Alexander the Great, the moniker says it all really, doesn't it? On the day he was born in July 356 BCE, Herostratus burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Herostratus did so for no better reason than to become forever known, hence the Ephesians ordered that his name never be mentioned, Strabo however marked it down and so we know of Herostratic fame. But only barely, more importantly, the night it burned, Alexander the Great came into the world. Mystics claimed that Artemis was too preoccupied with the birth to save her temple, while soothsayers predicted it as a sign that a force had entered the universe that would alter the world. That force was born in Pella, in the Kingdom of Macedon, the son of King Phillip II. It would appear that old Phillip bought into the whole divine providence confab regarding his son, when the young Alexander managed to tame the wild horse Bucephalus, he exclaimed that Macedonia was too small for the boy. Lofty praise, indeed. Riding the tide of this vaulted perspective, Phillip sought out the best tutor for Alexander, he didn't do too badly, landing none other than Aristotle, the greatest mind on the planet. Classes were conducted at the Temple of Nymphs at Mieza, sitting on stony seats in the shade, Aristotle emptied his head to the young Alexander. Aristotle remained the boy's mentor for three years until Phillip called for the boy to act as regent in his absence, whilst he departed to wage war against Byzantium. Alexander was just sixteen when he was left in charge of the Kingdom of Macedon, almost immediately the Thracian Maedi sensing an opportunity revolted against Macedonian rule. Alexander however, was to be no push over, he crushed the revolt, colonised the area and established a city, Alexandroupolis which he named after himself.
His father King Phillip was over the moon, he placed Alexander in command of the Macedonian cavalry at the Battle of Chaeronea against the combined armies of Athens and Thebes. The battle was fiercely contested and was very much in the balance when Alexander led a charge that penetrated the enemy lines. It tuned the tide and handed King Phillip II his finest hour as he stamped Macedonian control over Greece. He forced all the Greek cities to enter the Corinthian League, which was essentially an alliance which would wage war on Persia. However, before Phillip could reap the benefit of this alliance, he was murdered by one of his guards, leaving Alexander to take the reigns of power, he was only twenty. Despite his youth, he was far from idealistic and starry-eyed, he immediately set about murdering any rivals to the throne, including burning alive his father's wife and infant son. Additionally, he ruthlessly crushed revolts that had broken out attempting to take advantage of the muddled succession.
In 334 BCE, Alexandra crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor at the head of an army of almost fifty thousand men. Almost immediately he met an equally impressive Persian army dug in across the river at Granicus. Alexander was advised to go downstream to cross and attack the following day at dawn, but he was in no mood to hang around and he attacked immediately. Fortune favours the brave, the Persians were completely caught off guard and were completely routed, staggeringly Alexandra won the battle with the loss of a few hundred men while the Persians lost close to twenty thousand. Following the battle, Alexandra moved swiftly with most cities surrendering without a fight while others he took by short and brutal force. It appeared that there was nothing he could not do, nothing that was beyond him, he solved the intractable Gordian Knot by simply slicing through it, the soothsayers once again opening the heavens to him, stating that whoever solved the riddle of the Gordian Knot would become master of all Asia. However, the Persians were mustering around their King Darius III in Babylonia, rumours were circulating that he had amassed an army of over half a million men and they were on the march towards Alexander's Macedonians. Fortunately for Alexander, the armies met at Issus, where the terrain made Darius' cavalry null and void. Still Alexandra found himself outnumbered almost two to one by the colossal Persian army, though the half million estimate was greatly exaggerated, it was around one hundred thousand strong. It was constituted of professional Persian soldiers and Greek mercenaries, many believed that Alexander would be wiped out, having only faced local conscripts at Granicus.
Alexander annihilated the Persians, Darius fled the battle, leaving his men to be massacred, indeed he also left his family behind. Darius' retreat opened up the territory to Alexandra, and this was epic stuff, one of his generals Parmenion sacked Damascus and required seven thousand pack animals to bring the booty to Alexander. Already Alexandra assumed the title of King of Asia, Darius attempted to bargain with him, granting him all lands west of the Euphrates, Alexander mocked the offer, claiming that all of Persia was now his. However, he did not pursue Darius immediately, the Persian fleet was still in control of the Aegean sea and the Hellespont which was putting pressure on Alexander's supply lines. Instead, he moved into the Levant, taking the Phoenician towns of Aradus, Tripolis, Byblus, Beirut and Sidon. These towns had stood for fifteen hundred years longer than any Greek town but they fell without a struggle. Tyre however, stood up to the invaders. It was well fortified, built on an island, all walls were protected by the sea. Unable to storm it, Alexander blockaded it, Tyre held out for seven long and arduous months. Alexander, bursting with impatience, built a causeway with debris from the abandoned the city on the mainland. Then with his siege engines, he breached the fortifications and put the city to the sword. The fall of the Phoenician towns gave control of the Mediterranean to the Macedonians, they romped their way towards Egypt only being held by the siege of Gaza which lasted for four months, furious at the delay, Alexander killed every male in the city, dragging the Persian governor behind his chariot, as his ancestor Achilles had done to Hector. In 332 BCE Alexander strolled into Egypt, the Egyptians seeing him as a deliver from Persian rule. It would appear that Alexandra had something of a holiday in Egypt, he visited Memphis, went on a pilgrimage to the oracle of Amun at the Oasis of Siwa, oh and he also established the city of Alexandria.
