Alexander the Great Rises

In 336 BCE, Alexander III of Macedon, then about twenty years old, inherited the throne after the assassination of his father, Philip II. Within about a decade he would lead a Greek and Macedonian army across the Persian Empire and into northwestern India, creating one of the largest empires of the ancient world. His campaigns reshaped the political map from the Mediterranean to Central Asia and helped spread Greek language and culture across a vast area, opening what historians call the Hellenistic age.

Alexander's rise rested on his father's work. Philip had transformed Macedon, a northern kingdom that southern Greeks often regarded as semi-barbarian, into the strongest military power in the Greek world. He built a disciplined professional army, notably its infantry armed with long pikes called sarissas, and in 338 BCE defeated Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea. He then organized the Greek states into a league under Macedonian leadership and planned a war against Persia. Philip was murdered in 336 BCE, and ancient sources disagree about whether the assassin acted alone or whether others were behind the plot.

Alexander moved quickly to secure power, removing rivals and putting down unrest. When Thebes revolted, he destroyed the city as a warning to the rest of Greece. In 334 BCE he crossed into Asia Minor and won his first major victory over Persian forces at the Granicus River. He then defeated the Persian king Darius III at Issus in 333 BCE, took Egypt, where he founded Alexandria, and won the decisive battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE. The great Persian capitals fell soon after, and Darius was killed by his own followers in 330 BCE.

Alexander pressed on through Central Asia and in 326 BCE fought King Porus at the Hydaspes River in India. His exhausted troops refused to go farther east, and he turned back. He died in Babylon in 323 BCE, aged about thirty-two, and the cause of his death remains debated, with illness and poisoning both proposed.

His empire did not survive him intact. His generals, known as the Diadochi, fought over it and eventually carved out kingdoms such as the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt and the Seleucid realm in Asia. Greek cities, administrators and ideas spread eastward, and cities like Alexandria became centers of learning. Assessments of Alexander vary: ancient admirers saw a brilliant, daring commander, while modern historians also stress the destruction and bloodshed his campaigns caused.