Alexander the great parents
Alexander the Great
Military commander and king of Macedon (– BC)
This article is about the ancient king of Macedon. For other uses, see Alexander the Great (disambiguation).
Alexander III of Macedon (Ancient Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος, romanized:&#;Aléxandros; 20/21 July BC – 10/11 June BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great,[c] was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.[d] He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in BC at the age of 20 and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia, Central Asia, parts of South Asia, and Egypt.
By the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India.[1] He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders.[3][4]
Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle.
Alexander biography Several legends surround Alexander's birth and childhood. Left to fight alone, they were defeated. In , British Museum experts have suggested the possibility that a Greek temple at Girsu in Iraq , was founded by Alexander. He appears to have believed himself a deity, or at least sought to deify himself.In BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he campaigned in the Balkans and reasserted control over Thrace and parts of Illyria before marching on the city of Thebes, which was subsequently destroyed in battle. Alexander then led the League of Corinth, and used his authority to launch the pan-Hellenic project envisaged by his father, assuming leadership over all Greeks in their conquest of Persia.[6]
In BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Persian Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted for 10 years.
Following his conquest of Asia Minor, Alexander broke the power of Achaemenid Persia in a series of decisive battles, including those at Issus and Gaugamela; he subsequently overthrew Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety.[e] After the fall of Persia, the Macedonian Empire held a vast swath of territory between the Adriatic Sea and the Indus River.
Alexander endeavored to reach the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea" and invaded India in BC, achieving an important victory over Porus, an ancient Indian king of present-day Punjab, at the Battle of the Hydaspes. Due to the mutiny of his homesick troops, he eventually turned back at the Beas River and later died in BC in Babylon, the city of Mesopotamia that he had planned to establish as his empire's capital.
Alexander's death left unexecuted an additional series of planned military and mercantile campaigns that would have begun with a Greek invasion of Arabia.
In the years following his death, a series of civil wars broke out across the Macedonian Empire, eventually leading to its disintegration at the hands of the Diadochi.
With his death marking the start of the Hellenistic period, Alexander's legacy includes the cultural diffusion and syncretism that his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism and Hellenistic Judaism.
He founded more than twenty cities, with the most prominent being the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Alexander's settlement of Greek colonists and the resulting spread of Greek culture led to the overwhelming dominance of Hellenistic civilization and influence as far east as the Indian subcontinent. The Hellenistic period developed through the Roman Empire into modern Western culture; the Greek language became the lingua franca of the region and was the predominant language of the Byzantine Empire until its collapse in the midth century AD.
Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mould of Achilles, featuring prominently in the historical and mythical traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures.
Alexander kimel However, this day fever is well documented, and it is reported that thousands of members from his army passed by Alexander, while he lay in bed. Alexander did not attempt to impose uniform imperial coinage throughout his new conquests. The Generalship of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.His military achievements and unprecedented enduring successes in battle made him the measure against which many later military leaders would compare themselves,[f] and his tactics remain a significant subject of study in military academies worldwide. Legends of Alexander's exploits coalesced into the third-century Alexander Romance which, in the premodern period, went through over one hundred recensions, translations, and derivations and was translated into almost every European vernacular and every language of the Islamic world.[8] After the Bible, it was the most popular form of European literature.[9]
Early life
Lineage and childhood
Alexander III was born in Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedon,[10] on the sixth day of the ancient Greek month of Hekatombaion, which probably corresponds to 20 July BC (although the exact date is uncertain).[11][12] He was the son of the erstwhile king of Macedon, Philip II, and his fourth wife, Olympias (daughter of Neoptolemus I, king of Epirus).[13][g] Although Philip had seven or eight wives, Olympias was his principal wife for some time, likely because she gave birth to Alexander.
Several legends surround Alexander's birth and childhood.
According to the ancient Greek biographer Plutarch, on the eve of the consummation of her marriage to Philip, Olympias dreamed that her womb was struck by a thunderbolt that caused a flame to spread "far and wide" before dying away. Sometime after the wedding, Philip is said to have seen himself, in a dream, securing his wife's womb with a seal engraved with a lion's image.[16] Plutarch offered a variety of interpretations for these dreams: that Olympias was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb; or that Alexander's father was Zeus.
Ancient commentators were divided about whether the ambitious Olympias promulgated the story of Alexander's divine parentage, variously claiming that she had told Alexander, or that she dismissed the suggestion as impious.[16]
On the day Alexander was born, Philip was preparing a siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidice.
Grover cleveland alexander biography Keay, John Joint Association of Classical Teachers Though advised to use diplomacy, Alexander mustered 3, Macedonian cavalry and rode south towards Thessaly. Caracalla's mania for Alexander went so far that Caracalla visited Alexandria while preparing for his Persian invasion and persecuted philosophers of the Aristotelian school based on a legend that Aristotle had poisoned Alexander.That same day, Philip received news that his general Parmenion had defeated the combined Illyrian and Paeonian armies and that his horses had won at the Olympic Games. It was also said that on this day, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, burnt down. This led Hegesias of Magnesia to say that it had burnt down because Artemis was away, attending the birth of Alexander.[17] Such legends may have emerged when Alexander was king, and possibly at his instigation, to show that he was superhuman and destined for greatness from conception.
In his early years, Alexander was raised by a nurse, Lanike, sister of Alexander's future general Cleitus the Black.
Later in his childhood, Alexander was tutored by the strict Leonidas, a relative of his mother, and by Lysimachus of Acarnania. Alexander was raised in the manner of noble Macedonian youths, learning to read, play the lyre, ride, fight, and hunt.
Alexander the great biography: Alexander features prominently in modern Greek folklore, more than any other ancient figure. A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. The sons are Heracles and Alexander. Alexander greatly increased the contact between the East and West, leading to greater trade and sharing of ideas.
When Alexander was ten years old, a trader from Thessaly brought Philip a horse, which he offered to sell for thirteen talents. The horse refused to be mounted, and Philip ordered it away. Alexander, however, detecting the horse's fear of its own shadow, asked to tame the horse, which he eventually managed. Plutarch stated that Philip, overjoyed at this display of courage and ambition, kissed his son tearfully, declaring: "My boy, you must find a kingdom big enough for your ambitions.
Lincoln alexander biography In his first battle in Asia, at Granicus, Alexander used only a small part of his forces, perhaps 13, infantry with 5, cavalry, against a much larger Persian force of 40, Keay, John ISBN Left to fight alone, they were defeated.Macedon is too small for you", and bought the horse for him.[20] Alexander named it Bucephalas, meaning "ox-head". Bucephalas carried Alexander as far as India. When the animal died (because of old age, according to Plutarch, at age 30), Alexander named a city after him, Bucephala.[21]
Education
When Alexander was 13, Philip began to search for a tutor, and considered such academics as Isocrates and Speusippus, the latter offering to resign from his stewardship of the Academy to take up the post.
In the end, Philip chose Aristotle and provided the Temple of the Nymphs at Mieza as a classroom. In return for teaching Alexander, Philip agreed to rebuild Aristotle's hometown of Stageira, which Philip had razed, and to repopulate it by buying and freeing the ex-citizens who were slaves, or pardoning those who were in exile.[22]
Mieza was like a boarding school for Alexander and the children of Macedonian nobles, such as Ptolemy, Hephaistion, and Cassander.
Many of these students would become his friends and future generals, and are often known as the "Companions". Aristotle taught Alexander and his companions about medicine, philosophy, morals, religion, logic, and art. Under Aristotle's tutelage, Alexander developed a passion for the works of Homer, and in particular the Iliad; Aristotle gave him an annotated copy, which Alexander later carried on his campaigns.[23]