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- Did you know that Alexander the Great

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had a habit of renaming
cities after himself,

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and in one case, he even named a city

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after his beloved horse.

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Stick around to learn all
about Alexander the Great

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in honor of his birthday.

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(gentle plucky music)

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Hello, and welcome to "World
History Encyclopedia."

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My name is Kelly, and
in honor of the birth

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of Alexander the Great on either the 20th

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or 21st of July, 356 BCE,

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we're going to be answering the questions,

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who is Alexander the Great?

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Why is he so famous and
was he ever defeated?

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Happy birthday, Alexander.

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Don't forget the easiest way to support us

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is by giving this video a thumbs up

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so you don't miss out on our new uploads,

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every Tuesday and Friday.

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(plucky music continues)

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Alexander the Great, also
known as Alexander III

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of Macedon became king of
Macedon after the death

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of his father, King Philip II, in 336 BCE.

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Alexander is known for
both his military might

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and his diplomatic skills,
which aided in his expansion

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of the Macedonian Kingdom
to an empire of a size

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his father had not even dreamed of.

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Alexander is recognized as
a key figure in the spread

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of Greek culture and language
throughout the ancient world.

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And his death sparked

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the beginning of the Hellenistic period,

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which spanned from 323 to 31 BCE.

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After his death, his
campaigns became legendary,

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and later Greek and Roman generals learned

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from his successes and failures

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and were influenced by his tactics.

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When Alexander was young,
he was taught to fight

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and ride by Leonidas of
Epirus and how to read, write,

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and play the lyre by
Lysimachus of Acarnania.

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When he was 13 or 14, he was tutored

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by the Greek philosopher,
Aristotle until he was 16/

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Perhaps due to Aristotle's teachings

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which encouraged tolerance,
Alexander never forced

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the Greek culture on those he conquered,

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but simply introduced it to them.

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Despite his father, Philip
II laying the groundwork

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for Alexander to be successful,

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Alexander claimed all
the credit for himself

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and chose to call himself a son of Zeus,

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claiming to be a demigod,
modeling his behavior

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after his two favorite
heroes, Hercules and Achilles.

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This claim was in part due to Olympias,

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Alexander's mother claiming
that his was a virgin birth

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and that she was miraculously
impregnated by Zeus.

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Alexander's childhood friends,
Hephaestion, Cassander

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and Ptolemy would all
become lifelong companions

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and generals in his army.

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And Aristotle's great
nephew, Callisthenes,

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who was also a friend, would
become the court historian

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and follow Alexander on campaign.

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At 18 years old in 338 BCE
at the Battle of Chaeronea

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fought between the Macedonian Empire

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and the Greek allied city states,

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Alexander's military skill
was first noted when he turned

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the tide of the battle
for a Macedonian victory,

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and afterwards the Greek city states

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were brought under Macedonian rule.

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In 336 BCE, just two years
after the battle of Chaeronea,

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Philip II died and
Alexander assumed the throne

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as King of Macedon.

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Alexander wasted no time in
embarking on the extensive

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campaign that his father
had been planning,

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the conquest of the Persian empire.

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(gentle plucky music continues)

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As King, Alexander the
Great moved into Asia Minor,

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modern day Turkey in 334,
BCE, with 32,000 infantry

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and 5,100 cavalry.

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And in May of 334, he
fought the Persian satraps

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or governors at the Battle of
Granicus and was victorious.

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According to Alexander, he
then liberated the cities

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of Sardis and Ephesus from Persian rule.

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Although, his word liberated
has been understood

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as the conquest of these cities.

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In 333 BCE, Alexander fought
the Persian King Darius III

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at the Battle of Isis, a battle famous

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for its depiction on the Alexander Mosaic.

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Alexander defeated Darius's larger force

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and he then sacked the Phoenician cities

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of Baalbek and Sidon and
in 332, he laid siege

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to the island city of Tyre.

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The siege of Tyre is a famous
example of his commitment

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to victory and his ruthfulness.

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In order to bring his siege
engines within striking distance

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of Tyre's walls, he had his
army build a land bridge

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out to the island, which
is how the island city

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became linked to the land
as the site still is today.

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And in response to the
stubbornness of the inhabitants

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of the city refusing to surrender,

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he slaughtered most of them

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and then sold the survivors as slaves.

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In 331, he moved to Egypt and conquered it

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and founded the city of Alexandria there,

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named after himself, of course.

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Alexander had a habit of naming cities

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after himself and even
his horse Bucephalus,

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but we'll get to that later.

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Alexander marched his army
across the desert to the oasis

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of Siwa so that he could
visit the Oracle of Zeus Ammon

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that presided there.

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Alexander knew of the infallible
reputation of the oracle

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who had been consulted by the
hero's Heracles and Perseus.

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Alexander asked the
oracle whether his father

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was truly Philip II, and the
Oracle declared his true father

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to be Zeus Ammon.

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There was no military
value to marching to Siwa

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and losing some men to the desert.

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It was either to satisfy his megalomania

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or a cleverly calculated
PR stunt to spread the myth

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of him being a demigod or both.

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We will never know.

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The next phase of Alexander's conquests

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is known as the Persian campaigns.

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In 331, Alexander met Darius
III in battle, once again.

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This time at the battle of Gaugamela,

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which is also known as
the battle of Arbela.

