Essay/Term paper: Alexander's empire

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Literary Essays

Alexander's Empire


The ancient Kingdom of Macedonia, situated in the north of modern Greece,
was established by Perdiccas I about 640 B.C. Perdiccas was a Dorian, although
the Macedonian tribes included Thracian and Illyrian elements. Originally a
semibarbarous and fragmented power, Macedon became tributary to Persia under the
Persian kings Darius I and Xerxes I and thereafter struggled to maintain itself
against Thracians and other barbarians and against the Greek cities of the
Chalcidice as well as Sparta and Athens.
A new stage began with Archelaus (d.399 B.C.), who centralized the kingdom
with a system of roads and forts; he also fostered the Hellenization of his
people by inviting famous Greek artists, Euripides among them, to his court.
Few regions gave much thought to Macedonia. The area was so primitive that
it seemed to belong to another age- it was a rude, brawling, heavy-drinking
country of dour peasants and landowning warriors. The language was Greek, but so
tainted by barbarian strains that Athenians could not understand it. Macedonia
remained an outland. Growth of trade in the early fourth century promoted the
rise of several cities, yet when Perdiccas III, king of Macedonia, fell in 359
B.C. while fighting the Illyrians the seaboard of his state was largely under
Athenian control or in the hands of the Chalcidian league, grouped about
Olynthus.
Philip (382-36), brother of the dead king, was made regent for the infant
heir, soon set aside his nephew, and became outright king.
Once power was his, the young monarch swiftly brought order to his domain
by armed force when necessary, by diplomatic guile whenever he could, Philip set
out to make Macedon the greatest power in the Greek world.
Alexander was born in 356 to the first wife of Philip. As a teenager
Alexander was educated by Athenian philosopher Aristotle. By the year 337 all of
the Greek city-states had been conquered or forced into an alliance by Philip.
He was planning to lead their joint forces for an invasion of the Persian empire
when he was assassinated in 336. Thus at the age of 20, Alexander became king of
the Macedonians.
After Philip's death, some Greek cities under Macedonian rule revolted. In
335 B.C. Alexander's army stormed the walls of the rebellious city of Thebes and
demolished the city. About 30,000 inhabitants were sold in slavery. Alexander's
action against Thebes discouraged, for a time, rebellion by other Greek cities
With Greece under control, Alexander turned to his fathers plan for
attacking the Persian Empire. In 334 B.C., he led an army of about 35,000
infantry and cavalry across the Hellespont from Europe to Asia. The Persians
sent out troops that met Alexander's forces at the Granicus River. Alexander and
his cavalry charged across the river and won the battle. This victory opened
Asia Minor to Alexander. After marching along the southern coast of Asia Minor.
Alexander and his army headed north to the city of Gordium.
By 333 B.C., Alexander had reached the coast of Syria. There, in a fierce
battle at Issus, he defeated the king of Persia, Darius III, but could not
capture him. Alexander's army them marched south into Phoenicia to capture key
naval bases at port cities. Part of one such city, Tyre, stood on an island
about 1/2 mile offshore. Unable to capture the island from the sea, Alexander
ordered his engineers to build a causeway out to the island, converting it to a
peninsula that still remains today. His troops used such weapons as battering
rams, catapults, and mobile towers in their attack. The Tyrians on the island
surrendered in 332 B.C, after seven months of fighting. Alexander's use of huge
siege machines at Tyre introduced a new age of warfare.
Alexander next entered Egypt. The Egyptians welcomed him as a liberator
from Persian rule, and they crowned him pharaoh. On the western edge of the Nile
Delta, Alexander founded a city in 331 B.C. and named it Alexandria after
himself.
From Alexandria, the Macedonian king made a long difficult trek through the
Libyan Desert, a part of the Sahara, to the oasis of Siwah. He consulted the
oracle of the god Zeus-Ammon, and, according to legend, the oracle pronounced
Alexander the son of god.
Alexander left Egypt with an army of 4000,000 foot soldiers and 7,000
cavalry. He crossed the Euphrates and entered Mesopotamia where in 331 B.C. he
met the Persian king once more at Gaugamela, east of the Tigris River. In spite
that the fact was that his army was smaller than that of the Persians,
Alexanders superior tactics won the field, and Darus was forced to flee again.
By this victory he effectively won the war, although much more fighting was
needed before the Persian empire disappeared. It took three years to subdue all
of eastern Iran.
After the Battle of Gaugamela, Alexander entered the ancient city of
Babylon as a conqueror. From there he moved on to the great cities of the
Persian Empire: Susa, Persepolis, and Pasargadae. In 330 B.C. he defeated an
army that was guarding a narrow path known as the Persian Gates by finding a
track that led around it and attacking from the rear. This gave him entrance to
the Persian capital of Persepolis, where he and his men went on an orgy of
destruction and burned down the palace of Xerxes.
Having penetrated this far into modern day Iran, Alexander's army was now
