From Halicarnassus, Alexander headed north to Gordium, home of the fabled Gordian knot , a group of tightly-entwined knots yoked to an ancient wagon. Legend had it whoever unwound the knot would conquer all of Asia. As the story goes, Alexander took on the challenge but was unable to unravel the knot by hand. He took another approach and sliced through the knot with his sword, claiming triumph. As it became clear Alexander would win the Battle of Issus, Darius fled with what remained of his troops, leaving his wife and family behind.
His mother, Sisygambis, was so upset she disowned him and adopted Alexander as her son. By now it was clear that Alexander was a shrewd, ruthless and brilliant military leader—in fact, he never lost a battle in his life. Next, Alexander took over the Phoenician cities of Marathus and Aradus.
He rejected a plea from Darius for peace and took the towns of Byblos and Sidon. He then laid siege to the heavily fortified island of Tyre in January B. But Alexander had no navy to speak of and Tyre was surrounded by water. Alexander instructed his men to build a causeway to reach Tyre. All went well until they came within striking distance of the Tyrians.
After rejecting another peace offer from Darius, Alexander set out for Egypt. He was sidelined at Gaza, however, and forced to endure another lengthy siege. After several weeks, he took the town and entered Egypt where he established the city that still bears his name: Alexandria. Alexander traveled to the desert to consult the oracle of Ammon, a god of supposed good counsel.
Legends abound about what transpired at the oracle, but Alexander kept mum about the experience. Still, the visit furthered speculation Alexander was a deity. Following fierce fighting and heavy losses on both sides, Darius fled and was assassinated by his own troops. Finally rid of Darius, Alexander proclaimed himself King of Persia. With Bessus out of the way, Alexander had full control of Persia.
To gain credibility with the Persians, Alexander took on many Persian customs. He began dressing like a Persian and adopted the practice of proskynesis, a Persian court custom that involved bowing down and kissing the hand of others, depending on their rank.
The Macedonians were less than thrilled with the changes in Alexander and his attempt to be viewed as a deity. They refused to practice proskynesis and some plotted his death. Increasingly paranoid, Alexander ordered the death of one of his most esteemed generals, Parmenio, in B. Philip decided to leave his year-old son in charge of Macedonia while he was away on campaign, Cartledge wrote in his book " Alexander the Great " Overlook Press, Alexander took advantage of the opportunity by defeating a Thracian people called the Maedi and founding "Alexandroupolis," a city he named after himself.
Ancient records, such as Plutarch's " Lives ," indicate that Alexander and Philip became estranged later in Alexander's teenage years. At one point his mother Olympia was exiled to Epirus in western Greece.
Philip was assassinated in B. The person who stabbed him was said to have been one of Philip's former male lovers, named Pausanias. While the ancient Greek historian Cleitarchus pointed to jealousy and betrayal as the motive, as outlined by Diodorus Siculus in " Library of History ," other ancient sources like Justin in " Epitome of the Philippic History Of Pompeius Trogus " suspected that Pausanias may have been part of a larger plot to kill the king — one that may have included Alexander and his mother.
At the time of his death, Philip was contemplating invading the Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, which at its peak stretched from the Balkan peninsula to modern-day Pakistan and had repeatedly attempted to conquer the Greek world. Upon his father's death, Alexander moved quickly to consolidate power. He gained the support of the Macedonian army and intimidated the Greek city states that Philip had conquered into accepting his rule.
After campaigns in the Balkans and Thrace, Alexander moved against Thebes, a city in Greece that had risen up in rebellion. He conquered it in B. With Greece and the Balkans pacified, he was ready to launch a campaign against the Persian Empire.
While Alexander may have had his own reasons for expanding eastward, "his official reason for wanting to conquer the Achaemenid Persian Empire… was to lead the allied Greeks in a war of liberation: to free forever from Persian control the Greek cities along the Anatolian coast and on the island of Cyprus, and in so doing also to exact revenge for the Persians' invasion of Greece under Great King Xerxes in BCE," Cartledge wrote.
Nevertheless, Alexander was hugely successful against Persia. The first major battle he won against the Perisans was in B. The ancient Greek historian Arrian wrote that Alexander defeated a force of 20, Persian horsemen and an equal number of foot soldiers.
He then advanced down the coast of west Turkey, taking cities and depriving the Persian navy of bases. The second key battle he won — and perhaps the most important — was the Battle of Issus, fought in B. Arrian estimated that Darius had a force of , troops probably wildly exaggerated and initially positioned himself on a great plain where he could mass his force effectively against Alexander, who hesitated to give battle. Darius is said to have thought this as a sign of timidity. So, Darius gave up his position and chased Alexander.
In his haste, Darius left much of his family behind, including his mother, wife, infant son and two daughters. Alexander ordered that they be "honored, and addressed as royalty," Arrian wrote. After the battle, Darius offered Alexander a ransom for his family and alliance, through marriage. Arrian wrote that Alexander rebuked Darius in writing, saying "in the future whenever you send word to me, address yourself to me as King of Asia and not as an equal, and let me know, as the master of all that belonged to you, if you have need of anything.
Alexander then moved south along the eastern Mediterranean, continuing a strategy designed to deprive the Persians of their naval bases. He combined immense personal charisma and bravery he often led his troops from the front.
Plus he had a priceless ability to identify the key moment in a battle and act decisively to ensure he won that moment. Up there in Division 1, with Napoleon and Genghis Khan. He won the four key battles of his great campaign: at Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela and, for me the most impressive, Hydaspes.
