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CHAPTER ONE

The Greek World

On his black warhorse Bucephalas, Alexander, king of

Macedonia, rode at the head of his army. Unlike most of his
soldiers, he had no beard. His skin was fair and his light-
coloured, wavy hair grew long and low on his neck. He was in
India, and proud of the past few years. Finally, he had proved
that he was the greatest general in history. And he now ruled
the greatest empire that the world had ever seen.
His soldiers had joined him from many parts of the world.
There were Thracians, Macedonians and Greeks from
southeastern Europe; Scythians, Bactrians and Sogdians from
central Asia; and Indians, riding their enormous, armoured war
elephants. It seemed that no one could stop the march of this
extraordinary army. Certainly not the Persians, who had once
ruled much of Asia but were now completely defeated by
Alexander the Great.
Two centuries earlier, the Persians' enemy in Europe was
Greece, not Macedonia. In those days, and during Alexander's
lifetime, Greece was not a country. It was a collection of
independent city-states which shared a language, a religion and
a way of life. Athens and Sparta were two of the most famous
city- states, but there were almost 1,500 others. They were not
only found in the area that we call Greece today. Greek people
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lived in coastal areas all around the Mediterranean and the
Black Sea. Naples in Italy, Marseille in France and Izmir in
Turkey all started life as Greek city-states.
By 500 BC, the Greek city-states in Asia had lost their
independence. They were under the control of the Persian
Empire and had to pay high taxes to the Persian king, Darius I.
In 499 BC, they fought for their independence, with the help of
the Athenians. Unfortunately, they suffered a serious defeat.
As punishment for this trouble-making, Darius decided to
conquer the whole of present-day Greece. In 490 BC, he sent
an enormous army to Athens, but the Athenians defeated it at
the Battle of Marathon. After the battle, a messenger called
Pheidippides ran straight home to Athens to tell everyone the
good news. From Marathon to Athens was a distance of 42.195
kilometres - the same distance is called a 'marathon' today in
memory of that great run.
When King Darius died, his son Xerxes continued the
war against Greece. In 480 BC he sent another army, even
larger than his father's one. It defeated the Spartans at
Thermopylae (which means 'Gates of Fire') and marched
towards Athens. The Athenians had to leave their city to escape
the Persian army. While the Athenians were away, the Persians
destroyed the buildings on the Acropolis, the religious part of
the city. To the Greeks, this was unforgivable.
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But the Greeks soon made the Persians pay for their
crimes. Athenian ships beat the Persians at sea in the Battle of
Salamis, and then the armies of all Greece fought side by side
to defeat the Persians at Plataea. Soon the Persian army
returned to Asia. The danger had passed. But the Greeks never
forgot that they had nearly become part of the Persian Empire.
Although they had fought together in the Persian Wars,
the city-states continued to be independent from each other.
Some were ruled by a king, or a small group of noblemen.
Others, like Athens, were democracies and were ruled by the
people. Unlike our democracies today, the ordinary people
made all the political decisions. At least forty times a year, they
came together in enormous numbers to discuss and vote on
matters of government - whether to go to war, when to have
public holidays, or how to reduce the number of accidents at
sea. Women could not vote, but the ordinary men of these
Greek democracies had real power.
Religion was an important part of Greek life. There were
many Greek gods. Zeus was the king of the gods, and he used
thunder and lightning to punish the people on earth and send
messages to them. He had many children, and they too were
gods. His son Dionysus was god of the forces of nature; his
daughter Athene was connected with learning; and there were
many more.
All over the Greek world, people used to visit special
places to ask the gods for advice. They asked whether they
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should start a new business or choose a wife; as city officials,
they asked whether they should build a new temple or go to
war. Communicating through religious officials, the gods gave
them complicated answers that could often be understood in
different ways.
In the sixth century BC, for example, the Athenians sent
officials to the Greeks' most important religious centre, Delphi.
They asked the god Apollo how they should protect themselves
from attack by the Persians, and were told that they would be
safe from the Persians behind a wall of wood. After much
discussion, the Athenians decided that the 'wall of wood' meant
ships. They built warships and learnt to sail them. A few years
later, they defeated the Persians at sea.
The Greeks believed that the greatest heroes, like
Hercules, went to live with the gods when they died. Ordinary
people went to a dark place below the earth called the
Underworld.
Each Greek city-state was under the protection of one or
more of the gods. Each of these gods usually had a temple,
built in a style that has been copied in the Western world for
almost 2,500 years. To keep their gods happy, the people of the
city held regular religious celebrations. They brought gifts, and
performed special songs and dances.
The Greeks are remembered for their love of the theatre,
which they performed in celebration of the god Dionysus. The
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plays of great writers like Euripides are still performed today.
Other forms of literature were popular too. The Iliad and The
Odyssey by Homer were long poems which told stories about
the heroes of the Trojan War. Other Greeks wrote beautiful love
poems and the Western worlds earliest works of history.
Philosophy was invented in Greece, and the work of Plato
and Aristotle is still important today. The Greeks also made
many discoveries in mathematics and science. Hippocrates, a
doctor of the fifth century BC, is now called 'the father of
medicine'. Medical students all over the world have to promise
to follow his rules for looking after patients.
The Greeks thought it was important to exercise both
their minds and their bodies. They were great admirers of
physical beauty in men as well as women. The social centre of
a typical Greek city was its gymnasium, where rich citizens
took physical exercise. Every four years, the city-states sent
their best sportsmen to the city of Olympia for the Olympic
Games. There, competitions were held in running, jumping,
fighting, horseriding, chariot racing and spear throwing. The
greatest sportsmen at the Olympic Games became heroes of the
Greek world, and were celebrated in poems by writers like
Pindar.
But the competition between Greek city-states was not
always peaceful. There were often wars too. Except in Sparta,
Greek armies did not have professional soldiers; the soldiers
were usually farmers. Fighting took place in the summer
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months, and the soldiers went home in the autumn to look after
their fields. The wars were usually about land. No city wanted
other cities to control too much land or become too powerful.
At the end of the fifth century BC, Athens and Sparta were at
war for twenty-seven years. It was a time of great suffering all
over the Greek world.
At that time, Macedonia in the north was not an important
part of Greece. In fact, most Greeks did not think that
Macedonia was part of Greece at all. The Macedonians spoke a
strange form of Greek that other Greek speakers had difficulty
understanding. Macedonian noblemen liked horse-riding,
hunting, eating meat and drinking wine. They did not share
other Greeks' interest in literature, science and philosophy.
Macedonia was ruled by a royal family that believed they
were relatives of the great god Zeus. The king lived in Pella,
Macedonia's capital city. The palace was as beautiful as the
finest buildings in Greece, and the Macedonian kings wanted
their country to be more Greek. They welcomed several
important Greeks there, including many who were escaping the
wars. The writer Pindar and the doctor Hippocrates were guests
of the Macedonian kings, and Euripides wrote one of his
greatest plays in Pella.
And then, in 359 BC, Alexander's father Philip became
king, and Macedonia's relationship with the rest of Greece
changed forever.
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CHAPTER TWO

