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Ancient Greece: Alexander the Great
INTRODUCTION
Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia who conquered the Persian
empire and expanded the ancient empire of Greece, is considered one of the
greatest military geniuses of all times. He is the first king in Europe to be called
"the Great."
Alexander was the son of Philip II, who was the king of
Macedonia, and Olympia, a princess from western Greece.
When he was 13 his parents hired
Aristotle to be his personal tutor. Aristotle was one of the best known and famous teachers of the
time.
 Where was Alexander the Great originally from?
 What did Alexander’s parents do when he was young to get him ready to be the great leader he became?
GREEK RESISTANCE
Alexander became king of Macedonia at the age of 20 when his father, King Philip II, was
suddenly assassinated.
Upon hearing of the king’s death, riots and unruliness broke out in parts of
the kingdom of Macedonia. Immediately, Alexander took a group of soldiers and restored order.
quickly helped take care of many critics in Macedonia who said Alexander was too young or too
This
weak to take over for his father and rule the empire.
A few Greek cities that had agreed to follow King Phillip were unsure if they wanted to follow
a 20 year-old and one of those cities, called Thebes, revolted.
Alexander had an army there within
two weeks and had his soldiers destroy the city and kill almost everyone.
After hearing about this,
the other cities agreed to follow Alexander and the Empire of Greece was created.
 How did Alexander become King of Macedonia?
 When Alexander first took over, how did most Greeks react?
 What happened at Thebes that helped win back the support Alexander needed to be ruler?
CONQUERING PERSIA
Alexander went on to expand his empire by conquering many other lands.
fighting a war against Greece’s most hated rival, Persia.
He started by
Greece hated Persia because Persia had
attacked Greece in the past. They had destroyed Greek cities and killed many people. Alexander
asked all of the city-states of Greece for men, money, and supplies for the campaign and promised
them revenge on their enemy, the Persians.
Alexander began his war against Persia in the spring of 334 BC by crossing the Hellespont
River with an army of 35,000 Macedonians and 7,600 Greeks. While his boat was approaching the
shore, he threw his spear from his ship to the coast and it stuck in the ground.
As he stepped
onto the shore, he pulled his weapon from the soil, and declared that “the whole of Asia will be won
by the spear”.
The Macedonian army soon encountered the Persian army under the command of the Persian
king, King Darius III, at the crossing of the river Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy.
Alexander
attacked the army of Persians. Alexander's forces defeated the enemy totaling about 40,000 men and,
according to legend, lost only 110 men of his own, but Darius, the king of Persia, abandoned his
soldiers, ran away, and escaped.
Continuing to
advance southward, in
November of 333 BC,
Alexander met King
Darius III in battle for
the second time at a
mountain pass called
Issus [is-yous], in
northeastern Syria.
The Battle of Issus
ended in a great
victory for Alexander.
Cut off from his
army, King Darius
again ran away, this
time abandoning his
mother, wife, and
children to be
captured by Alexander, who treated them with respect because they were royalty.
continued to serve Alexander as their king.
They later
 Why did Alexander conquer Persia instead of the western part of Europe?
 Who was the leader of the Persian Empire?
 Where was the FIRST battle between Alexander’s army and the Persians?
What happened/who won?
What was the battle called?
 Where was the SECOND battle between Alexander’s army and the Persians?
What happened this time?
What was the battle called?
Alexander entered Egypt in 331 BC. When he arrived, he chased out and defeated the
Persians there and he was welcomed by the Egyptians for freeing them from Persian rule. Alexander
ordered a city to be designed after Greek cities and built in his name at the mouth of the Nile
River.
The city of Alexandria, as it was named, would become one of the major Greek cultural
centers in the Mediterranean world in the following centuries.
After arriving, Alexander was voluntarily
made pharaoh by the Egyptians, who had despised (hated) living under Persian rule.
In the middle of 331 BC, Alexander marched back to into
Persia to find Darius and conquer the whole Persian empire. Alexander
reorganized his forces and headed for Babylon, in present day Iraq,
with an army of 40,000 infantry (foot-soldiers) and 7000 cavalry
(soldiers on horses).
He conquered the lands between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and found the
Persian army which, according to the exaggerated accounts, was said to number a million men.
two armies met on the battlefield in the Battle of Gaugamela and the Macedonian forces swept
through the Persian army and slaughtered them.
The
Again, King Darius fled as he had done in the
past, this time to his mountain palace in Ecbatana called the Palace of Persepolis, in present-day
Iran.
At the end of the battle the remainder of Darius’ soldiers surrendered and Alexander was
proclaimed King of Persia.
