Though outmanoeuvered by Darius's significantly larger army, he marched back to Cilicia, where he defeated Darius at Issus. [106] This behaviour cost him the sympathies of many of his countrymen. [67] In the following year, 332BC, he was forced to attack Tyre, which he captured after a long and difficult siege. Constantinople 1453: The End of Byzantium. The pendant has a nicely formed shape. In the aftermath of Massaga and Ora, numerous Assakenians fled to the fortress of Aornos. The satrapies handed out by Perdiccas at the Partition of Babylon became power bases each general used to bid for power. [13] According to the ancient Greek biographer Plutarch, on the eve of the consummation of her marriage to Philip, Olympias dreamed that her womb was struck by a thunderbolt that caused a flame to spread "far and wide" before dying away. [293] As a consequence, the Phalangarii of Legio II Parthica may not have been pikemen, but rather standard battle line troops or possibly Triarii. It was originally thought to have been the sarcophagus of Abdalonymus (died 311 BC), the king of Sidon appointed by Alexander immediately following the battle of Issus in 331. [65][f] He showed his intent to conquer the entirety of the Persian Empire by throwing a spear into Asian soil and saying he accepted Asia as a gift from the gods. military genius. He is described as having one eye light and one eye dark. Alexander the Great was born in the Greek month of Hekatombaion. 74. Alexander was the first to break the Theban lines, followed by Philip's generals. With these victories, he secured his northern frontier. [214], Both of Alexander's parents encouraged his ambitions. [14], On the day Alexander was born, Philip was preparing a siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidice. The Macedonians were a Greek tribe. [149][152] The accounts were nevertheless fairly consistent in designating Antipater, recently removed as Macedonian viceroy, replaced by Craterus, and at odds with Olympias, as the head of the alleged plot. [224] He had great charisma and force of personality, characteristics which made him a great leader. [305] Firdausi's Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings") includes Alexander in a line of legitimate Persian shahs, a mythical figure who explored the far reaches of the world in search of the Fountain of Youth. Below is a coin with the face of Alexander the Great, depicting the king with the lion's scalp on his head. [169] Perhaps more likely, the successors may have seen possession of the body as a symbol of legitimacy, since burying the prior king was a royal prerogative. [272] The close association of men from across Greece in Alexander's army directly led to the emergence of the largely Attic-based "koine", or "common" Greek dialect. PDF The Remains of Alexander the Great: The God, The King, The Symbol - CORE In the winter of 327/326BC, Alexander personally led a campaign against the Aspasioi of the Kunar Valley, the Guraeans of the Guraeus Valley, and the Assakenoi of the Swat and Buner Valleys. [155] However, in a 2003 BBC documentary investigating the death of Alexander, Leo Schep from the New Zealand National Poisons Centre proposed that the plant white hellebore (Veratrum album), which was known in antiquity, may have been used to poison Alexander. Alexander the Great was an ancient king of Macedon (present-day Macedonia). [18] Alexander named it Bucephalas, meaning "ox-head". Later in his childhood, Alexander was tutored by the strict Leonidas, a relative of his mother, and by Lysimachus of Acarnania. This also showed Alexander's eagerness to fight, in contrast to his father's preference for diplomacy. [250], Green argues that there is little evidence in ancient sources that Alexander had much carnal interest in women; he did not produce an heir until the very end of his life. [192], In his first battle in Asia, at Granicus, Alexander used only a small part of his forces, perhaps 13,000 infantry with 5,000 cavalry, against a much larger Persian force of 40,000. The so-called "Alexander Sarcophagus", discovered near Sidon and now in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, is so named not because it was thought to have contained Alexander's remains, but because its bas-reliefs depict Alexander and his companions fighting the Persians and hunting. The first refers merely to the Roman battle line and does not specifically mean that the men were armed with pikes, and the second bears similarity to the 'Marian Mules' of the late Roman Republic who carried their equipment suspended from a long pole, which were in use until at least the 2nd century AD. p. 75. [17] Some of the cities he founded became major cultural centers, many surviving into the 21st century. [208][209][210] In The Anabasis of Alexander, Arrian is quoted as saying, "he had one eye dark as the night, and one blue as the