All about Alexander the Great on the Internet

Ellen Whyte, Columnist, ellenwhyte@lepak.com

Alexander the Great inherited his father's relatively small Greek-based kingdom and turned it into a world power that dominated and expanded the established empires of Egypt and Persia by age 33.

Born in 356BC, the young Alexander's childhood was chaotic. His volatile and domineering mother Olympia was constantly at loggerheads with his father Phillip, a successful philandering warrior king. Their fights were so spectacular that when Philip was assassinated in 336 B.C., rumor said Olympia had been part of the plot.

When Alexander inherited his father's territory at age 20 he first spent some time subduing a local opportunistic revolt. Once his home territories were settled, Alexander set out to conquer new territory.

He proved a brilliant leader. Within a decade he was the ruler of a massive empire that stretched from Greece to India and included Egypt and Persia.

The new empire boasted a new network of roads as well as new cities and harbors that encouraged trade. Greek became the lingua franca, making it easier to do business and travel.

In accordance with Greek philosophy Alexander favored freedom of religion. However, Alexander also wanted his new Persian subjects to rule side by side with his Macedonian men. Moreover, Alexander wore Persian clothes on many occasions and encouraged his officers to marry into the Persian aristocracy. This did not sit well with many of his colleagues.

Unlike Persian and Egyptian culture, Greece was the cradle of democracy where rulers had to have their subjects backing before instigating new treaties or wars. Although Alexander was accorded divine honors in his own lifetime, it still took him considerable effort to talk his men into accepting his more egalitarian ideas.

A student of the philosopher Aristotle, Alexander was well educated and met the most respected artists, scientists and philosophers of his time.

We still get glimpses of the man himself through scraps that remain of his diaries, letters home and memoirs.

Athens was the center of civilization in Alexander's day, but when he conquered Egypt, he founded the city of Alexandria, which became a commercial and academic hub connecting the East and West.

Alexander died at the height of his powers on June 11 323 BC at the age of 33. His body was embalmed and sent to lie in state in a gold coffin in Alexandria.

Life After Alexander

When Alexander died, there was a problem: He had no living sons. Alexander's family and advisers agreed to appoint two kings. One was Alexander IV, his posthumous son with a wife named Roxana. The other was Alexander's retarded and illegitimate half brother Philip Arrhidaeus. A caretaker government was put in place to rule until the Alexander IV reached the age of 13, the earliest legal age where he could take power.

But fights soon broke out. Philip Arrhidaeus was killed in 317 BC. Roxana and her son Alexander IV were murdered in 310 BC. The empire disintegrated into three main parts. One of Alexander's leading generals stood at the head of each.

Seleucus inherited territory that ran from the borders of Antigonus's land to India. It comprised of modern Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, parts of Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. He restored the ancient culture of Babylonia, encouraged trade between the East and West, founded cities, and kept control of a very difficult to manage multicultural population. The Seleucid Empire remained intact and independent until it was taken over by the Romans in 190 BC.

Greece, Asia Minor and parts of modern Syria fell to Antigonus Monopthalmos, nicknamed Cyclops because he only had one eye. He and his son Demetrius founded a dynasty that ruled the Aegean, the eastern Mediterranean and all of the Middle East except Babylonia until 168 BC.

Ptolemy took Egypt. He and his successors were acknowledged Pharaohs and ruled from Alexandria for the next 300 years. Cleopatra VII, the queen who seduced the greatest men of neighboring Ancient Rome, Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, was the last of this dynasty.

Although Alexander's world empire died with him, Seleucus, Antigonus and Ptolemy's dynasties preserved his legacy as well as his legend.

Finding Out More

Map of Alexander's Empire http://library.thinkquest.org/10805/alexmap.html Confused about the geography? Check out this map of Alexander's empire.

The Great Alexander http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek A small, illustrated site that gives an excellent overview of Alexander the Great's private life.

Livius Articles on Ancient History http://www.livius.org Web master Jona Lendering has written a book on Alexander the Great. This resource is well researched and beautifully illustrated.

Alexander the Great History Project http://www.hackneys.com/alex_web Timelines, accounts of the great battles and accounts of the effect of his reign make this a great homework resource.

Map of the Empire at 310 BC http://www.houseofptolemy.org/graphics/310bce.gif Check out how the empire was divvied up after Alexander's legitimate son was murdered.

Find more web resources by searching for the terms: alexander the great, seleucid empire, house of ptolemy, antigonid empire.