Alexanderthe Great

Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, was born at Pella 356 B.C., being the son of Philip II. and Olympias. He was educated partly by Lysimachus, partly by Aristotle, and succeeded to the throne in his twentieth year. Some of the subject states were then in revolt. He at once reduced Thrace and Thebes, thus overawing the others. He was now free to concentrate his forces against Darius Codomanus, King of Persia, and in 334 crossed the Hellespont with 30,000 foot, and 5,000 horse. His first great victory was at the Granicus river, near Mount Ida, and Sardis, Ephesus, Miletus, with nearly all the important cities in Asia Minor, fell into his hands. He suffered from a severe fever in Cilicia and was warned that his physician, Philip, was bribed to poison him, but he showed the letter to Philip, followed his advice, and recovered. Next year he met the army of Darius, 500,000 strong, on the Issus river, and won an overwhelming victory, capturing the Persian sovereign, whom he treated with great magnanimity. Syria and Phoenicia were now overrun; Damascus was occupied; Tyre and Gaza were reduced to ashes, and Alexander entered Jerusalem. Thence he passed into Egypt, which was easily subdued, and the foundation of Alexandria left his name stamped for ever on the country. There is a story that he visited the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon in Libya, and was declared by the priest to be a son of that deity. From Egypt Alexander returned to Phoenicia, crossed the Euphrates and Tigris, and met Darius on the plain of Arbela, where he finally crushed the power of Persia. Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis fell into his hands with all their vast treasures (331). Having reduced Persia, he now directed his steps towards the north, and in 329 B.C. overthrew the Scythians on the banks of the Jaxartes, and penetrated into India, crossing the Indus near Attock. On the banks of the Hydaspes river (Behut) he defeated a native prince called Porus, but afterwards treated him as a friend and ally. Marching on to the Acesines (Chenab), he crossed the barren plain between that river and the Hydraotes (Ravee), and there overcame a second Porus, all of whose territory he handed over to the first conquered prince. The Hyphasis (Sutlej?) formed the limit of his progress, for his soldiers refused to proceed farther. He returned by way of the Indus, which he descended in boats, and by the Persian Gulf to Babylon. About a year was now spent, partly in re-organising his vast empire, which had suffered through his prolonged absence, partly in planning new conquests, partly in the dissipations to which he was too prone. In 323, just as he was about setting forth on an expedition to the West, a fever seized him at the close of a banquet, and in a few days he died. His body was enclosed in a gold sarcophagus and preserved at Alexandria. Of his four wives Roxana alone bore him issue - a posthumous son, who was murdered in his childhood by Cassander. He designated no successor, and his dominions were divided amongst his generals, between whom long and bloody wars ensued. Alexander's character offers strange moral and intellectual contrasts. As a soldier Hannibal and Napoleon are his only compeers, and in actual achievements he surpassed them both. Many passages in his life testify to a lofty generosity and a spontaneous benevolence worthy of the best days of chivalry, yet he ordered the murder of his faithful lieutenant Parmenio and killed his friend Clytus with his own hand. His love of learning and his taste for art were undoubtedly genuine, and he could practise the sternest self-denial, yet he cut short his career by shameless intoxication. No one was keener to detect and despise the servile flattery of his court, but this did not prevent his accepting divine honours and even insisting on them. Deservedly, perhaps, the more sublime features of his strangely-blended nature have taken the strongest hold of the imagination of mankind, and Alexander stands forth as the greatest hero of the ancient world.