Alexander the Great
Learn about Alexander the Great — the Macedonian king who conquered the Persian Empire by age 30 and created the Hellenistic world.
Alexander III of Macedon — Alexander the Great — is one of the most extraordinary figures in human history. In just thirteen years of campaigning (334–323 BCE), he conquered the Persian Empire, the largest state the world had known, and pushed the boundaries of the Greek world to the Indus River. He was never defeated in battle.
Alexander was shaped by two powerful influences: his father Philip II, who gave him the most formidable army in the Mediterranean, and his tutor Aristotle, who instilled in him a love of Homer, philosophy, and Greek culture. These two inheritances — military genius and cultural ambition — defined his career. Alexander didn't just want to conquer the world; he wanted to transform it.
His legacy is profoundly debated. Admirers point to his military brilliance, his founding of cities (over 70 Alexandrias), and his role in creating the Hellenistic world — a cosmopolitan civilization that blended Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Indian traditions. Critics emphasize the destruction, the massacres, and an ego that declared itself divine. What is undeniable is the scale of the transformation he set in motion. The world after Alexander looked fundamentally different from the world before him.