In his childhood and throughout his life he mound inspiration in the Heroic Age, revering both Heraclites and Achilles. He became absorbed in winning renown and glory for himself by performing noble deeds and surpassing the feats of the gods and the mythical heroes. Alexander was concerned when Phillip captured a city or won a great victory because he was afraid that there would be nothing great or spectacular for him to show the world and be known for. Macedonia has had an unstable history.
It was invaded repeatedly in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, and in 399 BC collapsed into civil war after the murder of its king. Decades of turmoil ended in BBC, when Phillip II became king and set about restoring order. Once he was firmly in control of his new kingdom, Phillip began expanding his frontiers, taking over the regions to the east and south. When Alexander was ten years old, a horse trader from Thessaly brought Phillip a horse, which he offered to sell for thirteen talents (a 10 drachma silver coin). The horse refused to be mounted and Phillip ordered to get it ordered away.
Although Alexander asked to tame the horse which he eventually managed, Phillip then cried with joyful tears which implied that he was proud of his son and knew that Alexander was going to become a great conqueror. Phillip then bought the horse for Alexander and he named it Bequeathal (ox-head). The city Buchwald was named after the death of Bequeathal. Alexander completed his education at Maize in 340 BC. A year later, while still just a teen, he became a soldier and embarked on his first military expedition against the Thracian tribes.
Phillip reorganized the Macedonian army, making it the toughest, most efficient fighting force in Greece. It was led by an elite unite of foot soldiers and horse men, called the Companions. Phillip eve his troops heavier fighting clothes and long spears, and trained them in a particularly effective version of the phalanx (a long block of foot soldiers usually 8 ranks deep). The soldiers attacked the enemy with their long spears extended, then the cavalry charged in after them. In 338 BC, Alexander took charge of the Companion Cavalry and aided his father in defeating the Athenian and Thebes armies at Charlene.
By being victorious in this war, Phillip II now had control of all Greece and marked the end of the independent city states. He united the states into the League of the Corinth, with himself as the leader. To strengthen their, he proposed an expedition against the Persians. By 342 BC, Phillip had extended Macedonia to include all of Thrace, Chalklike and Thessaly. Meanwhile, the other Greek states, led by Athens and Thebes, were growing very nervous of this rising power in the north. So, in 343 BC they formed the Hellenic League against Macedonia.
Phillip had several wives but only one queen, Olympian, mother of his heir, Alexander. In 337 BC, Phillip took another wife, replacing Olympian as queen. The next year, Phillip was murdered, as he was about to attack the Persians. The killer might have been paid by the Persians, or by his previous wife Olympian. When Alexander came to the throne of Macedonia at just 20 years old in 336 BC, after the murder of his father Phillip II. Despite his young age, he immediately embarked on a military campaign that won him the greatest empire the world had ever seen and earned him the title “Alexander the Great”.
He was a military genius of extraordinary energy and courage, who inspired great loyalty in his soldiers. Alexander had inherited a highly efficient army from his father. The main part, known as the Royal Army, as from Macedonia, but there were soldiers from other states in the League of Corinth too, and professional soldiers from other parts of Greece. Alexander cavalry was made up of 5,000 horsemen, mostly from the horse breeding plains of Thessaly, led by the elite Companion Cavalry.
His army consisted of 30,000 foot soldiers, some armed with spears, others with javelins, bows and arrows or slings and stones. The cavalry was divided into units of 49 men. Each unit charged in a wedge shaped, to break up a phalanx of enemy foot soldiers. His foot soldiers moved in from behind to finish off the enemy with hand-to-hand fighting. As Phillip died before the attack on the Persians, Alexander continued that task of expanding Macedonian territory that father begun. In 334 BC, Alexander led 35,000 soldiers into Asia Minor and set out to destroy the Persian army.
He beat the Persian rulers of Asian Minor at the Battle of Gratings, and went on to defeat Dairies Ill, the Persian king, at the Battle of Issues in 333 BC. Dairies fled and Alexander marched on to Egypt, where he overpowered the Persian governors and was crowned King of Egypt. But his greatest battle was yet to come. In 331 BC, he destroyed the entire Persian army at Gametal. Once again, Dairies escaped, but the Greeks pursued him and he was finally murdered by his own troops. Alexander took over the land of Persian and was crowned the Great King of Persia.
When Alexander the Great arrived in Egypt in 332 BC, he ordered the building of a new capital city on the Mediterranean coast. Although Alexander died before he was able to see it, the city of Alexandria became one of the leading cities in the ancient world. Alexander had never planned to build an empire – only to rid him of the Persian threat. The more land he acquired, the more he could see he couldn’t control it al from Greece. Alexander replaced local rulers with Greek ones, but otherwise tried to cooperate with the local people.
He wore Persian cloths and married a Persian woman named Roseanne. Alexander soldiers won every battle they fought, but by the time they reached India many of them refused to go on. So Alexander turned back to Persian with part of his army. In 323 BC, they reached Babylon, but Alexander caught a fever and died, aged only 32. The influence of Alexander Several hundreds of years after Alexander death, the countries of his former empire remained influenced by Greek culture.
