Legend had it whoever unwound the knot would conquer all of Asia. As the story goes, Alexander took on the challenge but was unable to unravel the knot by hand.
He took another approach and sliced through the knot with his sword, claiming triumph. As it became clear Alexander would win the Battle of Issus, Darius fled with what remained of his troops, leaving his wife and family behind.
His mother, Sisygambis, was so upset she disowned him and adopted Alexander as her son. By now it was clear that Alexander was a shrewd, ruthless and brilliant military leader—in fact, he never lost a battle in his life.
Next, Alexander took over the Phoenician cities of Marathus and Aradus. He rejected a plea from Darius for peace and took the towns of Byblos and Sidon. He then laid siege to the heavily fortified island of Tyre in January B. But Alexander had no navy to speak of and Tyre was surrounded by water. Alexander instructed his men to build a causeway to reach Tyre. All went well until they came within striking distance of the Tyrians.
After rejecting another peace offer from Darius, Alexander set out for Egypt. He was sidelined at Gaza, however, and forced to endure another lengthy siege. After several weeks, he took the town and entered Egypt where he established the city that still bears his name: Alexandria. Alexander traveled to the desert to consult the oracle of Ammon, a god of supposed good counsel. Legends abound about what transpired at the oracle, but Alexander kept mum about the experience. Still, the visit furthered speculation Alexander was a deity.
Following fierce fighting and heavy losses on both sides, Darius fled and was assassinated by his own troops. Finally rid of Darius, Alexander proclaimed himself King of Persia. With Bessus out of the way, Alexander had full control of Persia.
To gain credibility with the Persians, Alexander took on many Persian customs. He began dressing like a Persian and adopted the practice of proskynesis, a Persian court custom that involved bowing down and kissing the hand of others, depending on their rank. The Macedonians were less than thrilled with the changes in Alexander and his attempt to be viewed as a deity. They refused to practice proskynesis and some plotted his death.
Increasingly paranoid, Alexander ordered the death of one of his most esteemed generals, Parmenio, in B. Pushed too far, Alexander killed Cleitus with a spear, a spontaneous act of violence that anguished him.
Some historians believe Alexander killed his general in a fit of drunkenness—a persistent problem that plagued him through much of his life. Alexander struggled to capture Sogdia, a region of the Persian Empire that remained loyal to Bessus. Supposedly, one of those on the rock was a girl named Roxane. As the story goes, Alexander fell in love with Roxane on sight. He married her despite her Sogdian heritage and she joined him on his journey.
Some tribes surrendered peacefully; others did not. Even so, after a fierce battle in a raging thunderstorm, Porus was defeated. One event took place at Hydaspes which devastated Alexander: the death of his beloved horse, Bucephalus.
Alexander wanted to press on and attempt to conquer all of India, but his war-weary soldiers refused, and his officers convinced him to return to Persia. Alexander deployed his troops with great skill and earned their devotion by leading them in battle and suffering several wounds. Alexander visited the fabled city of Troy as he crossed the Bosporus into Asia Minor and routed the Persian forces there.
Greek cities in Asia Minor that had been under Persian control welcomed his rule. At the Gulf of Issus in B. Refusing to make peace unless Darius yielded to him as emperor, Alexander swept south along the sea toward Egypt. He seized strategic ports, including the defiant Phoenician port of Tyre. He met with more reverence in Egypt, where he was honored as a god-king like the pharaohs of old—veneration he considered his due.
Once again, Alexander demonstrated that a small army acting in concert was superior to a sprawling, disorganized one. When a gap opened in the Persian ranks, he and his elite cavalrymen dashed into the breach, splitting the opposing army in two. He had conquered the Persians at last.
By adding the vast Persian realm to his Balkan kingdom, Alexander forged a Eurasian empire of unprecedented scope. He subdued Bactria in modern-day Afghanistan and wed Roxana, the daughter of a Bactrian chief. He then invaded India in B. But monsoons made his troops feverish and mutinous; in B. He made fitful efforts to organize his huge empire in the style of the Persians; he hired Persian officials and wed Persian princesses as did dozens of his commanders.
Many Macedonians felt he placed too much trust in people they still viewed as enemies, and Greeks consented only reluctantly to his demand to be recognized as divine like some Near Eastern monarchs. The mortal Alexander died suddenly perhaps from typhoid fever in Babylon in B.
His empire fractured after his death, but those lands were forever changed, infused with the culture and cosmopolitan spirit of a larger Greek world that Alexander brought into being. All rights reserved. Share Tweet Email. Once Philip II had succeeded in his campaign to unite all the Greek states minus Sparta into the Corinthian League, the alliance between father and son soon disintegrated.
Alexander and Olympia were forced to flee Macedonia and stay with Olympia's family in Epirus until Alexander and King Philip II were able to reconcile their differences. In , Alexander's sister wed the Molossian king, an uncle who was also called Alexander.
In the wake of his father's death, Alexander, then 19, was determined to seize the throne by any means necessary. He quickly garnered the support of the Macedonian army, including the general and troops he had had fought with at Chaeronea. The army proclaimed Alexander the feudal king and proceeded to help him murder other potential heirs to the throne. Ever a loyal mother, Olympia further ensured her son's claim to the throne by slaughtering the daughter of King Philip II and Cleopatra and driving Cleopatra herself to suicide.
Even though Alexander was the feudal king of Macedonia, he didn't obtain automatic control of the Corinthian League. In fact, the southern states of Greece were celebrating Philip II's death and expressed divided interests.
Athens had its own agenda: Under the leadership of democratic Demosthenes, the state hoped to take charge of the league. As they launched independence movements, Alexander sent his army south and coerced the region of Thessaly into acknowledging him as the leader of the Corinthian League. Then during a meeting of league members at Thermopylae, Alexander elicited their acceptance of his leadership.
By the fall of , he reissued treaties with the Greek city-states that belonged to the Corinthian League — with Athens still refusing membership — and was granted full military power in the campaign against the Persian Empire. But, before preparing for war with Persia, Alexander first conquered the Thracian Triballians in , securing Macedonia's northern borders. As Alexander was nearing the end of his northern campaign, he was delivered the news that Thebes, a Greek city-state, had forced out the Macedonian troops that were garrisoned there.
Fearing a revolt among the other city-states, Alexander leapt into action, marching his massive army—consisting of 3, cavalry and 30, infantry—southward all the way to the tip of the Greek peninsula. Meanwhile, Alexander's general, Parmenion, had already made his way to Asia Minor. Alexander and his forces arrived in Thebes so quickly that the city-state didn't have a chance to pull together allies for its defense.
Three days after his arrival, Alexander led the massacre of Thebes. It was Alexander's hope that the destruction of Thebes would serve as a warning to city-states contemplating revolt. His intimidation tactic proved effective; the other Greek city-states, including Athens, chose to pledge their alliance to the Macedonian Empire or opted to remain neutral.
In , Alexander embarked on his Asiatic expedition, arriving in Troy that spring. By fall, Alexander and his army had made it across the southern coast of Asia Minor to Gordium, where they took the winter to rest. In the summer of , the troops of Alexander and Darius once again went head to head in battle at Issus. Although Alexander's army was outnumbered, he used his flair for military strategy to create formations that defeated the Persians again and caused Darius to flee.
In November of , Alexander declared himself the king of Persia after capturing Darius and making him a fugitive.
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