He raided the supreme wealth of the Egyptian coffers, and was ready in 333 BCE to renew his invasion of the Persian Empire and the pursuit of Darius. The two were to meet again at the Battle of Guagamela, once again Alexander pummelled his opponent and once again Darius deserted the battle-field. Alexander sauntered into Babylon. From there, his army marched into the centre of Persia and by 330 BCE they stood in the Persian capital, Persepolis; it had taken one hundred and fifty years but the Greeks had avenged the sacking of Athens by the Persians in 480 BCE. Indeed, before leaving in pursuit of Darius, Alexander had the city burnt to the ground. However, before the self styled Son of Zeus managed to catch up with him, Darius had been fatally stabbed by one of his satraps, Artaxerxes V, who assumed control of the beleaguered kingdom. It was if Alexander's life was scripted, his scouts came upon Darius as he lay dying, Alexander later claiming that Darius had named him as the rightful successor to the Achaemenid throne.
Bizarrely, Alexander now set about avenging his arch-enemy, Darius' death. He realised that to have peace in the West of the Empire, he would need to wipe out any burgeoning powers that were latent in the East. His army was no so impressed, some of them had being fighting for the guts of two decades, they were battle-fatigued and longed for home, the last thing that they wanted was to march further into the interior, into lands that they knew nothing about. To compound their discomfort, Alexander was beginning to adopt Persian habits and customs; his men began to worry that he was turning native; in addition, Alexander began to install Persians in his court. Nevertheless in the late summer of 330 BCE, the Macedonian army was once again on the move, traipsing East in pursuit of remaining belligerent Persians. Alexander began to act the part of the schizoid, paranoid dictator; he began ridding himself of threats that were not that evident. He had his most trusted general and oldest ally, Parmenion and his son Philotas who had been commander of Alexander's elite murdered. Like a man possessed, Alexander pushed on into modern day Afghanistan with a virtual city on the move consisting of sixty thousand men. Alexander marched them across barren wilderness, waterless deserts and snow blocked mountain passes. They achieved it though, wiping out any further resistance and reached the end of Asia, at the border with Europe Alexander established Alexandria Eschate, meaning the furthest Alexandria, which is present day Khodzent in Tajikistan; it was five years since the Battle of Granicus. Many of the men had been with Alexandra all that time, one, Clitus had saved his life at that battle, but during a drunken argument Alexandra ran him through with a lance, killing him. Initially, Alexandra was inconsolable and suicidal but one of his philosophers, Anaxarchus comforted him, telling him that the King was justice and therefore could not act badly. Perhaps it was not the best advice, Alexandra bought into it and from then on he acted like a divinity and could no longer be disagreed with about anything.
Alexandra was far from finished, he now turned his attention to the Indian sub-continent, he steamrolled into India with two armies, massacring anyone who stood in their way. In July 326 BCE, Alexander's armies met the army of the King of Paurava, Porus at the Hydaspes River. Porus was a giant of a man and he dealed out a savage fight, only narrowly losing, whilst inflicting serious damage upon the mighty Macedonians. Alexander so admired the fight in Porus, that he allowed him leave and granted him lands in neighbouring kingdoms, indeed, later Porus allied with Alexander in his further Indian conquests. However, Porus had inflicted a serious psychological blow upon the invading army, when Alexa nder announced that he wished to march East of the Ganges and fight the powerful Nanda Empire of Magadha and the Gangaridai Empire of Bengal, his army that had being through thick and thin revolted, refusing to budge an inch. Alexander was forced to back down, realising that the writing was on the wall, that his men were longing for home, and so he put plans in place to return. It was decided to march the army to the western coast of India, assemble ships and transport some of the force back to Persia, over water. As they made their way to the coast through the Indus region of India, they encountered the Mallians who engaged them in battle, in which Alexandra suffered serious wounds. Eventually, they reached the coast, around a quarter departing on the ships, while Alexandra led the rest of the army across the Gedrosia Desert to begin the long trudge back to their homeland. When they reached Persia, Alexandra began to demobilise much of his force, replacing them with Persians who had being trained in Greek tactics of combat. The demobilised men were shocked that Alexander was replacing them with Persians, the very people with whom they had being fighting against for a decade. They had put up with Alexander's quirks and oddities but to them this was a step too far. However, once again Alexander managed to appease them, assuring them that although the Persians would form the backbone of his army, the Macedonians would be the overseers and administrators of the Empire.
In the spring of 323 BCE, Alexandra arrived in Babylon, he received ambassadors and consuls from all around the known world, eager to cut deals and alliances with the son of Zeus, the most powerful man in the world. In addition, Alexander was planning on further conquest and domination, targeting all of Arabia and setting his sights on Carthage, Sicily and Italy; Alexandra desired the world. However, the unthinkable occurred in June of 323 BCE, Alexandra died, it turned out that he was a mere mortal, but what a mortal...
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net
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