   #copyright

Alexander the Great

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military People

   Alexander the Great
   July, 356 BC– 11 June 323 BC
   Alexander the Great fighting Persian king Darius III (not in frame)
   ( Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii, from a 3rd century BC original Greek
   painting, now lost)
   Place of birth Pella, Macedon
   Place of death Babylon (Most probable)
                     Wars of Alexander the Great
   Chaeronea – Granicus – Issus – Tyre – Gaugamela – Hydaspes River

   Alexander the Great ( Greek: Μέγας Ἀλέξανδρος, Megas Alexandros; July
   356 BC– June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon
   ( 336– 323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in
   history. Before his death, he conquered most of the world known to the
   ancient Greeks; he is regarded as one of the greatest military
   strategists and tacticians who ever lived. Alexander is also known in
   the Zoroastrian Middle Persian work Arda Wiraz Nāmag as "the accursed
   Alexander" due to his conquest of the Persian Empire and the
   destruction of its capital Persepolis. He is known as Eskandar in
   Persian, Dhul-Qarnayn (The two-horned one) in Middle Eastern
   traditions, al-Iskandar al-Kabeer in Arabic, Sikandar-e-azam in Urdu,
   Skandar in Pashto, Alexander Mokdon in Hebrew, and Tre-Qarnayia in
   Aramaic (the two-horned one), apparently due to an image on coins
   minted during his rule that seemingly depicted him with the two ram's
   horns of the Egyptian god Ammon. He is known as Sikandar in Urdu and
   Hindi, a term also used as a synonym for "expert" or "extremely
   skilled".

   Following the unification of the multiple city-states of ancient Greece
   under the rule of his father, Philip II of Macedon, (a labour Alexander
   had to repeat twice because the southern Greeks rebelled after Philip's
   death), Alexander would conquer the Persian Empire, including Anatolia,
   Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia and
   extend the boundaries of his own empire as far as the Punjab. Before
   his death, Alexander had already made plans to also turn west and
   conquer Europe. Also he wanted to continue his march eastwards, in
   order to find the end of the world, since his boyhood tutor Aristotle,
   told him tales about where the land ends and the Great Outer Sea
   begins. Alexander integrated foreigners (non-Macedonians, non-Greeks
   known as the Successors) into his army and administration, leading some
   scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He encouraged
   marriage between his army and foreigners, and practiced it himself.
   After twelve years of constant military campaigning, Alexander died,
   possibly of malaria, typhoid, or viral encephalitis. His conquests
   ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and rule over distant areas, a
   period known as the Hellenistic Age, a combination of Greek and Middle
   Eastern culture. Alexander himself lived on in the history and myth of
   both Greek and non-Greek cultures. After his death (and even during his
   life) his exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appears as
   a legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles.

Early life

   Alexander the Great was the son of King Philip II of Macedon and of his
   fourth wife, Epirote princess Olympias. According to Plutarch
   (Alexander 3.1,3), Olympias was impregnated not by Philip, who was
   afraid of her and her affinity for sleeping in the company of snakes,
   but by Zeus Ammon. Plutarch relates that both Philip and Olympias
   dreamt of their son's future birth. Olympias dreamed of a loud burst of
   thunder and of lightning striking her womb. In Philip's dream, he
   sealed her womb with the seal of the lion. Alarmed by this, he
   consulted the seer Aristander of Telmessus, who determined that his
   wife was pregnant and that the child would have the character of a
   lion. Another odd coincidence is that the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus
   was set on fire the same night of his birth. Plutarch claimed the gods
   were too busy watching over Alexander to care for the temple.

   Aristotle was Alexander's tutor and he gave Alexander a thorough
   training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in
   science, medicine, and philosophy. After his visit to the Oracle of
   Ammon at Siwa, according to five historians of antiquity ( Arrian,
   Curtius, Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch), rumors spread that the Oracle
   had revealed Alexander's father to be Zeus, rather than Philip.
   According to Plutarch, his father descended from Heracles through
   Caranus and his mother descended from Aeacus through Neoptolemus and
   Achilles. Aristotle gave him a copy of the Iliad which he always kept
   with him and read frequently.

   As Alexander was walking with his father one day, they came across a
   few men attempting to tame and mount a wild, black horse. Alexander
   immediately took a liking for the horse, and begged his father if he
   would buy it for him. Philip laughed and told him if he could mount the
   horse, he would. Alexander watched the horse's behaviour, and soon
   realized that it was merely afraid of its own shadow. He walked over to
   the horse and faced it towards the sun to hide its shadow, and
   immediately was able to mount it. His father bought the horse, and he
   named it Bucephalus (which means "ox-head"), whom would be his loyal
   steed for the next two decades until it would die in battle.

Ascent of Macedon

   Sardonyx cameo representing Alexander the Great. Thought to be by
   Pyrgoteles, engraver of Alexander, around 325 BC. Cabinet des
   Médailles, Paris.
   Enlarge
   Sardonyx cameo representing Alexander the Great. Thought to be by
   Pyrgoteles, engraver of Alexander, around 325 BC. Cabinet des
   Médailles, Paris.

   When Philip led an attack on Byzantium in 340 BC, Alexander, aged 16,
   was left as regent of Macedonia. In 339 BC, Philip took a fifth wife,
   the Macedonian Cleopatra. As Alexander's mother, Olympias, was from
   Epirus (a land in the western part of the Greek peninsula and not part
   of Macedon), and Cleopatra was a true Macedonian, this led to a dispute
   over Alexander's legitimacy as heir to the throne. Attalus, the uncle
   of the bride, supposedly gave a toast during the wedding feast giving
   his wish for the wedding to result in a legitimate heir to the throne
   of Macedon; Alexander hurled his goblet at Attalus shouting "What am I,
   a bastard then?" Alexander's father apparently had drawn his sword and
   moved towards Alexander, but then had fallen in a drunken stupor.
   Alexander remarked "Here is the man planning on conquering from Greece
   to Asia, and he cannot even move from one table to another." Alexander,
   his mother, and sister (also named Cleopatra) then left Macedon in
   anger.

