Alexander the Great’s military campaigns (jan 1, 334 BC – jan 1, 324 BC)

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"Philip had groomed his son to become king and had given him the best education possible, hiring the Athenian philosopher Aristotle to be his tutor. In 334 B.C.E. Alexander led an army of Macedonians and Greeks into Persian territory in Asia Minor. With him went a staff of philosophers to study the people of these lands, poets to write verses praising Alexander’s exploits, scientists to map the area and study strange animals and plants, and a historian to write an account of the campaign. Alexander intended not only a military campaign but also an expedition of discovery."

Alexander’s Conquests 334-324BC
-Won major battles at the Granicus River and Issus
-Took cities in Syria, Phoenicia, eastern coast of Mediterranean
-Besieged Tyre and Gaza
-Took Egypt, which saw him as a liberator and was named pharaoh. He founded Alexandria.
-Moved to Siwah Oasis, consulted Zeus-Amon, and from then called himself the son of Zeus
-Defeated the Persian army at Gaugamela in Assyria, then took Persepolis. Burned royal buildings of King Xerxes.
-From this point, the rest of Alexander’s conquest was not about warfare or retribution. “The Persian Empire had fallen and the war of revenge was over, but Alexander had no intention of stopping. Many of his troops had been supplied by Greek city-states that had allied with him; he released these troops from their obligations of military service, but then rehired them as mercenaries.”
-spent 4 years conquering Bactria in modern-day Afghanistan
-moved across the Indus River, but at the Hyphasis River his troops refused to go any further
-he returned to Susa in Assyria and encouraged his soldiers as well as himself to intermarry with Persians

“His mission was over, but Alexander never returned to his homeland of Macedonia. He died the next year in Babylon from fever, wounds, and excessive drinking. He was only thirty-two, but in just thirteen years he had created an empire that stretched from his homeland of Macedonia to India, gaining the title “the Great” along the way.”

“His contemporaries from the Greek city-states thought he was a bloody-minded tyrant, but later Greek and Roman writers and political leaders admired him and even regarded him as a philosopher interested in the common good. That view influenced many later European and American historians, but this idealistic interpretation has generally been rejected after a more thorough analysis of the sources. The most common view today is that Alexander was a brilliant leader who sought personal glory through conquest and who tolerated no opposition.”

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