Who taught Alexander the Great?

The philosopher Aristotle taught him as a youth. According to Plutarch, King Philip II gave master and pupil the precinct of the Nymphs at Mieza as a place to study. The historian J. B. Bury thought the teaching was mainly literary and that Aristotle came as a tutor rather than as a philosopher.

How old was Alexander when he became king?

He was about twenty. His father, Philip II, was murdered by Pausanias in 336 BC, and Alexander took the throne and the army Philip had built. Two years earlier, at eighteen, he had commanded part of that army at Chaeronea, where Macedon defeated Athens and Thebes.

What happened to Alexander's empire after he died?

He named no successor. As he lay dying he handed his ring to Perdiccas, and according to Diodorus, when his friends asked to whom he left the kingdom, he answered “to the strongest.” His officers then divided the provinces among themselves, and Greek-ruled kingdoms formed across Asia that lasted for centuries.

Alexander the Great: Never Beaten in Battle, Dead at 32

Q: Who was Alexander the Great?

Alexander the Great was king of Macedon from 336 to 323 BC. The son of Philip II and a pupil of Aristotle, he conquered the Persian Empire, defeating Darius III at Issus in 333 BC and at Gaugamela in 331 BC, marched as far as the Punjab, and died at Babylon in June 323 BC, aged 32.

Q: What was Alexander the Great famous for?

He is famous for conquering the Persian Empire within a single reign. He won every pitched battle he fought, at the Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela and the Hydaspes, took Tyre after a seven-month siege, founded Alexandria in Egypt and led his army from Greece to the Punjab before he died at 32.

Q: Did Alexander the Great ever lose a battle?

No pitched battle he fought ended in defeat. He won at the Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela and the Hydaspes. He did meet setbacks: his first assault on the Persian Gates in 330 BC was beaten back before he turned the pass, and in 326 BC his army refused to march beyond the Hyphasis river.

Q: How did Alexander the Great die?

He fell ill with a fever at Babylon and died in June 323 BC, aged 32; a Babylonian astronomical diary dates the death to 10 or 11 June. The cause is unknown. Ancient writers reported rumors of poison, and the surviving account from the royal journals does not identify the illness.

Quick answer

Who was Alexander the Great?

Alexander the Great (356 to 323 BC) was a king of Macedon, the son of Philip II, who conquered the Persian Empire. Taught as a youth by Aristotle, he became king at about twenty, defeated Darius III at Issus and Gaugamela, led his army into the Punjab and died in Babylon in June 323 BC, aged 32.¹

His great battles in Asia were the Granicus in 334 BC, Issus in 333 BC, Gaugamela in 331 BC and the Hydaspes in 326 BC, and he won all four. Before he was king he had commanded part of his father's army at Chaeronea in 338 BC. The campaigns in order are in the wars of Alexander the Great.²

Alexander the Great timeline

356 BCBorn at Pella, the Macedonian capital, son of King Philip II and Olympias.³
338 BCAt eighteen, commands one wing of Philip's army in the victory over Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea.⁴
336 BCPhilip is murdered by Pausanias; Alexander, about twenty, becomes king.⁵
334 BCCrosses into Asia and defeats the Persian satraps at the river Granicus.⁶
333 BCDefeats King Darius III at Issus; Darius flees the field.⁷
332 BCTakes Tyre after a siege of seven months, then occupies Egypt, where he founds Alexandria (332 or early 331 BC).⁸
331 BCDefeats Darius again at Gaugamela, on 1 October in Bury's dating; Babylon, Susa and Persepolis then fall to him.⁹
326 BCDefeats King Porus at the Hydaspes; at the Hyphasis (Beas) his army refuses to go farther.¹⁰
325 BCLeads part of the army back west through the Gedrosian desert (the Makran).¹¹
323 BCDies at Babylon in June, aged 32, without naming a successor.¹²

What was Alexander the Great famous for?

Alexander is famous for conquering the Persian Empire within one reign. Between 334 and 331 BC he defeated Persian armies at the Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, then marched through Bactria into the Punjab. He reigned twelve years and eight months by Arrian's count, died at 32 and left no named heir.¹³

He was born in 356 BC to Philip II and Olympias. Plutarch says Philip brought the philosopher Aristotle to teach him and gave master and pupil the precinct of the Nymphs at Mieza; Bury thought the teaching was mainly literary. When Pausanias killed Philip in 336 BC, Alexander, about twenty, took the throne and his father's army.¹⁴

Engraving of a philosopher in a toga pointing as he instructs a seated youth — Aristotle teaching the young Alexander, an engraving by Charles Laplante published in 1866. Public domain

How did Alexander defeat the Persian Empire?

He beat it in three pitched battles. At the Granicus in 334 BC he forced a river crossing against the Persian satraps; at Issus in 333 BC and Gaugamela in 331 BC Darius III fled the field. Babylon, Susa and Persepolis then surrendered, and in 330 BC Darius was seized and killed by his own officers under Bessus.¹⁵

Between Issus and Gaugamela he took the coast: Tyre held out for seven months against moles, siege engines and a fleet, and Egypt submitted, where he laid out Alexandria near the island of Pharos. How he compares with Cyrus the Great is the question behind Cyrus vs Alexander.¹⁶

At Gaugamela the ancient reports, repeated by Arrian and noted by Bury, put the Persian army at a million foot and 40,000 horse against Alexander's 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry. When Persian cavalry rode out to the flank, a gap opened in their line, and Alexander led the Companion cavalry into it toward Darius, who fled.¹⁷

“There is no part of my body, in front at any rate, remaining free from wounds.” Alexander to his mutinous troops at Opis, as Arrian reports his speech.¹⁸

Did Alexander the Great ever lose a battle?