   Eventually Philip reconciled with his son, and Alexander returned home;
   Olympias and Alexander's sister remained in Epirus. In 338 BC Alexander
   assisted his father at the decisive Battle of Chaeronea against the
   Greek city-states of Athens and Thebes, in which the cavalry wing led
   by Alexander annihilated the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite corps
   regarded as invincible. After the battle, Phillip led a wild
   celebration, from which Alexander was notably absent (it is believed he
   was treating the wounded and burying the dead, both of his own troops
   and of the enemy). Philip was content to deprive Thebes of its dominion
   over Boeotia and leave a Macedonian garrison in the citadel. A few
   months later, to strengthen Macedon's control over the Greek
   city-states, the League of Corinth was formed.

   In 336 BC, Philip was assassinated at the wedding of his daughter
   Cleopatra of Macedonia to King Alexander of Epirus. The assassin was
   supposedly a former lover of the king, the disgruntled young nobleman
   Pausanias of Orestis, who held a grudge against Philip because the king
   had ignored a complaint he had expressed. Philip's murder was once
   thought to have been planned with the knowledge and involvement of
   Alexander or Olympias. Another possible instigator could have been
   Darius III, the recently crowned King of Persia. After Philip's death,
   the army proclaimed Alexander, then aged 20, as the new king of
   Macedon. Greek cities like Athens and Thebes, which had been forced to
   pledge allegiance to Philip, saw in the new king an opportunity to
   retake their full independence. Alexander moved swiftly and Thebes,
   which had been most active against him, submitted when he appeared at
   its gates. The assembled Greeks at the Isthmus of Corinth, with the
   exception of the Spartans, elected him to the command against Persia,
   which had previously been bestowed upon his father.

   The next year, ( 335 BC), Alexander felt free to engage the Thracians
   and the Illyrians in order to secure the Danube as the northern
   boundary of the Macedonian kingdom. While he was triumphantly
   campaigning north, the Thebans and Athenians rebelled once again.
   Alexander reacted immediately and while the other cities once again
   hesitated, Thebes decided this time to resist with the utmost vigor.
   The resistance was useless; in the end, the city was conquered with
   great bloodshed. The Thebans encountered an even harsher fate when
   their city was razed to the ground and its territory divided between
   the other Boeotian cities. Moreover, all of the city's citizens were
   sold into slavery; Alexander spared only the priests, the leaders of
   the pro-Macedonian party, and the descendants of Pindar, whose house
   was the only one left standing. The end of Thebes cowed Athens into
   submission and it readily accepted Alexander's demand for the exile of
   all the leaders of the anti-Macedonian party, Demosthenes first of all.

Period of conquests

   Map of Alexander's empire.
   Enlarge
   Map of Alexander's empire.

Fall of the Persian Empire

   Alexander's army had crossed the Hellespont with about 42,000
   soldiers—primarily Macedonians and Greeks, more southern city-states of
   Greece, but also including some Thracians, Paionians and Illyrians.
   After an initial victory against Persian forces at the Battle of
   Granicus, Alexander accepted the surrender of the Persian provincial
   capital and treasury of Sardis and proceeded down the Ionian coast. At
   Halicarnassus, Alexander successfully waged the first of many sieges,
   eventually forcing his opponents, the mercenary captain Memnon of
   Rhodes and the Persian satrap of Caria, Orontobates, to withdraw by
   sea. Alexander left Caria in the hands of Ada, who was ruler of Caria
   before being deposed by her brother Pixodarus. From Halicarnassus,
   Alexander proceeded into mountainous Lycia and the Pamphylian plain,
   asserting control over all coastal cities and denying them to his
   enemy. From Pamphylia onward, the coast held no major ports and so
   Alexander moved inland. At Termessus, Alexander humbled but did not
   storm the Pisidian city. At the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordium,
   Alexander "undid" the tangled Gordian Knot, a feat said to await the
   future "king of Asia." According to the most vivid story, Alexander
   proclaimed that it did not matter how the knot was undone, and he
   hacked it apart with his sword. Another version claims that he did not
   use the sword, but actually figured out how to undo the knot.
   Alexander Mosaic, showing Battle of Issus, from the House of the Faun,
   Pompei
   Enlarge
   Alexander Mosaic, showing Battle of Issus, from the House of the Faun,
   Pompei

   Alexander's army crossed the Cilician Gates, met and defeated the main
   Persian army under the command of Darius III at the Battle of Issus in
   333 BC. Darius fled this battle in such a panic for his life that he
   left behind his wife, his two daughters, his mother Sisygambis, and
   much of his personal treasure. Proceeding down the Mediterranean coast,
   he took Tyre and Gaza after famous sieges (see Siege of Tyre).
   Alexander passed through Judea near Jerusalem but probably did not
   visit the city.

   In 332 BC–331 BC, Alexander was welcomed as a liberator in Egypt and
   was pronounced the son of Zeus by Egyptian priests of the god Ammon at
   the Oracle of the god at the Siwa Oasis in the Libyan desert.
   Henceforth, Alexander referred to the god Zeus-Ammon as his true
   father, and subsequent currency featuring his head with ram horns was
   proof of this widespread belief. He founded Alexandria in Egypt, which
   would become the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty after his
   death. Leaving Egypt, Alexander marched eastward into Assyria (now
   northern Iraq) and defeated Darius and a third Persian army at the
   Battle of Gaugamela. Darius was forced to flee the field after his
   charioteer was killed, and Alexander chased him as far as Arbela. While
   Darius fled over the mountains to Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), Alexander
   marched to Babylon.
   Statuette of a Greek soldier, from a 4th–3rd century BC burial site
   north of the Tian Shan, at the maximum extent of Alexander's advance in
   the East (Ürümqi, Xinjiang Museum, China) (drawing).
   Enlarge
   Statuette of a Greek soldier, from a 4th–3rd century BC burial site
   north of the Tian Shan, at the maximum extent of Alexander's advance in
   the East ( Ürümqi, Xinjiang Museum, China) (drawing).

