Ancient

History GCSE
Depth study;
Alexander the
Great, 356—323 BC

Summary sheet info pack

 Contents
Topic 1 – Alexander’s Youth and Upbringing
1. Who was Alexander the Great?
2. Alexander’s Youth
3. Olympia and Alexander
4. Phillip II and Alexander
5. Alexander and the Divine
6. Battle of Chaeronea
7. The assassination of Phillip II
8. Why did Alexander decide to invade Persia
Topic 2 – Alexander as a Military Commander and the Campaign in
Persia
9. The Macedonian Cavalry
10. The Macedonian Phalanx and infantry
11. Battle of Granicus
12. The Siege of Tyre
13. Battle of Gaugamela
14. The siege of Aornos Rock
15. Battle of the Persian Gate
16. The pursuit of Darius
Topic 3 – Alexander’s Character and Companions
17. The burning of Persepolis
18. The battle of Hydaspes and the Mutiny at Hyphasis
19. Alexander crosses the Gedrosian desert
20. The policy of Fusion
21. Mass marriages at Susa
22. Companion; Alexander and Parmenion
 23. Companion; Alexander and Cleitus/ Antipater
24. Companion; Alexander and Hepheastion
25. The Death of Alexander the Great
Topic 1 – Alexander’s Youth and Upbringing

Who was Alexander the Great?

He came from the powerful kingdom of Macedon
 The Greek cities had been fighting each other almost continuously since the Persian
Wars against Xerxes, around the 470sBCE. This fighting continued into the 4 th C BCE
(the 300bce).

 While the likes of Athens and Sparta were busy fighting each other, the northern
Kingdom of Macedon – who had submitted the Xerxes back in the Persian Wars –
quietly began to build up its army and eventually attacked and conquered these
other Greek cities who had used to be much more powerful than them!
 All this was achieved by King Phillip II of Macedon (this is Alexander’s dad!). He
created an incredibly well-trained army and was an accomplished assassin who killed
off other competitors for the throne.

 Alexander’s mother was a Greek woman called Olympias, who came from a Greek
royal family too. She struggled being part of the Macedonian court, as she was
looked down upon for being Greek not Macedonia. She was also in competition with
the other wives to give Phillip the best heir to the throne.

Had great successes as a teenager

 Phillip made Alexander a regent (second in command in the Kingdom) when he was
only 16. When he was 16 he defeated the Maedi tribe when they tried to attack
Macedon when Phillip was away in Byzantium.
 After this he then lead troops (alongside his father) to success at the battle of
Chaeronea, against Greek cities who were rebelling. Alexander famously defeated
the Sacred Theban Band at this battle – elite warriors from the city of Thebes.

Attacked and conquered the Persian Empire

 Phillip would die in an assassination when Alexander was 20, Alexander then became
King of Macedonia.
  Alexander wanted to do better than his father, so he decided to attack and conquer
the Persian (Achaemenid) empire. He would die on this campaign at the age of 33.

How do we learn about the life and achievements of Alexander the

Great?
No sources from the time
 Supposedly, there are 3 main sources from the time of Alexander, although these are
lost to us today and we just have to trust that they existed.
 Ptlomey = a companion of Alexander who spoke about his experiences with the
leader after he died. He would gain the kingdom of Egypt after Alexander’s death!
 Aristobulus = another companion of Alexander, who became a king after Alexander
died and chose to record his experiences under Alexander.
 Callisthenes = Alexander’s official historian during the campaign in Persia to conquer
the Achaemenid empire. Callisthenes and Alexander eventually fell out, and
Callisthenes died. But he did send his writing back to Greece!
 ALL of these are lost to us now, we don’t have them.

Roman writing later

 The source we DO have on Alexander are actually written by Roman Historians, about
300-400years after the time of Alexander the Great.
 The main two are Arrian and Plutarch; both of them claim to be using the work of
Aristobulus, Ptolmey or Callisthenes.

 Arrian = a Roman writer who served in the Roman army in the East of the empire
(modern-day Middle Easy). He thought Alexander was a hero who deserved
recognition. He said he was using Aristobulus and Ptolemy. He had excellent
understanding battle tactics and we use him for Alexander’s battles a lot.

 Plutarch = a Greek writer who became a Roman citizen and wrote for a Roman
audience. He was a very religious man and liked to talk about Alexander’s divinity. He
thought Alexander was a hero too. Plutarch wrote biographies (stories of important
people), rather than Histories, so he would sometimes exaggerate stories to be
interesting!
 Alexander’s Youth

Plutarch wrote a lot about events from Alexander’s childhood

 Plutarch’s book on Alexander tells us lots about Alexander’s childhood, as well as
when he was an adult. Plutarch wanted his audience to know about the incredible
stories from Alexander’s childhood.
 These stories always show Alexander to be an amazing child, who could achieve
incredible things. Or they are stories that say he was somehow related to gods and
heroes.

 The purpose of Plutarch telling these stories about Alexander’s childhood is that he
wants to show how Alexander was always destined for greatness – Plutarch is
FORETELLING Alexander’s future greatness to the reader.
 But, because this is Plutarch’s purpose, we want to remember that when reading
these stories, they may be exaggerated!

 Also, if Plutarch is using sources from Alexander’s lifetime, Alexander would have
been happy to let these stories be told because it would make him look even better!
– again, they could be exaggerated even if the stories are in the earlier sources!

The Taming of Bucephalus

 A horse dealer came to Philip of Macedon to sell him horses, the most impressive of
which was called Bucephalus.
 Philip sent his horse trainers to test out Bucephalus—He bucked all of them off, he
could not be tamed.
 Philip refused to buy the horse because it was he could not be broken/ tamed.
 Alexander said to his father that it was a shame to not buy such horse because others
were too stupid to ride him and said he could tame Bucephalus. No thought he
would succeed.
 He turned Bucephalus toward the sun so he could not see his shadow. Bucephalus
was scared of his own shdow, and then Alexander was able to ride the horse!
 Philip exclaimed “ 'O my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself,
for Macedonia is too little for thee.‘ – This is Phillip SUPPOSEDLY saying that this
event showed that Alexander would need a great Kingdom for himself one day….
Persia?
The great teacher and philosopher, Aristotle, educated Alexander
 Phillip organised for Aristotle to come to Macedon to be Alexander’s teacher, he was
the best teacher that money could buy!
 Plutarch tells us that Alexander learnt his moral and political views from Aristotle’s
teachings, rather than from his own father. – this meant that Aristotle shaped
Alexander’s views on right and wrong, and leadership.

 Alexander loved learning and really enjoyed being a student to Aristotle. When
Aristotle published books many years later, Alexander wrote to him complaining that
other people could learn the same as him now!

Alexander loved Greek stories and myths

 Alexander learned lots about medicine from Aristotle, and in later life he supposedly
knew enough to prescribe treatments when his friends were ill, but his FAVOURITE
book was the Greek story/myth called the Iliad.

 The Iliad was the poem/ story written by a Greek writer called Homer, and it told the
story of the Trojan War.
 The Trojan War was a 10yr war between the Greeks and the Trojans (in Turkey),
fought because a Trojan prince ran off with the wife of a Greek King. The Trojan War
had one of the greatest heroes of all time fighting in it, Achilles, and Alexander really
looked up to this character.

 Alexander thought that the Iliad was an important book for military advice and
examples of leadership. Apparently, he slept with a copy of the book under his
pillow!
 Olympias and Alexander

Who was Olympias?

• Olympias, originally named Myrtle, was the daughter of King Neoptolemus I of
Epirus, who was the king of the ancient Greek tribe. Her family claimed to be
descendants of the former mythological Greek king, Aeacus. They also claimed to
descend from Achilles – the Greek hero of the Trojan War.
• Her father died in 360 BC, and her uncle, Arybbas took the throne. Arybbas made a
treaty with the King of the Macedonians, Philip II.
• As a result of the new alliance, Arybbas married Olympias off to Philip in 357 BC. This
was the same year that she gave birth to their first child, Alexander. In circa 355 BC,
their second child, Cleopatra was born.

Olympias’ marriage to Phillip

• Philip walked in to find Olympias sleeping with snakes, which basically brought an
end to their relationship. Olympias was known to be a devout member of the
cult, Dionysos. Olympias, who was a long-time member of the cult, may have
introduced the practice of snake handling to the cult.
• Problems arose when Philip divorced Olympias to marry Cleopatra-Eurydice. As
Alexander was only half-Macedonian, many desired Philip to marry a full blood to
provide him with a full-blooded heir. Philip went so far as to claim Alexander was not
even his son.
• However, Philip reconciled with his son and allowed both Alexander and his mother
to return to Macedonia.

How Olympias raised Alexander

• Olympias made it her life’s main mission to ensure that Alexander would one day be
king. Olympias was a devoted mother to her young son and was constantly reminding
him of his link to Achilles, which would have a powerful impact on Alexander. He
made sure to visit what was left of Troy to pay his respects to his ancestor when he
entered Asia Minor.
 • Olympias was also determined to provide Alexander with an excellent education. She
had him taught by Leonidas of Epirus and the famed Aristotle.

Her role in Phillip’s death?

• In 336 BC, Philip was assassinated. Some believe this was ordered by Olympias since
she had Cleopatra-Eurydice and her children killed after Alexander came to the
throne. Reportedly, Olympias told her son, before he headed to Asia Minor, that Zeus
was his true father.
• Olympias has been described by historians as “arrogant, meddlesome, and
headstrong.” She was arguably the most influential person in Alexander’s life and the
driving force behind his rise to the throne.
• Professor Donald Wasson from Lincoln College said, “From her, he inherited not only
his love of learning but also his fiery nature, [his] strength of character and as one
historian put it — ‘his thirst for blood’.”

Phillip II and Alexander

Recap of Phillip II as King of Macedon

 Macedonia emerges under the energetic leadership of King Phillip II (Alex’s father) who
reigns from 359 to 336BC.
 Under Phillip, Macedonia developed a professional army which conquered most of
Greece creating the League of Corinth (did not include Sparta!).

 Phillip also developed the famous Macedonian phalanx. This was unstoppable in battle
and would be used by Alexander.
 Phillip was planning invasion of Persia but assassinated before it was launched.

Tension in Phillip and Alexander’s relationship

 Problems began when Philip divorced Olympias to marry Cleopatra-Eurydice. As
Alexander was only half-Macedonian, many desired Philip to marry a full blood to
provide him with a full-blooded heir. Philip went so far as to claim Alexander was not
even his son.
  At the wedding between Phillip and Cleopara, Cleopatra’s uncle Attalus got drunk
and made a toast to the room where he said that the Macedonians should pray for a
‘legitimate heir’ for the throne, when Alexander was in the room.
 This was hugely insulting as it implied that Alexander shouldn’t be King. Phillip didn’t
challenge this properly, and got angry when Alexander became upset and a fight
broke out at the wedding.
 However, Philip reconciled with his son and allowed both Alexander and his mother
to return to Macedonia.
 It could be that there was some jealousy between Phillip and Alexander as Alexander
became an a successful young man.

Positives in Phillip and Alexander’s relationship

 According to Plutarch, Phillip was very impressed when Alexander conquered the
horse Bucephalus. Phillip was supposed to shout out that it showed that Alexander
would need a great kingdom one day – bigger than Macedon! – to match how
incredible he was.

 According to Plutarch, Phillip was very pleased to hear that Alexander had
successfully lead troops against the Scared band of Thebans at the battle of
Chaeronea.
 Plutarch said that “Philip was very fond indeed of his son and was even delighted when he
heard the Macedonians calling Alexander their king, and Philip their general ”, meaning Phillip
was happy that his son would be a good heir to the throne.

Phillip’s army and Macedonian Phalanx

 Phillip learnt a lot about elite armies and their organisations when he was held
captive by the Thebans as a young man. He studied the Theban army and took the
best of their ideas back to Macedon when he was let go.

 Phillip knew that he had to develop and idea that would overcome the Greek
Hoplites – who were the best soldiers in the world at this time – he did this by
creating the Phalanx.
  The Phalanx was a group of soldiers who marched as a unit with extra long spears.
These extra long spears meant that they could attack the Greeks, without having to
go too close to the Hoplite’s bronze sword.

 The army that Alexander later used to conquer Persia was developed by Phillip,
Alexander had to do almost NOTHING in terms of changing or improving the army.
Phillip had provided him with the perfect war machine.

Alexander’s belief in his own divinity

Divine = being a god, or being very close to a god
Divinity = when someone is divine
Divination = looking for signs of advice and guidance from the gods.
It would seem as though Alexander grew up believing that he was partly divine, or at least destined for
great things. This could well be a result of people around him, like his mother Olympias, talking up the
rumours that his mother had been impregnated by Zeus etc.
Other events from his childhood would also have made him look special/ choosen by the gods. E.g. the
surprising taming of Bucephalus.
As he grew and became the king of Macedon, he kept looking for signs from the Gods to guide him and
help him make decisions. Looking for signs from the gods is called Divination, and Alexander did this a lot.
Here are 4 examples of when Alexander either looked to the Gods for help, OR other people emphasised
his divinity.
Examples of Alexander’s relationship with the divine #1 - Arrian 1.11. Alexander invades
Persia and visits the site of the Battle of Troy
 When Alexander started his campaign against the Persian Empire, he travelled across the
Hellespont into Lydia, and on his way he stopped by at what was thought to be the site of the Battle
of Troy. – REMEMBER! – This is the story of the Iliad, his favourite book as a child.
 Alexander made the point to be the first Greek to step off of the boat when they crossed the
Hellespont.

