Introduction to the Conquests of Alexander the Great (334 bce–323 bce)

By the middle of the fourth century bce , the Greek city-states found themselves threatened not by the Persians, who had been their principle rival during the previous century, but fellow Greek-speakers to the north, in Macedon. So far as the citizens of the southern city-states were concerned, Macedonians were barbarians speaking a loutish dialect of Greek. Whether they were barbarians or not, the Athenian statesman Demosthenes warned in a series of speeches called the Phillipics about the danger of the growing power of the Macedonian kingdom. The kingdom at this time was ruled by Philip II, who had spent three years of his youth as a hostage in the Greek city of Thebes, where he gained a Greek education.

After becoming king, Philip II took advantage of the political instability to his south. He expanded first into territories that gave him access to vast natural resources, which he deployed to strengthen his position in terms of military force and alliances. The city-states were embroiled in two major conflicts at the time. The Social War (357–355 bce ) pitted Athens against several of its subject cities and the city of Byzantium and resulted in a weakened Athens. The Third Sacred War (356–346 bce ) was even more damaging. The city of Phocis seized the treasury of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, leading not only to another war among the southern city-states but to an excuse for Philip to invade Greece for the honor of the god. He forced most of the Greek city-states (with the notable exception of Sparta) into the Corinthian League.

Philip died before being able to lead the League into battle against the Persians. This feat was left to his son, Alexander II, known as Alexander the Great, a man with a genius for conquest. The Persian Empire was still a major power, ruling most of the territories of modern Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt. All would soon fall to Alexander. He invaded Asia Minor in 334 bce purportedly to free the Greek colonies there from despotic Persian rule, but in fact went on to dominate the region himself. He drove Darius III, the Persian king, back into Mesopotamia after the Battle of Issus in 333 bce and defeated him definitively at the Battle of Gaugamela two years later. In between he took the Levant and Egypt, and after went on to India. Despite some notable successes, such as the Battle of the Hydaspes, India ultimately stymied Alexander and he was forced to return to the west. After a brief illness, he died in Babylon in 323 bce

At its height, Alexander’s empire stretched from Greece to India, but he founded no dynasty. His successors were his officials, who divided up his conquests and went on to fight a series of four wars called the Wars of the Successors (or the Wars of the Diadochi, 322–301 bce ). Though his empire disintegrated, Alexander’s fame grew with each passing generation. Ancient Romans venerated him. Medieval French poets celebrated him in verse. And his legend appears in more than eighty languages, from Icelandic to Malay.