   From Babylon, Alexander went to Susa, one of the Achaemenid capitals,
   and captured its treasury. Sending the bulk of his army to Persepolis,
   the Persian capital, by the Royal Road, Alexander stormed and captured
   the Persian Gates (in the modern Zagros Mountains), then sprinted for
   Persepolis before its treasury could be looted. After several months
   Alexander allowed the troops to loot Persepolis. A fire broke out in
   the eastern palace of Xerxes and spread to the rest of the city. It was
   not known if it was a drunken accident or a deliberate act of revenge
   for the burning of the Athenian Acropolis during the Second Persian
   War. The Book of Arda Wiraz, a Zoroastrian work composed in the 3rd or
   4th century AD, also speaks of archives containing "all the Avesta and
   Zand, written upon prepared cow-skins, and with gold ink" that were
   destroyed; but it must be said that this statement is often treated by
   scholars with a certain measure of skepticism, because it is generally
   thought that for many centuries the Avesta was transmitted mainly
   orally by the Magians.

   He then set off in pursuit of Darius, who was kidnapped, and then
   murdered by followers of Bessus, his Bactrian satrap and kinsman.
   Bessus then declared himself Darius' successor as Artaxerxes V and
   retreated into Central Asia to launch a guerrilla campaign against
   Alexander. With the death of Darius, Alexander declared the war of
   vengeance over, and released his Greek and other allies from service in
   the League campaign (although he allowed those that wished to re-enlist
   as mercenaries in his imperial army).

   His three-year campaign against first Bessus and then the satrap of
   Sogdiana, Spitamenes, took him through Media, Parthia, Aria, Drangiana,
   Arachosia, Bactria, and Scythia. In the process, he captured and
   refounded Herat and Maracanda. Moreover, he founded a series of new
   cities, all called Alexandria, including modern Kandahar in
   Afghanistan, and Alexandria Eschate ("The Furthest") in modern
   Tajikistan. In the end, both were betrayed by their men, Bessus in 329
   BC and Spitamenes the year after.

Hostility toward Alexander

   During this time, Alexander adopted some elements of Persian dress and
   customs at his court, notably the custom of proskynesis, a symbolic
   kissing of the hand that Persians paid to their social superiors, but a
   practice of which the Greeks disapproved. The Greeks regarded the
   gesture as the preserve of deities and believed that Alexander meant to
   deify himself by requiring it. This cost him much in the sympathies of
   many of his countrymen. Here, too, a plot against his life was
   revealed, and one of his officers, Philotas, was executed for treason
   for failing to bring the plot to his attention. Parmenion, Philotas'
   father, who had been charged with guarding the treasury at Ecbatana,
   was assassinated by command of Alexander, who feared that Parmenion
   might attempt to avenge his son. Several other trials for treason
   followed, and many Macedonians were executed. Later on, in a drunken
   quarrel at Maracanda, he also killed the man who had saved his life at
   Granicus, Clitus the Black. Later in the Central Asian campaign, a
   second plot against his life, this one by his own pages, was revealed,
   and his official historian, Callisthenes of Olynthus (who had fallen
   out of favour with the king by leading the opposition to his attempt to
   introduce proskynesis), was implicated on what many historians regard
   as trumped-up charges. However, the evidence is strong that
   Callisthenes, the teacher of the pages, must have been the one who
   persuaded them to assassinate the king.

Invasion of India

   After the death of Spitamenes and his marriage to Roxana (Roshanak in
   Bactrian) to cement his relations with his new Central Asian satrapies,
   in 326 BC Alexander was finally free to turn his attention to India.
   Alexander invited all the chieftains of the former satrapy of Gandhara,
   in the north of present-day Pakistan, to come to him and submit to his
   authority. Ambhi, ruler of Taxila, whose kingdom extended from the
   Indus to the Hydaspes ( Jhelum), complied. But the chieftains of some
   hilly clans including the Aspasios and Assakenois sections of the
   Kambojas (classical names), known in Indian texts as Ashvayanas and
   Ashvakayanas (names referring to their equestrian nature), refused to
   submit.

   Alexander personally took command of the shield-bearing guards,
   foot-companions, archers, Agrianians and horse-javelin-men and led them
   against the Kamboja clans—the Aspasios of Kunar/ Alishang valleys, the
   Guraeans of the Guraeus ( Panjkora) valley, and the Assakenois of the
   Swat and Buner valleys. Writes one modern historian: "They were brave
   people and it was hard work for Alexander to take their strongholds, of
   which Massaga and Aornus need special mention." A fierce contest ensued
   with the Aspasios in which Alexander himself was wounded in the
   shoulder by a dart but eventually the Aspasios lost the fight; 40,000
   of them were enslaved. The Assakenois faced Alexander with an army of
   30,000 cavalry, 38,000 infantry and 30 elephants. They had fought
   bravely and offered stubborn resistance to the invader in many of their
   strongholds like cities of Ora, Bazira and Massaga. The fort of Massaga
   could only be reduced after several days of bloody fighting in which
   Alexander himself was wounded seriously in the ankle. When the
   Chieftain of Massaga fell in the battle, the supreme command of the
   army went to his old mother Cleophis (q.v.) who also stood determined
   to defend her motherland to the last extremity. The example of Cleophis
   assuming the supreme command of the military also brought the entire
   women of the locality into the fighting. Alexander could only reduce
   Massaga by resorting to political strategem and actions of betrayal.
   According to Curtius: "Not only did Alexander slaughter the entire
   population of Massaga, but also did he reduce its buildings to
   rubbles." A similar manslaughter then followed at Ora, another
   stronghold of the Assakenois.

   In the aftermath of general slaughter and arson committed by Alexander
   at Massaga and Ora, numerous Assakenian people fled to a high fortress
   called Aornos. Alexander followed them close behind their heels and
   captured the strategic hill-fort but only after the fourth day of a
   bloody fight. The story of Massaga was repeated at Aornos and a similar
   carnage on the tribal-people followed here too.