 Alexander wanted to visit this site, as he hoped that it would bring him luck from the Gods, as the
Greeks had won at the battle of Troy.
 He also wanted to associate himself with the great Greek Hero, Achilles, who had been the hero at
Troy and Alexander wanted to be like him.
 When they got to Troy, Alexander ordere sacrifices to be made to the Goddess Athena, and then
dedicated a full suit of armour to the temple at the site.
 Alexander then looked at the scared weapons that were left from the Battle of Troy.

 Alexander supposedly dressed up like Achilles, and had a golden wreath placed on his head for the
sacrifices.
 He placed a crown on Achilles’ tomb, and his his best friend/ lover Heaphastion place a golden
crown on Patroclus’ tomb too – Patroclus had been the best friend and lover of Achilles in the story
of the Iliad!

Examples of Alexander’s relationship with the divine #2 - Plutarch 31. Alexander fights
Darius

 In the lead up to Alexander’s greatest battle against Darius III, the Macedonian troops began to play
a game where one side pretended to be the Persian soldiers, and the other side pretended to be
the Macedonian soldiers, and they fought each other in a pretend version of the battle that was
about to happen.

 When Alexander found out about this, he made one soldier a ‘Darius’ and one soldier an
‘Alexander’ and he watched the battle to see who won.
 It was a tough battle, even if it was pretend, but eventually the Macedonians and ‘Alexander’ won.
 Alexander decided that this was a message from the gods that he would be victorious against
Darius. – He considered this to be DIVINATION!

 There was a eclipse before the battle, which is always felt to be some kind o sign from the gods.
 On the night before the battle, Alexander and his seers – people who interpreted signs from the
gods – made sacrifices to the god of fear, hoping it would work against the Persians.

Examples of Alexander’s relationship with the divine #3 - Arrian 4.28. Alexander and the
rock of Aornos
 After he had defeated Darius III and taken over the Persian Empire, Alexander kept campaigning
further Eastwards and eventually started to take areas of India.
  At this time, he came across a group of barbarians who refused to submit to him, and when he
marched on their village they ran to escape on top of a huge rock, called Aornos Rock.
 This rock was famous, as supposedly when Heracles, the son of Zeus, travelled here he could not
capture the rock.
 According to Plutarch, Alexander then became obsessed with capturing the rock as it meant that he
was greater than the famous Greek hero, Heracles.

 Plutarch admits that he is not sure if Heracles ever actually came this far East, and that men at that
time often said that Heracles had failed to complete a task, just to emphasise how difficult that task
was or how impressive it was when someone DID complete it!

Examples of Alexander’s relationship with the divine #4 - Silver Tetradachm and divine Alex
 Not all of the examples of Alexander being divine/ related to the divine come from things he did
when he was alive.

 After Alexander died, many of this friends were keen to remember him as divine and show that he
had been special.
 After Alexander died, one of his friends called Lysamachus worked to make himself the next leader
of Macedonia, and to make himself seem like a good candidate to be king, he minted a whole range
of coins that celebrated Alexander. – Basically he was reminding people Alexander had been his
friend, so that he looked more powerful.

 One side of the coin showed Alexander, the great, dead leader as a having the ram horns of the
God Zeus Ammon. By showing Alexander with the features of a god, it made Alexander look divine.
 The other side of the coin depicts the goddess Athena, with the Nike the God of victory in the palm
of her hand. – Again, this means that people would associate Alexander with these gods, and this
would remind people of his great victory over the Persian Empire.

 Alexander never asked for this coin to be made, Lysamachus made this after Alexander died, and it
was all basically propaganda for Lysamachus would wanted people to believe that he would be a
good next ruler of Macedonia – and a good ruler would be respectful of Alexander!
 Alexander as Regent and the Battle of Chaeronea 338BC
Before the battle of Chaeronea – Alexander is made Regent of Macedon
 While Philip II was king of Macedonia, he had transformed the country into a military powerhouse,
and pushed the kingdom into a positon of dominance in the Greek world.

 As a successful son, Alexander had been given a lot of responsibility from a young age, and at 16 he
was appointed regent of Macedonia while Philip was on an expedition to Byzantium.
 A Regent was the person who looked after the Kingdom while the King was away. It basically meant
you were second in command and would take over if the king died suddenly while away.

Alexander has success as Regent of Macedon

 During this time as regent, Alexander was faced with a rebellion by the Maedi tribe, from the north-
eastern region of Macedonia. The tribe posed a genuine threat to the Kingdom of Macedonia.
 Alexander dealt with the rebellion swiftly and brutally. As part of his conquest he took the main city
of the Maedi’s region, renamed the city Alexandropolis and repopulated the city with Macedonian
people to ensure the area did not rebel again.

 Many believe that Alexander’s renaming of the city after himself is an early indication of his
ambition when he became king.

The Battle of Chaeronea

 The Battle of Chaeronea took place in 338 BCE on an early August morning outside the town of
Chaeronea. This was a battle between the Macedonians and the Greek forces from Athens and
Thebes – these were two of the main city states/ powers in Greece.
 The Greeks had become more and more intimidated by the Macedonians as Phillip has rebuilt their
army and developed the Macedonian Phalanx. – They wanted to defeat the Macedonians.

This is a map of Greece,

Macedon and the
Persian Empire in the
330s BC.

The Battle of Chaeronea

took place in Greece,
near Athens and Thebes.
  The Athenians brought 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry to the battle, the Thebans brought 800
cavalry and 12,000 infantry with them. The Thebans numbers also included the 300 members of the
Sacred Band! –The Sacred Band were an elite force of warriors from Thebes, they were the BEST of
the BEST of warriors in Greece at that time, they were meant to be undefeatable!

 The Macedonians brought 30,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry to the battle.
 Alexander fought with his Companion Cavalry – a cavalry made up of his closest friends and best
soldiers. He was made to face the Thebans and their Sacred Band. He was only 18 at the time… But
he destroyed the Theban Sacred Band in battle!

 The Athenians and the Thebans did fight bravely at first, but they were soon overwhelmed by
Phillip’s military tactics and they couldn’t defeat his Macedonian Phalanx. Once Alexander had
defeated the Sacred Band, it was clear that the Greeks had lost the Battle of Chaeronea.
 When 1,000 Athenians had been killed, Philip ordered that the dead should not be buried, and
then he captured the Greek soldiers that were left and sold them all into slavery!

 Plutarch wrote that Alexander was said to be the first man to charge against the Theban’s Sacred
Band, and that showing this bravery made Phillip very proud and pleased with his son.

 Whether or not Philip actually felt this way, or if it is just want Plutarch thought and wanted
people to think, we can never tell! But it IS likely that this would have impressed Phillip, the Scared
Band had an incredible reputation and Alexander destroyed them!

The Assassination of Phillip II of Macedon – 336BC

Build up to the assassination – Phillip’s plans for invading Persia

 When he was assassinated, Phillip was not an old or weak King. He was only in his 40s, he had
recently become the ruler of Greece thanks to the Battle of Chaeronea, he was preparing for his
great invasion of the Persian Empire and he recently married AGAIN!
 He would not have been easy to remove…

 Phillip was keen to have the Gods’ blessings when he

went to war against Persia – he wanted to know that
they were on his side! – so as part of his preparations
he visited the Oracle at Delphi to ask what the Gods
thought.
 This was the same Oracle that Themistocles and the
Athenians went to before the Battle of Salamis in
480BC. A photo of what Delphi looks like today. The
 The message from the Oracle was slightly confusing oracle, who was a woman, would sit in the
and told Phillip that a bull was dressed up and ready middle of the circle and speak the messages
for sacrifice and would be killed/ ‘come to an end’. – from the Gods.
 Phillip wasn’t quite sure what this meant but he decided that it meant that Persia would be
defeated like a bull and that he should give the Gods a big sacrifice/ celebration before he left.

 So Phillip went ahead and planned a huge celebration for his invasion, and organised for his
Daughter to have her wedding at the same time, and for a beautiful Bull to be sacrificed too. – it
was one hell of a party!
 Phillip invited guests from all over Greece so that he could show them how strong, confident and
prepared he was for this invasion of Persia.
 He wanted to show the other Greeks that he was truly their superior and that he deserved the
power they had handed over to him after Chaeronea.

Phillip insults Pausanias and makes an enemy

 According to Diodorus, the person responsible for planning the assassination and actually killing
Phillip was Phillip’s own soldier and friend/ lover Pausanius. - We’ve met Pausanis before, he was
the young man who was sexually assaulted by a drunk Phillip and his friends at Phillip’s wedding to
Cleopatra Eurydice!!

 According to Diodorus, this is what happened;

o Pausanius had been a long-term friend, bodyguard and lover (?) of Phillip’s, thanks to
Pausanius’ good looks.
o However, another younger man had appeared in Phillip’s court, and Phillip had taken a
liking to this man too, more than he liked Pausanius.

o This new young man, CONFUSINGLY, is also called Pausanius! – So many Pausanius’!! Just
think of Pausanius the younger, and then the older murdering Pausanius.

o Older Pausanius became hugely jealous of the younger Pausanius who was taking all of
Phillip’s attention, so he began to spread horrible rumours about the younger Pausanius. –
saying he had deformed genitals and would sleep with anyone.
o The younger Pausanius couldn’t take this bullying anymore, and he ended his life by letting
himself be killed in battle.

o The Younger Pausanius had been good friends with Attalus – remember him? Cleopatra
Eurydice’s uncle who REALLY insulted Alexander and Olympias at the wedding? Yes, him. –
and Attlus was very upset at his death.

o In revenge, it was Attalus that organised for the older Pausanius to be brought to the
wedding, got him blind-drunk and them let Phillip and the other men sexually assult him.
Attalus was responsible for the rape of Pausanius.

o Pausanius complained to Phillip about the assault, but Phillip wanted Attalus as a key ally
against Persia, so he kind of ignored Pausanius’ complaints and just gave him some money
and a small promtotion.
o Pausanius was devastated, and began to plot Phillip’s murder. He waited to Phillip was
without his guards, on the day of his great celebrations…
The Assassination of Phillip II
 On the day of his great celebrations for the invasion of Persia/ wedding of his daughter/ sacrifice of
the Bull to the Gods, Phillip decided that he wanted to enter the temple on his own.
 He wanted to do this to prove to the visiting
Greeks that he was loved and safe in his
kingdom, so they should trust him to rule.
 Apparently, Alexander asked to go in with
him, but Phillip refused. – Does this mean
Alexander is innocent?

 Pausanius used this as the opportunity to

attack Phillip while the king was
unprotected.
 Pausanius jumped forwards and stabbed
the King, he then ran from the building A modern drawing of the moment that Pausanias
and headed to the nearest gates out of murdered Phillip
the city. – He had horses waiting at every
exit, so he had the best chances of getting away.

 Most of the guards rushed to the king, but Attalus and Perdiccas (another soldier) chased after
Pausanius, and caught him after Pausanius tripped over a tree root and fell whilst trying to escape.

 Attalus, Perdiccas and the other men then stabbed Pausanius to death. – Interestingly they did not
try to interrogate him to find out if there were others involved, like the all the men waiting with
horses??

 Once Phillip was declared dead, this of course meant that Alexander became king. – There were no
other suitable male heirs at this time!

Why Alexander decide to invade Persia in 334BCE?

1. Revenge against the Persians

a. For the sacking of Athens and the Persian Wars
 When Alexander launched his invasion against Persia, he told the other Greek states who
were giving him troops that he was doing this in revenge for the devastation and damage
that the Persians had wrecked on Greece during the Persian Wars.

 Alexander said he was still upset and insulted at the damage they did to Athens, when
Xerxes sacked Athens and burnt the Acropolis.
 He said that his invasion was to punish the Persians for their actions, AND to take enough of
their wealth to pay back the damages.
  Suspicious reason, as the Macedonians actually submitted to the Persians when they asked
for Earth and Water back in the Persian Wars…
 This war was also nearly 130years ago when Alexander made these claims.

b. The assassination of his father, Phillip

 According to Arrian, Alexander actually sent a letter to Darius III, new king of Persia,
accusing him of sending the assassins that killed Phillip.
 Alexander then decided to go ahead with the invasion as a mark of respect to his father, and
avenge his father’s death.

 Only problem is, other sources say that Alexander and Olympias were involved in this death!
 Either way, Alexander used this as another reason to invade and attack Persia.

