356 BC – 323 BC
King of Macedon · Pharaoh of Egypt · Lord of Asia · Undefeated in battle
Age at death
32
Battles fought
~20
Empire size
5M km²
Cities founded
70+
Early life & formation
Alexander was born in Pella, the capital of Macedon, in July 356 BC, to King Philip II and his wife Olympias, a princess of Epirus. From birth he was surrounded by the ambitions of a kingdom on the rise. His mother instilled in him a belief in divine ancestry — she claimed descent from Achilles — while his father forged him into a military mind.
At thirteen, Philip engaged the philosopher Aristotle to educate Alexander at the sanctuary of Mieza. For three years, Aristotle shaped the young prince's thinking in medicine, philosophy, rhetoric, and science. Alexander reportedly slept with a copy of the Iliad — annotated by Aristotle himself — under his pillow alongside a dagger. He modeled himself on Achilles, seeking glory and immortality through deeds.
At sixteen, Philip departed on campaign and left Alexander as regent of Macedon. He promptly crushed a rebellion by the Thracian Maedi tribe and founded his first city, Alexandropolis. Two years later, at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), he commanded the left wing of the Macedonian army, breaking the famed Sacred Band of Thebes. He was eighteen years old.
Rise to power
In 336 BC, Philip II was assassinated at a royal wedding, likely as a result of a court conspiracy. Alexander, just twenty, moved swiftly. He secured the loyalty of the Macedonian army, eliminated his rivals, and consolidated power with striking ruthlessness. When the Greek city-states rose in rebellion at the news of Philip's death, Alexander marched south. He razed Thebes to the ground, sparing only its temples and the house of the poet Pindar, as a warning to the rest of Greece. Athens submitted immediately.
Elected commander of the League of Corinth — the pan-Hellenic alliance his father had built — Alexander turned his gaze east. In 334 BC, he crossed the Hellespont into Persian territory with an army of around 40,000 men, beginning one of the most extraordinary military campaigns in history.
"There is nothing impossible to him who will try."
Campaigns
334 BC
Battle of the Granicus
First major victory over Persia. Alexander personally led a cavalry charge across a river against Persian forces.
333 BC
Battle of Issus
Alexander defeated Darius III despite being heavily outnumbered. Darius fled, leaving behind his family and treasury.
332 BC
Conquest of Egypt & founding of Alexandria
Welcomed as a liberator from Persian rule. Visited the oracle at Siwa, which reportedly confirmed his divine status.
331 BC
Battle of Gaugamela
The decisive defeat of Darius III. Alexander became master of the Persian Empire. He captured Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis.
327 BC
Invasion of India
Crossed the Hindu Kush into the subcontinent. Won the Battle of the Hydaspes against King Porus and his war elephants.
324 BC
Return to Babylon
His army mutinied at the Hyphasis River, refusing to march further east. Alexander returned west. He reorganized the empire and planned new campaigns.
323 BC
Death in Babylon
Alexander died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, aged 32. The cause remains debated — fever, typhoid, poisoning, or alcoholism.
Character & leadership
Alexander was a paradox. He was capable of extraordinary generosity — honoring fallen enemies, adopting the customs of conquered peoples — and of terrible violence. He murdered his general Cleitus in a drunken rage and ordered the execution of his official historian Callisthenes. He burned Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire, reportedly at the urging of the courtesan Thaïs — an act he later regretted.
He was physically fearless to the point of recklessness, repeatedly placing himself in the vanguard of battle. He suffered multiple serious wounds: an arrow through his lung in India nearly killed him. His relationship with his companion Hephaestion was the closest of his life; when Hephaestion died of fever in 324 BC, Alexander's grief was inconsolable.
He married three times — Roxana of Bactria, Stateira II (daughter of Darius), and Parysatis II — and fathered at least one son, Alexander IV, born posthumously. His sexuality, like much of his private life, remains a matter of scholarly debate.
Cultural legacy
Alexander spread Greek language, art, and philosophy across Asia, sparking the Hellenistic Age. Greek became the lingua franca from Egypt to Bactria for centuries.
Military legacy
His use of combined arms — the Macedonian phalanx with cavalry hammer blows — redefined warfare. Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and Hannibal all studied his campaigns.
Urban legacy
He founded over 70 cities across his empire, many named Alexandria. Alexandria in Egypt became the greatest center of learning in the ancient world.
Political legacy
After his death, his empire fractured among his generals — the Diadochi. Their successor kingdoms shaped the Mediterranean and Near East for generations.
Death & the question of succession
Alexander died on June 10 or 11, 323 BC, in Babylon, after a fever lasting nearly two weeks. He was thirty-two years old. When his generals gathered around his deathbed and asked to whom he left his empire, he reportedly replied: "To the strongest." Whether or not he said these words, they proved prophetic. His generals — Ptolemy, Seleucus, Antigonus, and others — spent the next forty years tearing his empire apart in the Wars of the Diadochi.
His body was eventually interred in Alexandria, Egypt, where it became a pilgrimage site for centuries. Julius Caesar reportedly wept when he visited the tomb, lamenting that at the same age he had accomplished so little. The tomb was lost in antiquity, and its location remains one of archaeology's great unsolved mysteries.
In just thirteen years of campaigning, Alexander had conquered an empire stretching from Greece to northwestern India — roughly 5 million square kilometers. He never lost a battle. He remade the ancient world so thoroughly that its effects are still felt today in the cultures of Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, and beyond.
Alexander The Great