Career and Conquest

Alexander the Great

Consolidation of Power in Aftermath of Philip II’s Assassination (336 BCE)

Uncertain Succession Pixodarus Affair Quarrel at Philip’s marriage to Cleopatra, daughter of

Attalus Alexander and Olympias in exile

Maturity of Amyntas, son of Perdiccas III

(supported by Lyncestian aristocracy?)

Purge at Pella

“Alexander was only twenty years old when he inherited his kingdom, which at that moment was beset by formidable jealousies and feuds, and external dangers on every side.” (Plutarch, Alexander, 11)

Assassinations Lyncestians implicated in Pausanias affair Attalus and Cleopatra Amyntas

Supporters Antipater Parmenion

Revolts in North and Greece upon Succession (336-335 BCE)

First March on Greece (336 BCE) Alexander elected general of Greeks

Expedition to North (335 BCE) campaigns in Thrace and Illyria

Second March on Greece (335 BCE) Destruction of Thebes (October) Preservation of house of Pindar

Alexander’s “Trojan War”:Persian Expedition

Exhortations of Isocrates (Panegyricus, 380 BCE; Philippus)

Alexander begins expedition in spring, 334 BCE Preparations of Parmenion in Asia Minor Antipater left as regent in Greece Alexander’s March of 334 BCE

43,000 infantry 6,100 cavalry

Alexander and Homer (see Plutarch, Alexander, 26)

Alexander’s Regard for Greek Public Opinion: Piety and Reverence towards Greek Culture

As for the population of Thebes, he singled out the priests, a few citizens who had friendly connections with Macedonia, the descendants of the poet Pindar, and those who had opposed the revolt to be spared: all the rest were publicly sold into slavery to the number of twenty thousand. Those who were killed in the battle numbered more than six thousand.

~ Plutarch, Alexander 11

There is a river called Dirce after the wife of Lycus. The story goes that Antiope was ill-treated by this Dirce, and therefore the children of Antiope put Dirce to death. Crossing the river you reach the ruins of the house of Pindar, and a sanctuary of the Mother Dindymene. Pindar dedicated the image, and Aristodemes and Socrates, sculptors of Thebes, made it.

~Pausanias (2nd century CE) 9.25.3 = proof of Alexander’s preservation of Pindar’s house

Principal Battles I: Granicus

Background to Battle at Granicus River (334 BCE) Objective: to control coastline; establish base at

Ephesus and reduce key ports (neutralize Phoenician fleet)

Siege of Lydia Siege of Miletus Siege of Halicarnassus Conquest of Lycia, Pamphylia, Pisidia (334-333 BCE)

Principal Battles II: IssusPrincipal Battles II: Issus

Background to Battle at Issus Alexander’s symbolic act at Gordion Conquest of Cilicia (control of Asia Minor) Issus (November 333 BCE): Second clash with Darius III Cilician Gates: Passage into Syria and Egypt

Background to Battle at Issus Alexander’s symbolic act at Gordion Conquest of Cilicia (control of Asia Minor) Issus (November 333 BCE): Second clash with Darius III Cilician Gates: Passage into Syria and Egypt

Site ofIssus

Alexander in Egypt: Pharaoh-King

Alexander in Egypt: Pharaoh-King

Visit to Ammon-Zeus at Siwah (Alexander’s tomb?) When Alexander had crossed the desert and arrived at

the shrine, the high priest of Ammon welcomed him on the god’s behalf as a father greeting his son. Alexander’s first question was to ask whether any of his father’s murderers had escaped punishment. At this the high priest commanded him to speak more guardedly, since his father was not a mortal.

(Plutarch, Alexander, 27) Alexander as Pharaoh Foundation of Alexandria (Spring 331 BCE)

Visit to Ammon-Zeus at Siwah (Alexander’s tomb?) When Alexander had crossed the desert and arrived at

the shrine, the high priest of Ammon welcomed him on the god’s behalf as a father greeting his son. Alexander’s first question was to ask whether any of his father’s murderers had escaped punishment. At this the high priest commanded him to speak more guardedly, since his father was not a mortal.

(Plutarch, Alexander, 27) Alexander as Pharaoh Foundation of Alexandria (Spring 331 BCE)

Siwah OasisSiwah Oasis

Principal Battles III: Gaugamela

Site in Mesopotamia (Autumn 331 BCE) Consolidation of Achaemenid capitals

Babylon, Susa, Pasargadae, Persepolis, Ecbatana In each of these he seized the royal treasury; the total

was reckoned at 180,000 talents of gold, an amount equal to 200 years of income of Athens at the height of its power. This treasure would radically alter the economy of the ancient world in the Hellenistic period as more and more of it was coined and passed into circulation.

~ N. Demand, History of Ancient Greece, 319

Aftermath of Defeat of Persia

Burning of Palace at Persepolis in Spring 330 BCE Push to East and Resistance of Old Guard

Parmenion and “Conspiracy of Philotas” in 330 BCE Further Purges:

Alexander the Lyncestian, Kleitos, Kallisthenes and Conspiracy of the Royal Pages (327 BCE)

Assassination of Darius III and Alexander’s Punishment of Bessus

India: Final Frontier

Preliminaries: conquest of Arachosia (329); conquest of Bactria and Sogdiana (328); Alexander at Samarkhand, and conquest of eastern Sogdiana (327); Alexander crosses Hindu Kush (327)

Winter campaigns in Kunar, Chitral, and Swat regions (327-6)

Alexander crosses Indus; Battle of Hydaspes; conquest of Punjab (326)

Foundation of towns on lower Indus; Alexander sails in Indian ocean (325)

Troops refuse to go further at Hyphasis river

May 326 BCE

Alexander againstKing Porus

Hydaspes

Macedonian Cavalry and Indian War Elephants

Alexander and the Brahmins

Return Westwards

March through Gedrosian desert (August-October 325 BCE)

Mutiny at Opis (324 BCE) Backfire of honorable discharge of Macedonian

veterans Alexander threatens to transfer high commands to

Persian and Median noblemen Tearful reconciliation and great banquet

Death at Babylon (June 13, 323 BCE)

AssessmentAssessment

Alexander Romance (exploratory thaumata; see Plutarch, Alexander 17, 27, 46, 63, 73)

Alexander and the Unity of Mankind? Homonoia (Tarn) or Megalomaniac (Green)? Persians admitted to military and bureaucratic

positions Adoption of Persian dress and customs (proskynesis) Alexander as Pharaoh and son of Ammon Mass marriage: Companions/Persian noblewomen;

marriage to Roxanne

Alexander Romance (exploratory thaumata; see Plutarch, Alexander 17, 27, 46, 63, 73)

Alexander and the Unity of Mankind? Homonoia (Tarn) or Megalomaniac (Green)? Persians admitted to military and bureaucratic

positions Adoption of Persian dress and customs (proskynesis) Alexander as Pharaoh and son of Ammon Mass marriage: Companions/Persian noblewomen;

marriage to Roxanne

Detail of Alexander from Issus Mosaic at Pompeii

Detail of Alexander from Issus Mosaic at Pompeii

Contemporary Iranian story-teller performs tale of Darius’ death as told by medieval Persian poet Firdowski

Contemporary Iranian story-teller performs tale of Darius’ death as told by medieval Persian poet Firdowski