A Macedonian Prince

Although Alexander's achievements were extraordinary,

in many ways his father, King Philip, was responsible for his
success.
When Philip became king of Macedonia, he threw all his
energy into increasing his power. He conquered the lands east
of Macedonia, which were rich in gold. With this gold, he was
able to pay for a full-time, professional army, which gave him a
great advantage over the part-time armies of the Greek city-
states to his south. It was a well-trained, well-organized army,
and soon it had defeated all Macedonia's neighbours. When he
died, Philip's empire covered most of modern-day Macedonia,
Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and European Turkey.
In Macedonia, men were allowed to have more than one
wife at the same time. Philip had six wives. His first wife, his
queen and the mother of Alexander, was called Olympias.
Olympias was a princess from the neighbouring state of Epirus.
She had a strong character and a quick temper. If she had a
serious argument with someone, that person was unlikely to
stay alive for long. There were many stories about her wild
behaviour and her love of the god Dionysus. In the Greek
world it was normal to kill a few animals as gifts to the gods.
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But when Olympias organized religious celebrations, thousands
of animals were killed as gifts to Dionysus; then Olympias and
her friends drank the animals' blood. They played with
poisonous snakes too; it was said that Olympias liked to sleep
with a snake in her bed.
It is not surprising, with parents like this, that Alexander
was brave and adventurous. His teachers too helped to make
him a strong and successful leader. His first teacher was a
relative of Olympias - a man called Leonidas. Alexander hated
him. Leonidas made Alexander exercise without having
breakfast, and gave him only a small snack for his evening
meal. He even checked Alexander's school bags, so Olympias
could not hide food in them.
Alexander loved music and literature, but his favourite
hobby was hunting. He hunted with dogs, and he was always
fond of them. Many years later he even named a city in India
after his pet dog Peritas. A hunter also needed a horse, and
Alexander's horse was one of the most famous in history. A
Greek friend of Philip bought it for an enormous sum of money
and gave it to Philip as a present. Alexander, aged twelve, went
with his father to see this gift. It was a powerful black
warhorse, but it was wild. It jumped and kicked and turned.
Nobody was able to ride it. When Philip ordered his men to
take the horse away, Alexander asked his father to wait. He
turned the horse towards the sun, so it could not see its own
shadow. It immediately became less frightened. Whispering in
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its ear, Alexander gently climbed on the horse's back and rode
it proudly round the field. Everyone was full of admiration.
Philip, it was said, had tears in his eyes as he watched his
smiling son. Alexander kept the horse, which he called
Bucephalas, and for the next twenty years man and horse were
rarely separated.
As Philip became richer and more powerful, he hired
philosophers, artists, musicians and engineers from all over the
Greek world. His court at Pella was an exciting place for a
young prince to grow up. Alexander could talk to people who
had lived in Egypt, and made friends with a man who had been
a governor in the Persian Empire. Macedonia was now well-
connected in the wider world.
Philip was too busy leading his army to spend much time
with his son. But he made sure that Alexander's teacher during
his teenage years would be the best that money could buy.
When Alexander was thirteen, his father hired Aristotle, a
student of the great philosopher Plato. At that time, Aristotle
was an unknown teacher with thin legs and small eyes. He also
had one of the sharpest and most questioning minds in history.
Aristotle later wrote many important works of philosophy. He
was one of the first people to use scientific methods to learn
more about plants and animals. He studied the stars and the
way that the sea shapes the land. He wrote about politics and
literature. The list of his interests and achievements is
extraordinary.
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Nobody knows how much he taught Alexander. Aristotle
later wrote that it was a waste of time teaching political science
to a young man, because 'he has no experience of life, and still
follows his emotions'. Was he describing his pupil Alexander
here? Perhaps. But as Alexander grew up, like his teacher he
never stopped asking questions. Whenever Pella had visitors
from other parts of the world, Alexander learnt as much as he
could from them. Alexander, like Aristotle, had a hunger for
knowledge.
Alexander was not Aristotle's only pupil in Macedonia.
Aristotle also taught the sons of leading noblemen, and among
them were many of Alexanders future commanders: Ptolemy,
Perdiccas, Seleucus, Nearchus, and Alexanders best friend
Hephaistion. These friends, like the horse Bucephalas,
followed Alexander loyally to the ends of the earth.
Alexander grew up quickly into a responsible and
intelligent young man. When he was sixteen, he was allowed to
take charge of the government while Philip was away with the
army. Soon after this, a tribe to the east of Macedonia started to
cause trouble, and Alexander himself led a small army to defeat
it. Then, when he was eighteen, he commanded part of his
father's great army at the Battle of Chaeronea. In this battle the
Macedonians finally defeated the Greek city-states and forced
them to accept Philip as their leader.
Philip started to make plans to free the Greek cities in
Asia from Persian rule. Alexander felt that he would have an
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important part to play in his father's war against Persia. The
future looked good. But then his father fell in love.
Eurydice was the daughter of a Macedonian nobleman.
She was young and very beautiful. Soon Philip was planning
their wedding.
Olympias was very angry because, as Philip's new wife,
Eurydice would be more powerful than she was. And if
Eurydice had a son, he could be chosen as king instead of
Alexander. At the wedding, there was a big argument.
Alexander attacked his father, although no one was hurt.
Alexander and his mother left the court immediately;
Alexander soon returned, but his mother went to live in her
home country, Epirus.
Without his mother, Alexander was very nervous about
his position at court. Then he heard news that made him even
more worried. In preparation for his war on Persia, Philip was
in contact with the king of Caria, on the western edge of the
Persian Empire, and the two rulers wanted to arrange a family
marriage. As well as Alexander, Philip had another son,
Alexander's half-brother Arrhidaeus. He had learning
difficulties and could never be given adult responsibilities.
Philip suggested that Arrhidaeus should marry a Carian
princess.
Alexander could not understand why his father wanted
this royal marriage for Arrhidaeus and not for him. He sent
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friends to the Carian court to say that he would make a much
better husband than his half-brother. The Carian king was
pleased at first. But Philip was very angry when he heard what
Alexander had done. He did not want to waste Alexander on a
small country like Caria. Alexander's friends were sent away
from Macedonia, and soon the Carian king got worried and lost
interest in a marriage with anyone in Philip's family. Alexander
had ruined everything. His position at court became even
weaker than before.
As Philip sent part of his army into Asia to start the war
against Persia, he planned another wedding. Cleopatra,
Alexander's sister, was marrying her uncle, the king of Epirus.
All the local rulers in Philip's empire were there. But Olympias,
who was Cleopatra's mother as well as the king of Epirus's
sister, was not at the wedding. Since he was joining the royal
families of Epirus and Macedonia with this new marriage,
Philip did not need Olympias and her Epirote connections.
After the wedding, Philip was walking to the celebrations
with Alexander and his daughter's new husband. His endless
battles had left him with one eye and a bad leg, but he was still
full of energy, dreaming of a successful war in Persia.
Suddenly, a man moved towards them. It was one of Philip's
bodyguards. Without a word, he pushed a knife into Philip's
chest.
Then he ran. But he fell as he tried to get on his horse,
and Philip's other bodyguards soon killed him.
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There was no hope for King Philip. He was dead.
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CHAPTER THREE