   Writing on Alexander's campaign against the Assakenois, Victor Hanson
   comments: "After promising the surrounded Assacenis their lives upon
   capitulation, he executed all their soldiers who had surrendered. Their
   strongholds at Ora and Aornus were also similarly stormed. Garrisons
   were probably all slaughtered.”

   Sisikottos, who had helped Alexander in this campaign, was made the
   governor of Aornos.

   After reducing Aornos, Alexander crossed the Indus and fought and won
   an epic battle against Porus, a ruler of a region in the Punjab in the
   Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC.

   After the victory, Alexander was greatly impressed by Porus for his
   bravery in battle, and therefore made an alliance with him and
   appointed him as satrap of his own kingdom, even adding some land he
   did not own before. Alexander then named one of the two new cities that
   he founded, Bucephala, in honour of the horse who had brought him to
   India, who had died during the Battle of Hydaspes. Alexander continued
   on to conquer all the headwaters of the Indus River.

   East of Porus' kingdom, near the Ganges River, was the powerful empire
   of Magadha ruled by the Nanda dynasty. Fearing the prospects of facing
   another powerful Indian army and exhausted by years of campaigning, his
   army mutinied at the Hyphasis River (the modern Beas River), refusing
   to march further east. This river thus marks the eastern-most extent of
   Alexander's conquests:

          "As for the Macedonians, however, their struggle with Porus
          blunted their courage and stayed their further advance into
          India. For having had all they could do to repulse an enemy who
          mustered only twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse,
          they violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on crossing
          the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they learned, was
          thirty-two furlongs, its depth a hundred fathoms, while its
          banks on the further side were covered with multitudes of
          men-at-arms and horsemen and elephants. For they were told that
          the kings of the Ganderites and Praesii were awaiting them with
          eighty thousand horsemen, two hundred thousand footmen, eight
          thousand chariots, and six thousand fighting elephants."
          Plutarch, Vita Alexandri, 62

   Alexander, after the meeting with his officer Coenus, was convinced
   that it was better to return. Alexander was forced to turn south. He
   sent much of his army to Carmania (modern southern Iran) with his
   general Craterus, and commissioned a fleet to explore the Persian Gulf
   shore under his admiral Nearchus, while he led the rest of his forces
   back to Persia by the southern route through the Gedrosian Desert (now
   part of southern Iran and Makran in southern Pakistan).

   Alexander left forces in India however. In the territory of the Indus,
   he nominated his officer Peithon as a satrap, a position he would hold
   for the next ten years until 316 BC, and in the Punjab he left Eudemus
   in charge of the army, at the side of the satrap Porus and Taxiles.
   Eudemus became ruler of the Punjab after their death. Both rulers
   returned to the West in 316 BC with their armies, and Chandragupta
   Maurya established the Maurya Empire in India.

After India

   Alexander and Porus by Charles Le Brun, 1673.
   Enlarge
   Alexander and Porus by Charles Le Brun, 1673.

   Discovering that many of his satraps and military governors had
   misbehaved in his absence, Alexander executed a number of them as
   examples on his way to Susa. As a gesture of thanks, he paid off the
   debts of his soldiers, and announced that he would send those over-aged
   and disabled veterans back to Macedonia under Craterus, but his troops
   misunderstood his intention and mutinied at the town of Opis, refusing
   to be sent away and bitterly criticizing his adoption of Persian
   customs and dress and the introduction of Persian officers and soldiers
   into Macedonian units. Alexander executed the ringleaders of the
   mutiny, but forgave the rank and file. In an attempt to craft a lasting
   harmony between his Macedonian and Persian subjects, he held a mass
   marriage of his senior officers to Persian and other noblewomen at
   Susa, but few of those marriages seem to have lasted much beyond a
   year.

   His attempts to merge Persian culture with his Greek soldiers also
   included training a regiment of Persian boys in the ways of
   Macedonians. Most historians believe that Alexander adopted the Persian
   royal title of shahanshah ("great king" or "king of kings").

   It is claimed that Alexander wanted to overrun or integrate the Arabian
   peninsula, but this theory is widely disputed. It was assumed that
   Alexander would turn westwards and attack Carthage and Italy, had he
   conquered Arabia.

   After traveling to Ecbatana to retrieve the bulk of the Persian
   treasure, his closest friend and possibly lover Hephaestion died of an
   illness, or possibly of poisoning.

Death

   On the afternoon of June 10–11, 323 BC, Alexander died of a mysterious
   illness in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon. He was just one
   month shy of attaining 33 years of age. Various theories have been
   proposed for the cause of his death which include poisoning by the sons
   of Antipater or others, sickness that followed a drinking party, or a
   relapse of the malaria he had contracted in 336 BC. It is known that on
   May 29, Alexander participated in a banquet organized by his friend
   Medius of Larissa. After some heavy drinking, immediately before or
   after a bath, he was forced into bed due to severe illness. The rumors
   of his illness circulated with the troops causing them to be more and
   more anxious. On June 9, the generals decided to let the soldiers see
   their king alive one last time. They were admitted to his presence one
   at a time. While the king was too ill to speak, confined himself to
   move his hand. The day after, Alexander was dead. The poisoning theory
   derives from the story held in antiquity by Justin and Curtius. The
   original story stated that Cassander, son of Antipater, viceroy of
   Greece, brought the poison to Alexander in Babylon in a mule's hoof,
   and that Alexander's royal cupbearer, Iollas, brother of Cassander,
   administered it. Many had powerful motivations for seeing Alexander
   gone, and were none the worse for it after his death. Deadly agents
   that could have killed Alexander in one or more doses include hellebore
   and strychnine. In R. Lane Fox's opinion, the strongest argument
   against the poison theory is the fact that twelve days had passed
   between the start of his illness and his death and in the ancient
   world, such long-acting poisons were probably not available.

