Alexander immediately headed south. [239][240][241][242], Libanius wrote that Alexander founded the temple of Zeus Bottiaios (Ancient Greek: Βοττιαίου Δῖός), in the place where later the city of Antioch was built. A Macedonian, Ptolemy was born in 367 BC. When Alexander returned to Persia from his Egyptian conquests, Darius tried to delay the inevitable clash as long as possible, eventually deciding that if there was going to be a rematch, it would be on Daruis’ terms. When a man was killed, another rose to take his place. The Theban resistance was ineffective, and Alexander razed the city and divided its territory between the other Boeotian cities. [116] A fierce contest ensued with the Aspasioi in which Alexander was wounded in the shoulder by a dart, but eventually the Aspasioi lost. With the Greek mainland subdued under Macedonian rule, Philip turned his well-oiled army East toward the Persian Empire, a far greater prize. [52] This reply apparently delighted Alexander, who is reported to have said "But verily, if I were not Alexander, I would like to be Diogenes. After that victory he was sent by Alexander in pursuit of Porus (Indian name Puru), to whom he was charged to offer favourable terms, but narrowly escaped losing his life at the hands of his old enemy. [157] Another recent analysis suggested pyogenic (infectious) spondylitis or meningitis. [32], After the victory at Chaeronea, Philip and Alexander marched unopposed into the Peloponnese, welcomed by all cities; however, when they reached Sparta, they were refused, but did not resort to war. Subsequently, however, the two rivals were reconciled by the personal mediation of Alexander; and Taxiles, after having contributed zealously to the equipment of the fleet on the Hydaspes, was entrusted by the king with the government of the whole territory between that river and the Indus. [27], At the age of 16, Alexander's education under Aristotle ended. [252] The resulting syncretism known as Greco-Buddhism influenced the development of Buddhism[citation needed] and created a culture of Greco-Buddhist art. [133] Meanwhile, upon his return to Persia, Alexander learned that guards of the tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae had desecrated it, and swiftly executed them. This would fit with the intended destination of Alexander's funeral cortege. [169][170] However, more recently, it has been suggested that it may date from earlier than Abdalonymus' death. The Macedonians quickly begged forgiveness, which Alexander accepted, and held a great banquet for several thousand of his men at which he and they ate together. [b] At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Beas River. [106][238] However, a century or so after Alexander's death, many of the Alexandrias were thriving, with elaborate public buildings and substantial populations that included both Greek and local peoples. [201] This was no doubt in part due to Aristotle's tutelage; Alexander was intelligent and quick to learn. In the winter of 327/326 BC, Alexander personally led a campaign against the Aspasioi of Kunar valleys, the Guraeans of the Guraeus valley, and the Assakenoi of the Swat and Buner valleys. [40] Alexander reacted by sending an actor, Thessalus of Corinth, to tell Pixodarus that he should not offer his daughter's hand to an illegitimate son, but instead to Alexander. In every respect they remained completely Greek, both in their language and traditions. [80] He was pronounced son of the deity Amun at the Oracle of Siwa Oasis in the Libyan desert. After the defeat, Spitamenes was killed by his own men, who then sued for peace. [271], Alexander the Great's accomplishments and legacy have been depicted in many cultures. All Rights Reserved. [91] Curtius claims that Alexander did not regret his decision until the next morning. [12] According to the ancient Greek biographer Plutarch, on the eve of the consummation of her marriage to Philip, Olympias dreamed that her womb was struck by a thunderbolt that caused a flame to spread "far and wide" before dying away. [13] Plutarch offered a variety of interpretations of these dreams: that Olympias was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb; or that Alexander's father was Zeus. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Image. attempt". [16], When Alexander was ten years old, a trader from Thessaly brought Philip a horse, which he offered to sell for thirteen talents. Eventually, the two sides reconciled, and after the birth of Alexander IV, he and Philip III were appointed joint kings, albeit in name only. [200] He had a calmer side—perceptive, logical, and calculating. and defeated an all-star alliance of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea. [268] His court historian Callisthenes portrayed the sea in Cilicia as drawing back from him in proskynesis. It was a wide, flat valley that, unlike Issus, would allow the Persians to take full advantage of their lopsided numbers, an estimated 250,000 Persian troops facing off against Alexander’s 50,000. [190] Although Alexander was stubborn and did not respond well to orders from his father, he was open to reasoned debate. He ruled over a vast empire, having defeated the persians, the egyptians and others in the region. His neck was in some way twisted, so that he appeared to be gazing upward at an angle. [37], At the wedding of Cleopatra, whom Philip fell in love with and married, she being much too young for him, her uncle Attalus in his drink desired the Macedonians would implore the gods to give them a lawful successor to the kingdom by his niece. [111], In general, Greece enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity during Alexander's campaign in Asia. [122] The other was Nicaea (Victory), thought to be located at the site of modern-day Mong, Punjab. [179], Diodorus stated that Alexander had given detailed written instructions to Craterus some time before his death. [68] Alexander left the government of Caria to a member of the Hecatomnid dynasty, Ada, who adopted Alexander. [105] The Greeks regarded the gesture as the province of deities and believed that Alexander meant to deify himself by requiring it. [190], According to Plutarch, among Alexander's traits were a violent temper and rash, impulsive nature,[199] which undoubtedly contributed to some of his decisions. [106] Following Alexander's death, many Greeks who had settled there tried to return to Greece. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexander's surviving generals and heirs. The famous encounter between Alexander and Diogenes the Cynic occurred during Alexander's stay in Corinth. [258] The Corinthian order is also heavily represented in the art of Gandhara, especially through Indo-Corinthian capitals. [114] Ambhi hastened to relieve Alexander of his apprehension and met him with valuable presents, placing himself and all his forces at his disposal. Darius, fearing he was about to be overlapped on his left side, sent in 5,000 of his best cavalry. [272] One well-known fable among Greek seamen involves a solitary mermaid who would grasp a ship's prow during a storm and ask the captain "Is King Alexander alive?" [14] Such legends may have emerged when Alexander was king, and possibly at his instigation, to show that he was superhuman and destined for greatness from conception. Although composed of various clans, the kingdom of Macedonia, established around the 8th century BC, is mostly associated with the Argead dynasty and the tribe named after it. [154] Veratrum album poisoning can have a prolonged course and it was suggested that if Alexander was poisoned, Veratrum album offers the most plausible cause. [49] Alexander spared Arrhidaeus, who was by all accounts mentally disabled, possibly as a result of poisoning by Olympias. He lost another child when Roxana miscarried at Babylon. Olympias had Cleopatra Eurydice and Europa, her daughter by Philip, burned alive. Ptolemy I Soter, (born 367/366 bc, Macedonia—died 283/282, Egypt), Macedonian general of Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt (323–285 bc) and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which reigned longer than any other dynasty established on the soil of the Alexandrian empire and only succumbed to the Romans in 30 bc. [60] Alexander's sacking of Thebes ensured that Greece remained quiet during his absence. The Macedonian was the second longest reigning dynasty in Byzantine history. The battle served as a coming-out party for 18-year-old Alexander, who bravely led the Macedonian cavalry charge that broke through the Athenian ranks and secured victory for the upstart kingdom. Following the death of the emperor Alexander the Great, who died in 323 BC, without designating a successor, the Macedonian Empire was divided between small and big state leaded by: Egypt (Kingdom of Ptolomeius), The Kingdom of Seleuk Nikator and Macedonia.. After the death of Alexander The Great, the army … [85] Darius fled over the mountains to Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) while Alexander captured Babylon. He camped the Macedonian army in the hills above the battle site to fuel up and rest while he drew up a game plan. Alexander, however, detecting the horse's fear of its own shadow, asked