The Young King

We will never know why Philip was killed. He certainly

had many political enemies inside and outside his empire who
had the money to pay for his murder. Some people at the time
said that Philip and his murderer had argued about a lover. But
it is more likely that Olympias was responsible. Philip had not
included his first wife in his plans for Macedonia's great future,
so Olympias, quick-tempered and dangerous, had arranged his
murder. She would have more power as King Alexander's
mother than as King Philip's unwanted wife.
But in Macedonia, rule did not always pass to the dead
king's oldest son. At the time of his father's murder, many
people did not want Alexander as their king. He was still only
twenty - too young, they said, to take on the responsibility of
Macedonian rule. He was half Epirote, not a true Macedonian,
because his mother was from Epirus. And his Epirote mother
was wild and irresponsible - perhaps even her husband's
murderer.
There were two other serious possibilities for the next
king. One was General Attalus, Eurydice's uncle, who wanted
to rule Macedonia through Eurydice and Philip's new baby son.
The other was Amyntas.
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Twenty-three years earlier, Amyntas had been a child of
two when his father, King Perdiccas, had died. Philip was
Perdiccas's younger brother and had ruled in the place of his
baby nephew; when Amyntas became an adult, Philip was so
powerful and successful that nobody questioned his right to
continue ruling. Amyntas was now twenty-five. Compared to
Alexander, he had the advantage of age and experience, and his
blood was equally royal. He was popular with the noblemen of
Macedonia.
But Alexander stayed one step ahead of his enemies. He
ordered the murder of Eurydice's baby, his own half-brother.
General Attalus, who was with the army in Asia, could do
nothing to stop him. Soon Attalus and Amyntas were murdered
too. This was not unusual - in those days the rule of a new king
almost always started with a few murders. Alexander reduced
taxes for the people of Macedonia and, since no other suitable
kings were left alive, they seemed happy to accept him as their
new ruler.
The situation was more difficult abroad. When news of
Philip's murder spread around his empire, the tribes in the north
and the city-states in the south decided to free themselves from
Macedonian rule. Within a few months of his fathers death,
Alexander had to fight to keep the empire together.
He first went to the Greek state of Thessaly. The usual
route was along a narrow valley in the mountains, but this was
now guarded by the Thessalians. Alexander decided that it was
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too dangerous to take the Macedonian soldiers and warhorses
this way. Instead, he created a new path. He ordered the
soldiers to cut steps in the steep rockface of a mountain on the
border between Macedonia and Thessaly. After weeks of hard
work, his army entered Thessaly by the new road, took the
Thessalians by surprise and defeated them easily. The
Thessalians welcomed Alexander as their new leader.
A march at lightning speed then took Alexanders army on
a tour of Greek city-states. One by one, they realized that battle
would end in disaster, so they quickly made peace with him
instead. Only Sparta refused to accept Alexander as their
leader, sending the message: 'It is our fathers' habit not to
follow others but to lead them.' Alexander was not too worried.
The rest of the Greeks hated Sparta more than they hated
Macedonia. He could manage without Spartan help.
There were also problems in the north. After his tour of
Greece, Alexander had to fight the Thracians, who lived beside
the River Danube. They could not defeat Alexander's well-
trained army and soon they were forced to accept Macedonian
rule.
But bad news followed. The Macedonian forces in Asia
were retreating; Attalus, murdered on Alexander's orders, had
been a good general, and his death had probably weakened the
army there. In Macedonia itself, Olympias was behaving
typically and had murdered Eurydice. And in Greece, news was
spreading that Alexander had been killed on the Danube; the
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city-state of Thebes was leading a new fight for independence
which was fast growing out of control.
Alexander knew that he had to act quickly. He rushed his
army to Thebes and started a siege of the city. When an
unguarded gate in the city wall was found, the Macedonians
soon forced their way into the city.
Alexander called a meeting with the neighbouring Greek
city-states, who had for many years suffered bad treatment at
the hands of power-hungry Thebes. When he asked them what
should happen to Thebes, they voted to destroy it completely.
Thebes came to a violent end. The city's riches were
taken. A few houses were left untouched - 150 years earlier the
Theban writer Pindar had written poems for the Macedonian
king, and now his house was safe - but the rest were burnt to
the ground. 30,000 Thebans, including women and children,
were taken prisoner and sold as slaves.
The terrible news soon spread around Greece. No other
city-state was interested in continuing their fight for
independence now. Everyone rushed to prove that they were
Alexander's greatest allies.
At last Alexander could turn his attention to Asia. It was
time to plan his war against the Persian Empire.
Alexander called together forces from many lands - foot
soldiers from Illyria and Thrace, horsemen from Thessaly,
warships from Athens, archers from Crete, as well as the highly
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trained Macedonian army. To this he added doctors, long-
distance runners, engineers, religious men, specialists in
digging for gold and jewels, and a historian called Callisthenes
to record his great achievements.
Alexander left his mother Olympias in charge of
Macedonia, with his father's loyal general Antipater to lead her
army. Then he marched to the Dardanelles, a narrow piece of
water that separates Europe from Asia in present-day Turkey.
While Alexander's second-in-command, General
Parmenion, led the mam army into Asia by the shortest sea
crossing, Alexander himself decided to see some sights.
His destination was the ruined city of Troy, scene of the
legendary Trojan War, where Greeks and Asians had fought for
the first time. The Greeks believed that the war had started
1,000 years before the time of Alexander, when Paris, a Trojan
prince, stole the beautiful Helen from her Greek husband
Menelaus.
***
Of all the heroes of the Trojan War, the greatest was
Achilles. When he was a baby, his immortal mother had held
his heel and covered the rest of his body in the water of the
legendary River Styx. After this, he could only be hurt on his
heel.
Achilles grew up handsome and brave. At the start of the
Trojan War, his mother gave him a choice: he could stay at
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home, live a normal life and die an old man, or he could go to
Troy, die young and be famous for ever. Of course Achilles
chose Troy.
He was the fastest runner and the strongest fighter in the
Greek army. But he also had a quick temper. After an argument
about a female prisoner with his general, Agamemnon, Achilles
decided to stop fighting in the war. Without Achilles, the
Greeks were nearly defeated. Patroclus, Achilles's best friend,
fought in Achilles's armour to give the Greeks confidence; but
soon he was killed by the Trojan hero, Hector.
Achilles felt very sad and very guilty. It was his fault that
his best friend was dead. Dressed in new armour created by the
gods, he returned to battle and did not stop fighting until he had
killed Patroclus's killer, Hector. He tied Hector's body to his
chariot and pulled it through the dust. But later in the war,
Achilles himself was killed when Paris shot him in the heel
with a poisoned arrow.
This was a story that Alexander had read from his early
childhood. He was even thought to be a relative of Achilles,
through his mother, Olympias, and the royal family of Epirus.
His teacher Aristotle had prepared for him a special copy of
The Iliad, Homer's great poem about Achilles; this copy was so
important to Alexander that he liked to rest his head on it when
he slept. For many years people had compared Alexander and
his best friend Hephaistion to Achilles and Patroclus. And now
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Alexander, like the Greeks of the Trojan War, had come across
the Dardanelles to attack the people of Asia.
As Alexander's boat touched the beach, he threw his spear
at the ground as a sign that this land was now his. With his
friends, he walked up the hill to the ruins of Troy. He gave gifts
to the gods. Then he and Hephaistion ran - Alexander to the
tomb of Achilles, his best friend to the tomb of Patroclus. Next
he went to the temple of Athene, where he exchanged his own
armour for a shield which, according to legend, had been used
in the Trojan War. With his beautiful shield from the Age of
Heroes, he went to rejoin his army as the new Achilles. We can
only wonder if he thought about the choice of futures that
Achilles had been given by his mother. Like Achilles,
Alexander chose to fight battles and live famously. Did he
guess that, like Achilles, he would never return to his homeland
or live to middle age?
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CHAPTER FOUR

First Battles in Asia

Until Alexander could prove that he was stronger than the

Persian Empire, the Greek cities in Asia refused to help him.
He had very little food or pay left for his men. He needed to
defeat the Persians in battle quickly. But the Persian
commanders were discussing other plans.
At this time, the soldiers in the Persian army were mostly
Greek.
People talk of Alexanders Greeks' defeating the 'Persians',
but there were 50,000 Greeks in the Persian army and only
7,000 in Alexander's.
In Greece, it was difficult to earn a living if you did not
own land. There were plenty of slaves, so landowners and
businessmen rarely wanted to employ paid workers. The
shipping business was a possibility, but storms at sea were
common and fortunes were lost as often as they were made.
For many, the most attractive choice was a life in the highly
paid Persian army. The army was full of failed Greek farmers
and businessmen, younger sons who owned no land, and
politicians who were not welcome in the city of their birth.
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A Greek general called Memnon had been responsible for
the Macedonians most recent defeats. He had grown up on the
island of Rhodes, spent some time living in Macedonia, and
come to Asia fifteen years before Alexander. His wife Barsine
was Persian, and he now owned a large farm, a present from
the Persian king for his loyal service.
Memnon now had a plan to defeat Alexander. The
Persians should not face the Macedonians in battle, he advised.
Instead, they should burn their own farms and make sure
Alexander's army could get no food. If Alexander did not win a
battle, the Greek cities would not help him. Soon his hungry
soldiers would have to return to Europe.
The rest of the Persian commanders disagreed with
Memnon. Instead, they decided to defend their country in
battle.
The Persian army grouped on the east bank of the River
Granicus. When Alexander heard the news, he realized his luck
and ordered his soldiers to march there as quickly as possible.
Some of Alexander's advisers warned him that for religious
reasons it was not a good month for a battle. Alexander acted
typically: he created a new month.
Alexander and his army reached the Granicus in late
afternoon.
The Persians had chosen their position well. The river
was twenty metres wide and ran fast between steep, muddy
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banks. If Alexander ordered his army to cross the river, it
would be easy for the Persians to cut them down in the mud.
Alexander had read in the work of a Greek historian that
the Persians liked to camp some distance from their chosen
battle ground and did not march before the sun came up. The
Macedonians crossed the river in the early hours of the
morning and found it undefended. They now had the advantage
of surprise.
Alexander led his horsemen against the enemy. The
Persian horsemen fought back, but they were badly organized
because of the surprise attack. When Alexander's spear broke
during the fighting, a Persian commander saw his opportunity
and struck Alexander on the head. But Alexander was not hurt,
and before the Persian could strike again, a Macedonian called
Cleitus came to protect his king. Cleitus's sister had been
Alexander's nurse as a baby, and now Cleitus saved his life.
As the fighting continued, the Persians failed to organize
a strong defence. Many of their commanders were killed,
several by Alexander himself. Soon the Persians on horseback
were retreating.
As the Macedonians surrounded the Persian camp, about
17,000 hired Greek foot soldiers tried to defend it. They
managed to hurt Alexander's horse, but there were many more
Macedonian attackers. They could not hope to win. 2,000 were
taken prisoner, and later sent to Macedonia as slaves; the rest
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were killed. Alexander used this cruel treatment as a message
to other Greeks: 'Leave the Persian army and stop fighting your
own countrymen - if you don't, your suffering will be worse
than the Persians'.'
After his success at the Granicus, the Greek cities in Asia
quickly opened their gates to Alexander. He sent messengers to
all the cities that he had already passed, telling them to become
democracies, to create their own laws, and to stop paying tax to
the Persian king. This was a clever trick, because it made
Alexander popular with tax-payers. The tax to the Persian king
was not really stopped; it was given a new name, and paid as a
'gift' to the Macedonian army instead. But the trick was
successful. The Persian-supported local rulers lost their power
without any danger to the Macedonian army. The cities became
democratic, and Alexander grew so popular that many people
in the area started to think of him as a god.
Alexander marched south into Caria, where he had in the
past hoped to marry the daughter of his father's ally, the Carian
king. At the border, he was met by Queen Ada, who had been
the wife of an earlier king. Now she was almost a prisoner in
her own home under the new king, a Persian called
Orontobates. She had a strange suggestion for Alexander: he
should become her adopted son and take Orontobates's place as
the true king.
But first he had to defeat King Orontobates. Orontobates
and General Memnon, who was then commander of the whole
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Persian army, were preparing a defence of Halicarnassus (now
called Bodrum, in Turkey). The city was famous for its
Mausoleum - the great tomb of Ada's brother, King Mausolus,
which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Halicarnassus had the strongest city defences on the Asian
coast, circled by walls and with a well-built castle. Persian
warships defended it by sea; Alexander, who had sent his
Athenian warships home a few months earlier because they
were so expensive, had no warships at all.
The siege was difficult. The Macedonians broke part of
the city wall, but the Persians pushed them back. Many lives
were lost from both armies. In the end, the Persians had too
few soldiers to defend the city. They retreated to the castle,
which they held for a year. But Alexander was able to move his
forces into the main part of the city. As Queen Ada's adopted
son, Alexander became king of Caria.
Preparations now had to be made for the winter.
Alexander decided to send home to Macedonia all the soldiers
who had married just before the start of the war. This was a
popular decision. Alexander's army now loved their leader
more than ever.
Alexander left his 'mother', Queen Ada, in charge of
Caria. With the rest of the army, he marched to Gordium (in
central Turkey), and waited there for the return of the newly
married soldiers. During the winter Alexander became
interested in a local legend. In the palace at Gordium, which
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had in the past been the home of the kings of Phrygia, there
was an old chariot. It was tied to a piece of wood by a
complicated knot that no one had ever managed to untie.
According to legend, Asia would one day be ruled by the
person who could untie the knot.
Alexander decided that he would untie the knot. In front
of all his soldiers, he moved towards the chariot. After some
minutes, the knot was broken. But there were two different
stories from the people who were watching. Some said that
Alexander's success with the knot was real; others said that
they saw him use his knife to cut it. We will never know. But
that night the gods seemed to send a sign of their support when
thunder and lightning filled the sky. Word spread among his
soldiers and the local people: Alexander, who had untied the
Gordian Knot, was the future ruler of all Asia.
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CHAPTER FIVE