in a country unmapped and virtually unknown to the Greeks. Still pursuing Darius,
he turned northwest toward Ecabatana (modern Hamadan) then northeast to Rhagae
(near Teheran). Darius had been taken hostage by Bessus, the ruler of the
province of Bactria. Alexander caught up with him as he was dying. Alexander had
his body taken back to Persepolis to be buried in the royal tombs. At the death
of the Persian king, Alexander adopted the title of lord of Asia--as the ruler
of the Persian Empire was called.
By this time Alexander was becoming more and more despotic. He killed his
own foster brother, Clitus, in a drunken brawl after Clitus had insluted him. He
antagonized many of his Greek and Macedonian followers by marrying a Persian
princess,Roxane. When a plot was discovered to murder him, he had his old
teacher and historian Callisthenes put to death. Alexander spent the year 328
B.C. subjugating Bactria and in the early summer 327 B.C. recrossed the Hindu
Kush to the south headed for India. Sending half of the army ahead by way of the
Khyber Pass with orders to build a boat bridge across the Indus River, Alexander
himself fought his way to the river through the hills north of the pass. He
spent the winter fighting the local hill tribes.
His greatest accomplishment in this campaign was in scaling and taking
Mount Aornos (Pir-Sar), which was supposed to be unconquerable. Following this
victory, Alexander led his army to the banks of the Indus where they rested
until spring. Then they crossed the river an marched three days to the city of
Taxila, where he was greeted by the king and much pomp and ceremony. He then
continued on to the Hydaspes (Jhelum) river, where he met and defeated King
Porus in what was to be his last great battle. He pushed on to the east, but on
the banks of the Hyphasis (Beas) river-his army rebelled. They were tired after
long years of war and were anxious to see their families back in Greece.
Alexander could not persuade them otherwise and after sulking in his tent for
two days agreed to lead them back home.
Alexander shared the classical belief that the Indus and Nile Rivers were
the same. He resolved to test this theory and see whether he could return to the
Mediterranean that way. On the Hydaspes River, he constructed a large number of
boats in which part of his force sailed downstream. The remainder were divided
into three groups and made the journey by land. They departed in November 326
B.C Going downstream Alexander engaged in constant warfare. The Indians would
not supply his troops without a fight. At a city that is thought to be present
day Multan, Alexander climbed a ladder to lead a attack and was badly wounded.
For several days it seemed as though he would die, and his men went berserk
destroying everything and everyone that got in their way. They reached the
mouths of the Indus in the summer of 325 B.C Alexander explored both arms of the
river and proved that it was not connected to the Nile.
Before the expedition had reached the Indian ocean, Alexander sent Craterus,
one of his senior officers, back to Persia with the largest part of the army. He
instructed Nearchus to wait until the monsoon in October and then to sail along
the coast to the Persian Gulf to find a sea route back to the mouth of the
Euphrates. Alexander and the remainder of the expedition made their way along
the unexplored Makran coast which is now Pakistan. He intended to follow the
coastline and set up supply depots for the ships along the way, but the Taloi
Mountains forced him to turn inland. Nearchus and the fleet were left to find
their own supplies along a very desolate shore.
Alexander's journey through what he called the Gedrosia Desert in the
mouths of August, September, and October 325 B.C was among the most difficult he
made. The expedition, including many women and children, had to walk over the
waterless desert at night to avoid the intense heat by day. They did not have
enough food or water, and many of them died before they reached Pura, the
capital of the province of Gedrosia. Alexander then went to Kerman where he was
met by Craterus and his forces. It was another six months before Alexander and
Nearchus met at the Persian port of Ormuz.
Alexander's army reached the Persian city of Susa in the spring of 324 B.C.
Alexander adopted more and more of the customs of the Asian despots, taking a
second wife and integrating non-Greeks into his Army. These measures alarmed his
Greek and Macedonian veterans, and they voiced their discontent. Alexander
discharged them and many headed back to Europe. During this time, however,
Alexander laid the basis for future expeditions. He sent Heraclides to explore
the Caspian Sea, to find out whether it was joined to the ocean that was
supposed to circle the world. He also planned to send a fleet under Nearchus to
sail around Arabia, hoping to discover a route between India and the Red Sea. He
seems to have had plans to conquer Arabia as well. All of these projects were
abandoned, however, when Alexander became ill at a Banquet on June 1, 323 B.C He
died on June 13 at the age of 32, possibly as a result of having been poisoned.
Few men changed the world so profoundly as Alexander the Great. In his
brief reign he covered 22,000 miles and never lost a battle. Usually he knew
more of the terrain than the natives did. In his epic march across Asia, he pul