Alexander Conquers Egypt

In 332 BCE, Alexander III of Macedon, later called Alexander the Great, took control of Egypt with almost no fighting, ending roughly two centuries of intermittent Persian rule. The conquest brought one of the oldest civilizations in the world into the Greek-speaking Mediterranean sphere, and it set the stage for the founding of Alexandria, which became one of the great cities of antiquity.

Egypt had been part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire since the conquest by Cambyses II in 525 BCE, with a period of renewed independence in the fourth century BCE before the Persians reconquered it around 343 BCE. That second Persian occupation was not remembered fondly by many Egyptians, according to later sources, though these accounts come mostly from Greek writers and should be read with some caution. By 334 BCE Alexander had crossed into Asia Minor and defeated Persian forces at the Granicus River. After his victory at Issus in 333 BCE, he moved down the Levantine coast, famously besieging the island city of Tyre for several months before it fell in 332 BCE.

From there Alexander advanced toward Egypt, probably in the late autumn of 332 BCE. The Persian satrap, Mazaces, surrendered without a serious fight, and Alexander was received as a ruler rather than an invader. He reportedly sacrificed to Egyptian gods, including the sacred Apis bull at Memphis, a gesture that helped legitimize his rule in local eyes. Later traditions describe him being recognized as pharaoh, though the details of any formal ceremony are uncertain and debated by historians.

Alexander also founded a new city on the Mediterranean coast, near the Egyptian village of Rhakotis, which he named Alexandria. Ancient accounts say he took a personal interest in its layout, though the city was largely built up after his departure. He then made a journey across the desert to the oracle of Zeus-Ammon at Siwa Oasis. What was said there is unclear, but later writers claimed the priests greeted him as a son of the god, a story that fed his growing legend. He left Egypt in 331 BCE, never to return alive.

The consequences were lasting. After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, his general Ptolemy took control of Egypt, founding the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled until Cleopatra VII's death in 30 BCE. Alexandria became a center of trade, scholarship, and culture, home to the famous Library and the Museum, and to a large Greek, Egyptian, and Jewish population. The blending of Greek and Egyptian traditions shaped art, religion, and learning across the eastern Mediterranean for centuries.