No pitched battle he fought ended in defeat: he won at the Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela and the Hydaspes, and took Tyre after seven months. He did suffer checks. His first assault on the Persian Gates in 330 BC was beaten back before he turned the pass, and in 326 BC his own army refused to cross the Hyphasis.¹⁹

In India he crossed the Hydaspes (Jhelum) unseen by King Porus and defeated him and his war elephants in 326 BC, then restored Porus as ruler. At the Hyphasis (Beas) his men, worn out by years of marching, would go no farther, and he turned back. Part of the army returned west through the Gedrosian desert, a march Bury calls the most useless and most fatal of his enterprises.²⁰

Historical map of Alexander's empire from the Balkans to India — The Macedonian Empire of Alexander from 336 to 323 BC, stretching from Greece and Egypt to the Indus. Map from William R. Shepherd's Historical Atlas. Public domain

Baroque painting of a chaotic battle with cavalry and war elephants amid smoke — The army of Porus and its war elephants defeated by Alexander, painted by Nicolaes Berchem in the 17th century. Public domain

How did Alexander the Great die?

He died at Babylon in June 323 BC, aged 32, after a fever. A Babylonian astronomical diary records “the king died” on the 29th of the month Ayyaru, which falls on 10 or 11 June. The cause is unknown: Plutarch and Diodorus report poisoning stories, and Bury judged the court diary not enough to identify the disease.²¹

Plutarch, quoting the royal journals, says the fever began on the 18th of the month Daesius and that he died on the 28th, towards evening. He named no successor and gave his ring to Perdiccas; asked to whom he left the kingdom, he answered “to the strongest,” according to Diodorus. His officers divided the provinces among themselves, and Greek-ruled kingdoms formed across Asia that lasted for centuries.²²

Later commanders measured themselves against him. Livy and Plutarch both tell how Hannibal, the victor of Cannae, named Alexander the greatest of generals when Scipio asked him, with Pyrrhus second and himself third; we set the two side by side in Hannibal vs Alexander.²³

Meet the others in that company in the greatest military commanders in history, or read his decisive victory at Gaugamela in full, and see the world he fought in through the greatest battles of ancient Greece.

How Alexander fought

He inherited from Philip an army built around a pike phalanx and heavy cavalry called the Companions.²⁴

The phalanx. His infantry carried the sarissa, a long Macedonian pike. Polybius, describing the Macedonian phalanx two centuries later, gives it 14 cubits, more than 6 meters.²⁵
Phalanx and cavalry together. At Gaugamela the infantry held the Persian line while Alexander led the Companion cavalry into the gap that opened in it.²⁶
In the front rank. He fought in person and was wounded many times; in India, storming a town of the Malli, he was shot through the chest with an arrow.²⁷
Aim at the king. At Issus and Gaugamela Darius fled once the fighting reached him, and the Persian army broke.²⁸
Siegecraft. He took the island city of Tyre with a mole, siege engines and ships after seven months, and turned the walled Persian Gates by a mountain path.²⁹
Holding the conquests. He founded cities named Alexandria from Egypt to Central Asia, adopted Persian court ceremony, and at Susa married about eighty of his Companions to Persian and Median noblewomen.³⁰

What sources tell us about Alexander

No history of his campaigns by a contemporary survives. Arrian, writing in the 2nd century AD, drew mainly on two officers of the army, Ptolemy son of Lagus and Aristobulus; Plutarch also quotes Aristobulus and the royal journals, so the two often share a source. Diodorus, Curtius and Justin also compiled their accounts from earlier writers.³¹

Which conqueror do you fight like? Find out in our Which Commander Are You quiz.

More head-to-head comparisons: Alexander vs Caesar, Genghis Khan vs Alexander the Great and Napoleon vs Alexander the Great.

Notes

A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.

Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”; Hellenic Ministry of Culture, “Pella”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”. ↩
Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
Babylonian astronomical diary for Ayyaru 323 BC, “A Contemporary Account of the Death of Alexander”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; Hellenic Ministry of Culture, “Pella”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Babylonian astronomical diary for Ayyaru 323 BC, “A Contemporary Account of the Death of Alexander”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Livy, “From the Founding of the City, Book 35”; Plutarch, “Life of Flamininus”. ↩
J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”. ↩
J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; Polybius, “The Histories, Book 18”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”. ↩
Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”; Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”; J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”. ↩
J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”; Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”. ↩
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”; William Smith, “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”; Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”. ↩

Sources

Plutarch, “Life of Alexander”, translated by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library, Parallel Lives vol. VII (1919), LacusCurtius.
J. B. Bury, “A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great” (London: Macmillan, 1906), chapters 16 to 18 and chronological table, Internet Archive.
William Smith (ed.), “Alexander III, or Alexander the Great”, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (London: John Murray, 1849), Perseus Digital Library.
Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”, translated by E. J. Chinnock (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884), Project Gutenberg.
Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”, Books 16 to 18, Loeb Classical Library vols. VIII and IX, LacusCurtius.
Hellenic Ministry of Culture, “Pella”, Cultural Route of the Via Egnatia.
Babylonian astronomical diary for Ayyaru 323 BC (British Museum tablet BM 45962; A. Sachs and H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, vol. I, 1988, no. -322), “A Contemporary Account of the Death of Alexander”, translation at Livius.org.
Livy, “From the Founding of the City, Book 35”, chapter 14, translated by Canon Roberts, Perseus Digital Library.
Plutarch, “Life of Flamininus”, chapter 21, translated by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library, LacusCurtius.
Polybius, “The Histories, Book 18”, chapters 29 to 30, translated by W. R. Paton, Loeb Classical Library, LacusCurtius.