Who was Alexander the Great?

Alexander III of Macedon — Alexander the Great — was born in 356 BCE to King Philip II and his wife Olympias. From childhood, he was prepared for extraordinary things. His tutor was Aristotle, who instilled in him a love of Homer, Greek philosophy, and natural science. His father gave him the finest army in the ancient world and a kingdom positioned to dominate Greece.

Alexander came to power at age twenty after Philip's assassination in 336 BCE. After quickly securing control of Greece, he crossed into Asia Minor in 334 BCE with roughly 40,000 troops — beginning one of the most remarkable military campaigns in human history. Over the next eleven years, he defeated the Persian Empire at the battles of Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela; conquered Egypt (where he founded Alexandria); marched through Central Asia; and invaded India before his army finally refused to go further.

Alexander was never defeated in battle. His tactical genius — particularly his use of the Companion cavalry to deliver decisive strikes at enemy weak points — has been studied by military commanders for over two millennia. But he was more than a conqueror. He founded over seventy cities, promoted cultural fusion between Greek and Eastern traditions, and (deliberately or not) created the conditions for the Hellenistic civilization that transformed the ancient world.

Alexander died in Babylon on June 10, 323 BCE, probably of a fever possibly complicated by heavy drinking. He was thirty-two years old. His empire immediately fragmented as his generals fought over the succession. But the Hellenistic world he had created — with its Greek-speaking cities, cosmopolitan culture, and channels of exchange connecting the Mediterranean to Central Asia — endured for centuries and profoundly influenced the Roman civilization that followed.