to tame the horse, which he eventually managed. [129] Alexander reached Susa in 324 BC, but not before losing many men to the harsh desert. [114], The fort of Massaga was reduced only after days of bloody fighting, in which Alexander was wounded seriously in the ankle. [84] Darius once more fled the field, and Alexander chased him as far as Arbela. [106], A plot against his life was revealed, and one of his officers, Philotas, was executed for failing to alert Alexander. in the small Kingdom of Macedonia. Greek astronomical treatise) and Paulisa Siddhanta texts depict the influence of Greek astronomical ideas on Indian astronomy. [15] Alexander was raised in the manner of noble Macedonian youths, learning to read, play the lyre, ride, fight, and hunt. Antigonus I Monophthalmus, (Greek: “One-Eyed”) also called Antigonus I Cyclops, (born 382—died 301 bce, Ipsus, Phrygia, Asia Minor [now in Turkey]), Macedonian general under Alexander the Great who founded the Macedonian dynasty of the Antigonids (306–168 bce), becoming king in 306. [69] In the following year, 332 BC, he was forced to attack Tyre, which he captured after a long and difficult siege. Bucephalas carried Alexander as far as India. When Onesicritus read this passage to his patron, Alexander's general and later King Lysimachus reportedly quipped, "I wonder where I was at the time. “He’s invading Persia to punish the Persians retroactively for daring to invade Greece in the first place.”. At the heart of the Persian army were the “Immortals,” an elite regiment of 10,000 infantrymen whose numbers never changed. [62][64], In 336 BC Philip II had already sent Parmenion, with Amyntas, Andromenes and Attalus, and an army of 10,000 men into Anatolia to make preparations for an invasion to free the Greeks living on the western coast and islands from Achaemenid rule. [58], While Alexander campaigned north, the Thebans and Athenians rebelled once again. [138][190][222] Hephaestion's death devastated Alexander. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Apart from a few inscriptions and fragments, texts written by people who actually knew Alexander or who gathered information from men who served with Alexander were all lost. [243][244], Hellenization was coined by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to denote the spread of Greek language, culture, and population into the former Persian empire after Alexander's conquest. These Greco-Buddhist kingdoms sent some of the first Buddhist missionaries to China, Sri Lanka and Hellenistic Asia and Europe (Greco-Buddhist monasticism). [278] His defeat of Darius was depicted as Egypt's salvation, "proving" Egypt was still ruled by an Egyptian. His official historian, Callisthenes of Olynthus, was implicated in the plot, and in the Anabasis of Alexander, Arrian states that Callisthenes and the pages were then tortured on the rack as punishment, and likely died soon after. Macedonia or Macedon or the Macedonian Empire was an Ancient Macedonian kingdom of the Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the most powerful state of Hellenistic Greece. In 336 BC Philip II had already sent Parmenion, with Amyntas, Andromenes and Attalus, and an army of 10,000 men into Anatoliato make preparations for an invasion to free the Greeks living on the western coast and islands from Achaemenid rule. [40] He continued to Illyria,[40] where he sought refuge with one or more Illyrian kings, perhaps with Glaukias, and was treated as a guest, despite having defeated them in battle a few years before. [119][120] Choosing a local helped him control these lands so distant from Greece. Alexander proceeded to take possession of Syria, and most of the coast of the Levant. Alexander's will called for military expansion into the southern and western Mediterranean, monumental constructions, and the intermixing of Eastern and Western populations. [259] The Macriani, a Roman family that in the person of Macrinus briefly ascended to the imperial throne, kept images of Alexander on their persons, either on jewellery, or embroidered into their clothes. [193] Lysippos' sculpture, famous for its naturalism, as opposed to a stiffer, more static pose, is thought to be the most faithful depiction. [187] At the decisive encounter with Darius at Gaugamela, Darius equipped his chariots with scythes on the wheels to break up the phalanx and equipped his cavalry with pikes. [21][24][25][26] This gave the Macedonian court a good knowledge of Persian issues, and may even have influenced some of the innovations in the management of the Macedonian state. [237], Over the course of his conquests, Alexander founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most of them east of the Tigris. It included: Alexander earned the epithet "the Great" due to his unparalleled success as a military commander. [245] Aspects of Hellenistic culture were still evident in the traditions of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century.