Face to Face with Darius

While Alexander was at Gordium, the Persians started to

make more plans to defeat him. The Macedonians had no
warships; the Persians had 300. It was time for the Persians to
take advantage of their power at sea.
Led by General Memnon, they took back the Greek
islands of Chios and Lesbos. They planned to continue by sea
towards central Greece, and they hoped that Sparta would soon
lead a Greek independence movement against the
Macedonians. If the Persians created enough problems in
Greece, Alexander would have to go home.
They also decided, finally, to burn all the fields before
Alexander reached them, so his army would have nothing to
eat. Marching south, Alexander found burning fields
everywhere. Then, when he got to the city of Tarsus (in
present-day southern Turkey), he became ill with a high fever,
perhaps because of a swim in an icy river. His doctors feared
for his life. But a Greek doctor called Philip, who had looked
after Alexander as a boy, suggested a treatment that might help.
As the doctor went to prepare the medicine, Alexander was
given a letter from General Parmenion, his second-in-
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command; it said that Philip had been paid by the Persian king
to kill Alexander. But when Philip returned with the medicine,
Alexander drank it immediately without questioning his
doctor's loyalty, and after several weeks he got better. In
Alexander's world, death by poison was not uncommon and the
ability to know friend from enemy was very useful.
Memnon was not as lucky as Alexander. While fighting
on Lesbos, he suddenly became ill and died. This was a serious
problem for the Persians. Without Memnon and his knowledge
of Greece, they did not feel confident that they could fight a
war successfully against the Macedonians in Europe. Although
Memnon's plan had worked very well until then, they decided
to change it completely.
The Great King of Persia, Darius III, took personal
control of the situation. We know little about this king.
Although he had royal blood, he was not a close relative of the
Persian kings that had ruled before him. He had been the
governor of Armenia and fought bravely in battles there; he had
then become king of Persia after many members of the royal
family were poisoned by a power-hungry politician called
Bagoas.
Persia itself was in present-day Iran, but the Great King
controlled all the lands from Egypt to Pakistan, and from
Uzbekistan to the Arabian Sea. His riches were legendary, and
he received the treatment of a god. He was protected by a
bodyguard of 10,000 soldiers; they were called the Immortals
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because when one man died or became ill, his position was
immediately filled by another man.
The Great King gave land to the men that served him
well. The land-owning Persians had a very comfortable way of
life that was often a subject of wonder among the Greeks. They
had soft carpets on their floors and beautiful gardens full of
flowers; they ate the finest food, and hundreds of servants
looked after all their needs. But with one word, the all-
powerful king could take away their good fortune for ever.
Wide, well-built roads connected the Great King's most
important cities, Babylon, Susa and Persepolis, with the far
corners of his empire. The best of these roads was the Royal
Road, which led 2,300 kilometres from Susa, in the heart of the
empire, to Sardis, on the Mediterranean coast. Every twenty-
five kilometres along the route, there was a place to buy food
and stay the night.
Only the Greek cities in the west of the Persian Empire
paid tax in the form of money. Everywhere else, tax to the
Great King was paid in food; in silver and gold; and in horses,
war chariots and fighting men. King Darius now put together
an enormous army. Only the lands on the eastern borders of the
empire did not send men; they were too far away to be useful.
The Persian army's strength lay in its well-trained archers
and horsemen, because riding and archery were the traditional
hobbies of the Persian landowners. Tens of thousands of these
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men joined their king, but foot soldiers were less easy to find.
Darius's army included a large number of teenage boys with no
experience of battle. To help them, the King also called for the
hired Greek soldiers who had been fighting with Memnon at
sea; he needed them now for a great land battle.
Historians at the time wrote that he had between 300,000
and 600,000 men in his army, but not all of them were soldiers.
Each Persian horseman, for example, had twelve servants. And
when the king commanded the army, his politicians, his wives
and his children came with him.
The Macedonians, whose army only numbered about
50,000 men, received reports that the enemy had camped near
the Syrian border with Cilicia (southern Turkey). They
marched along the Mediterranean coast towards the Persian
camp, covering the distance in half the usual time.
Unknown to Alexander, the Persians had left their camp
and were also marching. While the Macedonians followed the
coast road south, the Persians followed the inland road north.
Although they were only a few kilometres away from each
other, neither army knew where the other one was. Such
confusion is hard to imagine today, in a world where cameras
in space can be used to spy on every movement that an army
makes.
The Macedonians realized first that the two armies had
passed each other by mistake. They had already had several
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days of hard marching. Now Alexander asked his soldiers to
turn round and march again.
After an evening meal, they marched north in the dark,
had a short sleep, then marched again at first light. Around
midday they came to a river near the town of Issus. On the far
side of the river stood the Persian army, on a flat piece of land
about two kilometres wide. To the west there was beach and the
Mediterranean Sea; to the east there were mountains. The
fighting area was too narrow for Darius to take advantage of
his greater numbers of soldiers. It was a good battlefield for the
Macedonians.
Alexander, riding Bucephalas, led a charge of horsemen
across the river towards the enemy. The Persian horsemen rode
to meet them, and the battle began. In the centre of the
battlefield were the Macedonian foot soldiers, who fought with
six-metre-long spears.
Although they were difficult to defeat on flat ground, the
Macedonians were having problems on the steep river banks.
They were close to defeat at the hands of the hired Greek
soldiers who fought for the Persians.
But just in time, Alexander's horsemen broke through the
Persian line and came to help the foot soldiers. Soon the
Macedonians were winning the battle.
King Darius was watching the fighting from his chariot.
As Alexander and his Macedonian horsemen moved towards
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him from two sides, the eyes of the two kings met for a
moment. Then Darius, realizing that the battle was lost, turned
his chariot and quickly retreated.
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CHAPTER SIX

