Alexander the Great

Short Timeline

356 …..Birth of Alexander.
336 … .. Alexander inherits his father’s throne
335 … …. Thebes revolt crushed
334 ..  … .. Alexander leads his armies to Persia = modern Iran
329 ….. … … moving to central Asia
327 … .. …..  .. invading India
324 ..  …  … …..    Alexander’s best friend Hephaestion dies
323 ….. …..  ….. … ..Alexander dies in Babylon in the afternoon of June 11, 323 bC at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon
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Aristoteles was his teacher and Homer was his course book.

When he was 14, his father gave him that famous black horse Bucephalos that shied from its own shadow.

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Crowned in 336

When Alexander was 20, his father was murdered. Alexander became heir to the kingdom and started out to conquer the world.

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Alexander’s Maps:

Unlike modern generals, Alexander had very little geography data to prepare his campaigns. There were few maps and they were drawn according to observations made by travelers and poets.

That is why the extent of Alexander’s empire is known more  accurately to us now than it was then to Alexander himself.

Alexander never had a map as good as this as a summary of his campains. It is from http://www.bible-history.com/maps/alexander_campaigns.html distributed freely

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The coin shows Alexander  on his horse Bucephalos going after the Persians who fought on elephants:

The photo is at “Alexander production pictures” and it can’t be linked directly.

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330 –  Alexander’s most illustrius enemy Darius was assassinated by his own people. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

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324 —   Alexander lost his horse and his best friend Hephaestion.

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323 – Alexander died  as a commander never defeated.  He was only 33.  His empire fell apart, but his fame and some of his influence lasted: he brought Greek thought and the Greek language with its literature  far to the East.

The coin shows him getting crowned by Fame.

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Alexander the Great is  the most famous man of antiquity according to most historians.

He created an empire that included a large part of the known world. In many places he was considered a god. He is said to have founded 70 cities all along the way from Greece to India. One of these was Persepolis.

The picture is in public domain at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BattleofIssus333BC-mosaic-detail1.jpg

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Persepolis

Persepolis in Iran: the name is Greek meaning “the city of the Persians”.

Alexander the Great may have been drunk when he ordered the city to be looted and the palace to be set on fire to celebrate his victory.

The picture is from http://oznet.net/iran/persepol.htm

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The pillars of the Persepolis palace were not stone, but cedars  brought in by ship from the  Lebanon. According to legend, they burnt instantly when Alexander  and his girlfriend Thais threw in their torches, and she encouraged all their drunken friends to do the same. — The pictures are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Persepolis_1.JPG under license by GerardM and http://analepsis.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/persepolis-contcult/

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  There is a 9 mega version of this photo at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20101229_Top_panoramic_view_of_Persepolis_Iran.jpg published by Ggia
under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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He also founded Alexandria in Egypt.

The picture is under license by Delengar at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DSC00996.JPG

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Everybody knows about the Gordian knot: rather than trying to untie it, Alexander cut through it and was admired for it ever after.

Remember however that basically this procedure  would involve imprudence in most cases and it would not teach people to think before acting.

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Alexander may have been short-tempered. When his best friend Hephaestion died, Alexander ordered the manes of his horses and mules  cut and the doctor  executed.

And the old sources report that he was a drunk: “He was  more greedy for wine than able to carry it.”

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His coins were used all over the ancient world for more than 200 years. The coins + explanations  are from  http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/

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A legend says that when Alexander reached the end of the world, he met the Talking Tree who warned him of his imminent death. In Arabic his name is Iskandar:

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After Alexander’s Death

Alexander the Great died at the early age of 32. It was the year 323 bC  and he had not thought of any plans for his succession.

Fighting broke out among his generals, the Diadochi, with four of them eventually dividing up much of his empire in the Mediterranean area.

Alexander’s sarcophagus is in Istanbul.

Such is his fame in the East that people consider this sculpture their Mona Lisa as a work of art that everybody knows. It is Alexander fighting the Battle of Issus.
The picture is from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Sarcophagus.jpg licensed by Patrickneil

[See they still rode without stirrups, bareback!]

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For detailed data see faq.macedonia.org/history.

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Their religion and philosophy was based on Zoroaster. Zoroaster taught that life is a fight between truth and lies, light and dark. The Zoroastrian symbol of equinox is a fight between a wild bull and a lion.

The bull represents the Earth, and the lion is the sun, and on that day they are equal in strength.
The picture is under license by Ipaad at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nowruz_Zoroastrian.jpg …………………………………………………………………………………………….

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See this at the the museum of The Connecticut Historical Society

Legend of how Alexander tamed his horse

Now, most people would get to know this story through Oliver Stone’s film with Colin Farrell as Alexander.

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