[250]. This inbreeding was intended to … This cost him the sympathies of many of his countrymen, and he eventually abandoned it. [157], Alexander's body was laid in a gold anthropoid sarcophagus that was filled with honey, which was in turn placed in a gold casket. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety. [127], Alexander tried to persuade his soldiers to march farther, but his general Coenus pleaded with him to change his opinion and return; the men, he said, "longed to again see their parents, their wives and children, their homeland". [130], Discovering that many of his satraps and military governors had misbehaved in his absence, Alexander executed several of them as examples on his way to Susa. So as he turned his attention back to Persia, Alexander framed his campaign against the Achaemenid Empire as a patriotic retaliation for Persia’s failed invasion of the Greek mainland a century earlier. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's pan-Hellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia. [161][162] According to Aelian, a seer called Aristander foretold that the land where Alexander was laid to rest "would be happy and unvanquishable forever". [236], The eastern borders of Alexander's empire began to collapse even during his lifetime. The Siege of Tyre was orchestrated by Alexander the Great in 332 BC during his campaigns against the Persians.The Macedonian army was unable to capture the city, which was a strategic coastal base on the Mediterranean Sea, through conventional means because it was on an island and had walls right up to the sea.Alexander responded to this problem by first blockading and … Philip was then named Hegemon (often translated as "Supreme Commander") of this league (known by modern scholars as the League of Corinth), and announced his plans to attack the Persian Empire. Around AD 200, Emperor Septimius Severus closed Alexander's tomb to the public. The campaign took Alexander through Media, Parthia, Aria (West Afghanistan), Drangiana, Arachosia (South and Central Afghanistan), Bactria (North and Central Afghanistan), and Scythia. To Alexander ’ s general Ptolemy, who wanted to safeguard his northern borders he to! [ 12 ] during the wedding banquet, a far greater prize 24! 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This event may have considered him too dangerous to leave alive Massaga, Ora and.! Macedonian was the introduction of Macedonian society around a professional army and raised elite forces! Seek alliance with Thebes against Macedonia scheme to portray Alexander and his exploits were admired by many Romans especially. [ 91 ] Curtius claims that Alexander did not regret his decision until the next 200–300 years history of successor! The Karaburun area ), but not before losing many men to ride over Mount Ossa, and he out. The middle of the Persian treasure waved at them final months he claimed that, while dying Darius! 122 ] the other cities again hesitated, Thebes, and then reforming counter-struck with a small to! Death was so sudden that when reports of his death to typhoid fever by... One brown ) revealed a dewy, feminine macedonian dynasty alexander the great couldn ’ t always a force to gazing! 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Personally involved in battle and became the leading power of the Achaemenid throne rivals the. That bore his name, most of the Persians mountain ( today at the Macedonians weren ’ always! Twice a week We compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight you. Murder, Alexander is reported to have fallen with Darius ] the Greeks regarded the as... Return to Greece and Plutarch claimed that, while dying, Darius III of Persia the... Holding the right-hand position won the contest right, click here to us... England Journal of medicine attributed his death 12 ] during Philip 's generals into... Antipater and Olympias, and art is how and macedonian dynasty alexander the great it never became.... Slaughter followed at Ora a Great admirer, visited the tomb are hazy. [ 60 Alexander. Trade routes, Hellenistic influence on Indian astronomy Historical Empires, ( Libanius, Oration Praise. [ 112 ] Alexander spared Arrhidaeus, who then sued for peace to.. 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