2. The Persian Empire was quite vulnerable (weaker to attack) in 334BCE

 Until 338BCE, Persia had been lead by a very strong and experienced king, called Artaxerxes III.
During this time, it would have a been very difficult to have a full-on invasion of Persia, as
Artaxerxes would have put up a good defence,
 In 388BCE, Artaxerxes died, and he was replaced with the younger and less-experienced, Darius III.

 Darius was not as strong a king, and did not have as good a relationship with his people/ advisors,
this made the empire weaker.

 When Alexander came to invade in 334BCE, Persia was still more vulnerable as Darius III was still
settling into his role. This made it a better time than ever to attack!

3. Phillip had already begun preparations for an invasion

 When Alexander became king of Macedonian, he inherited everything from his father. – he
inherited the throne, the power, control of Greece, but ALSO all of Phillip’s plans and
responsibilities too!
 This meant that Alexander inherited the expedition, and the expectation on him was that he’d
continue on with this.

 Alexander also had to pay off big debts that Phillip had left! – thanks dad! – and the easiest way to
do this was to invade Persia and use any money/ land taken to pay back the troops.

 Because Phillip had already begun preparations for the invasion, many senior generals and soldiers
were already stationed on the border of Persia and were waiting to begin. E.g. generals called
Parmenio and Attaus.
 It would have been a huge hassle to call all these men back and reorganise the armies to do
something else.
 It was also an easy invasion for Alexander to launch, BECAUSE Phillip had done all the prepping
already.

4. Alexander wanted to out-do his father?

 As we learnt in our lesson on Alexander and Phillip, this father and son had a very complicated
relationship.
 Sometimes they got on really well, like when Alexander tamed Bucephalus, or won against the
Sacred Band at the Battle of Chaeronea.
 Sometimes they argued and fought terribly, like when Alexander argued with Attalus at the
wedding and Phillip exiled Alexander from court.

 If we believe Plutarch when he said that Olympias taught Alexander that he was going to be greater
than Phillip, and that his real father was Zeus, then it could be true that Alexander wanted to prove
he was better than Phillip!

 If Alexander successfully invaded and CONQUERED Phillip, he would clearly be better than his
father, and HE would be the one who was remembered for it.

 Also, Alexander actually did more than just conquer Persia, he travelled as far as India and
established many new cities and groups of people. – so maybe he wanted to do something no King
of Macedonian/ MAN had ever done before?
 Topic 2 – Alexander as a Military Commander and the
Campaign in Persia

The Macedonian Army – The Cavalry

Cavalry = soldiers in the army who fight on horseback. They are the most powerful part of the army.

Companion = a close friend, or a close advisor.

Thessalian = men/soldiers who are from or trained in Thessaly, which is a region of Greece south of Macedonia.

The main features of the Macedonian Cavalry

When he invaded Persia, Alexander’s army had about 50,000 men in it. These men would have a particular
job/ position in the army, this would be one of the following;
1) The cavalry (including the elite Companion Cavalry and Thessalian Cavalry).
2) The infantry (foot companions)
3) The shield bearers (called the Agrianians)
In today’s lesson, we are going to focus on the cavalry – the Companion Cavalry and
the Thessalian Cavalry.

This diagram shows you how Alexander would have organised the different parts of the army when they went
into battle.

It shows you where each part of the army would be made to stand.

Each part had been given its place on purpose, Alexander thought very hard about where each type of soldier
should go! – e.g. the Cavalry go at the sides to protect the infantry (men that fight on the ground).

• The Cavalry was an extremely important part of Alexander’s army, and Alexander himself would usually fight
alongside the cavalry on his own horse – Bucephalus! (that’s the same horse he tamed as a child).
 • Battles often started with a cavalry charge which first broke the enemy’s cavalry, but was then able to
quickly turn round and crash into the rear of the enemy’s infantry.

• The Macedonian cavalry were famous for using their cavalry for ‘shock tactics’. This was where the cavalry
would all charge on the enemy infantry at the same time, and scare their enemy into running away. – The
Macedonian Cavalry would ‘shock’/ scare the enemy!

The Companion Cavalry

 The Companion Cavalry were the best part of Alexander’s army, and were the best type of Cavalry
he had.
 Alexander took almost 3,000 Companion Cavalry men with him on his campaign against Persia.

 They were famous for their skill in battle, and hugely respected as soldiers. Modern Historians think
that they were the best cavalry in the Ancient world, neither the Greeks nor the Romans ever made
a better Cavalry.
 The Companion Cavalry were so good because they were incredibly well-trained, and were very
mobile in battle – this meant they could move quickly and easily, so they didn’t often fall out of
formation during a battle.
 The Companion Cavalry were most often used for the ‘shock tactics’ mentioned above.

 They fought in a ‘wedge formation’ during battles, which the best riders/ soldiers at the front to
lead the others. This was a good tactic as it made it easy for the Companion Cavalry to slice into,
and break through, the enemy’s front line. – This formation also helped with the ‘shock tactic’.

This diagram shows the ‘wedge formation’ that the

Companion Cavalry would use in battle.

The best soldiers went at the front, which an

experienced solider at each end of the back row to help
keep riders in formation.

 Alexander almost always rode with the Companion Calvary, and lead them himself.

 This was because the Companion Cavalry included an elite group of men called the Royal Squadron,
which Alexander was a part of; The Royal Squadron almost included Alexander’s closest friends and
advisors, who joined him in battle.

The Thessalian Cavalry

  The Thessalian Cavalry were also highly skilled and very experienced horsemen. They had slightly
less-heavy armour than the Companion Cavalry, which meant that they could move a bit quicker in
battle.
 The Thessalian Cavalry were so good because the men who served in it were recruited from the
area of Thessaly, which bred the best horses in Greece. So the men had naturally grown up riding
horses and training with them.

 This cavalry focused more on defending the infantry, than attacking the enemy. – The Companion
Cavalry did the attacking, which meant that the Thessalian Cavalry were second to the Companion
Cavalry.
 The role of the Thessalian cavalry was to defend the foot soldiers (infantry) from the enemy’s
cavalry, and they often defended the left hand side of Alexander’s army.

 Because of their positon on the left hand side of the army, the Thessalian Cavalry often took a
heavy beating during battles, as this position meant they faced off against the strongest part of the
enemy’s cavalry.

 However, during the battle of Granicus, and the battle of

Issus, Arrian records that the Thessalian Cavalry did
incredibly well against the Persians.

 The Thessalian Cavalry fought in a rhombus (a diamond

shape) formation. This meant they could move and
regroup incredibly easily, whereas if they had been in a
square shape, this would have been harder to do!

This diagram shows the Rhombus formation

This diagram shows why fighting in a diamond or wedge (diamond shape) that the Thessalian cavalry
formation is better in battle than fighting as a square! would have taken.
 The Macedonian Phalanx
 The Macedonian Phalanx was a military tactic using infantry soldiers with long spears, and Phillip II
of Macedon, Alexander’s father, developed it.
 The Phalanx was already an important part of the Macedonian army when Alexander took over,
thanks to his father’s work.

 Some historians argue that Alexander actually inherited the best parts of the army, rather than
developing anything new himself.
 Alexander repeatedly used the Macedonian Phalanx while on campaign in Persia, and it was very
successful against Darius III’s troops!

This illustration shows how the Phalanx would look and work – but it is a side-on view. In a real battle
the side of the Phalanx would be protected by other infantrymen and a cavalry unit.

This Phalanx has approx.. 256 men fighting in it

Why was the Macedonian Phalanx so effective in battle?

1. The Phalanx fought in a rectangle formation, and soldiers marched very close together, so it was
very difficult for the enemy to break the Phalanx up.

2. Each soldier carried a double-ended spear called a sarissa. Each spear was 18ft in length and
made of very strong wood. This meant that the soldiers in the Phalanx could kill the enemy
without having to get close to them. – The sharp points of the sarissas also created a killing
zone and terrifying barrier to break through for the enemy!

3. The Phalanx could be used to hold the enemy forces back while the cavalry worked on breaking
through their ranks.

4. The Phalanx marched surprisingly quickly, and often caught their enemy by surprise in battle.
 5. The soldiers in the phalanx wore light armour, and were able to march long distances in difficult
weather with ease.

Weaknesses of the Macedonian Phalanx?

 Just the one. They were weak at their sides as the sarissas couldn’t stick out sideways and their
armour was light. So they had to be protected by cavalry or other types of soldiers.

The use of Specialist troops – Agraines and Hypaspists

Agraines
 An elite part of Alexander’s light infantry – LIGHT infantry meant that you were a soldier who didn’t
wear lots of armour, so your armour was LIGHT.
 Their main weapon was a javelin, and they were all expert javelin throwers. They would carry a
bundle of javelins with them into battle so that they didn’t run out of weapons too quickly.

 They were an important part of the army and were often placed on the right hand side of the
cavalry, which was a very honourable place to be given in battle.
 Agraines were particularly useful when the phalanx couldn’t be used, or when Alexander needed
infantry who could move faster than the phalanx. – which the Agraines could!

Weaknesses?
 Because the Agraines were light infantry, they went into battle with no armour or helmets, which
meant they were more vulnerable to attack. – some historians argue that they didn’t even have
shields!

Hypaspists
 Another part of the elites of the infantry (soldiers who fought on foot). There were different types
of Hypaspists;
Royal Hypaspists = were soldiers who came from an aristocratic (noble/ royal) family so were
thought of as better soldiers. They were trained by Alexander’s closest companion, Hephaestion,
and were part of Alexander’s bodyguards.
Regular Hypaspists = soldiers who came from normal/ not aristocratic backgrounds. Wouldn’t be
part of the King’s bodyguard, but were still very important in battle.

 They were different from the soldiers that made up the Phalanx as the Hypaspists DID carry shields.
 Historians argue whether they carried pikes or not.

 About 3,000 Hypaspists went with Alexander on his campaign into Persia.
 All Hypaspists were very good in sieges, close combat fighting and in missions that required physical
endurance. – Arrian records they were very important in the battle of Issus (333BC), battle of
Granicus (334BC) and the final battle of Gaugamela (331BC).
 Weaknesses?
 If they didn’t carry pikes, then they only had swords to fight with.
 Other than that, they’re pretty good members of the infantry!

The Battle of Granicus – 334BCE

This was the first battle that Alexander fought when he arrived in Persia. It took place not far from where
his ships landed, at a river called Granicus – which is where the battle gets its’ name!

It was fought between Alexander’s Macedonian

forces vs. Persian forces lead by the commander
Memnon, the Persians also had Greek
mercenaries fighting for them.
Mercenaries = soldiers who are paid to fight for a
side, they do not have loyalties.

This is a map showing the 3 main battles of Alexander’s

campaign in Persia. - The site of the battle of Granicus has
been circled for you!
Lead up to the battle
 Even though Phillip had been preparing an invasion of Persia, this had not concerned Darius III very
much, and when Alexander arrived in Persia he wasn’t particularly worried. Alexander wasn’t very
well-known to the Persians so Darius didn’t feel the need to go to battle against Alexander in
person.
 So instead, Darius sent a trusted commander, Memnon, to lead his forces and organise the
Satraps in the area to deal with Alexander’s arrival.

 Memnon was a Greek, but he was loyal to Darius III. However, the local satraps didn’t like or trust
him because he wasn’t Persian.

 When Memnon met with the local satraps to discuss Alexander’s arrival, Memnon suggested that
they should go with a ‘scorched earth’ – which is when you destroy all the land and crops ahead of
the enemy so that they have no food or place to shelter.
 But, because the local satraps didn’t trust Memnon, and because they didn’t want to have to
destroy their own land, they refused to do this. – This mean that Alexander had all the supplies he
needed moving into Persia.
  The Persians believed that their battle tactics would be better than Alexander’s – they didn’t
know about his Phalanx or Companion Cavalry! – and decided that they would meet the
Macedonian forces at Granicus river.
 They choose the river because it was wide (60ft!), fast-flowing and had steep banks. So they
believed they would have the advantage.

 Alexander met the Persian forces at the other side of Granicus River, and realised that he would
HAVE to win this battle, so that he could move forwards and gain the resources he needed to
defeat the Empire.
 Alexander realised that the Persians did not fear him because they did not know him.

 One of Alexander’s closest companions, Parmenio, suggested that Alexander wait till the next
morning to attack, but Alexander rejected this idea because he thought it was cowardly and
showed weakness.

The Battle of Granicus

 The Persians were already in a weak position at the beginning of the battle, because they decided
to put their cavalry right in front of the river, with the infantry behind the cavalry.
 This trapped the cavalry! The horses didn’t want to walk down the step embankments to the
river, and they couldn’t go backwards as the cavalry was in the way!

 According to Arrian, Alexander

made himself obvious in battle.

 Arrian and Plutarch say that he

wore bright, shiny armour and a
helmet with a big white feather in
it. – He WANTED the Persians to
see him!

