Born in July of 356 BC in Pella, Macedon, Alexander The Great was one of the most successful military commanders in all of history. His father was King Philip II of Macedon and his mother was Olympias, daughter of King Neoptolemus I of the ancient kingdom of Epirus. The royal couple were very unhappy in their union and Phillip had several other “lesser” wives. Alexander The Great had a younger sister named Cleopatra (not the queen). He was a well- educated youth, and one of his tutors was Aristotle. Alexeander The Great was also handsome, a heavy drinker and very athletic.
King And Conqueror
When Alexander The Great was sixteen, Phillip went to war, leaving his son to serve as regent of Macedon. During his father’s absence, Alexander The Great led an expedition to modern day Bulgaria where he subdued a rebellion and established his first city, Alexandropolis. He soon became a general in his father’s legions, and Alexander The Great assumed the throne at the age of twenty after his father was murdered by his own bodyguards in 336 B. C.
Alexander The Great conquered most of the known world of his day. He vanquished all of the Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Phoenicia, Syria, Egypt and Mesopotamia and extended the boundaries of his own kingdom as far as the Punjab. Some creditAlexander The Great with “a policy of fusion” as he integrated non-Greeks into both his army and administration and encouraged intermarriage with foreigners.
Death And Aftermath
Alexander The Great campaigned constantly for twelve years, igniting with his many conquests The Hellenistic Age and the establishment of Greek settlement and rule over many foreign territories and cultures. He succumbed to a death of uncertain causes in Babylon on June 10, 323 BC, leaving a legacy as powerful as the legend that ensued after his death. Alexander The Great’s true motivations and personality are lost to the mists of time and what remains is the myth behind the man who conquered the world of his day.
Is that alone not worthy of legend?
