Alexander the Great

:For other Alexanders, see Alexander (disambiguation).

Early life

Alexander was the son of King Philip II of Macedon and of Epirote princess Olympias. According to Plutarch (Alexander 3.1,3), Olympias was impregnated not by Philip, who was afraid of her and her affinity for sleeping in the company of snakes, but by Zeus. Plutarch (Alexander 2.2-3) relates that both Philip and Olympias dreamt of their son's future birth. Olympias dreamed of a loud burst of thunder and of lightning striking her womb. In Philip's dream, he sealed her womb with the seal of the lion. Alarmed by this, he consulted the seer Aristander of Telmessus, who determined that his wife was pregnant and that the child would have the character of a lion.

Related Topics:
Epirote - Olympias - Plutarch - Zeus - Lion - Aristander of Telmessus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Aristotle was Alexander's tutor; he gave Alexander a thorough training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy.

Related Topics:
Aristotle - Rhetoric - Literature - Science - Medicine - Philosophy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After his visit to the Oracle of Ammon at Siwah, according to all five of the extant historians (Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch), rumors spread that the Oracle had revealed Alexander's father to be Zeus, rather than Philip. According to Plutarch (Alexander 2.1), his father descended from Heracles through Caranus and his mother descended from Aeacus through Neoptolemus and Achilles.

Related Topics:
Oracle - Siwah - Arrian - Curtius - Diodorus - Justin - Plutarch - Zeus - Heracles - Caranus - Aeacus - Neoptolemus - Achilles

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The ascendance of Macedon

When Philip led an attack on Byzantium in 340 BC, Alexander, aged 16, was left in command of Macedonia. In 339 BC Philip divorced Alexander's mother, leading to a quarrel between Alexander and his father which threw into question Alexander's succession to the Macedonian throne. In 338 BC, Philip created The League of Corinth. Alexander also assisted his father at the decisive battle of Chaeronea in this year. The cavalry wing led by Alexander annihilated the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite corps previously regarded as invincible. Philip was content to deprive Thebes of her dominion over Boeotia and leave a Macedonian garrison in the citadel.

Related Topics:
Byzantium - 340 BC - 339 BC - 338 BC - League of Corinth - Chaeronea - Cavalry - Sacred Band of Thebes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 336 BC, Philip was assassinated at the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra to King Alexander of Epirus. The assassin was supposedly a former lover of the king, the disgruntled young nobleman (Pausanias), who held a grudge against Philip because the king had ignored a complaint he had expressed. Philip's murder was once thought to have been planned with the knowledge and involvement of Alexander or Olympias. However, in recent years Alexander's involvement has been questioned and there is some reason to believe that it may have been instigated by Darius III, the recently crowned King of Persia. Plutarch mentions an irate letter from Alexander to Darius, where Alexander blames Darius and Bagoas, his grand vizier, for his father's murder, stating that it was Darius who had been bragging to the rest of the Greek cities of how he managed to assassinate Philip.

Related Topics:
336 BC - King Alexander of Epirus - Assassin - Pausanias - Darius III - Plutarch - Bagoas - Grand vizier

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After Philip's death, the army proclaimed Alexander, then aged 20, as the new king of Macedon. Greek cities like Athens and Thebes, which had been forced to pledge allegiance to Philip, saw in the new king an opportunity to retake their full independence. Alexander moved swiftly; and

Related Topics:
Athens - Thebes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thebes, which had been most active against him, submitted when he ap­peared at its gates. The assembled Greeks at the Isthmus of Corinth, with the sole exception of the Spartans, elected him to the command against Persia, which had previously been bestowed upon his father

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next year (335 BC) Alexander felt free to engage the Thracians and to secure the Danube as northern boundary of the Macedonian kingdom. While he was triumphantly campaigning north the Thebans and Athenians rebelled once again; Alexander reacted immediately; and while the other cities once again hesitated, Thebes decided this time to resist with the utmost vigour. But it was all useless; at the end the city was conquered with great bloodshed. But the worst had still to come for the Thebans: the city was razed to the ground and its territory divided between the other Boeotian cities, while all its citzens sold in slavery, spairing only the priests, the leaders of the pro-Macedonian party and the descendants of Pindar, whose house was the only one left untouched. The end of Thebes cowed Athens in submission which readily now accepted Alexander's demand for the exile of all the leaders of the anti-Macedonian party, Demosthenes first of all.

Related Topics:
335 BC - Thracians - Danube - Pindar - Demosthenes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~