 Once the battle started, Alexander

commanded the cavalry on the
right flank, and his best
companion, Parmenio,
commanded the cavalry on the
left flank. - the infantry and
Phalanx were put in the middle. This is a diagram showing how the two sides were organised for the
Battle of Granicus 334BC. – The Persians are in red, and the
 Alexander made the first move – Macedonians are in blue.
He sent his companion cavalry
This diagram also shows Alexander’s move across the rover to attack
and some infrantry troops cross
the Persian Infantry and confuse the Persians.
the river first.

 The Persians responded by firing rounds and rounds of arrows and javelins into the Macedonians
who had begun to cross the river. – they wanted to attack whilst the Macedonians were in the
slippery river banks.
  The Persian attack wasn’t as damaging as it could have been because the Persia javelins weren’t
very effective against the Sarissa’s of the Phalanx.

 The Persians focused their attacks on the centre of the Macedonian forces, mostly the infantry
you can see in the middle of the diagram. This caused a lot of damage there, but it meant that the
focus was taken away from Alexander on the right!
 Alexander used this opportunity to launch
another attack across the river, and he charged
across to fight the Persians hand to hand, with
his Companion Cavalry!

 The Persians now began to weaken against

Alexander’s attack, and Alexander successfully
killed one of the Persian leaders of the battle. –
Mithridates, Dairus III’s own son-in-law!

 The Persians began to retreat, they had lost

their leaders and the Macedonians were starting
An artists’ impression of Alexander crossing the
to overwhelm them. The Persians the fled the
river to launch an attack with his companion battle and the Alexander won the Battle of
cavalry! Granicus!

 The only part of the Battle where Alexander was in danger was when another Persian satrap
noticed him fighting Mithridates, and went to strike Alexander dead.
 HOWEVER, Alexander was actually saved by one of his on closest companions, Cleitus the Black.
Cleitus saw the Persian Satrap raise his sword to kill Alexander, and sliced the Persians arm off mid-
swing. Alexander owed Cleitus his life!

Aftermath of the Battle

 Although the Persians had fled, the Greek mercenaries paid to fight for the Persians had not.
Alexander did not chase after the fleeing Persians, but instead rounded up the mercenaries, who
were now asking to be spared.
 5,000 mercenaries were still alive at this point. 3,000 of them were killed by Alexander, and 2,000
were sent to work in the mines of Macedonia as punishment.

 The spoils of war - gold and rich cloth - were sent home to Alexander’s mother Olympias.

 To honor all who had died in battle, Alexander buried both Greek and Persians alike (although the
Persians normally burned their dead).

 300 suits of Persian armour were sent home to Athens to remind the Greeks that Granicus
was only one step in the war of revenge against the Persians.
 The siege of Tyre 332BCE

Causes of the Siege

 Alexander approached the island of Tyre, insisting that he just wanted to make a respectful sacrifice
to their local god, Melqart. – This god was broadly the same as the Greek halfgod, Heracles, who
Alexander really admired.
 However, the Tyrians who lived on the island city of (new) Tyre, knew that this was just a trick to try
and get himself access to the island.
 They responded that Alexander could make his sacrifice at the town of the mainland, which was
technically called Old Tyre. – Old Tyre was an important place, and the Tyrians knew this, as did
Alexander.

 When the Tyrians refused to give Alexander access to the island of Tyre, New Tyre, this was
basically the same as declaring war against him, as they hadn’t obeyed Alexander’s wish.
 The Tyrians on the island were
confident that they would win a war
against Alexander;
1. They had a powerful navy and
mercenary army
2. Their city lay roughly half a mile
(0.8 km) offshore
3. According to Arrian, the walls
facing the landward side were an
impressive 150 ft (46m) in
height. Whether they actually
stood that high is uncertain, but
even so, the defences of Tyre were
formidable and had withstood a
number of mighty sieges in the
past. This is a diagram of how the Siege of Tyre looked. – We can
see the two harbours and the causeway that Alexander built
 So the Tyrians prepared for a siege to the island
war against Alexander.
 They evacuated most of the women and children to their colony at Carthage, on the African coast,
leaving behind perhaps 40,000 people.
 Carthage also promised to send more ships and soldiers.

 Alexander knew that sieging Tyre would be an incredibly difficult task, so he gathered his generals
to a meeting where he explained that it was very important that they took Tyre because;
1. It would help them take all other cities in the area.
2. It would support their attack on Persian-held Egypt.
3. It would mean they could take control of Perisa’s navy/fleet, which was stationed at Tyre.
  In a last-ditch attempt to prevent a long and exhaustive siege, he sent heralds to Tyre demanding
their surrender, but the Macedonian's were executed and their bodies hurled into the sea.
The start of the Siege
 Alexander took Old Tyre on the mainland and began to build a causeway (or mole) across the
water toward the walls of Tyre. – He used rocks, timbers, and rubble taken from the buildings of
the old city.
 At first the building of this causeway went very well because the water was shallow ear the
mainland and it was easy to build upon.
 But, as the causeway got further into the water towards the island of Tyre, the water got deep very
quickly and it took even longer to build the foundations of the causeway.
 Plus, as Alexander’s troops got closer to the island, the Tyrians began to fire arrows and rocks at
them. – building the causeway slowed down a lot at this time.
Alexander builds siege towers
 To deal with the fact that his builders were getting attack by missiles and arrows whilst building the
causeway, Alexander made two siege towards.
 These siege towers were made from timber (wood) and covered with leather. They were put at the
end of the causeway, facing the island, to
protect the builders.
 However, these siege towards could also have
soldiers fire missiles back from the top deck of
the tower. – So the towers offered protection
AND attack against TYRE.
 Work on the causeway now sped up, and
Alexander spent much of his time on the
causeway, giving out small gifts of money to his
sweating labourers and leading by personal This is a cartoon of how the siege towers at Tyre
example. could have looked. – We can see the windows were
Tyre attacks back arrows could have been fired from.

 The Tyrians responded to these new siege towers by building fire ships and failing them right
towards Alexander’s causeway.
 Fire ships = ships that are filled with flammable and explosive materials, set on fire, and then
pushed towards the enemy so that they explode and destroy them. – Bit like a bomb of the ancient
world.
 The Tyrians set two of these ships towards the causeway, and successfully destroyed the two siege
towers that Alexander had built.
 Smaller ships from Tyre also landed on the causeway, and Tyrian soldiers attacked Alexander’s men
as they were trying to put out the fires.
Alexander brings his fleet…
 Alexander quickly realised that he wouldn’t be able to take Tyre without a fleet of ships. He kept
building the causeway, but he knew it could always be attacked again in the same way.
 So Alexander back into the empire to gather a fleet of ships. He received ships from Macedon, as
well as other areas, and he returned to Tyre with 220 ships to attack the island with!
 The Tyrians were taken by surprise, and what was worse for them, their support from Carthage in
Africa had never turned up. – So they were facing Alexander alone…

 The Tyrians began to panic, and all they could do was block their harbours, so Alexander’s ships
couldn’t get in, but their’s couldn’t get out either.

 Alexander attempted to attack one of the harbours, but it didn’t lead to a full-scale attack.
  Alexander now began to rebuild the siege towers on the causeway, BUT he still couldn’t get his
ships close to the island as the Tyrians would throw huge rocks off of the island walls as soon as a
ship got too close, meaning the ships couldn’t land!

 The Tyrians kept on attacking Alexander’s fleet. For example they would pour red-hot sand over the
ships, causing them to catch fire and sink.
 Alexander responded by using chains, instead of rope, to pull the huge rocks away from the walls of
the city, which began to weaken the wall surrounding the island.
The final attack on Tyre
 Alexander was becoming fed up of small battles between ships and Tyrians attacks. He now brought
his ships directly beneath the walls of the island and began to pound them with battering rams.
 However, this first attempt to break the walls failed, and he tried to attack again via the causeway.
– This also failed a second time!

 Alexander waited for three days before trying again. – He distracted the Tyrians at another part of
the island, and lauched an attack via a small hole he has made in the wall at the southern end of the
island.
 Alexander used equipment he had brought to break through the wall, and the Macedonians had
soon successful broken into Tyre. Alexander’s soldiers swarmed through Tyre and took complete
control.

 Six thousand Tyrians were slaughtered when the city was taken, and another 2,000 crucified on the
beach. A further 30,000 were sold into slavery. - Macedonian losses amounted to 400 men killed.

 With the siege finally over (it had started in January and ended in July), Alexander made his sacrifice
to Heracles, and held a torch race and triumphal procession through the streets of the city.

The Battle of Gaugamela – October 1st, 331BC

Before Gaugamela
 After defeating Darius III at the battle of Issus, Alexander marched south and took control of Egypt
from the Persians, and then took over the ports on the coastline.

 This was significant because it meant that Alexander took control of the Persian navy, as these had
been waiting in the ports on the coastline.
 Darius III was now without a navy and had lost a powerful part of his empire.

 Alexander then marched his troops back up the coastline from Egypt, and then headed eastwards,
inland, towards Gaugamela where his troops had told him that Darius was preparing for battle.
 This is a map which shows the route of the WHOLE of Alexander’s
campaign in Persia.

This part of the maps shows the area that

Alexander marched through after the battle
of Issus, taking over Egypt and the Persian
Navy.

The Battle of Gaugamela took place here.

Preparations for the battle

 Darius had chosen to stage the battle at Gaugamela, as the flat plains should benefit his chariots,
and he used his time there to set out
The coastline Alexander took over which booby-traps for Alexander’s troops.
gave him control of the Persian navy.  Alexander arrived in the area, and his
scouts succeeded in capturing some Persian
soldiers, who told Alexander why Darius
The areas of Egypt Alexander took over. chose Gaugamela, and then about the
booby-traps. – Alexander’s men then went
and disabled them before the battle.

 Alexander met with his generals and discussed tactics for the battle the next day. One of his closest
companions, Parmenio, argued that they should attack at night, under the cover of darkness. But
Alexander rejected this idea, saying that he did not want to cheat his way to victory, but earn his
win fairly.
 Instead, he planned to begin the attack the next morning, and he ensured that his troops got a
good night’s sleep before the battle.

 Darius had expected Alexander to attack during the night, so he had kept his troops AWAKE,
prepared for the attack that never came. – so they were tired going into battle the next morning.
  Before the battle, the troops of the Macedonian army ended up doing a mock-up of the battle that
was to come, with one group pretending to be the Persians, and another group being the
Macedonians. – This was supposedly just for their entertainment.
 When Alexander heard of this game, he appointed one soldier to be Darius, and one soldiers to be
him, and he watched the pretend battle to see the outcome.

 The soldiers fought hard, throwing mud and rocks at each other instead of real weapons, and
eventually the Macedonian side ‘won’ the ‘battle’.
 Alexander interpreted this as a divine sign from the gods that he would win the real battle of
Gaugamela!

Events of the battle

 The battle itself began about mid-morning, and The Persian line stretched across the plain, far
outflanking the Macedonians.

 The Persian put their cavalry on their left and right flanks, these groups of cavalry soldiers were
from many different parts of the empire - Bactrians, Scythians, and Arachotians, some of the finest
mounted warriors in the Empire.
 In the centre, where Darius was stationed, was a huge amount of Persian infantry, and Darius'
2,000 - 10,000 mercenary Greeks. These mercenaries were very good, and Darius was relying on
them to halt the advance of the dreaded Macedonian phalanx. A further 50 scythed chariots and 15
elephants protected the centre.

 Alexander's army, with 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, was nevertheless heavily outnumbered.
Modern estimates put the size of Darius force at anywhere between 90,000 to 250,000 men

 Despite of the Persians having the much bigger army, the Macedonians enjoyed some advantages.
Their Phalanx was stronger and better trained than the Persian infantry, and the Sarissas that the
Phalanx used meant that they could attack their enemy before their enemy could get to them!

 Persian infantry, by contrast,

wore little to no armour, and
most carried wicker shields that
offered no defence against the
brutal power of sarissas. Most
of the Persian soldiers were
paid to fight for this battle, they
weren’t well trained and were
poorly disciplined soldiers.

 Much like at the Battle of

Granicus, Alexander had his
infantry/ Phalanx in the middle,
and had his calvalry on the left
and right flanks as well. This is a diagram of how the two sides were organised
for the Battle of Gaugamela
  He had Parmenio take charge of the Cavalry on the left hand side of the battle, and Alexander took
control on the cavalry on the right hand side of the battle.

 At first, Alexander tried to out flank (go around) the left flank of Darius’ army, but the left flank of the
Persians was ordered to keep up with him to stop this happening.

 Darius then ordered his right flank of cavalry to attack Alexander’s left flank of cavalry, the one that was lead
by Parmenio.

 Darius’ cavalry put up an excellent fight against Alexander and the Macedonian cavalry, but they soon began
to weaken. When Darius saw this was happening, he ordered his chariots and war elephants to attack the
centre of the Macedonian army, straight at the phalanx!

 The Macedonian infantry attacked the chariots by grabbing the reigns and dragging the drivers off, and then
by making lots of noise with their shields so that the chariot horses panicked.

 They let the war elephants charge past them to be dealt with by the Hypaspists waiting at the back.

 Darius now had to commit more men to protect his cavalry being destroyed by Alexander on the right, which
meant that he had to take forces from the centre, and a gap opened up there.

