Alexander the Great
Key Facts
- Disciple d'Aristote, monte sur le trône de Macédoine à 20 ans (336 av. J.-C.)
- Conquête de la Perse achéménide : victoires de Issos (333) et Gaugamèles (331)
- Fondation d'Alexandrie en Égypte en 331 av. J.-C.
- Campagne en Inde jusqu'à la rivière Hydaspe (326 av. J.-C.)
- Mort à Babylone le 10 ou 11 juin 323 av. J.-C., à l'âge de 32 ans
Biography
Born in 356 BC in Pella, the capital of the kingdom of Macedon, Alexander was the son of Philip II, the conquering king who had unified Greece, and Olympias, an Epirote princess. His education was exceptional: from the age of 13, he was tutored by Aristotle, who taught him philosophy, medicine, natural sciences and rhetoric. Blessed with keen intelligence and rare physical courage, he tamed at 16 the wild horse Bucephalus that no one had been able to master, and distinguished himself at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) under his father's command.
At 20, following the assassination of Philip II, Alexander ascended the throne and swiftly crushed the revolts threatening Macedon. He brought the Greek city-states under his authority and launched in 334 BC the great expedition against the Achaemenid Persian Empire, a longstanding Panhellenic dream. In three decisive battles - the Granicus (334), Issus (333) and Gaugamela (331) - he defeated Persian armies far superior in numbers each time, using the Macedonian phalanx and his Companion cavalry. He took Persepolis, the imperial capital, and partly burned it.
His march eastward did not stop there. He conquered Bactria and Sogdia (present-day Afghanistan and Uzbekistan), pushed into India and won the Battle of the Hydaspes (326 BC) against King Porus and his war elephants. His soldiers, exhausted and far from home for ten years, refused to go any further. Alexander was forced to turn back. Throughout his conquests, he founded dozens of cities bearing his name, including Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the intellectual centre of the Hellenistic world.
Alexander died in Babylon in June 323 BC, aged 32, after a sudden fever. The exact cause of his death remains debated: typhoid fever, poisoning, or complications from a wound. He had named no successor. His empire, the largest ever assembled in so short a time, was immediately torn apart by the Wars of the Diadochi (his generals) and fragmented into several distinct kingdoms.
Yet his legacy proved enduring. By merging the Greek and Oriental worlds, he opened the Hellenistic era, a period of diffusion of the Greek language and culture from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Alexandria became the intellectual capital of the ancient world. His example inspired Julius Caesar, Augustus and all the great conquerors of history. For two millennia, Alexander the Great has remained the supreme symbol of the brilliant conqueror, of boundless ambition and the brevity of destiny.