An outline, era by era

Alexander the Great (336 – 323 BCE) and the Hellenistic kingdoms (Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucids)

Classical Antiquity · ~500 BCE – ~500 CE

Alexander III of Macedon came to the throne in 336 BCE after the murder of his father, Philip II. In about twelve years he led a Macedonian and Greek army through Anatolia, Syria, Egypt and the Persian Empire, and on to the Indus valley. He defeated the Persian king Darius III and took over the Achaemenid realm. He died at Babylon in June 323 BCE, aged 32, without a settled successor.

His generals, the Diadochi, fought for decades over his conquests. Out of these wars came several Hellenistic kingdoms, notably Ptolemaic Egypt, ruled from Alexandria, and the Seleucid empire, which held much of western Asia from Syria to Iran. Greek language, cities and ideas spread across this region and mixed with local cultures. The Ptolemaic kingdom lasted until Cleopatra VII died in 30 BCE, and the Seleucid kingdom ended when Rome annexed Syria in 64 BCE.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The Battle of Gaugamela and the fall of the Persian Empire

    Event

    What happened

    On 1 October 331 BCE Alexander's Macedonian and Greek army meets the much larger army of the Persian king Darius III on the plain of Gaugamela, in northern Mesopotamia. Alexander leads a cavalry charge at a gap that opens in the Persian line, and Darius leaves the field. Alexander then takes Babylon and Susa, and in early 330 BCE he enters Persepolis, a royal centre of the Achaemenid kings.

    The rest is history

    Gaugamela is widely seen as the decisive battle of the war against Persia. Darius fled east and was killed in 330 BCE by his own satrap Bessus, which left Alexander as master of the Achaemenid realm. He then campaigned on through Bactria and Sogdiana to the Indus valley. The vast territory he gained, with its cities and wealth, is what the Diadochi later fought over after 323 BCE. From those wars came the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms, which ruled lands that had been Persian.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 3.8-16. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    2. PrimaryPlutarch. Life of Alexander, chapters 31-34. Greek biography, c. 100 CE.
    3. BookBosworth, A. B. Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Narrative and analysis of the campaign against Darius.

  2. Philip II and the Battle of Chaeronea

    Event

    What happened

    In August 338 BCE the army of Philip II of Macedon meets the allied Greek forces led by Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea in Boeotia. The Macedonians win a decisive victory, and Alexander, then about 18, commands one wing of the cavalry. Philip then organizes the Greek states into the League of Corinth in 337 BCE, and the League names him leader of a planned war against Persia.

    The rest is history

    Chaeronea ended the independence of the main Greek city-states and made Macedon the leading power in Greece. Philip was murdered in 336 BCE before the Persian campaign began, and Alexander took over both the throne and the leadership of the League. Alexander crossed into Asia in 334 BCE with an army and a war plan that Philip had prepared. Historians debate how far Alexander's conquests followed Philip's own aims, but the army, the cavalry and the Greek alliance he used were Philip's creation. The campaign that followed led to the conquests from which the Hellenistic kingdoms later emerged.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDiodorus Siculus. Library of History, book 16.85-89. Greek universal history, 1st century BCE.
    2. PrimaryPlutarch. Life of Alexander, chapter 9. Greek biography, c. 100 CE.
    3. BookWorthington, Ian. Philip II of Macedonia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.Philip's victory at Chaeronea, the League of Corinth and the plan for war against Persia.

  3. The Battle of Ipsus and the end of Alexander's united empire

    Event

    What happened

    In 301 BCE at Ipsus in Phrygia, the allied armies of Seleucus, Lysimachus and Cassander face Antigonus I Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes. Antigonus, who had ruled much of Asia Minor and Syria and had taken the title of king in 306 BCE, is killed in the battle. Demetrius escapes from the field. The victors then divide the lands of Antigonus, and Seleucus gains northern Syria.

