![]() ![]() While Alexander may have had his own reasons for expanding eastward, "his official reason for wanting to conquer the Achaemenid Persian Empire… was to lead the allied Greeks in a war of liberation: to free forever from Persian control the Greek cities along the Anatolian coast and on the island of Cyprus, and in so doing also to exact revenge for the Persians' invasion of Greece under Great King Xerxes in 480-479 BCE," Cartledge wrote.īut ironically, Alexander often fought Greek mercenaries while campaigning against Darius III, the king of Persia. ![]() With Greece and the Balkans pacified, he was ready to launch a campaign against the Persian Empire. After campaigns in the Balkans and Thrace, Alexander moved against Thebes, a city in Greece that had risen up in rebellion. He gained the support of the Macedonian army and intimidated the Greek city states that Philip had conquered into accepting his rule. Upon his father's death, Alexander moved quickly to consolidate power. "She fostered in him a burning dynastic ambition and told him it was his destiny to invade Persia." Philip’s dream was passed onto Alexander, partly via his mother Olympias, according to Abernethy. While the ancient Greek historian Cleitarchus pointed to jealousy and betrayal as the motive, as outlined by Diodorus Siculus in " Library of History (opens in new tab)," other ancient sources like Justin in " Epitome of the Philippic History Of Pompeius Trogus (opens in new tab)" suspected that Pausanias may have been part of a larger plot to kill the king - one that may have included Alexander and his mother.Īt the time of his death, Philip was contemplating invading the Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, which at its peak stretched from the Balkan peninsula to modern-day Pakistan and had repeatedly attempted to conquer the Greek world. ![]() The person who stabbed him was said to have been one of Philip's former male lovers, named Pausanias. while celebrating the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra (not the famous Egyptian pharaoh). At one point his mother Olympia was exiled to Epirus in western Greece.Ī wood engraving of the assassination of Philip II of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great, from 1880. "Alexander may have resented his father's many marriages and the children born from them, seeing them as a threat to his own position," said Abernethy. "Alexander felt the need to challenge his father's authority and superiority and wished to out-do his father," Abernethy said.Īncient records, such as Plutarch's " Lives (opens in new tab)," indicate that Alexander and Philip became estranged later in Alexander's teenage years. Alexander took advantage of the opportunity by defeating a Thracian people called the Maedi and founding "Alexandroupolis," a city he named after himself. Philip decided to leave his 16-year-old son in charge of Macedonia while he was away on campaign, Cartledge wrote in his book " Alexander the Great (opens in new tab)" (Overlook Press, 2004). Philip suffered serious wounds in battle, such as the loss of an eye, a broken shoulder and a damaged leg, according to Worthington. Philip remodeled the Macedonian army from citizen-warriors into a professional organization, wrote Ian Worthington, professor of history and archaeology at Macquarie University, in " Philip II of Macedonia (opens in new tab)" (Yale University Press, 2010). The teachings of Aristotle him in the treatment of his new subjects in the empires he invaded and conquered, allowing him to admire and maintain these disparate cultures."Īlexander watched his father campaign nearly every year and win victory after victory. ![]() He arranged for Alexander to be tutored by Aristotle himself … His education infused him with a love of knowledge, logic, philosophy, music and culture. "Philip ensured Alexander was given a noteworthy and significant education. Nevertheless, King Philip II of Macedon was one of Alexander's most influential role models, Abernethy said. Nothing he had accomplished would have discouraged this belief," wrote Guy MacLean Rogers, a professor of classics at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, in his book " Alexander (opens in new tab)" (Random House, 2004).Īlexander's father was often away, conquering neighboring territories and putting down revolts. "From his earliest days, Olympias had encouraged him to believe that he was a descendent of heroes and gods. He was the son of King Philip II and Olympias (one of Philip's seven or eight wives) and was brought up with the belief that he was of divine birth. Alexander was born around July 20, 356 B.C., in Pella in modern-day northern Greece, which was the administrative capital of ancient Macedonia. ![]()
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