Alexander the Great
The Conqueror of the World
Alexander II of Macedonia is known as Alexander the Great due to the vast territory he conquered which spanned Greece in the west to river Indus in the east. This was the biggest empire in antiquity, and he achieved all these in eleven years after becoming a king at the age of twenty. The literature presents Alexander as a brilliant general and hero who had an unrivalled military strength, audacity, and strategic insight.
His father was King Philip II of Macedonia, a northern region of Greece who claimed to have a lineage that traces back to Heracles. Phillip became King in 360 BC and played a pivotal role in improving Macedonia status by introducing Hellenic customs, organising a professional army, improving the economy, and stimulating the arts. He turned Macedonia to a Greek Superpower and was able to conquer the whole of Greece, bringing them under one kingdom.
Alexander was born on July 21 356 BCE, and as a child, didn’t see his father much since he was busy as a king and general. Alexander got a Greek education and received physical training. He was an ardent reader of Homer’s Iliad and aspired to the ideals in the book, and Heracles and Achilles were his role models. As a boy, he was very brave and insightful as shown with the story of how he was able to tame and ride a great horse that no one else could ride by noticing that the horse was scared of its shadow. His father bought him that horse which he named Bucephalus. Alexander led the army on the left flank in a decisive battle against Athens at the age of 18, and Macedonia won. After this war, Phillip became the King of Greece, and there were no more autonomous Greek states.
Not long after that, King Phillip was assassinated. There are rumours that it was Alexander and Olympias that was behind the murder, but this cannot be proven. Alexander soon ascended the throne after that, and he made sure he neutralised anyone who could be eligible to the throne too such as Phillip cousins and their families who he killed. The only person who could challenge him was an elder half-brother who was ineligible because he was seen as ill. It is this ruthlessness that characterised his conquests and campaigns. He became King at 20 in 336 BCE and had his boyhood friends and the most loyal generals of his father as his closest advisers. All of them were appointed to high ranks in the army.
The death of Philip had given the subjugated Greek city-states and other territories the hope of regaining their autonomy, but Alexander quickly crushed this with violence and diplomacy before extending his kingdom. A rebellion in Thebes appeared in 335 BCE, and Alexander dealt with this by burning Thebes down, thereby setting an example for every other.