South to Egypt

Darius escaped over the mountains on horseback, leaving

his spear in his chariot. But the Battle of Issus was a serious
defeat for the Persians. Enormous numbers of Persians died.
The rest of the Persian army broke into small groups, and most
of the hired Greeks sailed home in Persian warships.
King Darius lost much more than his soldiers and ships.
The Macedonians found extraordinary riches left near the
battlefield, and even more at the city of Damascus. There were
220 kilograms of silver, and as many gold coins as Alexander's
father, King Philip, had received in tax from his empire in a
whole year. There were piles of cups, bowls and boxes made of
gold. Alexander liked one gold box so much that he decided to
keep his favourite copy of The Iliad in it. There were thousands
of servants, including 329 female musicians, 319 cooks and 70
wine waiters, who had come to look after the Great King while
he commanded the army. And, most important of all, the
Macedonians took prisoner Darius's wife, mother and children.
Alexander made sure that the Persian royal family
received royal treatment. They were given fine clothes and
jewellery to wear, and had a comfortable place to live. Soon
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Darius wrote to Alexander asking for his family's return. But
Alexander replied that the royal family would only be freed if
Darius called him King Alexander of Asia.
'If you think you have a right to your empire, stand and
fight for it,' wrote Alexander. 'Do not run away, because I will
come after you, wherever you go.'
Another prisoner was the dead General Memnon's
beautiful Persian wife, Barsine. She had lived for a short time
in Macedonia when her father, a Persian governor, had become
unpopular with the Persian king. In Macedonia, Barsine had
known Alexander as a boy. Now he was a man and she was his
prisoner. Alexander fell in love with her and they were close
for the next five years.
Alexander now needed to take the ports in Phoenicia
(present-day Lebanon). Most of them were happy to welcome
the Macedonians and say goodbye to Persian rule, but the city
of Tyre was different. Tyre stood on an island about a kilometre
out to sea and was ringed by a wall fifty metres high. Few
cities were as difficult to attack, but Alexander, as usual,
wasted no time in worrying about the difficulty of his job.
He told his engineers to build a wide road across the sea
to the island of Tyre. Using stone from coastal ruins to fill in
the sea, the first part of this road was built quickly. But the last
200 metres cost many lives.
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The Tyrians shot arrows at the Macedonians as they
worked, but the Macedonians used stone-throwing machines to
clear the archers from their shooting positions. The machines
were also used to make holes in the city walls, but the walls
were soon rebuilt. When the Tyrians sailed burning ships into
enemy lines to destroy the Macedonians' wooden war
machines, the Macedonians found other ways to destroy the
Tyrian defences. The Macedonians tried to climb the walls, but
the Tyrians showered them with red hot sand that poured inside
their armour and burnt their bodies horribly.
As time went on, Alexander was helped by other
Phoenician cities, and by the Greeks who lived on Cyprus and
Rhodes. More than six months after the start of the siege, the
Macedonians and their allies attacked the island on all sides
with ships and machines of war. Finally, Alexander and his
soldiers managed to fight their way over the walls. The Tyrians
defended themselves bravely, but the city was taken. 10,000
Tyrians were killed and 30,000 were sold as slaves.
The results of Alexander's siege can still be seen. Tyre
exists today, but it is not on an island. The coastline was
changed for ever by the road that Alexander's soldiers built
across the sea.
South of Tyre, Alexander took the city of Gaza after a two
month siege. The whole male population was killed. Then
Alexander tied the feet of their dead king, Batis, to his chariot
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and pulled it round the city. His hero Achilles had done the
same in The Iliad, with the body of Patroclus's killer, Hector.
Alexander then marched south to Egypt, a land rich in
gold and farmland. In later years, when Rome was all-powerful
and had a city population of one million, most of the Romans'
food came from the valley of the Nile.
The Egyptians were understandably proud of their long
history. Their religion and their writing had begun almost 3,000
years before the time of Alexander, and their form of
government had too. The Egyptians had built extraordinary
tombs for their kings, or 'pharaohs'. The greatest of these, the
tomb of Khufu at Giza, continued to be the tallest building in
the world until the nineteenth century. But when it was built in
the twenty-sixth century BC, the Greeks had not yet even learnt
how to write.
For centuries, Egypt had been one of the most powerful
countries in the Middle East, but in 525 BC it had fallen under
Persian rule. Its people had never fully accepted this situation,
and had regularly fought for their independence.
Now they welcomed Alexander as their new ruler. They
were deeply religious, and they saw that Alexander had a better
attitude than the Persian kings to the Egyptian gods. They
gladly made him their 'pharaoh'. As Pharaoh, he was believed
to be a living god, son of the Egyptian creator-god Amun.
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After spending time in Egypt's capital city Memphis (near
present-day Cairo), Alexander travelled north to the mouth of
the River Nile. There he organized the building of a new city,
Alexandria. It was not the only city of that name; one had
already been built near Issus, and before he died Alexander
built more than twenty others. But this Alexandria was perhaps
his greatest gift to the future. In the centuries that followed, it
became one of the Mediterranean world's most important
centres of learning and of political and economic power.
Leaving most of his army in Alexandria, Alexander
travelled 200 kilometres west along the Mediterranean coast
with a small group of soldiers. He came to the Greek city of
Paraitonion, then turned south into the Libyan desert. This time
his destination was not an enemy city - it was Siwah, home of
the Libyan god Ammon.
Siwah, in Libya, was known all over the Greek world as a
place where people could ask Ammon for advice and receive
an honest answer. The answers were communicated to visitors
by Ammon's religious officials. Ammon was connected with
the Egyptian god Amun and the Greek god Zeus.
It seems that Alexander had an important question to ask
the god. But his journey across the desert to Siwah almost cost
him his life. For four days the travellers were lost in a
sandstorm. They drank all their water and soon became very
thirsty. But suddenly there were clouds in the sky and it started
to rain - 'not without the help of the gods', according to
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Alexander's friends. They travelled at night, when it was
cooler, and soon they lost their way again. This time, it was
said, they were helped by birds and snakes which showed them
the right direction. Finally, after more than a week in the desert,
they reached Siwah.
Alexander communicated privately with the god Ammon,
possibly about his hopes of becoming King of Asia. Later, in
public, the religious men of Siwah welcomed him as 'Son of
Zeus'. Was this just a Greek translation of the Pharaoh's title,
Son of Amun? Or had they heard that Alexander's mother
Olympias sometimes told strange stories about a god being her
son's father? We do not know. But certainly Alexander's visit to
Siwah had a powerful effect on him. According to his soldiers,
he started to believe that he truly was the son of the great god
Zeus. Like the Greek hero Hercules, he was more than human;
because of this, there was nothing that he could not achieve.
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CHAPTER SEVEN

King of Asia

During the siege of Tyre, King Darius had written another

letter to Alexander. He had offered him all the lands west of the
River Euphrates, a fortune in gold, and marriage to his
daughter; in exchange, Darius had asked for peace and the
return of his wife, mother and children. It was a generous offer,
but Alexander had refused it. Darius then realized that he had
no choice - he had to fight again.
While Alexander was in Egypt, Darius called together a
new army. Soldiers came from the farthest corners of his
empire, and it was a whole year before the army was ready to
fight.
Alexander marched from Egypt to Tyre and waited. In his
next battle, he wanted to defeat the Persians completely, and he
could not do this against an incomplete army. To entertain his
bored soldiers, he organized the performance of Greek plays
and musical concerts. Then finally the Macedonians marched
east.
By burning the Euphrates valley, the Persians forced
Alexander to take the only other possible route east. This
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brought him to Darius's choice of battlefield: Gaugamela, in
present-day Iraq.
Darius made sure that, unlike at Issus, the battlefield was
wide enough for him to take advantage of his enormous army.