 The Macedonians took advantage of this gap, and Alexander wheeled around, leading his own right flank
cavalry into a charge on this gap in the Persian centre in a diamond wedge formation. – He then ordered the
phalanx and other infantry troops to follow.

 Darius saw that his army was being demolished and that the centre would not hold much longer, so he fled
the battle. – as soliders and generals saw their own king fleeing the battle, they began to panic and lose
formation. They were then routed by the Macedonians.

 Alexander began to chase Darius, to kill him once and for all….

Parmenio during the battle

 Parmenio had been fighting on the flank of the Macedonian army for the whole battle, but he had
not been doing as well as Alexander.
 The Persian general, Mazaeus, had continued to push back against Parmenio and had not realised
that Darius III had fled the battle.
 Parmenio was close to being beaten, so he sent a messenger to request help from Alexander. –
Otherwise, Parmenio and the cavalry on the left flank were going to be defeated.

 Amazingly, this message actually got across th battle field to Alexander, but Alexander was in
pursuit of Darius and close to catching him!

 Alexander had a choice; he could either keep after Darius, capture and kill the king, or he could give
up the chase and save his friend.
 Alexander chose to give up the chase and save Parmenio.
  But according to Plutarch, Alexander was very annoyed about having to do this. And Plutarch also
hinted that Parmenio actually deliberately begin to loose on the left, so that Alexander would have
to give up and come and save him. According to Plutarch he was angry that Alexander had ignored
his advice to attack at night.
 Arrian, however, doesn’t mention anything negative about Alexander having to rescue Parmenio!

Consequences of the battle

 In all, Arrian states that over 300,000 Persians were killed and more captured, with only 100
Macedonian dead. These figures are almost certainly exaggerated.

 Modern Historians estimate that 40,000 Persian dead, and Alexander himself claimed that his army
suffered about 500 killed and 5,000 wounded.

 Although Darius still lived, his authority was weakened and he had lost the respect of his generals
when he fled the battle rather than fight Alexander man to man.
 Now that he had defeated Darius III, Alexander rested his troops at Arbela for a month and then
began to march on the heartland of Achaemenid empire to take control of it for himself.

The siege of Aornos Rock 326BC

Alexander moves eastwards, towards Pakistan and India

We know that once Alexnader had defeated Darius III and taken over the Persian Empire, he left the
empire in the hands of local satraps and began to explore new lands towards modern-day India.
Some believe he wanted to find the end of the earth, or maybe just make the largest empire ever known.

Glossary
The challenge and siege of Aornos Rock
Fortress = a base that is has
An interesting challenge that Alexander won during his time near India,
good protections, often strong
was the siege of Aornos Rock. Aornos Rock is a huge cliff, found up in the
walls. Tends to be on top of a
mountains in modern-day Pakistan.
hill, mountain or cliff.
The problem was that the locals in the area of Aornos Rock were refusing
to surrender to Alexander, they had attacked his troops and then run
away to their well-protected fortress at the top of Aornos Rock. Siege Engines = a machine
designed to break through
stone/ strong walls.
Why could Alexander not just attack the Rock?
The locals who had built their fortress on top of Aornos Rock had built a
Earthworks = mounds of earth
very strong, and well-protected fortress. They had good supplies and
and rocks used for defence or
could easily last months up there.
practical reasons. Always man-
made, never naturally
occurring.
The problem for Alexander was that his main troops couldn’t get up to the fortress, as there was a big drop
between Aornos Rock, and the nearest mountain to climb up next to it.
Alexander’s troops COULD climb the nearest mountain, but they couldn’t the deep valley/ gap they needed
to cross to get to the fortress. – most importantly, he couldn’t get his siege engines across the gap, and he
would need these machines to break down the walls of the fortress…

How did Alexander solve this problem?

The locals thought that they were safe in the fortress, and Alexander did consider waiting a few months to
see if he could starve them out, but then he changed his mind.
Alexander made a GREAT tactical decision, and he ordered his men to start filling the valley between the
two mountains with all the rocks, rubble, stones and earth that they could find from the surrounding area.
– and obviously there was lots of this in a mountain range!
Filling in the valley was called building earthworks, and these earthworks could be strong enough to allow
his siege engines to travel across and finally allow him to break down the fortress.

How did the locals on Aornos Rock react to the earthworks?

The locals were terrified by what they saw, no man had ever beaten the valley before! When they realised
that Alexander’s siege engines would soon be battering down their walls, they surrendered themselves to
Alexander.
Alexander’s tactics had once again successfully worked against an enemy. – And these were VERY similar
tactics to the ones he used at the siege of Tyre when he built the causeway across to the island!

What does this siege of Aornos show us about Alexander’s leadership?

We can learn that Alexander was a ruthless leader and man.
– When the local surrendered, he put them all to death and hunted down and killed those that tried
to escape.
We can learn that Alexander was an inspiring and determined leader.
– Alexander refused to let the geography of the mountain beat him, and instead he began an
almost impossible task of filling in a valley enough to let siege engines through. He was also the first
man to stand atop of Aornos Rock once it was conquered!
 The Battle of the Persian Gates 330BCE

The lead up to the battle

 The Persian Empire had lost a number of important battles against Alexander by this point; they
had lost at Granicus (334 BC), Issus (333 BC) and Gaugamela (331 BC).

 By the end of 331 BC Alexander had moved into rich new lands of the empire, into an area called
Mesopotamia. This gave him control of the major Persian cities of Babylon and Susa. – The next
stop for Alexander would be the Persian capital, Persepolis!

 Meanwhile, Darius III had run away to Ecbatana

– another city – and was trying to build a new
army to challenge Alexander.
 Darius told the loyal Satrap of the area of
Persepolis, called Ariobarzanes, to guard the
mountain routes to the city, to get to
Persepolis the quickest, you had to go through
the Zagros mountains.

 The main mountain route to Persepolis was

called the Persian Gate. It was the only path big
enough for an army to fit through. Map showing the main battles of this time and where
the Battle of the Persian Gate took place.

 When Alexander and his army got to the Zagros mountains, Alexander split the Macedonian army
into two parts. Alexander's general, Parmenio, took one half along the Royal Road, and Alexander
himself took the quicker route through the mountains. – Alexander and the Macedonians did not
expect that they would find much resistance now.
 Believing that he would not encounter any more enemy forces during his march, Alexander
neglected to send scouts ahead to check the area, and so he walked right into the Persian ambush!
thus walked into Ariobarzanes' ambush.

Events of the battle

 Alexander entered the narrow mountain path with his troops, but as he got deeper into the
mountain he found that the road had been deliberately blocked by a wall of earth and rocks. – they
were trapped!
 The narrow mountain path of the Persian Gate faced into the bright morning sun when Alexander
arrived into it, this meant that his troops couldn’t see the Persian waiting for them until they were
ambushed and attacked!
 The Persians threw down boulders on them from the northern slopes. From the southern slope,
Persian archers fired arrows and other projectiles at the Macedonians.

 Alexander's army lost a lot of men in this Persian ambush. The Macedonians attempted to retreat
out of the pass, but it was very difficult to do in such a narrow space and the troops at the other
end of the line were still advancing into the pass. – they hadn’t realised there was an ambush at the
front yet!
 Alexander was forced to leave his dead behind to save the rest of his army—a great mark of
disgrace to the Macedonians and to other Greeks who valued highly the recovery and proper burial
of their fallen.

 This first ambush was a huge success for Ariobarzanes, the Persian Satrap. If he could stop
Alexander's army moving through the Persian Gates, he would force the Macedonian army to use
other routes to invade Persia, which would give Darius III more time to create a new army, and
possibly stop the Macedonian invasion altogether!
Map showing routes that Alexander took to try and get through
 Ariobarzanes held the pass for days,
the pass.
and Alexander retreated to from the
Persian Gate path and planned with
his companions what to do next. This is the route of
 Alexander knew that he needed to get the second attack,
around Ariobarzanes’ troops and where Alexander
used the secret path
ambush them himself, but he had no
way of knowing if there was another
route through the mountains to get
behind the Persians…

 As fate would have it, at this point a

local sheppard appeared and shows
Alexander and his troops a secret
path that would lead them round the
back of the Persians and their barrier
in the Persian Gate! – But like the This is the route of the first attack,
Persians at Thermopylae? where Ariobarzanes ambushed them.

 So, Alexander and his companions planned an ambush of their own! – Alexander sent one of his
companions, Cratarus, back into the Persian Gate with some troops, to make it look like they were
trying to attack again.
 Alexander then took the secret mountain path that the sheppard showed him, with some of his
own troops, so that when Ariobarzanes began to attack Cratarus’ troops in the mountain pass,
Alexander suddenly launched a surprise attack of his own!
  Alexander’s attack caught the Persians by surprise, and the Persians were soom overwhelmed and
defeated. – the path was now open to Alexander and his men!

Consequences of the battle

There are two important consequences of Alexander winning the Battle of the Persian Gate;
1. This was the last time that the Persians tried to fight back against Alexander and his army. No more
Persian resistance from now on!

2. Alexander now had quick and easy access to the capital of the Persian Empire, the city of
Persepolis. This meant that he now had control of the empire and access to the huge wealth of the
Persian treasuries – he could pay his troops!

The pursuit of Darius and treachery of Bessus

Darius III’s problems

 After he fled from Alexander at the battle of
Gaugamela, Darius III basically lost the respect
and control of the Persian Empire.

 This also meant that he started to lose the respect

of his generals and satraps who helped him run
the empire. – they started to doubt that Darius III
could still be king and defeat Alexander.

 Darius’ army had been mostly destroyed at the This is an image from the film Alexander, showing
Battle of Gaugamela, so he had to run away to the the character of Darius before the battle of
East and try to rebuild a new one to challenge Gaugamela. – He is made to look nervous, as he
Alexander again. later runs away from the battle.

What did Alexander do?

 For Alexander, it was not enough that he had beaten Darius III at Gaugamela and that Darius had
run away. – Alexander needed to capture Darius III to properly defeat him.

 If he did not capture Darius, there would always be a risk that Darius might try and come back in
the future to challenge Alexander again.
 So Alexander ordered his army to move east and continue to hunt down Darius.

Darius’ own men turn against him

  As Darius had run away to the East to rebuild his army, he had taken his best and most loyal
generals/ satraps with him to help keep him safe.
 The problem was, lots of these men were now very disappointed in Darius and couldn’t believe that
he had run away from Alexander in battle.

 At this point, one of the most powerful satraps with Darius, the Satrap of Bactria called Bessus,
stood up to Darius and forced him off of the throne. – we don’t know if he did this out of
disappointment, or because he wanted to be king himself, but either way Bessus was successful.
 Bessus then said that HE was king and renamed him Artaxeres V – this was a royal name.

 Bessus was supported by most of the other generals and satraps. They tied Darius III up in chains
and kept him as a prisoner.
 Soon after they had put him in chains, some of Bessus’ supporters moved Darius to a wagon,
stabbed him and left him to die. – they did this as they had heard that Alexander was chasing them
down.

Alexander’ response to ‘king’ Bessus

 Alexander was OUTRAGED (very angry!) by what Bessus had done!
 Alexander had wanted to defeat Darius himself, not have him removed by one of his own satraps.

 Alexander believed that the position of king was very important and should always be respected,
but clearly Bessus and his supporters had disrespected their king in the worst way possible. – This
meant that Alexander had to punish them.
 Alexander then moved to hunt down Bessus after discovering the dead body of Darius abandoned
in the wagon.

 Bessus fled from Alexander for nearly a year, but in 329 Bessus was handed over to Alexander and
the Macedonian army by a group of his own men! – they were more scared of Alexander than they
were of Bessus.
 Bessus was killed by Alexander in 329BCE.

Alexander’s treatment of Darius III

 Although Darius was discovered by
Macedonian soldiers just before he died, he
did not live long enough for Alexander to get
there in time and speak to him. – this seems
to have been a big disappointment for
Alexander.

 As a sign of respect for a king, Alexander

ordered that Darius body was to be sent to
the capital of the Persian Empire, Persepolis,
This isand buriedinwith
an image the other
a modern kings
drawing of thethe
of what past.
it
could have looked like when Alexander was shown
Darius dead body. – Alexander looks very sad and
disappointed.
  This was a huge sign of respect, from one king to another, and shows us the honourable side of
Alexander’s character.

Topic 3 – Alexander’s Character and Companions

The Burning of Persepolis

What do we know happened?

 After Darius III's defeat, Alexander marched to the Persian
capital city of Persepolis and, after looting its treasures, burned the great palace and
surrounding city to the ground, destroying hundreds of years' worth of building
projects.
 The following are the best-known ancient accounts of the burning of Persepolis, all of
them written centuries after the event, but based on earlier works now lost.

 In all of them, except Arrian's, the story follows the same basic narrative of the
Macedonian conquerors celebrating with too much wine and deciding to set the city
on fire in retaliation for the burning of Athens in 480 BCE.

What is Arrian’s version of events?