   However, the warrior culture of Macedon favoured the sword over
   strychnine, and many ancient historians, like Plutarch and Arrian,
   maintained that Alexander was not poisoned, but died of natural causes.
   Instead, it is likely that Alexander died of malaria or typhoid fever,
   which were rampant in ancient Babylon. Other illnesses could have also
   been the culprit, including acute pancreatitis or the West Nile virus.
   Recently, theories have been advanced stating that Alexander may have
   died from the treatment not the disease. Hellebore, believed to have
   been widely used as a medicine at the time but deadly in large doses,
   may have been overused by the impatient king to speed his recovery,
   with deadly results. Disease-related theories often cite the fact that
   Alexander's health had fallen to dangerously low levels after years of
   heavy drinking and suffering several appalling wounds (including one in
   India that nearly claimed his life), and that it was only a matter of
   time before one sickness or another finally killed him.

   No story is conclusive. Alexander's death has been reinterpreted many
   times over the centuries, and each generation offers a new take on it.
   What is certain is that Alexander died of a high fever on June 10 or 11
   of 323 BC.

   On his death bed, his marshals asked him to whom he bequeathed his
   kingdom. Since Alexander had no heir (his son Alexander IV would be
   born after his death), it was a question of vital importance. There is
   some debate to what Alexander replied. Some believe that Alexander
   said, "To the strongest!" It should be taken into note however that he
   might have said, "To Craterus". This is possible because the Greek
   pronunciation of "the strongest" and "Craterus" is different only by
   accent. The phrase and name are in fact, separated by only one letter
   in the ancient Greek language. Most scholars believe that if Alexander
   did intend to choose one of his generals, his obvious choice would have
   been Craterus because he was the commander of the largest part of the
   army (infantry), because he had proven himself to be an excellent
   strategist, and because he displayed traits of the "ideal" Macedonian.
   Regardless of his reply, Craterus was eventually assassinated before he
   could organize a coup with the infantry and Alexander's empire was
   split into four kingdoms.
   A diary from the year 323-322 BC that records the death of Alexander.
   Located at the British Museum, London
   Enlarge
   A diary from the year 323-322 BC that records the death of Alexander.
   Located at the British Museum, London

   Alexander's death has been surrounded by as much controversy as many of
   the events of his life. Before long, accusations of foul play were
   being thrown about by his generals at one another, making it incredibly
   hard for a modern historian to sort out the propaganda and the
   half-truths from the actual events. No contemporary source can be fully
   trusted because of the incredible level of self-serving recording, and
   as a result what truly happened to Alexander the Great may never be
   known.

   Alexander's body was placed in a gold anthropid sarcophagus, which was
   in turn placed in a second gold casket and covered with a purple robe.
   Alexander's coffin was placed, together with his armour, in a gold
   carriage which had a vaulted roof supported by an Ionic peristyle. The
   decoration of the carriage was very rich and is described in great
   detail by Diodoros.

   According to legend, Alexander was preserved in a clay vessel full of
   honey (which acts as a preservative) and interred in a glass coffin.
   According to Aelian (Varia Historia 12.64), Ptolemy stole the body and
   brought it to Alexandria, where it was on display until Late Antiquity.
   It was here that Ptolemy IX, one of the last successors of Ptolemy I,
   replaced Alexander's sarcophagus with a glass one, and melted the
   original down in order to strike emergency gold issues of his coinage.
   The citizens of Alexandria were outraged at this and soon after Ptolemy
   IX was killed. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

   The so-called "Alexander Sarcophagus," discovered near Sidon and now in
   the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, is now generally thought to be that
   of Abdylonymus, whom Hephaestion appointed as the king of Sidon by
   Alexander's order. The sarcophagus depicts Alexander and his companions
   hunting and in battle with the Persians.

Alexander's testament

   Some classical authors, such as Diodorus, relate that Alexander had
   given detailed written instructions to Craterus some time before his
   death. Although Craterus had already started to implement Alexander's
   orders, such as the building of a fleet in Cilicia for expedition
   against Carthage, Alexander's successors chose not to further implement
   them, on the ground they were impractical and dispendious.

   The testament, described in Diodorus XVIII, called for military
   expansion into the Southern and Western Mediterranean, monumental
   constructions, and the intermixing of Eastern and Western populations.
   Its most remarkable items were:
     * The completion of a pyre to Hephaestion
     * The building of "a thousand warships, larger than triremes, in
       Phoenicia, Syria, Cilicia, and Cyprus for the campaign against the
       Carthaginians and the other who live along the coast of Libya and
       Iberia and the adjoining coastal regions as far as Sicily"
     * The building of a road in northern Africa as far as the Pillars of
       Heracles, with ports and shipyards along it.
     * The erection of great temples in Delos, Delphi, Dodona, Dium,
       Amphipolis, Cyrnus and Ilium.
     * The construction of a monumental tomb for his father Philip, "to
       match the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt"
     * The establishment of cities and the "transplant of populations from
       Asia to Europe and in the opposite direction from Europe to Asia,
       in order to bring the largest continent to common unity and to
       friendship by means of intermarriage and family ties." ( Diodorus
       Siculus, Bibliotheca historia, XVIII)

Personal life

   Ancient historians have written extensively on Alexander's love affairs
   and sexual appetites. Diodorus Siculus writes, "Then he put on the
   Persian diadem and dressed himself in the white robe and the Persian
   sash and everything else except the trousers and the long-sleeved upper
   garment. He distributed to his companions cloaks with purple borders
   and dressed the horses in Persian harness. In addition to all this, he
   added concubines to his retinue in the manner of Dareius, in number not
   less than the days of the year and outstanding in beauty as selected
   from all the women of Asia. Each night these paraded about the couch of
   the king so that he might select the one with whom he would lie that
   night. Alexander, as a matter of fact, employed these customs rather
   sparingly and kept for the most part to his accustomed routine, not
   wishing to offend the Macedonians "

   A number of ancient sources have reported on Alexander's attachments to
   both males and females. While the object of his affection may have
   varied, he was admired for treating all his lovers humanely. Plutarch
   has argued that Alexander's love of males took an ethical approach,
   inspired by the teachings of his mentor, Aristotle. He gives several
   examples of Alexander's morality in this domain:

          When Philoxenus, the leader of the seashore, wrote to Alexander
          that there was a youth in Ionia whose beauty has yet to be seen
          and asked him in a letter if he (Alexander) would like him (the
          boy) to be sent over, he (Alexander) responded in a strict and
          disgusted manner: "You are the most hideous and malign of all
          men, have you ever seen me involved in such dirty work that you
          found the urge to flatter me with such hedonistic business?"