Although Alexander had been joined by new soldiers from
Macedonia, Greece and the Asian Mediterranean coast, these
only took the place of the men who had died. Against
Alexander's 7,000 horsemen and 40,000 foot soldiers, Darius's
had 30,000 horsemen and 200,000 foot soldiers to send into
battle.
At first Alexander planned to take the Persians by surprise
in the early morning. But when it became clear that Darius was
expecting them, the Macedonians took time to look carefully at
the battlefield. In the centre of the field, they saw that spears
had been stuck in the ground to hurt any horses that ran at the
enemy lines. They saw elephants, a frightening sight for men
who had never met such enormous animals before, and for their
horses. They also noticed that uneven ground had been
flattened to help the drivers of the famous Persian war chariots.
Darius had 200 of these chariots, with spears pointing out in
front of the horses and long knives fixed to the wheels. It is
unlikely that the ordinary Macedonian soldiers were feeling
confident before the battle.
The following morning, Alexander spoke to his men and
their confidence returned. He called to the gods, 'If I am truly
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the son of Zeus, you will defend us and help to make us strong.'
Then he led the attack.
Horsemen and foot soldiers charged towards the centre of
the Persian line, then suddenly turned right to an area where
there were no spears or elephants. Darius's horsemen from the
centre rushed to meet them, but they were unable to surround
the Macedonians as they had hoped. Fighting hard, the
Macedonians drove them back.
At the same time, the Persian chariots charged at the foot
soldiers in the Macedonian centre. But Alexander's archers
managed to kill many of the chariot drivers before they reached
the soldiers. When a chariot came close, the Macedonians
moved sideways and the chariot, which could not turn quickly,
went straight through the hole in the line. The chariots were not
causing the damage that Darius had hoped for.
On Alexander's left, the Persians broke through the
Macedonian defences. But they did not use the situation to
their advantage. Instead they went in search of the Persian
royal family and tried to free Darius's mother.
Now Alexander took his chance. When the enemy
horsemen had rushed to meet the first Macedonian charge, they
had left a weak point in the centre of Darius's line. Alexander
attacked at this point, passing the elephants and going straight
towards the chariot of the Persian king. Alexander, it is said,
threw a spear at Darius, but it missed and killed his chariot
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driver instead. Soon, as at Issus, Darius was rushing from the
battlefield in his chariot.
This time Alexander did not want him to escape. He took
2,000 horsemen and hurried after him. But the dust made it
difficult to see, and many Persians were trying to follow their
king as well. In the confusion, Hephaistion and many of
Alexander's other friends were hurt. The Macedonians
continued the chase at high speed, but Darius managed to get
away.
With the disappearance of their king, the Persian soldiers
were soon defeated. As at Issus, enormous numbers of Persians
died. The Macedonians too lost many men, and more than a
thousand horses died in the battle or from their race to catch
Darius.
Alexander marched through rich farmland to Babylon. Its
governor came to meet him, and offered him the city without a
fight. Alexander entered the city gates in his chariot, riding
through streets covered with flowers. The Babylonians, like the
Egyptians, had suffered 200 years of unpopular Persian rule,
and welcomed a change enthusiastically. Alexander was careful
not to follow the Persian habit of insulting the Babylonian
gods. He gave gifts to the great god Bel Marduk, and paid for
the rebuilding of temples which had been damaged under the
Persians.
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He spent a few weeks relaxing in the great city with his
army. He probably found time to visit the famous Hanging
Gardens - a park planted with trees and flowers on many
different levels. Like the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, this was
one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Alexander left Babylon to be ruled by its Persian
governor, who had fought against the Macedonians at
Gaugamela just a short time before. Many people were
surprised at this, thinking that only Greek speakers should rule
Alexander's new empire. But later there were other Persian-
born governors.
The next great city on Alexander's route east was Susa.
The climate there was so hot, it was said, that at midday snakes
could not cross the road for fear of being burnt by the sun. But
its people gave Alexander a warm welcome, and its great riches
made it an attractive destination. After sitting in the royal seat
of gold in Darius's palace, Alexander took control of one and a
half million kilograms of gold. His financial difficulties at the
start of the war were now just a memory.
Then came Persepolis, in the heart of Persia itself. It was
natural to expect the Persians to defend their homeland.
Alexander led a small group of horsemen and foot soldiers
through the mountains to defeat any Persian forces that were
defending the mountain roads. The path was steep, narrow and
covered in snow. After four days' climb, the Macedonians came
to the Persian Gates, a wall of rock in the mountains that
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marked the entrance to the Persian homeland. As they passed,
they were attacked by an enemy army which was much larger
than their own small group. Great stones fell on top of them
from the mountain heights, and they were shot at on all sides
by Persian archers and stone-throwers. Alexander had no
choice: he had to order a retreat.
If Alexander left these Persians undefeated, they could
attack his main army, led by his second-in-command,
Parmenion, on its way to Persepolis. There was only one hope
of success, but it was very dangerous. With half his soldiers,
Alexander followed a local guide along a small path used only
by animals and their owners. At night, as the wind blew snow
in their faces, they ran through the mountains. In the early
morning, they rejoined the main path beyond the Persians'
position and took the Persians by surprise. With Macedonians
in front and behind them, the Persians suffered a terrible defeat.
Only a few escaped death.
Finally, in January 330 BC, Persepolis lay undefended.
Alexande's soldiers moved through the city, destroying
everything and everyone in their path in their search for riches.
For many, the long journey from Europe was now well
rewarded, as they found extraordinary quantities of gold and
silver, jewellery and expensive clothes. But the greatest riches
were saved for the Macedonian king. At Persepolis, Alexander
found three million kilograms of royal Persian gold. It took
15,000 animals to move it, under Alexander's orders, to Susa.
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Alexander chose a new governor for Persepolis - a
Persian nobleman whose father had been killed at the Granicus.
It seemed that Persepolis was going to receive similar treatment
to Babylon and Susa. Then, after a celebratory meal, the
Athenian girlfriend of Alexander's friend Ptolemy made a
suggestion. Alexander should burn the palace where they were
eating, she said, to punish the Persians for burning the Athenian
Acropolis many years before. Alexander and his friends agreed,
and soon the historic palace of the kings of Persia was in
flames.
While Alexander was in Persepolis, Darius and about
10,000 soldiers waited 700 kilometres north in Ecbatana
(present-day Hamadan). But when Alexander led his army
north, Darius ordered a retreat. First he planned to go far away
to Bactria (part of present-day Afghanistan); then he decided to
defend the Caspian Gates, which were much closer. His men
were getting annoyed with these changes of plan. Eventually
some of them took their king prisoner.
When Alexander heard what had happened, he followed
as quickly as he could. Racing through the desert, by day and
night, he finally caught up with the Persian soldiers. But their
prisoner king was not with them. Tired and thirsty after the
long and unsuccessful chase, one of Alexander's officers left
the road in search of water. By chance he found a dead body. It
was King Darius, murdered by his own men.
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Exactly 150 years after King Xerxes's wrongdoings in
Athens, the rule of the Persian kings was at an end.
Alexander started wearing the Great King's royal hat and
purple-edged clothes, making it clear to the Persians that he
was now their Great King. It was a shock for the Macedonians
to see their king in Persian clothes. They did not understand
why he wanted to look like the enemy. They had won battles
that no one had expected them to win, and had become rich
beyond their wildest dreams. Now their thoughts turned to
home.
To his soldiers' surprise, Alexander made no plans to go
back to Europe. Instead he continued to march east, and it is a
sign of his extraordinary skills as a leader that his soldiers
agreed to follow.
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CHAPTER EIGHT