 Arrian says that Alexander arrived in Persepolis and stopped his guards from stealing
from the treasury at the palace. – although it does seem like he probably took some
money for his troops.

 Alexander HIMSELF then decided that he wanted to burn down the palace.

 One of his best and oldest generals, Parmenio, advised against burning down
Persepolis. – Parmenio said it was stupid to burn down such an incredible palace that
Alexander now owned, and that it would turn the local Persians against him!

 Parmenio argued that if Alexander burnt the palace down it would make him look
like a conqueror and not a king, and Alexander wanted to be seen as a king.
  Alexander responded that he was going to burn down the palace anyway, and he was
doing it in revenge for what Xerxes had when he sacked Athens during the Persian
Wars, 100s of years before.

 THIS IS IMPORTANT; - Arrian is very CRITICAL of Alexander’s choice. Arrian says that
it was th wrong thing to do and it “was not an effective punishment”.

What is Plutarch’s version of events?

 Plutarch says that when Alexander arrived at Persepolis, he took a look around, saw
how incredible this new city of his was, and then decided to rest in the city for a
while. – Alexander then decided to throw a party to celebrate their success in
conquering Persia…

 Plutarch then says that the girlfriends and wives of the men came to join them at the
party and everyone started to get really drunk.
 THIS IS IMPORTANT;- Plutarch then mentions a woman (who isn’t mentioned by
Arrian!), called Thais.
 Thais was an Athenian who was the lover of Alexander’s companion/ friend, Ptolemy.
According to Plutarch she started to talk about how badly the Persians had treated
the Greeks when they sacked Athens – Plutarch says that she was from Athens
herself!

 According to Plutarch, it was THAIS who suggested that burning down Persepolis
would be a good revenge for Greece, not Alexander. – Plutarch even says that Thais
wanted to be the one to do it!

 In Plutarch’s version, the Macedonians really liked this idea, and they all joined in an
encouraged Alexander to get involved. – Alexander then led the way to burn down
the city.
 Apparently Alexander quickly regretted the decision and tried to put the fire out, but
it was too late.

 Plutarch also says that the Macedonians were only keen to burn down Persepolis
because they thought it meant that Alexander would be ready to return home now!

How are the two versions different?

The main differences are;
 Plutarch says that Alexander is drunk when he does it, but Arrian doesn’t.
  Arrian says that it was Alexander making his own decision, against Parmenio’s advice,
but Plutarch says Alexander was convinced by Thais.

 Plutarch says that Alexander quickly regretted the decision, but Arrian doesn’t
suggest that at all.

What might be the reasons why Arrian and Plutarch tell different versions of events.
 Plutarch wanted to write stories that showed the readers Vice (the bad) and Virtue
(the good), so he wouldn’t have really wanted to include a story where Alexander
made a huge mistake, so he could have made up Thais so that she takes the blame
rather than Alexander.
– Thais becomes ‘Vice’ in this story.

 Plutarch can also be quite negative about women, remember how critical he was of
Alexander’s mother, Olympias?

– so he could have deliberately included a FEMALE that lead the Macedonians

to make this terrible decision.

 Arrian and Plutarch are both using sources from the time that are now lost to us, but
they were using DIFFERENT sources from the time.

– Arrian used Ptolemy’s accounts of Alexander, and Thais was Ptolemy’s

GIRLFRIEND at this time!

The Battle of Hydaspes and the Mutiny at Hyphasis

The Battle of Hydaspes

 This was Alexander’s last major battle of his campaign in Persia and beyond. It was fought in what is
Pakistan, south of the city of Islamabad – the area would have just been one region in Alexander’s
time.
 When Alexander arrived in the Punjab, most of the local leaders bowed to him, apart from one. –
This was King Porus, and he refused to submit (give in) to Alexander.

Porus’ protection from Alexander

 Porus’ kingdom was protected by the natural barrier of the Hydaspes river, which flowed between
Porus and the area where Alexander’s army was.
  Porus believed that Alexander would wait until the Monsoon (rainy) season would end, because
until then the river was far too full and Alexander’s army would never be able to safely cross it.

Alexander tricks Porus and crosses

the Hydaspes river
 Alexander and Porus each stationed
their armies at either side of the
river, watching each other. This was
when Porus thought that the river
kept him safe from Alexander!

 Alexander tricked Porus into

thinking that this army was waiting;
Alexander left one of his
companions in charge of the army
sitting across the river from Porus,
and secretly lead s group of his
troops up the river to find a place
where they could cross over in
secret at night. This is a diagram showing the Battle of Hydaspes. You can see
where Alexander camp stayed put to distract Porus, and then
 Porus sent his own son to scout where Alexander sneaked up river to cross over and attack!
along the river, just to check if any
more Macedonian troops had moved around. – Unfortunately this son and his soldiers bumped into
Alexander’s troops who had crossed the river in secret during the night, and the son was killed!

The Battle
 The troops that had made it across the river
with Alexander now moved to attack Porus’
army who were waiting on their side of the
river.
 Alexander’s troops were outnumbered by
Porus’ troops, but they were just as skilled!

 Porus did have the major advantage of

having war elephants at his disposal within
his army. – these were terrifying to face and
scared the Macedonian cavalry horses.
 The Macedonians tried to attack and distract This is an illustration showing how much effort it would
the elephants by firing arrows at them, but it take for the Macedonians to attack a war elephant.
was hard to make the horses charge at the
elephants.
  Eventually, the Macedonians began to successfully attack the left flank (the left side) of Porus’
army, which meant that Porus had to go and support this flank. – The Macedonians used this as an
opportunity to attack the gap that Porus left and they soon broke through Porus’ army.

 Some of Porus’ troops tried to retreat now that the Macedonians were winning, but they were
picked up and slaughtered by the other Macedonian troops who had now managed to cross the
river in front of Porus’ army.

After the Battle

 Alexander had fought a very hard battle against Porus, and his famous horse, Bucephalus, was
apparently killed in this battle! – Although only Plutarch says that happened….

 Alexander was impressed by Porus and asked the king how he wanted to be treat. Porus said to
treat him like the king he was, and Alexander was so impressed by this that he made him the satrap
of the area. Porus would now be loyal to Alexander.

 One of the coins minted after Alexander’s death by one of his companions (a man called Ptolemy)
had Alexander pictured wearing the head of an elephant as a helmet – this was to commemorate
(remember) Alexander’s success against Porus.

The Mutiny at Hyphasis

Mutiny = when soldiers turn against their commander/ leader

Alexander wants to keep moving East into new lands

 After the Battle of Hydaspes, after defeating Darius III and having successfully conquered the
Persian empire and beyond, the Macedonians troops had had enough.
 The soldiers felt like Alexander had achieved everything that he set out to do, and MORE, and that
they should now go home to Macedonian after nearly 10years on campaign!
 But Alexander felt differently. He was at the edge of the known world – they didn’t know what was
part Porus’ kingdom and he wanted to find out! He wanted to travel further than any Greek had
ever done! – So he told his troops to keep marching East.

The soldiers refuse to go any further

 The Macedonians were tired, fed up taking one risk after another and meetings were held in the
camp to voice their opposition. At the Hyphasis river they refused to go further.
 Alexander heard of this and ordered a meeting with his companions and closest advisors, Alexander
spoke to them and tried to persuade them to carry on.
 He reminded them of past victories and the vast territory they had conquered, and asked ‘why do
you hesitate to add Hyphasis to the list?’. – He was trying to persuade them to take even more
territority and join him in pushing further east.

Alexander vs. his own troops

 • It became clear very quickly that not only did the troops want to go home, but so did Alexander
companions and advisors. He could not persuade them to keep exploring East.
• Alexander then tried a new tactic of shaming the soldiers into following him.
• The next day he called the army together and said that he would continue Eastwards regardless of
what other thought of him, but would not force any Macedonians to go against their will. Those
who wanted to return home could do so.
• Alexander probably hoped that some would be embarrassed to go home if others were staying to
explore the East, and that this would force others to carry on with him.

Alexander sulks, but then agrees to go home!

• When his plan didn’t work, Alexander went to his tent and stayed there for three days refusing to
speak to any of the Companions.
• He was waiting to see if the men would change their minds. The men were angry at Alexander’s
temper and would not back down. – Awkwardly, STILL no one wanted to carry on east, and people
started to prepare to go home!!
• It started to become clear that the Macedonian army were refusing to go forwards, so Alexander
had to find a way to back down without apologising.
• So Alexander made a sacrifice to the gods (we know he felt very close to them!), the omens
(messages) from the sacrifice were bad and he called his Officers and said he would turn back.
• His men were delighted, he gave orders to build twelve altars to thank the gods who had brought
them so far victoriously.

Alexander crosses the Gedrosian Desert and returns to Babylon

Alexander decides to return to Persia after the mutinty at Hyphasis

 After Alexander had suffered the mutiny of his soldiers at Hyphasis, and the army had
refused to journey any further into India, Alexander decided to go back to Babylon, in
Persia.
 He decided to separate his army into different groups army.

 He sent a section of his army to Carmania (modern day Iran) with his general
Craterus, and then he sent a second contingent to explore the coast of the Persian
Gulf under his general Nearchus.
 This shows us that Alexander was STILL keen to explore and conquer new territories,
even if his main army had refused to go any further East into India…

Alexander takes the route back to Babylon through the Gedrosian desert
  Alexander took the final
part of the army, which
had most of the
baggage animals and
the soldiers’ families,
back to Persia through
the Gedrosia Desert.

 Later historians have

seriously questioned
the logic behind this
decision, as the terrain
Map showing where the Gedrosia desert was, and where the Mutiny at
that had to be crossed Hyphasis happened
was incredibly
unforgiving, and hugely unsuited to catering for families/ and the elderly.

 Many died on Alexander’s march, and this was a direct result of the conditions they
had to suffer in the desert.

 The route through the Gedrosia Desert was one a few options that Alexander could
have chosen, and as the photos of its terrain make clear, a dangerous choice given
the number of women and children with him by this point. – So WHY did he make
this decision? We’ll never know!

 Alexander still tried to be an inspirational

leader on the march through the desert.

 He walked on foot with his soldiers to

show that he was one of them, and when
he was brought some water in a helmet
to drink, he poured it away – if his
soldiers couldn’t drink, then HE wouldn’t
drink!
Illustration showing Alexander throwing away the
 But again, why take them on such an water he was given, in sympathy with his troops.
awful route?!

Why did Alexander take the route through the Gedrosian desert?
 According to Arrian, Alexander heard that Cyrus the Great failed to cross the
Gedrosian desert, so he then became obsessed about doing it himself.
  Alexander wanted to be better than Cyrus, and if he could successfully cross the
desert, then this would be something he did better than the great Persian King!

 There is another theory, that this was also in part a punishment for his army, for
refusing to go further east and their mutiny at Hyphasis. – But we don’t have any firm
evidence for this!

Alexander returns to Babylon and starts to become angry and unpredictable

 Alexander, and what remained of his army, did successfully arrive back in Persia.
However, much to Alexander’s dismay (anger and confusion), he found that many of
the men he had put in charge whilst he was away in India had committed
irregularities. – they hadn’t been doing their job as Alexander had told them to do
when he left!
 Arrian tells us that many of the satraps and figures left in charge had believed that
Alexander would never return from his campaign, and had started to rule in their
own way.

 Alexander wanted to make an example of these men who had defied his rule and
looked to run their areas as THEY wanted.
 Many of these satraps who had started to run things their own way were put to
death for their crimes.
 The problem was that Alexander was starting to become very open to listing to any
accusations that were mentioned to him, and acting incredible aggressively against
them. – he seems to have started beliving whatever he was told, as long as it was
about misbehaving satraps.

 Arrian tells us that Alexander takes an incredibly hard line on any reports that his
local satraps have been disobeying his orders whilst he was away.
 Arrian also says that Alexander would listen to any rumours or accusations that were
made about badly-behaving satraps, and would then act on these. Again, he was
more violent and unpredictable than we are used to!

The Policy of Fusion

What was the Policy of Fusion?
 The policy of Fusion was an idea created by Alexander on how to rule his empire after he had
conquered the whole of Persia, and was left with a very big group of people to rule who were very
different from himself and his Macedonians.
 The policy of Fusion wanted to bring together Persian practises with Macedonian practises to make
a ‘Brotherhood of Mankind’, which meant all people in Alexander’s empire living together
peacefully and showing tolerance and acceptance of each other.

When and why did Alexander start this?

 Alexander began to develop the policy of Fusion after he had conquered the Persian empire from
Darius, and then particularly once he had returned from the Indus Valley and was back in the
Persian Empire.
 This began after main fighting of the campaign was over.

 We can’t be certain, but we suspect that Alexander started this policy because;

1. He knew that the Persians would only accept him if he seemed like one of them;

2. He wanted to Persians to see him as their loving King, NOT a cruel conqueror;

3. He believed in creating a great new group of people off the back of his new empire, he wanted
Macedonians and Persians to become one group. – the best of both worlds!

What did the policy include?

