A Brief biography of Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great was born in 356BC His father, Philip, was the brother of King Perdikkas III of Macedon to the north of Greece. His mother, Olympus was daughter of King Neoptolemus I of Epirus (modern Albania).

In 359BC, when Alexander was three years old, Perdikkas died. His young son Amyntas was expected to succeed him, with Philip as his regent, but Philip usurped his nephews throne, making himself King Philip II. He proved to be a strong ruler, and conquered most of Greece. In 343BC Aristotle appointed as tutor to Alexander. At sixteen, Alexander was left to serve as regent of Macedon when his father went away to war. During Philip's absence Alexander led an expedition to modern day Bulgaria, where he subdued a rebellion and established his first city, Alexandropolis. After this triumph he became a general in his fathers army. On August 2, 338BC Alexander commands cavalry at the Battle of Chaeronea, defeating the Greeks.

The relationship between Alexander and his father was a bitter one and led at one stage to Alexander leaving Macedonia with his mother. Even after his return there was much bitter feuding between them right up the murder of Philip by the captain of his bodyguard. After his fathers murder in 336BC, Alexander asends the throne of Macedonia to became King Alexander III at the age of twenty. He was intensely loyal to his friends and the men he led.

After taking the throne, In May/June 334BC Alexander crosses Hellespont with 40,000 men into Persia. He engaged in war with Persia at the battle of the Granicus (a campaign originally planned by his father) defeating King Darius III in a strategic battle. Later Alexander solves the riddle of the 'Gordian Knot'. In 330BC he went on to sack the great Persian city and learning centre of Pesopollis, in central Persia near the city of Shiraz in modern day Iran. Whilst in Persia, Alexander's men captured a group of rebels, and Alexander married the rebel chiefs daughter, Roxanne. After his marriage within a few years Alexander conquered most of Asia Minor, marching through Afghanistan, by spring 329BC Alexandria had crossed the Hindu Kush into Central Asia, proving himself to be a brilliant general and conquering much territory there. By Summer he had entered India, following yet another victorious bloody battle, his men refuse to advance any further. Reluctantly Alexander agreed to turn back and started the voyage down the Indus. He attacked many cities on the march home; during one battle he took an arrow in the chest, which pierced his lung and almost died. By Summer 326BC Alexander reaches the Indian Ocean and starts to march through the Gedrosian desert.

In the winter of 325-324 he returned to Persia. Finding that several of his governors had abused their authority in his absence, he had them executed. To promote harmony between his people and the Persians he ordered eighty of his most important men to marry highborn Persian women in traditional Persian wedding ceremonies. He himself married King Darius's daughter, who was named either Barsine or Stateira (he was still married to Roxanne). Alexander also began promoting Persians to high ranking positions in his army, saying that Persians and Macedonians should share the empire. His efforts to create unity failed; the marriages between his men and the Persians mostly broke up after Alexander's death.

In the summer of 323BC Alexander became ill, and on June 10 he died in Babylon, modern day Iraq after ten days of illness, he was 32. Modern historians have long suspected that he died from malaria, but recently it has been suggested that the culprit was typhoid fever. The empire was soon torn apart by the power struggles of Alexander's former advisors and generals, collectively called the Diadochi (Greek for 'successors'). In 321BC Perdikkas was killed by mutinous soldiers and replaced as regent by his rival Antipater. In 319BC Antipater died and was succeeded as regent by Polyperchon, who was quickly ousted by Antipater's son Cassander.

Without any doubt Alexander the Great is one of the finest leaders the world has ever seen. He spread out the Greek culture over Asia Minor mixed with the cultures of conquered nations and formed a culture which was new in many aspects. This new culture is known as Hellenism and formed an integral part of the artistic and stylistic sculpture of Gandhara.