To the Ends of the Earth

The first aim was to defeat Bessus, one of Darius's

murderers. Bessus was now in Bactria, calling himself King of
Asia. General Parmenion, Alexander's second-in-command,
stayed in Ecbatana with 25,000 men. Cleitus, who had saved
Alexander's life at the Battle of the Granicus, was given 6,000
foot soldiers and was told to protect the gold in the city. The
other 32,000 soldiers in the Macedonian army marched with
Alexander towards Bactria.
The quiet complaints about Alexander's new Persian
habits now grew more serious. A group of Macedonians
planned to murder their king. Philotas, son of General
Parmenion and commander of the Macedonian horsemen, was
told about these plans but failed to warn Alexander. When the
murder plans were eventually known, Philotass earlier silence
seemed strange. People began to wonder if the murder had
been his idea. Philotas was found guilty and killed.
We know that Philotas was a powerful commander who
had openly criticized Alexander. We do not know if he was
really responsible for the murder plans. Now, though,
Alexander had real cause to worry, because Philotass father,
General Parmenion, controlled half of the army at the time of
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his son's death. It was possible that Parmenion would turn
against Alexander in anger at the treatment of his son; it was
even possible that Parmenion himself had made the plans to
murder Alexander.
Alexander could not afford to wait and see what
Parmenion would do. Instead, he organized the murder of this
great general, who had been such an important commander in
the Macedonian army since the days of Alexander's father,
King Philip.
After this, Alexander was very careful. His soldiers'
letters to their families were secretly opened. A special group of
soldiers was formed of people who had criticized the king. In
this way, their dangerous views could not spread to other
soldiers who were still loyal to Alexander. In future battles
these soldiers fought especially bravely, to prove that they
deserved to stay with the army and not be left behind.
After these unpleasant events, the Macedonians marched
again towards Bactria. Their route took them straight over the
mountains now called the Hindu Kush ('Killer of Hindus').
They climbed 3,000 metres through snow and ice. The army
suffered terribly from cold and hunger, and found it difficult to
breathe in the thin air. Alexander walked beside his soldiers,
helping men
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who had fallen. The horses suffered most, and were
eventually killed and eaten - uncooked, as no firewood could
be found under the thick blanket of snow.
Finally they arrived in Bactria. Bessus, who had not
expected Alexander's winter crossing of the Hindu Kush,
decided to retreat beyond the River Oxus. Most of his soldiers
left his army, annoyed that he did not want to stand and fight.
Alexander took Bactria's capital city, Bactra, then marched in
the footsteps of the retreating Bessus.
Two months before, his men were freezing. Now they had
to suffer the terrible heat of a stony desert. They travelled
eighty kilometres with almost no water. Alexander shared their
suffering, refusing to drink a small cup of water that had been
found for him. Soon they reached the River Oxus.
Bessus had destroyed all the bridges and boats, so
Alexander ordered his men to fill their leather tent-bags with
dried grass and use them to sail across the wide river.
On the far side, they discovered that, like Darius before
him, Bessus had been taken prisoner by his own men. Now he
was given to Alexander. Alexander sent him back to Ecbatana,
where his ears and nose were cut off and he was later killed.
This was the traditional Persian punishment for killing a king.
To please his new Persian allies, Alexander was punishing the
murderer of Darius, who he himself had wanted to kill for so
many years.
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Alexander now learnt of trouble in the lands that he had
already conquered. The people of Sogdiana (present-day
Uzbekistan) and Bactria were angry at the way that Alexander's
hungry army had taken food and animals from their farms, and
started fighting for their independence.
There were sieges in seven cities. Eventually the cities
were taken, the enemy soldiers killed, and the women and
children sold into slavery. Then news came of trouble at the
city of Maracanda (now Samarkand). The Macedonian soldiers
there were surrounded by an enemy siege. Alexander had to
send an army to help them. But the Scythians on the far side of
the River Jaxartes seemed dangerous too. He decided to send
only a small force to Maracanda, and to use his main army to
defeat the Scythians.
His own battle against the Scythians was successful, and
their leaders were soon asking for peace. But in Maracanda, the
situation went from bad to worse. The Macedonians were met
by enemy horsemen. Without Alexander to lead them, they
fought badly, were forced onto a river island and were killed.
More than 2,000 men were lost. It was the first real defeat that
Alexander's army had suffered.
Alexander spent the summer of 328 BC trying to win
back control of Sogdiana. Before he had fully succeeded, a
terrible argument started over dinner one night. It was between
Alexander and Cleitus, the man who had saved Alexander's life
at the Battle of the Granicus. It is possible that the argument
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was about Alexander's attitude to his older commanders, and to
his dead father Philip's memory. Since his visit to Siwah,
Alexander believed that he was the son of the god Zeus;
perhaps Cleitus thought that Alexander was forgetting the
importance of his human father. Certainly many insults were
exchanged, and in the end Alexander killed Cleitus with a
spear.
In the morning, Alexander felt terrible about losing his
temper so violently. He went to his tent and refused to come
out for several days. But the murder could not be undone. After
this, it seems likely that his relationship with his commanders
was different. Cleitus had been killed because he had criticized
the king. Nobody else wanted to die for the same reason.
The war, though, started to go better after this. The
Sogdians, led by Oxyartes, waited behind steep hilltop
defences. They told Alexander that they would only become his
allies if he could find soldiers with wings. Instead, he chose
300 soldiers to climb the rockface during the night, just like
modern rock climbers. They climbed to a position above the
Sogdians. When the Sogdians woke up and saw the rock
climbers, they thought for a moment that the Macedonian army
really had grown wings. They immediately accepted defeat and
were taken prisoner.
Among the prisoners was Oxyartes's beautiful daughter
Roxane. Alexander fell in love with her and soon they were
married. Politically, this was a good idea too. Oxyartes was a
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powerful nobleman in Sogdiana, and now he had a strong
reason to stay loyal to Alexander.
Others were less loyal. Alexander soon learnt of another
plan to murder him. Callisthenes, who was a pupil and close
relative of Aristotle and was writing the history of Alexanders
heroic adventures, was blamed for the plan and killed.
Beyond Bactria lay India (present-day Pakistan as well as
India). Very few Greeks had ever been there, but many strange
stories were told of this mysterious land. People said that it was
rich in gold, which was dug by enormous insects, and that
Indian wool grew on trees. (Cotton was not known in the
Mediterranean area at that time.) They said that people lived
for 200 years; that there was a tribe of one-footed men; and that
to the east of India lay the Eastern Ocean, the edge of the
world.
Alexander led his army east into India, more for the
adventure than to build an empire. By now, the soldiers were
mostly Asian, not European. Asian Greeks from the eastern
Mediterranean, and Bactrian, Sogdian and Scythian horsemen
and archers. But his most important commanders were his loyal
childhood friends, including Perdiccas, Ptolemy and Seleucus.
His best friend, Hephaistion, was now his second-in-command.
At first Alexander was surprised by the warm welcome
that he was given. A group of Indian kings asked to be his allies
and sent him twenty-five elephants to use in battle. But other
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tribes were not as welcoming. One after the other, their cities
were taken and their people killed, until most of the local kings
accepted Alexander as their conqueror. If they did this, they
were allowed to continue their rule in peace.
But one king, Porus, preferred to fight. He positioned his
army and more than a hundred war elephants on the far bank of
the River Hydaspes. Alexander's horses were frightened of
elephants, and because it was the rainy season the river was
very deep and fast. Alexander could not cross the river and
hope for an easy battle.
Every night, Alexander's soldiers pretended to start an
attack, shouting the Macedonian war cry 'Alalalalai'. Every
night, Porus's men got ready to defend themselves, but as soon
as the enemy had got out of bed, Alexander stopped his 'attack'.
Soon Porus's men were suffering badly from too little sleep.
Porus saw that Alexander had collected enough food to feed his
men until the end of the rainy season, and decided that in fact
he was not planning to cross the river for many months. He
ordered his men not to listen to the nightly Macedonian
warcries.
Then Alexander attacked. On a rainy night, he sailed
across the river about twenty-five kilometres away from the
main armies. His boats landed on an island in the middle of the
river, not on the tar bank. By the time the mistake was
discovered, it was almost light. There was no time to go back
to the boats. Instead, Alexander climbed onto the back of his
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horse Bucephalas, who walked the rest of the crossing with
water up to his shoulders. Alexander's soldiers followed, some
on horseback and some on foot. Soon the fastest of Porus's
soldiers arrived, but their chariots got stuck in mud and they
were quickly defeated. Then Alexander marched on Porus's
main army, twenty-five kilometres away.
At the front of Porus's battle line were the elephants.
Alexander's friends Hephaistion and Perdiccas led horsemen to
the far left of the line, beyond the elephants, and Porus's men
moved to meet their attack. Then Alexander sent soldiers to
attack their right, which was almost undefended. Soon Porus's
army was in a state of confusion, and many fighters used their
elephants for protection. While Alexander's archers shot at the
elephants' drivers, his foot soldiers cut at their legs. The
elephants went mad, picking men up and throwing them
violently to the ground. Then, frightened and tired, they walked
slowly backwards. The battle had ended.
For Alexander, there was just one sad result of the battle.
Bucephalas was hurt by Porus's chariots soon after he had
crossed the river. A few hours later, he died. Alexander built a
new city on the banks of the river and called it Bucephala, in
memory of his much-loved horse.
Alexander's army continued east, through the mud of the
Punjab's rainy season. When rivers broke their banks, the men
had to escape the water in local hilltop villages. The snakes of
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the area did the same, and many men died from the poisonous
bites of snakes hiding in tents, clothes and cooking pots.
They reached the banks of the River Hyphasis, and at this
point a local king gave Alexander some unwelcome
information. They were still a long way from the Eastern
Ocean, which for Greeks meant the edge of the world. To get
there, they had to cross the River Ganges, more than five
kilometres wide, and fight the powerful King of Maghada and
his 4,000 elephants.
Alexander was not especially worried by this news. He
had defeated elephants before, and destroyed an empire greater
than Maghada's. He called his men together and told them
about the adventures and achievements that the future held.
But his men greeted his words with silence. Some of them
had marched 18,000 kilometres since they had first arrived in
Asia. They had not seen their families for eight long years. And
after three terrible months of rain, they were muddy, wet and
tired. They did not want to cross the Hyphasis and attack
another great empire. They wanted to go home.
Finally, one of the commanders told Alexander their
feelings. Soon all the commanders refused to continue east.
The first personal defeat in Alexander's life came from his own
army. He realized that he had no choice. Many of his men had
tears in their eyes as they heard the good news: Alexander was
going to lead them home.
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In his tent, Alexander was not as happy as his men. His
defeat had been very public, and it hurt him greatly. There was
a philosopher called Anaxarchus who was travelling with the
army. He tried to make Alexander feel better. But according to
legend, Alexander cried when Anaxarchus talked about the
number of worlds beyond the stars. He explained his tears:
'There are so many worlds, and I have not yet conquered even
one.'
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CHAPTER NINE

The Last Years

Alexander refused to go back the way that he had come.