   Plutarch also wrote:

          When Philoxenus, the commander of his forces on the sea-board,
          wrote that there was with him a certain Theodorus of Tarentum,
          who had two youths of surpassing beauty to sell, and enquired
          whether Alexander would buy them, Alexander was incensed, and
          cried out many times to his friends, asking them what shameful
          thing Philoxenus had ever seen in him that he should spend his
          time in making such disgraceful proposals.

   His moral approach towards sexual relations also extended to relations
   with prisoners of war: "But as for the other captive women, seeing that
   they were surpassingly stately and beautiful, he merely said jestingly
   that Persian women were torments to the eyes. And displaying in rivalry
   with their fair looks the beauty of his own sobriety and self-control,
   he passed them by as though they were lifeless images for display."

   The above quotations would be in line with the thoughts laid about
   before him by Aristotle, who regarded relationships based purely on
   carnal relations to be shameful.

   Many have discussed Alexander's sexual leanings. Curtius reports, "He
   scorned sensual pleasures to such an extent that his mother was anxious
   lest he be unable to beget offspring." To encourage a relationship with
   a woman, King Philip and Olympias brought in a high-priced Thessalian
   courtesan named Callixena.

   Later in life, Alexander married several princesses of former Persian
   territories, Roxana of Bactria, Statira, daughter of Darius III, and
   Parysatis, daughter of Ochus. He fathered two children, ( Heracles),
   born by his concubine Barsine (the daughter of satrap Artabazus of
   Phrygia) in 327 BC, and Alexander IV of Macedon, born by Roxana shortly
   after his death in 323 BC.

Hephaestion

   Alexander's greatest emotional attachment is generally considered to
   have been to his companion, cavalry commander (chiliarchos) and
   childhood friend, Hephaestion. He studied with Alexander, as did a
   handful of other children of Macedonian aristocracy, under the tutelage
   of Aristotle. Hephaestion makes his appearance in history at the point
   when Alexander reaches Troy. There the two friends made sacrifices at
   the shrines of the two heroes Achilles and Patroclus; Alexander
   honoring Achilles, and Hephaestion honoring Patroclus. Aelian in his
   Varia Historia (12.7) claims that Hephaestion "thus intimated that he
   was the eromenos ["beloved"] of Alexander, as Patroclus was of
   Achilles."

   No contemporary source states that Alexander and Hephaistion were
   lovers. However, the historian Paul Cartledge has written: "Whether
   Alexander's relationship with the slightly older Hephaestion was ever
   of the sort that once dared not speak its name is not certain, but it
   is likely enough that it was. At any rate, Macedonian and Greek mores
   would have favoured an actively sexual component rather than inhibiting
   or censoring it." Robin Lane Fox says that "In youth, his great friend
   was Hephaestion, and surely the sexual element (frequent between young
   males, or an older and younger male, in Greek city-states) developed
   already then." Alexander and Hephaestion remained, in Fox's words,
   "exceptionally deep and close friends" until Hephaestion's untimely
   death, after which Alexander mourned him greatly, and did not eat for
   days.

Campaspe

   Campaspe, also known as Pancaste, mistress of Alexander and possibly
   the first woman Alexander had a sexual relationship with. She was
   thought to be a prominent citizen of Larisa in Thessaly; Aelian
   surmised that she initiated the young Alexander in love.

   Campaspe was painted by Apelles, who enjoyed the reputation in
   Antiquity for being the greatest of painters. The episode occasioned an
   apocryphal exchange that was reported in Pliny's Naturalis Historia
   (35.79-97): seeing the beauty of the nude portrait, Alexander saw that
   the artist appreciated Campaspe (and loved her) more than he. And so
   Alexander kept the portrait but presented Campaspe to Apelles. Modern
   historian Robin Lane Fox says "so Alexander gave him Campaspe as a
   present, the most generous gift of any patron and one which would
   remain a model for patronage and painters on through the Renaissance".

   Campaspe does not appear in the five major sources we have for the life
   of Alexander. Robin Lane Fox again, traces her legend back to the Roman
   authors Pliny the Elder, Lucian of Samosata and Aelian's Varia
   Historia.

   Campaspe became a generic poetical pseudonym for a man's mistress.

Barsine

   Barsine was a noble Persian, daughter of Artabazus, and wife of Memnon.
   After Memnon's death, several ancient historians have written of a love
   affair between her and Alexander. Plutarch writes, "At any rate
   Alexander, so it seems, thought it more worthy of a king to subdue his
   own passions than to conquer his enemies, and so he never came near
   these women, nor did he associate with any other before his marriage,
   with the exception only of Barsine. This woman, the widow of Memnon,
   the Greek mercenary commander, was captured at Damascus. She had
   received a Greek education, was of a gentle disposition, and could
   claim royal descent, since her father was Artabazus who had married one
   of the Persian kings daughters. These qualities made Alexander the more
   willing he was encouraged by Parmenio, so Aristobulus tells us to form
   an attachment to a woman of such beauty and noble lineage." In addition
   Justin writes, "As he afterwards contemplated the wealth and display of
   Darius, he was seized with admiration of such magnificence. Hence it
   was that he first began to indulge in luxurious and splendid banquets,
   and fell in love with his captive Barsine for her beauty, by whom he
   had afterwards a son that he called Hercules." Plutarch writes that his
   relationship with Barsine produced a son named Heracles.