sky". [107], The foundation of the "new" Smyrna was also associated with Alexander. The stronghold was heavily fortified and built on a hill, requiring a siege. However, the memorial was found to be dedicated to the dearest friend of Alexander the Great, Hephaestion. "[55] At Corinth, Alexander took the title of Hegemon ("leader") and, like Philip, was appointed commander for the coming war against Persia. [314] During the first Italian campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars, in a question from Bourrienne, asking whether he gave his preference to Alexander or Caesar, Napoleon said that he places Alexander The Great in the first rank, the main reason being his campaign on Asia. The types of these coins remained constant in his empire. Persian coins continued to circulate in all the satrapies of the empire.[119]. [39] The marriage made Alexander's position as heir less secure, since any son of Cleopatra Eurydice would be a fully Macedonian heir, while Alexander was only half-Macedonian. The visionary leadership of Alexander the Great - Medium One Greek king, Menander I, probably became Buddhist, and was immortalized in Buddhist literature as 'Milinda'. There, his closest friend, Hephaestion, died of illness or poisoning. The song 'Alexander the Great' by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden is indicative. [303], In pre-Islamic Middle Persian (Zoroastrian) literature, Alexander is referred to by the epithet gujastak, meaning "accursed", and is accused of destroying temples and burning the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism. By the time of his death, he had conquered the entire. When Alexander asked Diogenes what he could do for him, the philosopher disdainfully asked Alexander to stand a little to the side, as he was blocking the sunlight. Alexander III of Macedon (Ancient Greek: , romanized: Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC - 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. [62], After his victory at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), Philip II began the work of establishing himself as hgemn (Greek: ) of a league which according to Diodorus was to wage a campaign against the Persians for the sundry grievances Greece suffered in 480 and free the Greek cities of the western coast and islands from Achaemenid rule. [225] His delusions of grandeur are readily visible in his will and in his desire to conquer the world,[153] in as much as he is by various sources described as having boundless ambition,[226][227] an epithet, the meaning of which has descended into a historical clich. [297], Alexander wrote and received numerous letters, but no originals survive. [102] Against Bessus (Artaxerxes V) however, Briant adds, Alexander reasserted "his claim to legitimacy as the avenger of Darius III". His father, King Philip II was assassinated, leaving the throne for his son Alexander to take. This ensured that Alexander would not be outflanked, while his phalanx, armed with long pikes, had a considerable advantage over the Persians' scimitars and javelins. [82] Control of Egypt passed to Ptolemy I (son of Lagos), the founder of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (305-30 BC) after the death of Alexander. Alexander followed close behind and captured the strategic hill-fort after four bloody days. [284] The emperor Trajan also admired Alexander, as did Nero and Caracalla. [256] His campaigns greatly increased contacts and trade between East and West, and vast areas to the east were significantly exposed to Greek civilization and influence. [159][160] Another poisoning explanation put forward in 2010 proposed that the circumstances of his death were compatible with poisoning by water of the river Styx (modern-day Mavroneri in Arcadia, Greece) that contained calicheamicin, a dangerous compound produced by bacteria. His chroniclers recorded valuable information about the areas through which he marched, while the Greeks themselves got a sense of belonging to a world beyond the Mediterranean. In 333 bc, Alexander the Great, on his march through Anatolia, reached Gordium, the capital of Phrygia. . He overcame this by being personally involved in battle,[89] in the manner of a Macedonian king. They went on to occupy the city of Elatea, only a few days' march from both Athens and Thebes. When the animal died (because of old age, according to Plutarch, at age thirty), Alexander named a city after him, Bucephala. [285], On the other hand, some Roman writers, particularly Republican figures, used Alexander as a cautionary tale of how autocratic tendencies can be kept in check by republican values. (721) 404.30 NOK. [145], On the evening of May 29, Alexander organized a banquet for his army to celebrate the end of the campaign of India and the onset of the invasion of the Arabian Peninsula.
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