    The rest is history

    Antigonus had come closest to reuniting Alexander's empire under one ruler. His defeat and death at Ipsus ended that hope, and the empire stayed divided among several rival kings. Seleucus took northern Syria and founded Antioch on the Orontes, which became a main centre of the Seleucid kingdom. Ptolemy, who had not fought at Ipsus, kept Egypt and held on to southern Syria, a region the Ptolemies and Seleucids would contest in the Syrian Wars of the 3rd century BCE. By the 290s BCE the Hellenistic world was shared among the Ptolemaic, Seleucid and Antigonid dynasties, with Macedon later held by Antigonus' descendants.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDiodorus Siculus. Library of History, book 20.106-109 and the surviving fragments of book 21. Greek universal history, 1st century BCE.
    2. PrimaryPlutarch. Life of Demetrius, chapters 28-30. Greek biography, c. 100 CE.
    3. BookErrington, R. Malcolm. A History of the Hellenistic World, 323-30 BC. Malden: Blackwell, 2008.The wars of the Successors and the settlement after Ipsus.

  4. The Battle of the Granicus and the crossing into Asia

    Event

    What happened

    In spring 334 BCE Alexander crosses the Hellespont into Anatolia with a Macedonian and allied Greek army, commonly estimated at some 40,000 men. Soon afterwards, on the river Granicus in northwestern Anatolia, he meets a force of Persian satraps and Greek mercenaries. Alexander attacks across the river and wins. The Greek mercenaries in Persian service are largely destroyed, and many of the survivors are sent to forced labour in Macedonia. Alexander then moves down the Aegean coast, taking Sardis and besieging Miletus and Halicarnassus.

    The rest is history

    The victory opened western Anatolia to Alexander, and most Greek cities along the coast came over to him over the following months. It was the first major battle of the war against Persia, which Philip II had planned and Alexander now carried on. The Persian king Darius III did not command at the Granicus, and he met Alexander in person a year later at Issus in 333 BCE. The war that began here led to Gaugamela and the conquest of the Achaemenid realm, whose lands later formed the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms. The exact size of the armies and the details of the river crossing are debated, because our accounts were written centuries later.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 1.11-16. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    2. PrimaryDiodorus Siculus. Library of History, book 17.17-21. Greek universal history, 1st century BCE.
    3. BookBosworth, A. B. Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Analysis of the Granicus and the early campaign in Anatolia.

  5. The siege of Tyre and the conquest of Egypt

    Event

    What happened

    After the victory at Issus in 333 BCE, Alexander moves down the Phoenician coast. The island city of Tyre refuses to admit him, and he besieges it from January to July 332 BCE. His army builds a causeway to the island and, with ships from other Phoenician cities and Cyprus, takes the city. Gaza falls after a siege in autumn 332 BCE. In late 332 BCE Alexander enters Egypt, where the Persian satrap Mazaces surrenders without a fight. In 331 BCE he founds Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast.

    The rest is history

    The capture of Tyre removed the main Persian naval base in the eastern Mediterranean and secured Alexander's rear before he advanced into Mesopotamia. Egypt gave him a rich province, and he was received there as pharaoh. Alexandria, the city he founded, became the capital of the Ptolemaic kingdom after Ptolemy took Egypt in 323 BCE. Ptolemy also brought Alexander's body to Egypt for burial. The Ptolemaic dynasty ruled from Alexandria until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE. Details of the siege works are known mainly from later accounts, so the exact engineering is debated.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 2.15-27 and 3.1-2. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    2. PrimaryDiodorus Siculus. Library of History, book 17.40-46. Greek universal history, 1st century BCE.
    3. BookBosworth, A. B. Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Analysis of the Phoenician and Egyptian campaigns.

  6. Cutting the Gordian knot

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    At Gordium an ox-cart is tied to its yoke with a knot nobody can undo. An oracle says that whoever unties it will rule Asia. Alexander studies the knot, then slices through it with his sword.

