Alexander the Great: Life and Reign of the King of the Macedonian Empire

- Did you know that Alexander the Great

had a habit of renaming
cities after himself,

and in one case, he even named a city

after his beloved horse.

Stick around to learn all
about Alexander the Great

in honor of his birthday.

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Hello, and welcome to "World
History Encyclopedia."

My name is Kelly, and
in honor of the birth

of Alexander the Great on either the 20th

or 21st of July, 356 BCE,

we're going to be answering the questions,

who is Alexander the Great?

Why is he so famous and
was he ever defeated?

Happy birthday, Alexander.

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Alexander the Great, also
known as Alexander III

of Macedon became king of
Macedon after the death

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

Alexander is known for
both his military might

and his diplomatic skills,
which aided in his expansion

of the Macedonian Kingdom
to an empire of a size

his father had not even dreamed of.

Alexander is recognized as
a key figure in the spread

of Greek culture and language
throughout the ancient world.

And his death sparked

the beginning of the Hellenistic period,

which spanned from 323 to 31 BCE.

After his death, his
campaigns became legendary,

and later Greek and Roman generals learned

from his successes and failures

and were influenced by his tactics.

When Alexander was young,
he was taught to fight

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

and play the lyre by
Lysimachus of Acarnania.

When he was 13 or 14, he was tutored

by the Greek philosopher,
Aristotle until he was 16/

Perhaps due to Aristotle's teachings

which encouraged tolerance,
Alexander never forced

the Greek culture on those he conquered,

but simply introduced it to them.

Despite his father, Philip
II laying the groundwork

for Alexander to be successful,

Alexander claimed all
the credit for himself

and chose to call himself a son of Zeus,

claiming to be a demigod,
modeling his behavior

after his two favorite
heroes, Hercules and Achilles.

This claim was in part due to Olympias,

Alexander's mother claiming
that his was a virgin birth

and that she was miraculously
impregnated by Zeus.

Alexander's childhood friends,
Hephaestion, Cassander

and Ptolemy would all
become lifelong companions

and generals in his army.

And Aristotle's great
nephew, Callisthenes,

who was also a friend, would
become the court historian

and follow Alexander on campaign.

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

fought between the Macedonian Empire

and the Greek allied city states,

Alexander's military skill
was first noted when he turned

the tide of the battle
for a Macedonian victory,

and afterwards the Greek city states

were brought under Macedonian rule.

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

Philip II died and
Alexander assumed the throne

as King of Macedon.

Alexander wasted no time in
embarking on the extensive

campaign that his father
had been planning,

the conquest of the Persian empire.

(gentle plucky music continues)

As King, Alexander the
Great moved into Asia Minor,

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

and 5,100 cavalry.

And in May of 334, he
fought the Persian satraps

or governors at the Battle of
Granicus and was victorious.

According to Alexander, he
then liberated the cities

of Sardis and Ephesus from Persian rule.

Although, his word liberated
has been understood

as the conquest of these cities.

In 333 BCE, Alexander fought
the Persian King Darius III

at the Battle of Isis, a battle famous

for its depiction on the Alexander Mosaic.

Alexander defeated Darius's larger force

and he then sacked the Phoenician cities

of Baalbek and Sidon and
in 332, he laid siege

to the island city of Tyre.

The siege of Tyre is a famous
example of his commitment

to victory and his ruthfulness.

In order to bring his siege
engines within striking distance

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

out to the island, which
is how the island city

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

And in response to the
stubbornness of the inhabitants

of the city refusing to surrender,

he slaughtered most of them

and then sold the survivors as slaves.

In 331, he moved to Egypt and conquered it

and founded the city of Alexandria there,

named after himself, of course.

Alexander had a habit of naming cities

after himself and even
his horse Bucephalus,

but we'll get to that later.

Alexander marched his army
across the desert to the oasis

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

that presided there.

Alexander knew of the infallible
reputation of the oracle

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

Alexander asked the
oracle whether his father

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

to be Zeus Ammon.

There was no military
value to marching to Siwa

and losing some men to the desert.

It was either to satisfy his megalomania

or a cleverly calculated
PR stunt to spread the myth

of him being a demigod or both.

We will never know.

The next phase of Alexander's conquests

is known as the Persian campaigns.

