Alexander III of Macedon
The most celebrated general in ancient history, Alexander II of Macedon (a.k.a. Alexander the Great, 356–323 BCE), son of Philip II, established an empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas and the Indus River and opened up routes to India.
As Macedonia's crown prince, he received the finest possible education with Aristotle as his tutor. He was already a charismatic leader when his father was assassinated. in 336 BCE. Philip's military reforms had transformed Macedonia's army into the region's premier military power. Once Alexander consolidated his position in Greece, he set about completing his father's plan to conquer the Persian empire.
In 334 B.C., he led a formidable army across the Hellespont. In a remarkable eleven-year campaign, he followed his conquest of Persia and Egypt by extending his empire into Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
When he died, aged 33, Alexander's armies had travelled 32,000 km from central Europe to India. He had established more than seventy cities - fifteen of them named Alexandria. The first was Alexandria in Egypt, founded in 331; the most remote was AAlexandria Eschate, located on the Jaxartes River beyond Samarkand. He sent reconnaissance missions to the Upper Nile, the Persian Gulf, and the Caspian Sea.
Alexander's death halted preparations to conquer and colonise the Arabian peninsula. He reputedly planned to move into the western Mediterranean, Carthage and southern Italy, followed by a possible circumnavigation of Africa. While those intentions are impossible to verify, it seems Alexander saw no practical limit to his conquests.
Biographical Sketches: Alexander III of Macedon booklet
Links to add:
Alexandria
The Hellespont
Sources:
- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (ed.) The Times Atlas of World Exploration
- Jerry Brotton, A History of the World in Twelve Maps
- Chambers Biographical Dictionary
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- Richard Holmes, Charles Singleton, and Dr Spencer Jones (eds.), The Oxford Companion to Military History
- Simon Hornblower and Tony Spawforth (eds.) Who's Who in the Classical World
- Metropolian Museum of Art
- J.M. Roberts The Penguin History of the World
- Strabo, Geography
- Wikipedia
