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Alexander the
Great
Alexanders Early Life
The ancient kingdom of northern
Greece was called Macedonia.
This powerful empire was ruled by
Alexanders father, King Philip II. In
356 BCE, in the Pella region of Macedonia, King Philips wife Queen Olympia gave birth to a
son and named him Alexander. Eventually Alexander would
be known as Alexander the Great.
King Philips military campaigns meant that he was away
from his family for extended periods of time. Alexander resented the fact that he rarely saw his father. Young Alexander and his sister were raised in the royal court by their
mother who was a strong role model.
Leonidas was one of Alexanders first tutors. Hired by King
Philip to teach the dark-eyed, curly-haired boy mathematics, archery, and horsemanship, Leonidas had trouble keeping control over his unruly student.
The next tutor King Philip hired to teach Alexander was a
man by the name of Lysimachus. He tried to get Alexanders
attention with role playing. Alexanders interest in all things
military became clear during these lessons as he pretended
to be the great warrior Achilles.
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Aristotle Becomes Alexanders Tutor

In 343 BCE, when Alexander was thirteen
years old, his father
hired the famous philosopher Aristotle to tutor him at the Temple of
the Nymphs at Meiza.
Aristotle was a master
teacher and in his
classes Alexander and his friends learned about science
and politics.
Aristotle also taught them drama, literature, poetry, and,
of course, philosophy. Alexander loved Homers Iliad, the
15,000 line Greek epic poem, set during the Trojan War.
Aristotle created a shorter version of the Iliad for Alexander to carry with him during his military campaigns.
At the age of sixteen Alexander completed his education
and became a soldier. His first military campaign was
against the Thracians, a group of Indo-European tribes
who had been allies of the Trojans when they fought
against the Greeks. In 338 BCE, Alexander helped his father in an important battle to defeat the Athenian and
Theban armies.
Once Alexanders father had succeeded in uniting all the
Greek city-states with the exception of Sparta into the Corinthian league, Philips relationship with Alexander came
apart. He banished Olympia and Alexander and married
Cleopatra Eurydice*.

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Alexander Becomes King of Macedonia

During the festival following the wedding of Alexanders sister, King Philip was murdered by a Macedonian noble.
Many people suspected that Alexander and his mother
had plotted to have Philip killed, but no one knew for certain.
Only nineteen years old at the time, Alexander quickly obtained the support of the army. To ensure that her son
would be ruler, Olympia had the daughter of King Philip
and Cleopatra Eurydice murdered, which drove her
mother to suicide.Even though Alexander was now king, he
wasnt put in control of the Corinthian league of Greek city
-states. Now that Philip was dead, the states were divided
once again. However, Alexander sent his army south to the
region of Thessaly and gained their support for his leadership. At a meeting of the members of the league, Alexander worked for their support and received it. With the exception of Athens, the other Greek city-states granted him
full military power.
After making sure that Macedonias northern borders were
secure, Alexander prepared to do battle with the Persian
Empire, a large kingdom to the east of Greece.

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Alexanders Campaigns and Conquests

But before his conquest of the Persian

Empire could occur,
Alexander got news
that the Greek citystate of Thebes had
forced out his Macedonian troops. He
was concerned that
there would be a revolt of the Greek city-states, so he marched his huge army
of over 3000 cavalry soldiers and some 30,000 infantry soldiers to the tip of the Greek peninsula. He destroyed
Thebes and this caused fear among the city-states. Even
Athens pledged their loyalty to him.
At the age of 22, in 334 BCE, he left for his Asiatic campaign. He and his armies faced and quickly defeated Persian King Darius IIIs army near the Grancius River. They
rested for the winter at the southern coast of Asia Minor.
Ready for battle once again, they defeated the Persian
troops in the summer of 333 BCE. Even though Alexanders
troops were outnumbered, he created formations and
strategies that defeated the Persians. In November he
captured King Darius and declared himself the King of Persia.

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Next it was Alexanders goal to conquer Egypt. He easily

achieved this goal
and in 331 he created the city of Alexandria, named after him, of course,
which became an
important Greek cultural and commerce
center. Later that
year, he defeated the Persians again at the Battle of Gaugamela. Now Alexander was King of Babylon and Asia.
He was, in effect, King of the four quarters of the known
world.
Next he set his sights on eastern Iran, where he formed
colonies under Macedonian rule. After capturing Iranian
Prince Oxyartes, he married the princes daughter, Rhoxana.
India was next in 328 BCE. He defeated King Porus armies
in the north of India. He was impressed by Porus so he
gave Porus back his rule and won his loyalty. Alexander
marched eastward to the Ganges river but his troops were
weary. They missed their wives and children and wanted
to go back to Macedonia. Alexander was wounded by
Malli soldiers as they traveled back along the Indus river.
He recovered and then he and his armies headed north
along the Persian Gulf. Many of them died or became ill.
In 324 BCE they reached the city of Susa, now in Iran. In order to unify Persia and Macedonia, he commanded that
Macedonians marry princesses from Persia. He recruited
thousands of Persian soldiers and dismissed Macedonian
soldiers. This made his loyal soldiers very angry. He tried to
appease them by killing 13 Persian military leaders.

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The Death of Alexander

At the age of 32, Alexander became ill and died in Babylon, Persia, now part of Iraq, while he was planning the
conquests of Carthage and Rome. He might have died of
malaria, but many historians believe he might have been
poisoned. His wife gave birth to his son a few months later.
Alexanders empire collapsed after his death but over time
the cultures of Greece and the Orient blended and thrived
due to Alexanders empire.
BCE stands for Before Christ or Before the Common Era. Remember in this numbering system the year 334 comes after
the year 356 by 22 years.
Cleopatra Eurydice was not the same famous Cleopatra
from Egypt.