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

This time at the battle of Gaugamela,

which is also known as
the battle of Arbela.

Alexander was victorious again.

Darius fled the battle,

and then Alexander took the
cities of Babylon and Susa,

which both surrendered to him.

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

In the winter of 330,
Alexander and his army

marched to Persepolis and
defeated the Persian hero,

Ariobarzanes and his
sister Youtab Ariobarzane

at the battle of the Persian Gates,

and after Alexander was victorious,

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

In the summer of the same
year, Darius was assassinated

by his cousin and General Bessus,

which Alexander thought was deplorable.

After the death of Darius,
Alexander crowned himself

the King of Asia, gave Darius the burial

of a Persian emperor and
then marched his army

into Bactria what is now
modern day Afghanistan.

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

Between the years 330 and
327, Alexander campaigned

in Bactria and Sogdiana
and won every engagement.

And in 329, he destroyed
the city of Cyropolis,

defeated the Scythians and
founded another city named

after himself, Alexandria
Eschate on the Jaxartes River.

It was around this point that Alexander

began to portray himself
not just as a liberator

of cities, but as a God.

He adopted the title that the rulers

of the first Persian
empire used shahansha,

which means king of kings.

And the Persian custom of proskynesis,

which meant that those who
addressed him had to kneel

and kiss his hand.

To say that his Macedonian
troops were unhappy about this,

is an understatement.

His troops became increasingly
unhappy with his adoption

of Persian customs and were growing more

and more uncomfortable.

So much so that assassination
plans were formed.

Of course, the conspirators
and those who committed treason

or questioned his authority
were found out and executed,

including his close friends, Cleitus,

who was killed with the javelin

and Callisthenes who was
imprisoned and died in confinement.

In 327, Alexander married
the Batrian woman, Roxana,

and then set his sights on India.

The Indian king Ambhi of
Taxila surrendered quickly,

but the Aspasioi and
Assakenoi tribes resisted.

By 326, Alexander had subdued the tribes,

then fought King Porus of Paurava

and his war elephants at the
battle of Hydaspes River.

In true Alexander
fashion, he won the battle

and then made Porus
ruler of a larger region

than he'd previously held.

because of how bravely he
and his troops had fought.

During this battle, his
horse Bucephalus was killed,

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

By now, Alexander's troops were exhausted

and they didn't wanna go any further,

and it took some convincing.

But finally, Alexander
decided to head back to Susa.

Half his troops were sent by sea,

and half he marched through
the Gedrosian Desert

where many died of thirst and starvation.

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

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

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

so he executed them, as well as those

who vandalized Cyrus the Great's tomb.

Alexander wanted to merge
the cultures of Macedonia

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

in Susa, where he married
Persian noble women

to senior members of his staff

and to connect himself to Persian royalty,

he married one of Darius III's daughters.

His men rejected this cultural merging

and his adoption of Persian dress,

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

and Persian army units
and promoted Persians

to high positions, even though it seems

this was an effective policy
in furthering his goal

of uniting the two cultures.

So after looking at all these battles,

which Alexander the Great took part in

during his short life,

was Alexander the Great ever defeated?

No, no, he was not.

(gentle plucky music continues)

In the year 324, his closest
companion, Hephaestion died

of a fever and Alexander's
grief was inconsolable.

Arian wrote that Alexander
killed Hephaestion's doctor

because he failed to heal him.

Alexander declared a period of mourning

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

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

Alexander the Great suffered
10 days of a high fever

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

There are a few competing
hypotheses regarding the death

of Alexander the Great,
ranging from poisoning

or assassination, typhoid or malaria,

and new hypotheses
continue to be suggested.

More recent suggestions for
the cause of Alexander's death

are the West Nile Virus or
Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Ancient sources say that Alexander's body

didn't begin decomposing until six days

after he was proclaimed dead,

and GBS could be the reason why.

Alexander may have been
experiencing paralysis,

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

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

Ancient doctors didn't use the pulse

to determine if someone was alive,

but rather if they were breathing or not.

So when Alexander was confirmed dead,

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

He left no will and named no successor,

resulting in the wars then
waged by his generals,

which tore apart the
empire he had created.

Out of these two so-called
successor states,

two became powerful
states in their own right.

Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid, Persia.

Do you believe Alexander
the Great really was great?

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

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