 Dressing and acting like a Persian = Alexander wore
Persian clothes and robes. He sat on the Persian
royal throne and surrounded himself with Persian
advisors. – Most Historians agree that Alexander did
this to try and show that there was a legitimate link
between his rule and the Achaemenid kings who had
came before him.
 Proskynesis in front of Alexander = He insisted that
his subjects prostrate (lay down) themselves before
A still from the film Alexander, showing Alexander
him, as this was what had been done for Persian
dressing in an ‘oriental’ way as he marries a
Kings – This was called proskynesis (prohs-key-nee-
Bactrian princess (Roxanne)
sis). This was not normally done by the Greeks, as
they only did this for the worship of their gods. The Macedonians saw this as very embarrassing and
something that was made to humiliate them. – Alexander, also according to Arrian, considered that his
conquests had raised him to the level of a divinity (a God) and that he deserved this recognition
  Alexander held a mass wedding at Susa = Macedonian
men married Persian women. Alexander also married
Persian royal women. These marriages were carried out
all together, in the Persian style of weddings, and forced
upon Alexander’s companions in Susa in 324. It was
Persian brides and Macedonian grooms. - These
arranged marriages can be seen as a strategy to
legitimise (make official) the fusion of Persians and
Macedonians under Alexander, the new Lord of Asia.

 Bringing young Persian into the Macedonian military = Alexander trained Persian youths, (the
inheritors) in Macedonian fighting style and had them armed in Macedonian battle gear. When the
Macedonian troops became old and wounded they
A modern painting showing the mass were replaced by younger Persian soldiers, these
marriages at Susa between Persian brides ‘inheritors’, had been trained and equipped as
and Macedonian grooms. Macedonian soldiers. - Therefore, in the military,
Alexander was fusing the best of Macedonian tactics
and weaponry with the fresh blood and increased numbers of the Persian populace.
 Alexander promoted Persians to the highest ranks in his army and advisors = This showed that he
genuinely respected Persian advice and talent, and wanted them to be a big part of his new empire. –
This really alarmed his Macedonian comrades as this would mean for competition for jobs and respect!

How did the Macedonians react?

 The Macedonians HATED the policy of Fusion! They felt like they were losing their power and
position in Alexander’s new empire, and it seemed like Alexander was changing into someone they
didn’t recognise.
 Alexander fought with his companions over it. E.g. His fight with Callisthenes were Alexander was
told that the Gods back in Greece would not like this behaviour and would have their revenge!

 The Macedonians forced Alexander to give up on Proskynesis in 327 because they completely
refused to do so!

 Arrian reports that the Macedonians were very angry about the changes in the military and refused
to go along with Alexander’s new plans. They told him to “discharge (fire) every man in the army.”
Once again Alexander met fierce resistance from his Macedonian comrades to any policies involving
‘Fusion’.

 In response, Alexander executed the ring-leaders of the mutiny and in recorded speeches, by Arrian
and Plutarch, challenged the men to leave him and go home and “tell them, I say, that you deserted
him and left him to the mercy of barbarian men…”. They were shamed, and did not desert their
leader, and were then brought together with the Persians, and Alexander, to celebrate a
reconciliation.
 The Mass Marriages at Susa 342BC

What were the mass marriages?

 When Alexander returned from his journey through the Gedrosian Desert, and dealt with badly
behaved satraps he discovered when he was in Babylon, Alexander began to organise marriages
between his Macedonia men and Persian women.
 These were ‘mass’ marriages, because lots and lots of weddings happened at the same time to get
them done quickly.

 High ranking Macedonian men married high ranking Macedonian women, but average soldiers
were allowed to marry normal Persian women.

Who are our sources for this event?

Arrian tells us about the mass marriages, which carried out in the Persian style. – Persian style means the
weddings were Persian, not Macedonian.
Arrian says that Alexander imposed (forced) his companions to go through with the weddings in Susa in
324.
Arrian states, that in addition to Alexander’s own weddings to the daughters of Darius and Ochus, eighty
companions were married to Persian noble women, and gifts were presented to some ten thousand
Macedonian soldiers who had already married Asian women.
Plutarch and Curtius Rufus, in their records of the speeches made at the weddings say that the speechEs
talked about ‘uniting of two imperial peoples’. - But A. B. Bosworth, in his article, “Alexander and the
Iranians”, tells us that these are ideas of their own time, 1ST C AD, and not of Alexander’s time.
(Curtis Rufus is a new source for us, he ISN’T a prescribed source, but it is always really good when we have
multiple sources telling us about the same event – it makes the sources more reliable!)

What happened?
 In 324BC, Alexander arranged a mass
marriage ceremony where many of his
leading Macedonian comrades were
married to local Persian women.

 His more distinguished (high-ranking)

generals married more elite Persian
women, much like Alexander himself who
married two women at the ceremony,
one of which was Darius III’s eldest
daughter.
Painting showing the Mass Marriages at Susa – in the
middle you can see Alexander marrying one of one
Darius’ daughters.
  Alexander also rewarded men who had already married Persian women at various points on the
campaign; he ordered a list of names to be made, which numbered around 10,000, and he gave
each new couple wedding gifts.
 Although arranged marriages were very much a normal part of both Greek, and Persian, culture for
elites, it was not normal to have these on such a large scale.

WHY did Alexander order this to happen?

 If these numbers of people getting married at Susa are correct, then this could be construed as
social engineering on a large scale. – Social Engineering = deliberately trying to get people and
society to look and act a particular way. E.g. forcing marriages so that the future generations were
a mix of Macedonian and Persian.
 If Alexander had not died soon after the mass marriages, and if the people had stuck to the
marriages, which they didn’t, then the creation of a new blended race would have been well on its
way.
 Alexander would then have had a population in his empire who were a “perfect” mix of both
groups and completely loyal to him.

 These mass marriages can be seen as a strategy to legitimise the fusion of Persians and
Macedonians under Alexander, the new Lord of Asia.

Alexander and his Companions

Alexander’s relationship with his

companions; Alexander Parmenion

Parmenion’s background
  Parmenion was a very successful and well-respected general who first served under Alexander’s
father, Phillip II. – This meant that Parmenio was one of Alexander’s older and more experienced
companions.

 In 356, Parmenion defeated the Illyrians in a great battle (remembered because Philip received the
news on the birthday of his first-born son, Alexander). - Philip II is said to have commented that
during his reign, he had found only one trustworthy general, Parmenion.

 Parmenion sided with Alexander over Phillip’s

relative Attalus (this is the SAME Attalus who really A still from the film Alexander, showing
Parmenion stood behind Phillip as one of his
insulted Alexander at Phillip’s wedding), when it
leading generals
came to deciding who would be find after Phillip’s
assassination. – this showed Alexander how loyal Parmenion was.
 Parmenion became one of Alexander’s most talented and trusted companions, and he was a
leading figure of the campaign in Persia.

Parmenion and Alexander at the Battle of Granicus

 The Macedonian army arrived into the Persian territory and arrived at Granicus river, where they
found the Persian army waiting on the other side of the river.

 Parmenion advised Alexander to wait on their side of the river, prepare overnight, and then attack
the Persians at dawn the next morning.
 Alexander disagreed. He felt strong enough to attack right away, even if it meant a disadvantage
(attacking through the river and then fighting up the hill). He ignored Parmenion’s advice and did as
he thought was right.

 At the end of the day, Alexander’s bravery indeed brought victory to his army in what was the first
major battle of his conquest.

Parmenio and Alexander at the Battle of Gaugamela

Before the Battle
 In the lead up to the Battle of Gaugamela – the most important battle of the campaign – Alexander
gathered his companions and asked then what they thought the best tactics for attack where.

 Parmenion advised waiting till it was dark, and then attacked the Persians during the night. He
argued that this would be most disruptive and at a time when the Persians were at their weakest.

 Alexander disagreed with this advice because he felt like this would be tricking his way to victory,
he felt like this would be stealing a victory. – Alexander wanted the Persians to be beaten fair and
square, so he ignored Parmenion’s advice.

 Arrian and Plutarch both agree that this happened.

During the Battle
 Parmenion was given control of the left-wing of
the cavalry during the battle, but he was attacked
by the Persian cavalry and was starting to weaken
and be pushed back.

 Parmenion sent a message to Alexander during

the battle, telling him this AND that the
Macedonian baggage was being attacked too.
An image of the Persian forces attacking
 This message got to Alexander JUST as he was Parmenion’s left flank
about to attack and kill Darius, so Alexander had
to let Darius get away so he could go back and help Parmenion.
 According to Plutarch, some people blamed Parmenion for the fact that Darius got away, and
others said that he was becoming jealous of Alexander and his success.

 Be careful here! – Plutarch is using the work of the court Historian Callisthenes, who didn’t like
Parmenion very much because Parmenion argued with Alexander and Callisthenes’ job was to make
Alexander look good, so would have recorded more negative things about him!

The plot against Alexander.

After returning to Babylon, after the end of the campaign, Alexander tried to force a policy of Fusion on his
Macedonian and Persian men. – The Macedonians didn’t like it, and some began to turn against Alexander.
 Dimnus invited his lover, Nicomachus, to kill Alexander. But Nicomachus, who was horrified, and
told his brother, Cebalinus.

 Cebalinus told Parmenio’s son (Philotas), WHO DID [Link] Cebalinus eventually decided to go
and tell Alexander about the plot himself…

 So Alexander found out about this and sent an officer to arrest Dimnus, but Dimnus killed himself
before he could be arrested. However, they did get Philotas, who was arrested and charged with
treason.

 They were tortured to get a confession about the conspiracy to kill Alexander

 Philotas & other people involved were then stoned to death (which was a Macedonian custom)

Why did Alexander chose to kill Parmenion?

1. Alexander decided to kill Parmenion because he was Philotas’ father, and he couldn’t be sure that
Parmenion hadn’t been involved too.
2. Parmenion was in Ecbatana – was in charge of part of the army – He was popular with the troops
and could easily take revenge against Alexander for killing his son
 3. Parmenio also opposed the policy of fusion
4. Alexander had him killed before Parmenion found out about the death of his son
5. Alexander saw this as necessary to protect his own life
6. There was no public trial for Parmenion – he was popular and may have gained support - This was
seen as an act of cruelty – THIS IS WHY CALLISTHENES IS NEGATIVE ABOUT PARMENION! He was
trying to fix Alexander’s reputation in the history books after the unfair killing of Parmenion.

Alexander’s relationship with his companions; Callisthenes

Who was Callisthenes?

Callisthenes, (born c. 360 BC—died c. 327), was an ancient Greek historian, who is best known for his
history of Greece and of Alexander the Great.
Callisthenes was given the job of being the court Historian during Alexander’s campaign in Persia and
beyond.
He was eventually killed after he argued with Alexander over the policy of Fusion and the fact that
Alexander acted as though he was a God.

Why did he come on campaign with Alexander?

Callisthenes was given the job of court Historian during Alexander’s campaign in Persia. This meant that his job was
to follow Alexander’s journey and write down what happened so that there was a record of Alexander’s
achievements. – This mean that Callisthenes was VERY positive about Alexander (most of the time) because his job
was to record how amazing Alexander’s achievements were.

The book that Callisthenes wrote about Alexander was called ‘The Deeds of Alexander’. In the book he tries to
compare Alexander to Greek heroes like Achilles – whom Alexander wanted to be like! Callisthenes also seems to
have supported the claim that Alexander was the son of Zeus.

Overall, Callisthenes’ history was written to emphasise (show the importance of) Alexander’s heroic characteristics,
and then to criticise the Persians in comparison to Alexander.

Callisthenes was recommended to Alexander by Alexander’s tutor, Aristotle. This meant that Alexander had a lot of
trust in Callisthenes.

Why did Callisthenes and Alexander begin to fight?

Callisthenes, like many of the Macedonians, did not like the policy of Fusion. He had a particular issue with
Proskynesis – where you had to bow to the floor in front of Alexander.

He also spoke out against how Alexander was portraying him. Callisthenes argued that Alexander was portraying
himself as a god, and that this was hubris which would anger the real gods and bring abut Alexander’s downfall. –
Obviously Alexander didn’t like this very much!
What happened to Callisthenes?
Once Callisthenes had fallen out with Alexander and spoken out against him, Alexander punished
Callisthenes.
Sources from his death say different things. Although Ptolmey and Aristobulus bot wrote accounts of his
death, one says that Callisthenes died in prison, the other says that Callisthenes died after being crucified.

What happened to his ‘Deeds of Alexander’ history book?

Callisthenes' book on the Deeds of Alexander is now lost to us. This means that we don’t have any copies of
it.
But we know it existed because it is talked about by other authors who’s work we DO still have. E.g.
Plutarch, Diodorus Arrian and Curtius Rufus.
The book was also mentioned by other writers from Alexander’s time, like Cleitarchus and Ptolemy. –
Although THEIR writings are lost to us too, and we only know about them through the other historians like
Plutarch and Arrian.
Ultimately, we have to believe Arrian and Plutarch when they say that they had access to these histories
written by people who knew Alexander, and to be fair a lot of their histories have the same info in them, so
it does seem like they were using the same sources from Callisthenes, Ptolemy and Cleitarchus!