Roxana

   Ancient historians, as well as modern ones, have also written on
   Alexander's marriage to Roxana. Robin Lane Fox writes, "Roxane, was
   said by contemporaries to be the most beautiful lady in all Asia. She
   deserved her Iranian name of Roshanak meaning 'little star.' Marriage
   to a local noble's family made sound political sense. But
   contemporaries implied that Alexander, aged twenty-eight, also lost his
   heart. A wedding-feast for the two of them was arranged high on one of
   the Sogdian rocks. Alexander and his bride shared a loaf of bread, a
   custom still observed in Turkestan. Characteristically, Alexander
   sliced it with his sword." Ulrich Wilcken writes, "The fairest prize
   that fell to him was Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes, in the first
   bloom of youth, and in the judgment of Alexander’s companions, next to
   Stateira the wife of Darius, the most beautiful woman that they had
   seen in Asia. Alexander fell passionately in love with her and
   determined to raise her to the position of his consort."

   Roxana accompanied Alexander all the way to India, and bore him a child
   also named Alexander, six months after Alexander the Great died.

Bagoas

   Some ancient sources suggest that Alexander had possibly another
   favorite, Bagoas; a eunuch (a castrated youth) exceptional in beauty
   and in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and
   with whom Alexander would later be intimate." Plutarch recounts an
   episode (also mentioned by Dicaearchus) during some festivities on the
   way back from India) in which his men clamor for him to kiss the young
   man: "Bagoas...sat down close to him, which so pleased the Macedonians,
   that they made loud acclamations for him to kiss Bagoas, and never
   stopped clapping their hands and shouting till Alexander put his arms
   round him and kissed him."

   The modern historian Robin Lane Fox, says that both direct and indirect
   evidence suggest a "sexual element, this time of pure physical desire"
   between the two, but as for the consummation of that passion he
   comments that "[l]ater gossip presumed that Bagoas was Alexander’s
   lover. This is uncertain." Mary Renault, author of The Persian Boy, a
   novel about the love between Alexander and Bagoas, claims that "No
   historian states plainly whether they were physical lovers." Whatever
   Alexander's relationship with Bagoas, it was no impediment to relations
   with his queen: six months after Alexander's death Roxana gave birth to
   his son and heir, Alexander IV.

   Historical accounts describing Alexander's love for Hephaestion and
   Bagoas as sexual have been contested on the grounds that they were
   written centuries afterwards. On the other hand, as will be seen below,
   a great amount of our detailed information regarding Alexander comes
   from much later sources. It should be noted that the concept of
   homosexuality as understood today did not exist in Greco-Roman
   antiquity. If Alexander's love life was transgressive, it was not for
   his love of beautiful youths but for his persistent love of a man his
   own age.

Legacy and division of the empire

   Coin of Alexander bearing an Aramaic language inscription.
   Enlarge
   Coin of Alexander bearing an Aramaic language inscription.

   After Alexander's death, in 323 BC, the rule of his Empire was given to
   Alexander's half-brother Philip Arridaeus and Alexander's son Alexander
   IV. However, since Philip was mentally ill and the son of Alexander
   still a baby, two regents were named in Perdiccas (who had received
   Alexander's ring at this death) and Craterus (who may have been the one
   mentioned as successor by Alexander), although Perdiccas quickly
   managed to take sole power.

   Perdiccas soon eliminated several of his opponents, killing about 30
   (Diodorus Siculus), and at the Partition of Babylon named former
   generals of Alexander as satraps of the various regions of his Empire.
   In 321 BC Perdiccas was assassinated by his own troops during his
   conflict with Ptolemy, leading to the Partition of Triparadisus, in
   which Antipater was named as the new regent, and the satrapies again
   shared between the various generals. From that time, Alexander's
   officers were focused on the explicit formation of rival monarchies and
   territorial states.

   Ultimately, the conflict was settled after the Battle of Ipsus in
   Phrygia in 301 BC. Alexander's empire was divided at first into four
   major portions: Cassander ruled in Macedon, Lysimachus in Thrace,
   Seleucus in Mesopotamia and Iran, and Ptolemy I Soter in the Levant and
   Egypt. Antigonus ruled for a while in Anatolia and Syria but was
   eventually defeated by the other generals at Ipsus (301 BC). Control
   over Indian territory passed to Chandragupta Maurya, the first Maurya
   emperor, who further expanded his dominions after a settlement with
   Seleucus.

   By 270 BC, Hellenistic states were consolidated, with:

          + The Antigonid Empire centered on Macedon.
          + The Seleucid Empire in Asia
          + The Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt, Palestine and Cyrenaica

   By the 1st century BC though, most of the Hellenistic territories in
   the West had been absorbed by the Roman Republic. In the East, they had
   been dramatically reduced by the expansion of the Parthian Empire and
   the secession of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.

   Alexander's conquests also had long term cultural effects, with the
   flourishing of Hellenistic civilization throughout the Middle East and
   Central Asia, and the development of Greco-Buddhist art in the Indian
   subcontinent.

Influence on Ancient Rome

   A mural in Pompeii, depicting the marriage of Alexander to Barsine
   (Stateira) in 324 BC. The couple are apparently dressed as Ares and
   Aphrodite.
   Enlarge
   A mural in Pompeii, depicting the marriage of Alexander to Barsine
   (Stateira) in 324 BC. The couple are apparently dressed as Ares and
   Aphrodite.

   Alexander and his exploits were admired by many Romans who wanted to
   associate themselves with his achievements, although very little is
   known about Roman-Macedonian diplomatic relations of that time. Julius
   Caesar wept in Spain at the mere sight of Alexander's statue and Pompey
   the Great rummaged through the closets of conquered nations for
   Alexander's 260-year-old cloak, which the Roman general then wore as
   the costume of greatness. However, in his zeal to honour Alexander,
   Augustus accidentally broke the nose off the Macedonian's mummified
   corpse while laying a wreath at the hero's shrine in Alexandria, Egypt.
   The unbalanced emperor Caligula later took the dead king's armor from
   that tomb and donned it for luck. The Macriani, a Roman family that
   rose to the imperial throne in the 3rd century A.D., always kept images
   of Alexander on their persons, either stamped into their bracelets and
   rings or stitched into their garments. Even their dinnerware bore
   Alexander's face, with the story of the king's life displayed around
   the rims of special bowls.