While Darius III of Persia commanded a motley crew of multi-ethnic forces, at Hydaspes Raja Porus led largely Indian ethnic forces fighting on their own terrain for their own terrain. And, of course, they had elephants! One symptom is that, at his death in BC, he had three wives but no male heir yet born. In addition, he was too impetuous, too prone to believe alleged conspiracies against his life and too trusting in subordinates who let him down.
He married three times and sired at least two sons, one legitimate born to his first wife, Roxana, after his death. Possibly his closest and warmest personal relationship was with a man — his near-contemporary Hephaestion, a noble Macedonian who, like him, was taught by Aristotle. Paul Chrystal explores the many layers of sex and sexuality in various Greek societies — from prostitution to pillow talk…. It probably never occurred to him not to carry on where his father had been forced to leave off.
Without doubt he believed he was descended literally from more than one god, and he almost certainly demanded to be worshipped by his subjects as if he were himself a living god. Was he a megalomaniac?
Yes, inevitably. No one but a megalomaniac could possibly have conceived, let alone pulled off, his greatest feats.
He is born in the Macedonian capital of Pella. Alexander travels to the Temple of the Nymphs in Mieza to be educated by the celebrated Greek philosopher Aristotle. There he develops a fascination with the exploits of mythical Greek heroes such as Achilles. Philip II is assassinated by his bodyguard while attending wedding celebrations in Aegae. With an army about 50, strong, Alexander crosses the Hellespont to Asia Minor. His goal: to seize Persia and become the master of Asia. Alexander secures victory following an audacious cavalry charge into the heart of the enemy — which he leads himself.
Darius attacks Alexander near Issus. The Persian army fares no better than at Granicus — a whirlwind Greek cavalry assault proves decisive and Darius flees the battlefield. After leading a party of men in a perilous journey across the Saharan desert, Alexander visits the oracle at the Siwa Oasis, where he asks her if he is the son of the god Amon. He later suggests that she answered in the affirmative. In a masterclass of ingenuity and resolve, Alexander storms Tyre following a seven-month siege, which had seen his men build a half-mile-long causeway out to the island.
Today nearly five million people call it home. Darius brings an enormous army to the field near Gaugamela in modern Iraq. Darius flees the battlefield again. But this time there is no reprieve: soon after, he is slaughtered by his own men. The Macedonian army descends on the Persian capital of Persepolis and, in an orgy of drink-fuelled violence, loots the city and burns its great palace to the ground.
In another masterclass of improvisation, Alexander seizes Aornos, a seemingly impregnable stronghold blocking his entry into India. The powerful Indian raja Porus confronts the Macedonians on the banks of the river Hydaspes. Eight years and 17, miles into his epic journey east, Alexander is forced to accept that his remarkable campaign of conquest is over. Troops mutiny again at Opis roughly modern Baghdad : faced with insurrection, Alexander cashiers 10, of his mainly Macedonian troops and stages a huge banquet of reconciliation.
Alexander passes at Babylon: his cause of death is unclear; some theories suggest that he was assassinated by poison. How did a young king from Macedon inspire his modest army to conquer a domain that spanned the ancient world? Writer Jeremy Pound reveals the secrets behind the man — and his downfall. In fact, the battle was indeed a rout — but not in the expected way. It was the Persians who were crushed, not the numerically inferior Greeks.
With his vast forces in disarray, Darius fled. He survived — for now — but his reign was effectively finished, as was the once-great Persian empire, which had stretched from Libya in the west to the Indus Valley in the east. The way now lay open for Alexander to press on eastwards and establish his own empire. At just 25, he was the most powerful man in the world — the Great, indeed. Brilliant military tactician, savvy politician, courageous and accomplished fighter — in terms of leadership skills, Alexander had the lot.
Nor did it hurt to be the son of a king who had already set in motion the most significant shift in power in Greek history. In the space of just a few years, Philip transformed his state from a small, peripheral kingdom in northern Greece into an unstoppable war machine. In BC, he won a crushing victory over Athens and its allies at Chaeronea, ensuring that Macedon effectively ruled all Greece.
Look closely and you will find ample evidence that the Greeks admired the Persian Empire and the emperors who ruled it. Much like the barbarians who conquered Rome, Alexander came to admire what he found, so much so that he was keen to take on the Persian mantle of the King of Kings. And Greek admiration for the Persians goes back much earlier than this. Xenophon, the Athenian general and writer, wrote a paean to Cyrus the Great - the Cyropaedia - showering praise on the ruler who showed that the government of men over a vast territory could be achieved by dint of character and force of personality:.
Later Persian emperors Darius and Xerxes both invaded Greece, and were both ultimately defeated. But, remarkably, Greeks flocked to the Persian court. The most notable was Themistocles, who fought against Darius's invading army at Marathon and masterminded the Athenian victory against Xerxes at Salamis. Falling foul of Athenian politics, he fled to the Persian Empire and eventually found employment at the Persian Court and was made a provincial governor, where he lived out the rest of his life.
In time, the Persians found that they could achieve their objectives in Greece by playing the Greek city states against each other, and in the Peloponnesian War, Persian money financed the Spartan victory against Athens. The key figure in this strategy was the Persian prince and governor of Asia Minor, Cyrus the Younger, who over a number of years developed a good relationship with his Greek interlocutors such that when he decided to make his fateful bid for the throne, he was able to easily recruit some 10, Greek mercenaries.
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