    The rest is history

    The story is told by Arrian, Plutarch and Curtius Rufus, who wrote centuries after the event, and they disagree on how Alexander solved it. Some say he cut the knot, others that he pulled out the pin of the yoke. Alexander did visit Gordium in the winter of 334/333 BCE, and the city was the old capital of Phrygia. Whatever happened there, he went on to conquer the Persian Empire, which made the tale a neat symbol of his boldness.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 2.3. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    2. PrimaryPlutarch. Life of Alexander, chapter 18. Greek biography, c. 100 CE.
    3. BookBosworth, A. B. Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

  7. Alexander the son of Zeus-Ammon

    Myth

    The legend

    Alexander crosses the desert to the oracle of Ammon at Siwa. The priest greets him as son of the god. Alexander's mother Olympias is said to have told him that Zeus, in the form of a serpent, was his true father.

    The rest is history

    Alexander did visit Siwa in 331 BCE, after taking Egypt, and the sources agree that the priest's greeting mattered to him. Our accounts, by Arrian, Plutarch and Curtius, were written long after, and they do not record what was actually said. The Macedonian royal house claimed descent from Heracles and Zeus, and Egyptian kings were traditionally sons of Amun, so the claim fitted both traditions. Alexander later asked Greek cities to honour him as a god, which met mixed reactions.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 3.3-4. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    2. PrimaryPlutarch. Life of Alexander, chapters 2 and 27. Greek biography, c. 100 CE.
    3. BookFox, Robin Lane. Alexander the Great. London: Allen Lane, 1973.

  8. Alexander weeps for no more worlds

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Alexander hears a philosopher say that there are countless worlds. He weeps because he has not yet conquered even one. The words 'no more worlds to conquer' are often attached to him.

    The rest is history

    The anecdote is told by Plutarch in his essay on tranquillity of mind, and in a later form by Valerius Maximus. Neither was a contemporary, and the story reads as a moral tale about ambition. The famous line 'no more worlds to conquer' is a later paraphrase. What is better documented is that in 326 BCE his army refused to march beyond the Hyphasis river in India, and he turned back.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPlutarch. On Tranquillity of Mind (Moralia). Greek essay, c. 100 CE.
    2. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 5.25-29. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    3. BookGreen, Peter. Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

  9. Bucephalas, the horse only Alexander could ride

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    As a boy, Alexander sees that nobody can ride a wild horse brought to Philip's court. He notices that it fears its own shadow, turns it toward the sun and rides it. Philip says Macedonia is too small for him.

    The rest is history

    Plutarch tells this story, and Arrian also mentions Bucephalas. Alexander did have a famous horse of that name, which Arrian says died after the battle against Porus in 326 BCE. Alexander founded a city, Bucephala, in its memory. The childhood taming is a typical tale of a hero's early promise, and Plutarch wrote about 400 years after the event.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPlutarch. Life of Alexander, chapter 6. Greek biography, c. 100 CE.
    2. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 5.19. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    3. BookWorthington, Ian. Philip II of Macedonia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

  10. To the strongest: the division of the empire

    Origin story

    The legend

    On his deathbed at Babylon, Alexander is asked who should inherit his kingdom. He answers 'to the strongest', and gives his ring to Perdiccas. His generals then carve up the empire among themselves.

    The rest is history

    The deathbed words appear in Diodorus, Curtius and Justin, but Arrian says he reports them only as a rumour. Whatever was said, no clear heir existed: Alexander's son Alexander IV was born after his death, and his half-brother Philip Arrhidaeus was unfit to rule. The settlement at Babylon failed and the Diadochi fought for decades. Ptolemy took Egypt and Seleucus eventually built the Seleucid realm. Ptolemy even seized Alexander's body and had it buried in Egypt.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDiodorus Siculus. Library of History, book 18.1. Greek universal history, 1st century BCE.
    2. PrimaryArrian. Anabasis of Alexander, book 7.26. Greek history, 2nd century CE.
    3. BookErrington, R. Malcolm. A History of the Hellenistic World, 323-30 BC. Malden: Blackwell, 2008.

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