to have been successful (Microsoft 2004), laying the groundwork for his claim to divine origin.

In pursuing the remnants of the Persian Empire, of which western India was a part, Alexander crossed the Indus River in 326 BC and took Punjab up to the river Hyphasis. His land forces rebelled and refused to march farther. Alexander formed a fleet to navigate the Indus in September of that year, reaching the Persian Gulf in 325 BC. His land forces crossed the desert to Media, but they were severely hampered by shortages of food and water (Microsoft 2004). He spent a full year organizing the territories he had won and surveying the Persian Gulf in preparation for further conquests. He was in Babylon in 323 BC when he contracted a fever and died within a few days. He was only 33 years old.