   In the summer of 1995, during the archaeological work of the season
   centered on excavating the remains of domestic architecture of
   early-Roman date, a statue of Alexander was recovered from the
   structure, which was richly decorated with mosaic and marble pavements
   and probably was constructed in the 1st century AD and occupied until
   the 3rd century.

General timeline

   [USEMAP:9602.png]
     * Trace Alexander's conquests on an animated map

Alexander's character

   Equestrian statue of Alexander the Great, on the waterfront at
   Thessaloniki, capital of Greek Macedonia.
   Enlarge
   Equestrian statue of Alexander the Great, on the waterfront at
   Thessaloniki, capital of Greek Macedonia.

   Modern opinion on Alexander has run the gamut from the idea that he
   believed he was on a divinely-inspired mission to unite the human race,
   to the view that he was a megalomaniac bent on world domination. Such
   views tend to be anachronistic, however, and the sources allow for a
   variety of interpretations. Much about Alexander's personality and aims
   remains enigmatic.

   Alexander is remembered as a legendary hero in Europe and much of both
   Southwest Asia and Central Asia, where he is known as Iskander or
   Iskandar Zulkarnain. To Zoroastrians, on the other hand, he is
   remembered as the destroyer of their first great empire and as the
   destroyer of Persepolis. Ancient sources are generally written with an
   agenda of either glorifying or denigrating the man, making it difficult
   to evaluate his actual character. Most refer to a growing instability
   and megalomania in the years following Gaugamela, but it has been
   suggested that this simply reflects the Greek stereotype of an
   orientalizing king. The murder of his friend Clitus, which Alexander
   deeply and immediately regretted, is often cited as a sign of his
   paranoia, as is his execution of Philotas and his general Parmenion for
   failure to pass along details of a plot against him. However, this may
   have been more prudence than paranoia.

   Modern Alexandrists continue to debate these same issues, among others,
   in modern times. One unresolved topic involves whether Alexander was
   actually attempting to better the world by his conquests, or whether
   his purpose was primarily to rule the world.

   Partially in response to the ubiquity of positive portrayals of
   Alexander, an alternate character is sometimes presented which
   emphasizes some of Alexander's negative aspects. Some proponents of
   this view cite the destructions of Thebes, Tyre, Persepolis, and Gaza
   as examples of atrocities, and argue that Alexander preferred to fight
   rather than negotiate. It is further claimed, in response to the view
   that Alexander was generally tolerant of the cultures of those whom he
   conquered, that his attempts at cultural fusion were severely practical
   and that he never actually admired Persian art or culture. To this way
   of thinking, Alexander was, first and foremost, a general rather than a
   statesman.

   Alexander's character also suffers from the interpretation of
   historians who themselves are subject to the bias and idealisms of
   their own time. Good examples are W. W. Tarn, who wrote during the late
   19th century and early 20th century, and who saw Alexander in an
   extremely good light, and Peter Green, who wrote after World War II and
   for whom Alexander did little that was not inherently selfish or
   ambition-driven. Tarn wrote in an age where world conquest and
   warrior-heroes were acceptable, even encouraged, whereas Green wrote
   with the backdrop of the Holocaust and nuclear weapons.

Alexander's legend

   Alexander was a legend in his own time. His court historian
   Callisthenes portrayed the sea in Cilicia as drawing back from him in
   proskynesis. Writing after Alexander's death, another participant,
   Onesicritus, went so far as to invent a tryst between Alexander and
   Thalestris, queen of the mythical Amazons. When Onesicritus read this
   passage to his patron, Alexander's general and later King Lysimachus
   reportedly quipped, "I wonder where I was at the time."

   In the first centuries after Alexander's death, probably in Alexandria,
   a quantity of the more legendary material coalesced into a text known
   as the Alexander Romance, later falsely ascribed to the historian
   Callisthenes and therefore known as Pseudo-Callisthenes. This text
   underwent numerous expansions and revisions throughout Antiquity and
   the Middle Ages, exhibiting a plasticity unseen in "higher" literary
   forms. Latin and Syriac translations were made in Late Antiquity. From
   these, versions were developed in all the major languages of Europe and
   the Middle East, including Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Arabic,
   Turkish, Hebrew, Serbian, Slavonic, Romanian, Hungarian, German,
   English, Italian, and French. The "Romance" is regarded by many Western
   scholars as the source of the account of Alexander given in the Qur'an
   ( Sura The Cave). It is the source of many incidents in Ferdowsi's "
   Shahnama". A Mongolian version is also extant.

   Alexander is also a character of Greek folklore (and other regions), as
   the protagonist of 'apocryphal' tales of bravery. A maritime legend
   says that his sister is a mermaid and asks the sailors if her brother
   is still alive. Alexander is also a character of a Karagiozis play.

   Some believe that, excepting certain religious texts, it is the most
   widely-read work of pre-modern times.

Alexander in the Qur'an

   Alexander was often identified in Persian and Arabic-language sources
   as Dhul-Qarnayn, Arabic for the "Two-Horned One", possibly a reference
   to the appearance of a horn-headed figure that appears on coins minted
   during his rule and later imitated in ancient Middle Eastern coinage.
   If this theory is followed, Islamic accounts of the Alexander legend,
   particularly in the Qur'an and in Persian legends, combined the
   Pseudo-Callisthenes legendary, pseudo-religious material about
   Alexander. The same legends from the Pseudo-Callisthenes were combined
   in Persia with Sasanid Persian ideas about Alexander in the
   Iskandarnamah. Alexander built a wall of iron and melted copper in
   which Gog and Magog are confined. However, some Muslim scholars
   disagree that Alexander was Dhul Qarnayn.

Alexander in ancient and modern culture

   Around seventy towns or outposts are claimed to have been founded by
   Alexander. Diodorus Siculus credits Alexander with planning cities on a
   grid plan.

   Alexander has figured in works of both "high" and popular culture from
   his own era to the modern day.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