His taste for adventure was satisfied a little when his men
agreed, instead, to build boats. They planned to follow the
Hydaspes and Indus rivers south to the Arabian Sea.
The journey started well, but it was difficult to sail so
many boats on unfamiliar waters. When the river was too fast,
the boats lost control, and many crashed into each other and
broke. On one occasion, Alexander had to swim for his life.
Alexander wanted to conquer all the tribes that he passed.
The Malloi, who lived in and around the city of Multan, caused
him the most trouble. With a small force, Alexander surrounded
Multan. Then he led an attack on the city walls. He climbed a
ladder and jumped down inside the city. But the enemy
managed to break the rest of the Macedonian ladders, and only
three of his bodyguards were able to follow him. They fought
bravely, but they were attacked on three sides. Other
Macedonians arrived as quickly as they could, climbing on
each other's shoulders to get to the top of the walls. But when
they reached their king, he had a metre-long arrow deep in his
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chest. They defeated his attackers, then carried him away on
his shield, but they had little hope that he would live.
The Malloi were killed - men, women and children - and
the other tribes rushed to accept defeat peacefully. But news
reached the main army on the river that Alexander was dead.
When he finally arrived, not only alive but able to ride and
walk, they cried with happiness. They thought that Alexander
must truly be protected by the gods.
Alexander's soldiers fought bloody battles against the
Brahmins, which brought the total number of Indian dead in
the last six months to a quarter of a million. Then the rainy
season began again, and there were terrible storms. When they
finally reached the Arabian Sea, they gave thanks to the gods.
They did not know that the most difficult part of their journey
was still ahead of them.
Two hundred years before, the Persian king Cyrus the
Great had lost a whole army in the Gedrosian Desert. The
desert, now called the Makran, covers 62,000 square kilometres
of present-day southern Pakistan and Iran. And their route led
across it.
Alexander led a force by land, carrying water for the men
who sailed the ships. Alexander's friend Nearchus was in
charge of the ships, which brought food for the land army. It
was impossible to pull enough food for everyone through the
sand of the desert. The sailors and soldiers needed each other.
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But the storms of the rainy season delayed the ships after
Alexander's army had already entered the desert. Then the local
people started fighting, and the ships were unable to take on
board all the food that they needed.
In the desert, the sand was deep and the soldiers' legs
sank into it. It had been blown into steep mountains and
valleys, so every kilometre felt like ten. Occasionally they
came to a watering-place. There, thirsty men dived into the
water and drank so greedily that they died. The expected rains
came late, and when they did, they arrived very forcefully.
Most of the women, children and animals following the army
were washed away and killed. The Gedrosian Desert was a hell
on earth.
Soon the men started to die of hunger. If they left the
army in search of food, they were likely to be killed by
poisonous plants or snakes. Then they discovered that their
guides had lost their way. Eventually, eight weeks after
entering the desert, they came out on the other side. But the
desert had proved a much stronger enemy than an army. Tens
of thousands of men, women and children had died on the
march.
At this time, Nearchus and the ships were only just
leaving India. They too were hungry and thirsty on their
journey, but Nearchus led them well and they lost few men.
Eventually, the ships reached Carmania (in present-day
southern Iran), on the far side of the desert, and Alexander was
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there to welcome them. There were wild celebrations. Sailors
and soldiers were together again, and they knew that they were
lucky to be alive.
When Alexander had marched over the Hindu Kush, few
Persians had believed that he would ever return. Since then,
there had been stories that he had died in Multan or in the
Gedrosian Desert. They were very surprised when he arrived in
Carmania, an easy march from Persepolis.
Few of the conquered lands had stayed loyal in the six
years since the Battle of Gaugamela. Some governors had
become disloyal as soon as Alexander had left. Others,
including the governor of Babylon and Queen Ada of Caria,
had died of illness or in battle, and disloyal men had taken their
place. Many Greeks and Macedonians had been left as the
populations of Alexander's new cities; some had hated their
new life and killed their governors. And in Ecbatana, a group
of Alexander's generals had behaved very badly, insulting the
local religion and attacking the local noblewomen.
Alexander punished his disloyal governors and generals
with death. He chose new governors from among his European
commanders; too few of his Persian appointments had been a
success.
Alexander next planned a great wedding celebration,
choosing Persian wives for ninety of his officers. He himself
was already married to Roxane, but he decided to follow royal
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Macedonian tradition and take two more wives: the eldest
daughters of Persia's most recent kings, Darius and Artaxerxes.
He asked his best friend, Hephaistion, to marry Darius's
younger daughter, so that Hephaistion's children could be his
own nephews. The weddings were celebrated for five days, in
an enormous tent in Susa that had been richly decorated with
gold and jewels. Alexander had taken the power of government
away from the Persians; now he was including them in his
empire in another way.
More and more soldiers from the eastern half of the
empire were joining Alexander's army. When he asked his
oldest Macedonian soldiers to go home, they felt insulted that
he did not need them any more. After ten years in Asia, they
now wanted to stay and enjoy the lands that they had
conquered. They refused to leave.
The rest of the Macedonian soldiers supported them. 'If
you send the old soldiers home, you must send us all,' they told
Alexander. But Alexander's decision was final, and he said that
they could all go home if they wished; Persians would take
their place in his army. Immediately the Macedonians changed
their minds. They asked Alexander to forgive them. They
wanted him to send the old soldiers home, but allow the rest of
them to stay. The problem was solved, and Alexander
organized a great dinner to celebrate the friendly relationship
between Macedonians and Persians.
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Alexander and his friends spent the next few months
relaxing and being entertained by theatre performances and
sports competitions. But Hephaistion caught a fever, became ill
and died. His death was a terrible shock to his lifelong friend
and king. For many weeks he was unable to think about
anything else.
Slowly Alexander returned to his usual business. He
planned to send ships and a land army around the coast of
Arabia from Persia to Egypt. Other ships were going to check
if the Caspian Sea was part of a northern ocean or joined the
Black Sea; although its southern coast was part of the empire,
no one seemed to know at that time that the Caspian Sea was
actually a lake.
But in Babylon, Alexander suddenly became ill. Possibly
he had been poisoned by his officers; probably he had caught a
disease carried by insects while he was travelling on Babylon's
waterways. He had a high fever, and after a week he could not
talk. On the tenth day, his court and army were given the
unthinkable news: Alexander the Great was dead.
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CHAPTER TEN

After Alexander

Although Alexander's achievements had spread Greek

customs far into Asia, the Greeks in Europe were pleased about
his death and decided to fight for their independence. To them,
he was still a foreigner. But the Persians, who had lost an
empire and hundreds of thousands of men because of
Alexander, were very upset when they heard that he had died.
King Darius's mother, who had become Alexander's prisoner
after the Battle of Issus, stopped eating when she heard the
news, and was dead herself five days later. Alexander had
become the Persians' Great King, whose rule followed the
traditions of the past. He had been their friend as well as their
conqueror. And, rightly, they feared a future without him.
Alexander died with no close male relative except his
brother Arrhidaeus, who had learning difficulties. But Roxane,
Alexander's first wife, was soon going to have a baby.
Alexander's friends decided to make the unborn child the next
king, if the baby was a boy. Alexander's friend Perdiccas, who
had been his second-in-command after the death of
Hephaistion and had royal blood himself, would rule until the
baby grew up.
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But the common soldiers wanted Arrhidaeus as their king,
as he was fully Macedonian and Roxane's baby had Asian
blood. Less than a week after Alexander's death, fighting
began. It was only stopped when Perdiccas ordered the death of
thirty of the soldiers leaders and they were thrown to the
elephants. It was agreed that rule would be shared between
Roxane's baby and Arrhidaeus.
There were many years of confusion in the empire that
Alexander had built. The story of Alexander's dead body is
typical of the times. It was believed that the body's final resting
place would bring good luck to the local people. Perdiccas
ordered his men to take it from Babylon to Macedonia in a box
of gold. But Ptolemy, who had been a close friend of Alexander
and had recently made himself king of an independent Egypt,
took the body in secret to Egyptian Alexandria, where it stayed
for hundreds of years.
During the years after Alexander's death, Roxane
poisoned Alexander's other wives to protect the power of her
baby son, also called Alexander. Perdiccas ruled for a short
time, until he was murdered by his bodyguards. Alexander's
most loyal commanders all wanted power for themselves, and
they were willing to murder people to get it.
Antipater was the general who had controlled the
Macedonian army in Europe while Alexander was in Asia.
When Antipater died of old age, his son Cassander took control
of Macedonia. Alexander's mother, Olympias, was officially in
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charge of Macedonia and tried to protect her power. She
murdered King Arrhidaeus, her husband's son and Alexander's
half-brother, and defended herself in the Macedonian town of
Pydna. But Cassander put the town under siege. After nine
months she had no food, and she died proudly. Cassander then
killed Roxane and her son, who were visiting Greece, and
made himself King of Macedonia.
The Macedonians soon sold the lands that Alexander had
conquered in India; they received 500 elephants for them.
Many years later, these lands were reconquered by the Greek-
speaking kings of Bactria, whose family had been started by
one of Alexander's Macedonian governors.
After years of fighting, two of Alexander's commanders
controlled most of his empire. Ptolemy was King of Egypt and
Seleucus king of the Asian empire. The families of both men
stayed in power until their lands were conquered by the
Romans in the first century BC.
All over Alexander's empire, Greek-style cities had been
built. Their populations were mostly European, and became
perhaps more Greek in their habits as the years passed. In some
areas, they preferred to marry their sister, niece or
granddaughter than to join their family with the foreigners that
surrounded them. Each city had a gymnasium, and held
sporting competitions and theatre performances. In
Afghanistan, buildings and works of art have been discovered
which copied exactly the artistic styles of Greece. The works of
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Homer, Plato and Aristotle were read and enjoyed in India and
even across the sea in Sri Lanka.
The greatest of Alexander's new cities was Alexandria,
the capital of Egypt under the Ptolemaic kings. While many
parts of Alexander's empire suffered from continued fighting,
Egypt lived in peace and grew in power. Its economy was very
successful; from Alexandria, ships took paper, medicines,
jewellery and art all over the known world.
The Ptolemaic kings mixed Greek customs with Egyptian
traditions, and built temples to both Greek and Egyptian gods.
They were very interested in literature, philosophy and science,
and invited the most famous writers of their age to live in
Alexandria. Out of this collection of great men grew a great
idea: a library that brought together all Greek knowledge and
included every book that had ever been written. At its largest,
this library held 50,000 books - not a lot compared to the great
modern libraries, but in a world before printing machines this
was an extraordinary number.
Among these books was a growing collection of histories
of Alexander's life. Some of them were interested in the facts;
others told romantic stories that were completely untrue. They
said that he and his warhorse Bucephalas each had two horns
on their heads. They told of strange flying machines, a Valley
of Diamonds, and the secret of immortality. Alexander's legend
was told from Iceland to China; in death he travelled far
beyond the borders of his own empire.
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Over the years, interest in Alexander has been shown in
many different ways. He appears in the Book of Daniel, which
was written in Hebrew in the second century BC and now
forms part of the Christian Bible. He was the hero of Julius
Caesar, Rome's greatest general. The Italian artist
Michelangelo created a square in Rome to look like
Alexander's famous shield. The French ruler Napoleon used to
read about Alexander in bed every night. In the early 1900s,
tribal kings in Afghanistan still went into battle carrying a red
flag which, according to their legends, had belonged to
Alexander. And in 2004, Alexander's extraordinary story was
brought to life in a $155 million Hollywood film. It starred
Colin Farrell as Alexander and was watched in cinemas all
around the world. Alexander the Great may be more famous in
the twenty-first century than he ever was.

- THE END -
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