Alexander the Great was born on 356bc Macedonia in what is now Thessaloniki, Greece. Now, the Macedonians may have considered themselves cultural Greeks but the Greeks believed otherwise. The Greeks basically saw the Macedonians as half barbarians. Alexander's father, king Philip, started a systematic expansion of his entire kingdom. In 336 BC. King Philip was killed and Alexander ascended to the Macedonian throne, then he went on a very successful conquering spree spanning 12 years. After which, he had conquered almost the entire known world.
Alexander’s main enemy was Persian king Darius III. At the time the Persian kingdom was massive, stretching from Egypt to the Mediterranean and into central India and Central Asia for 200 years. For perspective, that would be a 6 hour domestic flight. Their army of 1 million also wasn’t something to laugh at, (bear in mind that engagements of the time were quite small in fact an engagement force of 10,000 would have seemed as big as the D-day invasion force.
after conquering the capital of Persia Alexander now had access to a ridiculous amount of gold. However, Alexander and his army continued to march east, while battling nomadic tribes and rebels. In 326 BC he defeated King Porus at the river Hydaspes (India). But after this major, though difficult, victory his troops were like:
Nope we’re not going any further.
Alexander finally ordered his troops to return to his new capital Babylon.
During the retreat many soldiers died in the disastrous desert march. Those who managed to return safely with Alexander had covered over 20,000 miles (32187 km) within a period of roughly ten years. And in June 323 BC, back in Babylon, Alexander fell ill and died after ten days of high fever. Though his first wife Roxane was pregnant with her first son, Alexander the Great left no heir.
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