Alexander’s relationship with his companions; Cleitus and

Antipater

Cleitus
Who was Cleitus?
Sometimes known as Cleitus the Black, was a member of Alexander’s inner circle of Macedonian comrades.
He was older than Alexander, and had been a keen supported of Phillip, he also had family connections to
Alexander as his sister had been Alexander’s nurse.
He was a key member of the Macedonian military machine, as he was an officer in the devastating
companion cavalry.
Hugely importantly, he is reputed by Arrian to have saved Alexander’s life at the Battle of Granicus after
Alexander’s spear broken.

Cleitus and Alexander at Granicus

Alexander was involved in the worst of the
fighting during the battle of Granicus, but was
very nearly killed!
Hlafway through the battle, Alexander was
attacked by two Persian satraps: Rhoesaces and
Spitamenes.
Rhoesaces hit Alexander on the head with his
scimitar (a curved blade), but Alexander’s
helmet took the worst of the blow and
Alexander responded by stabbing Rhoesaces’ in
the chest. Illustration of Cleitus defending and saving Alexander at the
As Alexander was dealing with Rhoesaces, the Battle of Granicus
other satrap Spitamenes appeared behind him
and raised his scimitar to land the death blow.
Fortunately for Alexander, Cleitus ‘the Black’, was there to defend and Alexander and sliced off
Spitamenes’ raised arm, scimitar and all!
After Alexander recovered from his near-death experience, he brought his men and the Persian cavalry out
to the left, and the Persians were defeated at the battle. – But Alexander owed Cleitus his life.

Alexander murders Cleitus

Alexander’s expedition had reached Sogdiana (Uzbekistan), and following the difficult capture of the desert
region, Alexander and his men had a loud drinking party with some local leaders.
These local leaders became drunk and began to sing songs that insulted Macedonian leaders, which Cleitus
reacted negatively to and began to speak about against the locals and the policy of fusion.
We’re told that there as an attempt to resolve the tension between
Alexander and Cleitus, by removing Cleitus from the room, but that
he returned chanting poems that insulted Alexander. This was the
final straw for the king, who reportedly then killed Cleitus with a
spear.
Ironic, considering this was the same weapon that Alexander had
broken when Cleitus saved him at the battle of Granicus.

Antipater
Who was Antipater?
An experienced military and political leader, who was much older
Illustration of Alexander murdering
than Alexander but a key element of Alexander’s entourage.
Cleitus with a spear.
Alexander left Antipater as regent of Macedonia when he left for
the Persia campaign.
Antipater assisted Alexander enormously by keeping peace in Macedonia while the King was away, but it
seems as though he and his sons (Iolas and Cassander) were a threat.
Plutarch tells us that Alexander was, on occasion, very aggressive towards Cassander.

The relationship gets worse

Like Cleitus, Antipater was a strong general and an important figure for Alexander, although his
relationship did not degrade to the same level as it did with Cleitus. But he did suffer when Alexander
returned from Babylon and punished dissenting generals.
Alexander seems to have become concerned/ threatened by Antipater’s sons, called Iolas and Cassander.
Cassander spoke out against Persian nobles performing Proskynesis (bowing to the floor) for Alexander, he
laughed at the Persians who did this.
Alexander reacted incredible angrily. He grabbed Cassander’s head and bashed it against the wall for being
disrespectful, but he didn’t kill Cassander.

The end of the relationship

Antipater had done the very important job of looking after Macedonia when Alexander went away to
campaign in Persia.
Antipater did a good job of this, and why Alexander died in Babylon and the generals/ companions
gathered to divide up his empire, Antipater was given Greece. – Not bad really!

Alexander’s relationship with his companions; Hepheastion

Who was Hepheastion?

Hephaestion was Alexander’s childhood friend, and they had
known each other for most of their lives.
They were almost exactly the same age and had most likely
been educated together by Aristotle.
Hepheastion was probably the closest companion that
Alexander had on campaign, which might be because they were
just closer in age than the other companions. - many of the
A part of the Alexander Sarcophagus, we
THINK showing Hephaestion in battle as
commander of the Companion Cavalry
other male companions we have studied were significantly older than Alexander, and had actually already
been linked to his father, Phillip.
Hephaestion was given the important, prestigious role of commander of the Companion Cavalry during the
campaign. – this shows us how important he was to Alexander, and how skilled a soldier he was.

What was the relationship status between Alexander and Hepheastion?

Ancient sources, particularly Arrian, have suggested that the relationship between Alexander and
Hepheastion was romantic, and that at some point they were lovers. – this means they had a sexual,
romantic relationship.
Arrian tells us about Hephaestion and Alexander laying wreaths at the site of the Battle of Troy for the
Greek Achilles and Patroclus. – Greek figures that Alexander looked up to.
Achilles and Patroclus were also thought to be a lovers, and
many people think that Arrian is making a deliberate link
between this pair, and Alexander and Hephaestion.
Although marriages were only between men and women,
homosexual relationships and shows of homosexual
affection were incredibly common in the ancient world and
not discriminated against in the same way we see today.
To be in a gay relationship with Hephaestion would NOT
have undermined (weakened) Alexander’s character/
A still from the film Alexander, suggesting a leadership. – His soldiers would not have had a problem
close relationship between Alexander and with the relationship.
Hephaestion.

Hephaestion and Alexander at the site of the Battle of Troy.

According to Arrian, when Alexander arrived in Persia, he landed at the site of the Battle of Troy.
This was very deliberate, Alexander wanted to be seen celebrating great, Greek heroes like Achilles and
Patroclus before beginning the campaign. – He had also been a huge fan of the Iliad (Homer’s story of the
same battle) since he was a child.
Arrian then says that Alexander chose his companion Hephaestion to join him in making a very important
offering at the tombs of Achilles and Patroclus. – Alexander placed a crown on Achilles’ tomb, and then
Hephaestion placed a crown on Patroclus’ tomb.
Why is this significant?
In the Iliad (the story of the Battle of Troy), Achilles is the greatest Greek hero fighting in the battle, and
Patroclus is his best friend/ right-hand man/ lover. – SO, when Arrian pairs up Alexander and Hephasetion,
with Achilles and Patroclus, he’s basically suggesting it’s the same type of relationship again!

Hephaestion’s Death
As you would imagine, Hephaestion’s death devastated Alexander, he was very, very upset when
Hephastion died.
Hephaestion died very suddenly, in 324bc, in the conquered Persian city of Ecbatana. Arrian tells us that
Alexander was utterly devastated by his death, but that there were many accounts of how he responded to
the death.
Arrian tells us that there are many different accounts of how Alexander behaved after Hephaestion’s
death, some of which show Alexander to be very aggressive and unpredictable! – Arrian doesn’t think that
these negative accounts are true, and argues that people said negative things because they didn’t like
Alexander and had been jealous of Hephaestion.

Accounts of Alexander responding Accounts of Alexander responding calmly

aggressively to Hephaestion’s death to Hephaestion’s death
 Alexander laid beside the body all day and all  Alexander threw himself down beside
night Hephaestion’s body groaning and did not wish
to be separated from him, until he was forcibly
 Alexander himself for some time drove the removed by his companions.
chariot on which the body was carried
 He hung the doctor Glaucias, either because of
 He made an offering to the God Aclepius the wrong drug being given or because he saw
(Greek God of healing) because as he said Hephaestion drinking heavily and allowed him
“Asclepius has not treated me fairly, as he did to continue – Alexander blamed the doctor for
not save for me the companion who was as the death.
dear to me as my own life.”
 He ordered the Temple of Asclepius (Greek
 Alexander ordered that Hephaestion should god of healing) at Ecbatana to be utterly
always receive rites appropriate for a hero, destroyed
and some say that he sent to the oracle of
Ammon to ask the god whether he allowed
Hephaestion to receive sacrifices as a god, but
this wasn’t allowed in the end.

Arrian says that all sources agreed that Alexander DID do the following things after the
death.
 Alexander did not taste food or take any care of his
body for two days after the death of Hephaestion,
but lay groaning or in a grief-filled silence.

 He ordered a funeral pyre costing 10,000 talents to

be prepared for Hephaestion in Babylon. – This as
very expensive and sign of respect/ love.

 It was announced that there should be public

mourning throughout the whole of Persia.
A still from the film Alexander, showing Alexander’s
 Many of Alexander’s companions out of respect for reaction to Hephaestion’s death.
Hephaestion dedicated themselves and their
weapons to Hephaestion.
  Alexander never appointed anyone else in place of Hephaestion as commander of the companion cavalry,
so that the name of Hephaestion might continue to be attached to the battalion; it was still called
Hephaestion’s

 Alexander intended to hold athletic and musical contests to celebrate Hephaestion’s life, which were to be
much bigger and more impressive than any previous contest; he prepared 3,000 competitors in total. –
Alexander died himself before this could happen!

The Death of Alexander the Great 323BCE

What were the omens leading up to his death?

Omens = strange events that are believed to be negative signs from the Gods

In the lead up to Alexander’s death, the sources tell us that there were strange events that people at the
time felt were omens hinting that his death was coming.
Omens we learn from Plutarch =
 Alexander visited Babylon and saw ravens (birds) flying around the walls and attacking each other.
 The Babylonian priests made a sacrifice to find out Alexander’s future, and the victims liver was
deformed.
 A donkey attacked and killed a lion
  A young man, apparently in some kind of trance, dressed up as Alexander and sat on his throne.
Saying he had been sent by the gods.
Omens we learn from Arrian =
 A young man came and sat on the throne when Alexander had left it to get some food

Where did he die?

According to a Babylonian Astronomical Diary (one of
our prescribed sources) Alexander died between the
evening of June 10 and the evening of June 11, 323
BC, at the age of thirty-two.
This happened in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar
II in Babylon.
Macedonians and local residents wept at the news
A still from the Alexander film, showing Alexander
of the death, while Achaemenid subjects shaved
with a fever.
their heads

How did Alexander die?

Arrian and Plutarch have VERY similar accounts of how Alexander died, probably because they both say
they’re using Aristobulus and the court records, so it makes sense that their stories are the same. This is
what they say happened.
 Alexander was a bit worried about the negative omens he kept hearing about, and he wanted to
keep himself distracted.
 Alexander was clearly in the middle of organising a new voyage/ expedition. The sources tell us how
he was wanting to talk about a voyage over a ‘great sea’ with his commanders.
 Alexander went to a drinking party with a companion called Medius one night, the next morning he
began to become ill with a fever.

 Alexander continued to be ill with a fever, and it got steadily worse as the days went on.
 While he was ill, Alexander still planned his new voyage with his commanders, organised his troops,
washed every day and attended his daily sacrifices to the gods.
 It’s clear that he was trying very hard to go about his normal life.

 As he started to become REALLY ill, and it was clear he

wasn’t getting better, rumours started going around that he
had already died. – His Macedonian men stormed his rooms
to see him when they heard he had died, but when they say
he ws just about still alive, they put down their weapons and
paid their respects.

 Some of his commanders when to the temple of Serapis in

Babylon, and asked the god is Alexander should be moved
to their temple to get better? – The god replied that
Alexander should stay where he was. Macedonian soldiers paying their
respects to a dying Alexander.
  Alexander lost the ability to speak in his final days, this mean he couldn’t say who was going to
inherit his empire.

 He eventually died in his palace in Babylon, a few days after falling ill with a fever.

Was Alexander poisoned?

Only Plutarch talks about this as a possibility, Arrian only mentions the possibility that Alexander was
poisoned very briefly.

Plutarch says how at the time of Alexander’s death, NO ONE talked about poisoning at all, but that 5yrs
later, Olympia suddenly killed a group of men who she’d heard had poisoned her son.
Another rumour was that Alexander was poisoned by his own companion, Antipater, who was working
with Aristotle to kill Alexander.
 Remember that Alexander had attacked Antipater’s son, Cassander, when Cassander had
questioned his policy of Fusion!

Plutarch does then say that he thinks these rumours of poisoning are nonsense, because Alexander’s body
didn’t show any signs of being poisoned after it had been left for 3 days.
 So why does Plutarch include these stories? Probably to keep the writing interesting, which we
know is one of his aims as he wants to sell his work!
Arrian also thinks the rumours are nonsense.

Alexander’s Legacy – His Foundation Cities!

• During his campaign, Alexander founded many foundation cities across the area that he conquered.
– He named the after HIMSELF! E.g. Alexandria, Alexandropolis.
• These new cities were Greek, and they helped spread Greek culture and ideas throughout the new
Persian Empire and beyond.

• Plutarch said that Alexander founded 70 such cities, but the actual number is close to 20. – and
some of these were founded by his companions after his death, as military settlements in his
memory!
• The most famous city is Alexandria In Egypt, founded by Alexander in 330, which became the head
of Ptolemy’s empire after Alexander died.
• Alexander even founded a town he called Bucephala, in memory of his dear horse!