Page 52 - All About History - Issue 09-14

Alexander the Great

through Cappadocia with scarcely any resistance “ The power-drunk Alexander burnt the
had to abandon their own city. After passing
thanks to incompetent local governors in 333 BCE, palace to the ground in, it is believed,
Darius III, the Persian Shahanshah – king of kings
– could stomach this embarrassment no longer, retaliation for the sack of Athens”
and with an army that outnumbered the Greeks by
two to one, confronted Alexander at the Battle of entourage was forced to wait in the courtyard. Plato among them – had long journeyed to this
Issus. Were the king to fail here then Darius’ army The exact details of Alexander’s exchange with ancient land to study in what they regarded as the
would be able to link up with his powerful navy the Oracle remain a mystery, but the end result birthplace of civilisation. Standing amid the great
and Alexander’s whole campaign, resting as it did was unambiguous. Alexander was now more pyramids and temples, the 25-year-old Alexander
on his thin line of victories down the coast, would than merely a hero of legend. Even the myth of either saw around him an ancient power to be held
be wiped out and all dreams of Greek civilisation Achilles reborn could scarcely contain his ambition, in great respect or feats of long-dead god-kings that
free from the menaces of its aggressive Eastern and he declared himself the son of Zeus. His he had to better.
neighbour would spill out into the dust like so worship spread across Egypt, where he was raised The result was the city of Alexandria, planned in
much wasted Macedonian blood. At Issus, like to the rank of Pharaoh. This didn’t sit well with detail by the king, from wide boulevards and great
many battles before and after, Alexander rode up Alexander’s countrymen, but here at least, the king temples to defences and plumbing. Construction
and down his ranks of assembled men to deliver didn’t push it. began in 331 BCE, and it remains the second-
an address worthy of heroes, playing on old glories “[Alexander] bore himself haughtily towards the largest city and largest seaport in Egypt, linking
and grudges. barbarians,” recalled the army’s official historian the king’s new world to his old one, both by trade
“He excited the Illyrians and Thracians by Plutarch, “and like one fully persuaded of his divine across the Mediterranean and by culture. In making
describing the enemy’s wealth and treasures, birth and parentage, but with the Greeks it was Alexandria the crossroads between two great
and the Greeks by putting them in mind of their within limits and somewhat rarely that he assumed civilisations, a great centre of learning where Greek
wars of old, and their deadly hatred towards the his own divinity.” Despite his ‘haughtiness’, and Egyptian religion, medicine, art, mathematics
Persians,” wrote the historian Justin in the 3rd Alexander had been raised on tales of the Egyptian and philosophy could be bound together was
century CE. “He reminded the Macedonians at one gods from his mother, and Greeks – the philosopher created, and the city came to symbolise the
time of their conquests in Europe, and at another of
their desire to subdue Asia, boasting that no troops
in the world had been found a match for them, and A LAND SOAKED IN BLOOD
assuring them that this battle would put an end to How Alexander’s mighty empire grew year-by-year
their labours and crown their glory.” and some of the cities founded in his wake…
With shock etched upon his face, Darius fled
the battlefield as the Greek charge cut through Consolidation
his ranks like a scythe, with Alexander at its head, 335-335 BCE
For the first two years of his
crashing straight through the Persian flanks and reign, Alexander crushed
then into their rearguard. With their king gone revolts in the Greek states,
and with his throne secure
they began a chaotic and humiliating retreat. With crossed into Asia Minor.
only one Persian port left – Tyre, in what is now
Lebanon – and the hill fort of Gaza in modern
Palestine both falling in 332 BCE, the thinly This is Sparta
stretched Achaemenid defences west of Babylon 336 BCE
The only part of Greece
quickly crumbled or withdrew before the relentless outside Macedonian influence,
march of Alexander. Philip I had sent the warlike
Spartans a message warning
Unexpectedly, he then turned his attention not of the consequences if he
had to take Sparta by force.
east toward the enemy’s exposed heart, but west They replied simply “If”.
in the direction of Egypt and Libya. They, like Subsequently, Philip and
Alexander left them alone.
the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, would welcome
him as a saviour. With no standing army and
whole swathes of the country in the hands of
Egyptian rebels, the Persian governor handed over
control of the province outright. The last set of
invaders had disrespected their gods, so perhaps
the Egyptians were keen to take advantage of Alexandria
Alexander’s vanity and safeguard their faith by (Egypt)
placing this new warlord right at the heart of it. Egypt, Libya, Iraq,
Maybe, too, Alexander had seen how illusionary Kuwait, Iran 331 BCE
Persian authority was in Egypt, and wanted to try a After marching unopposed
into Egypt and parts of Libya,
different tack. He may have been one of the world’s Key Alexander then crosses the
greatest generals, but he knew the sword was not Euphrates and Tigris to defeat
the Persians and win Babylon
the only path to acquiring new territory. 335-335 334-333 332 and Mesopotamia (now Iraq
BCE
BCE
BCE
Riding out to the famous Oracle of Amun – and Kuwait) and a chunk of
Persia (now Iran).
the Egyptian answer to Zeus – at the Siwa oasis,
Alexander was welcomed into the inner sanctum 331 334-333 330-328
BCE
BCE
BCE
of this ancient temple, an honour usually afforded
only to the ordained priests of Amun, while his
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