To win the continued support of the Persian aristocracy (rulers) he
appointed mainly Persians who became loyal to him as governors in the conquered lands.
After four
months, the Macedonians made their way to King Darius’ palace in Ecbatana, but didn’t find him
there.
They burned the royal palace at Ecbatana to the ground thus completing the end of the
ancient Persian Empire.
Alexander continued his pursuit of Darius for hundreds of miles.
When he finally caught up to
him, he found the Persian king dead in his coach, assassinated by his own men who turned on him.
Alexander had the assassins executed for treason and gave Darius a royal funeral.
 What happened when Alexander the Great arrived in Egypt?
What did the Egyptians think of Alexander?
 What happened in the THIRD battle Alexander’s army fought against the Persians called the Battle of
Gaugamela?
 What happened to the Palace of Persepolis at Ecbatana when Alexander the Great arrived there?
 What happened to King Darius III in the end?
ALEXANDER IN INDIA
In the spring of 327 BC, Alexander and his army marched into India invading the ancient
country, Punjab.
This led to one of the greatest of Alexander's battles in India against King Porus.
The Indians were defeated and Alexander captured Porus and, like many of the other local rulers he
had defeated, Alexander made him swear loyalty to Greece and allowed him to continue to govern his
territory.
Alexander's next goal was to travel south down the Indus River so that they might reach the
ocean on the southern edge of the known world.
One of the villages in which the army stopped
belonged to the Malli, who were said to be one of the most warlike of the Indian tribes.
A battle
took place and Alexander was severely wounded in this attack. He was saved by his officers.
Alexander’s army had been marching and conquering for nearly 10 years and they reached
India during the wet monsoon time.
The rains and floods made marching impossible.
In July 325
BC Alexander’s army refused to march any farther into India and they turned westward and headed
for home, back to Macedonia and Greece.
 What happened to Alexander during his battle with the Malli Kingdom along the Indus River?
 Why did Alexander’s army turn back home instead of continuing to conquer India?
ALEXANDER'S DEATH
Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king and the great conqueror, died at the age of 33, on
June 10, 323 BC.
It is believed that he died from the disease we now know as Malaria which he
contracted from a mosquito bite while in the damp, swampy, monsoons of India.
When Alexander
died, he had no son of his own, so he died without choosing an heir or a successor to rule the
empire he had fought so hard to create.
This led to chaos in the Greek Empire.
Alexander’s top generals began to greedily split up the territories of the empire between
themselves.
General Seleucus took control of Persia, General Antigonas of Macedonia, and General
Ptolemy of Egypt.
This was the beginning of the end of the Greek civilization.
and Macedonia had both been conquered by the Romans.
conquered Persia and Egypt.
By 30 BC the Romans had also
However, the Romans admired many things about the Greek way of
life and they copied many of the ideas to use in Rome.
Greek culture to continue on even until today.
 How did Alexander the Great die?
By 146 BC Greece
This helped the Greek ways and the
 What happened to the Greek Empire after Alexander’s death?
Explain.
Do you think Alexander the Great deserves to be called “the Great?”
Support your answer with at least
three strong details.
356 BC Alexander the Great was born the son of King Phillip II of Macedonia
343 BC Aristotle became Alexander’s tutor
336 BC Alexander became king of Macedonia at age 20 after his father was assassinated.
336 BC Alexander marched to Thebes in Greece and burned the city for challenging his rule,
proving that he is strong enough to rule the Greek empire.
334 BC Alexander and his army fought their first battle against the Persians at Granicus near the
ancient city of Troy in Anatolia (Turkey); King Darius ran away into Syria.
331 BC Alexander and his army fought a second battle against the Persians at the mountain pass
of Issus in Syria; King Darius ran away to Iraq.
333-332 BC Alexander took a detour to Egypt, was crowned pharaoh, and founded the city of
Alexandria which was to be a miniature version of Greece.
326 BC Alexander moved his army to Babylon, fought a third battle against the Persian army,
and the Persian army surrenders for good.
King Darius fled to his palace, Persepolis, in
Ecbatana (Iran).
326 BC Alexander burned the Palace of Persepolis to the ground and then found King Darius
murdered by his own men hundreds of miles away from his palace.
327 BC Alexander and his army marched into India and won a battle against King Porus in
Punjab, India and then headed farther down the Indus River.
326 BC Alexander was wounded in a battle against the Malli, but his army was still victorious.
323 BC Alexander and his army headed towards Macedonia and Greece, but Alexander died
along the way when he caught Malaria.