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Alexander was victorious again.

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Darius fled the battle,

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and then Alexander took the
cities of Babylon and Susa,

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which both surrendered to him.

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It's safe to say that
Alexander was on a roll.

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In the winter of 330,
Alexander and his army

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marched to Persepolis and
defeated the Persian hero,

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Ariobarzanes and his
sister Youtab Ariobarzane

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at the battle of the Persian Gates,

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and after Alexander was victorious,

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he set Persepolis on fire,
probably in a drunken folly.

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In the summer of the same
year, Darius was assassinated

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by his cousin and General Bessus,

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which Alexander thought was deplorable.

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After the death of Darius,
Alexander crowned himself

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the King of Asia, gave Darius the burial

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of a Persian emperor and
then marched his army

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into Bactria what is now
modern day Afghanistan.

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If you haven't noticed by
now, this man does not stop.

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Between the years 330 and
327, Alexander campaigned

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in Bactria and Sogdiana
and won every engagement.

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And in 329, he destroyed
the city of Cyropolis,

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defeated the Scythians and
founded another city named

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after himself, Alexandria
Eschate on the Jaxartes River.

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It was around this point that Alexander

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began to portray himself
not just as a liberator

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of cities, but as a God.

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He adopted the title that the rulers

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of the first Persian
empire used shahansha,

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which means king of kings.

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And the Persian custom of proskynesis,

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which meant that those who
addressed him had to kneel

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and kiss his hand.

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To say that his Macedonian
troops were unhappy about this,

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is an understatement.

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His troops became increasingly
unhappy with his adoption

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of Persian customs and were growing more

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and more uncomfortable.

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So much so that assassination
plans were formed.

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Of course, the conspirators
and those who committed treason

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or questioned his authority
were found out and executed,

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including his close friends, Cleitus,

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who was killed with the javelin

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and Callisthenes who was
imprisoned and died in confinement.

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In 327, Alexander married
the Batrian woman, Roxana,

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and then set his sights on India.

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The Indian king Ambhi of
Taxila surrendered quickly,

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but the Aspasioi and
Assakenoi tribes resisted.

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By 326, Alexander had subdued the tribes,

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then fought King Porus of Paurava

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and his war elephants at the
battle of Hydaspes River.

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In true Alexander
fashion, he won the battle

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and then made Porus
ruler of a larger region

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than he'd previously held.

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because of how bravely he
and his troops had fought.

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During this battle, his
horse Bucephalus was killed,

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and so of course, he named
the city Bucephala after him.

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By now, Alexander's troops were exhausted

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and they didn't wanna go any further,

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and it took some convincing.

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But finally, Alexander
decided to head back to Susa.

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Half his troops were sent by sea,

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and half he marched through
the Gedrosian Desert

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where many died of thirst and starvation.

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Why he chose to do this,
we don't really know.

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When he finally arrived back
in Susa, he found that many

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of the satraps he left in
charge had abused their power,

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so he executed them, as well as those

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who vandalized Cyrus the Great's tomb.

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Alexander wanted to merge
the cultures of Macedonia

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and Persia more, so in 324, he
held a mass marriage service

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in Susa, where he married
Persian noble women

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to senior members of his staff

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and to connect himself to Persian royalty,

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he married one of Darius III's daughters.

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His men rejected this cultural merging

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and his adoption of Persian dress,

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and they really didn't like
how he merged the Macedonian

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and Persian army units
and promoted Persians

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to high positions, even though it seems

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this was an effective policy
in furthering his goal

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of uniting the two cultures.

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So after looking at all these battles,

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which Alexander the Great took part in

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during his short life,

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was Alexander the Great ever defeated?

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No, no, he was not.

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(gentle plucky music continues)

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In the year 324, his closest
companion, Hephaestion died

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of a fever and Alexander's
grief was inconsolable.

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Arian wrote that Alexander
killed Hephaestion's doctor

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because he failed to heal him.

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Alexander declared a period of mourning

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and gave him the funeral rights
usually reserved for a king.

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A year after the death of his
closest friend and companion,

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Alexander the Great suffered
10 days of a high fever

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before he died on June 10 or
11 in 323 at the age of 32.

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There are a few competing
hypotheses regarding the death

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of Alexander the Great,
ranging from poisoning

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or assassination, typhoid or malaria,

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and new hypotheses
continue to be suggested.

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More recent suggestions for
the cause of Alexander's death

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are the West Nile Virus or
Guillain-Barre syndrome.

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Ancient sources say that Alexander's body

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didn't begin decomposing until six days

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after he was proclaimed dead,

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and GBS could be the reason why.

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Alexander may have been
experiencing paralysis,

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which meant his body would not
have needed as much oxygen,

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so it may have looked as
if he wasn't breathing.

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Ancient doctors didn't use the pulse

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to determine if someone was alive,

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but rather if they were breathing or not.

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So when Alexander was confirmed dead,

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he may have not actually been
dead for another six days.

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He left no will and named no successor,

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resulting in the wars then
waged by his generals,

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which tore apart the
empire he had created.

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Out of these two so-called
successor states,

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two became powerful
states in their own right.

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Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid, Persia.

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Do you believe Alexander
the Great really was great?

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Let us know why or why not,
down in the comments below.

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