ALEXANDER THE GREAT, son of Philip of Macedon and Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus of Epirus, was born at Pella, 356 B. C. His mind was formed chiefly by Aristotle, Alexander was 16 years of age when his father marched against Byzantium, and left the government in his hands during his absence. Two years afterward he displayed singular courage at the battle of Chæronea (338 B. C.) , where he overthrew the Sacred Band of the Thebans. The father and son quarreled, however, when the former divorced Olympias. Alexander took part with his mother, and fled to Epirus, to escape his father's vengeance; but, receiving his pardon soon afterward, he returned, and accompanied him in an expedition against the Triballi, when he saved his life on the field. Philip, being appointed generalissimo of the Greeks, was preparing for a war with Persia when he was assassinated (336 B. C.), and Alexander, not yet 20 years of age, ascended the throne. After punishing his father's murderers, he marched to Corinth and obtained command of the forces against Persia. On his return to Macedon, he found the Illyrians and Triballi up in arms, whereupon he forced his way through Thrace, and was everywhere victorious. But now the Thebans had been induced, by a report of his death, to take up arms, and the Athenians, stimulated by the eloquence of Demosthenes, were preparing to join them. To prevent this coalition, Alexander rapidly marched against Thebes, which, refusing to surrender, was conquered and razed to the ground. Six thousand of the inhabitants were slain, and 30,000 sold into slavery. This severity struck terror into all Greece.
Alexander now prepared to prosecute the war with Persia. He crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 334 B. C, with 30,000 foot and 5,000 horse, attacked the Persian satraps at the river Granicus, and gained a victory, overthrowing the son-in-law of Darius with his own lance. Halicarnassus was vigorously defended by Memnon, the Persian leader, but was taken. He marched through Gordium, where he cut the famous Gordian Knot, defeated a vast army of Persians and Greek mercenaries at Issus, capturing the family of Darius; reduced the cities of Phœnicia, and pressed on into Egypt. Here he founded Alexandria (331).
Such marvelous success dazzled his judgment and inflamed his passions. He became a slave to debauchery, and at the instigation of Thaïs, an Athenian courtesan, he set fire to Persepolis, the wonder of the world, and reduced it to a heap of ashes. In 329 he overthrew the Scythians on the banks of the Jaxartes; and next year he subdued the whole of Sogdiana, and married Roxana, whom he had taken prisoner. In 326 B. C, proceeding to the conquest of India, Alexander crossed the Indus and pursued his way to the Hydaspes (Jhelum). He there was opposed by Porus, a native prince, whom he overthrew after a bloody contest, and there he lost his charger Bucephalus. Thence he marched as lord of the country through the Punjab, establishing Greek colonies. Of all the troops which had set out with Alexander, little more than a fourth part arrived with him in Persia (325 B. C.). At Susa he married Stateira, the daughter of Darius.
At Babylon he was busy with gigantic plans for the future, both of conquest and civilization, when he was suddenly taken ill after a banquet, and died in 323 B. C.
ALEXANDRIA, a city of Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B. C. Before the city, in the Mediterranean, lay an island, up on the N. E. point of which stood the famous lighthouse, the Pharos, built in the time of Ptolemy I., in the 3d century B. C. and said to have been 400 feet high. The plan of Alexandria was designed by the architect Deinocrates, and its original extent is said to have been about 4 miles in length, with a circumference of 15 miles. It was intersected by two
