[116] However, the lion was also the symbolic animal of the Anatolian god Sandas, worshipped at Tarsus. [17], This article is about the ancient king of Macedonia. Tomb of Alexander the Great - Wikipedia [153] Olympias always insisted to him that he was the son of Zeus,[230] a theory apparently confirmed to him by the oracle of Amun at Siwa. [104] However, when, at some point later, Alexander was on the Jaxartes dealing with an incursion by a horse nomad army, Spitamenes raised Sogdiana in revolt. The tomb of Alexander the Great is attested in several historical accounts, but its current exact location remains an enduring mystery. [115], Alexander appears to have introduced a new coinage in Cilicia in Tarsus, after the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, which went on to become the main coinage of the empire. [169] Perhaps more likely, the successors may have seen possession of the body as a symbol of legitimacy, since burying the prior king was a royal prerogative. Alexander III 'the Great'. Conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, The first known person to call Alexander "the Great" was a Roman playwright named, Bloom, Jonathan M.; Blair, Sheila S. (2009), A History of Macedonia: Volume III: 336167 B.C. Government of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), encounter between Alexander and Diogenes the Cynic, Chronology of the expedition of Alexander the Great into Asia. [77], Egypt was only one of a large number of territories taken by Alexander from the Persians. He ascended the throne around age twenty. [170], While Alexander's funeral cortege was on its way to Macedon, Ptolemy seized it and took it temporarily to Memphis. 7 Reasons Alexander the Great Was, Well, Great | HowStuffWorks [233] Thus, rather than megalomania, his behaviour may have been a practical attempt at strengthening his rule and keeping his empire together. GreekMythos. The Great Macedonian King on the Buddhist Trail. Leycester Coltman, The Real Fidel Castro, p 220. [258] This process can be seen in such great Hellenistic cities as Alexandria, Antioch[269] and Seleucia (south of modern Baghdad). Omphis (Indian name Ambhi), the ruler of Taxila, whose kingdom extended from the Indus to the Hydaspes (Jhelum), complied, but the chieftains of some hill clans, including the Aspasioi and Assakenoi sections of the Kambojas (known in Indian texts also as Ashvayanas and Ashvakayanas), refused to submit. Alexander then marched for three days to the Danube, encountering the Getae tribe on the opposite shore. Some films that have been shot with the theme of Alexander are: There are also many references to other movies and TV series. Alexander not only returned Ambhi his title and the gifts but he also presented him with a wardrobe of "Persian robes, gold and silver ornaments, 30 horses and 1,000 talents in gold". (a symbol associated with Alexander), which is now in the . Alexander then faced the Assakenoi, who fought against him from the strongholds of Massaga, Ora and Aornos. In the area of architecture, a few examples of the Ionic order can be found as far as Pakistan with the Jandial temple near Taxila. [109] It remains unclear if Callisthenes was actually involved in the plot, for prior to his accusation he had fallen out of favour by leading the opposition to the attempt to introduce proskynesis. He had his cousin, the former Amyntas IV, executed. Justin stated that Alexander was the victim of a poisoning conspiracy, Plutarch dismissed it as a fabrication,[151] while both Diodorus and Arrian noted that they mentioned it only for the sake of completeness. [202], Both Curtius and Diodorus report a story that when Darius III's mother, Sisygambis, first met Alexander and Hephaestion, she assumed that the latter was Alexander because he was the taller and more handsome of the two.[203]. Alexander left no clear successor, though he had a son, Heracles, and another child on the way by his Bactrian wife . [103], In 329 BC, Spitamenes, who held an undefined position in the satrapy of Sogdiana, betrayed Bessus to Ptolemy, one of Alexander's trusted companions, and Bessus was executed. The end of Thebes cowed Athens, leaving all of Greece temporarily at peace. [195], When faced with opponents who used unfamiliar fighting techniques, such as in Central Asia and India, Alexander adapted his forces to his opponents' style. [68] At the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordium, Alexander "undid" the hitherto unsolvable Gordian Knot, a feat said to await the future "king of Asia". The Smyrnaeans sent ambassadors to the oracle at Clarus to ask about this, and after the response from the oracle they decided to move to the "new" city. AR tetradrachm. The Decadent Emperors: Power and Depravity in Third-Century Rome. [107], During the long rule of the Achaemenids, the elite positions in many segments of the empire including the central government, the army, and the many satrapies were specifically reserved for Iranians and to a major degree Persian noblemen. Was it Veratrum album? [205][206][207], Many scholars and historians attribute heterochromia to him. Miletus, held by Achaemenid forces, required a delicate siege operation, with Persian naval forces nearby. [228][229], He appears to have believed himself a deity, or at least sought to deify himself. Alexander the Great Facts, Information and Biography Greek Hero After a long pause due to an illness, he marched on towards Syria. [135] Alexander reached Susa in 324 BC, but not before losing many men to the harsh desert. Literally translated, with a commentary, from the Greek of Arrian, the Nicomedian", "Philostratus the Athenian, Vita Apollonii, book 2, chapter 12", "NZ scientist's detective work may reveal how Alexander died", "Was the death of Alexander the Great due to poisoning? There have been, since the time, many suspicions that Pausanias was actually hired to murder Philip. [293] As a consequence, the Phalangarii of Legio II Parthica may not have been pikemen, but rather standard battle line troops or possibly Triarii. [82] Control of Egypt passed to Ptolemy I (son of Lagos), the founder of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (305-30 BC) after the death of Alexander. However, the infantry, under the command of Meleager, rejected this arrangement since they had been excluded from the discussion. Ptolemy IX Lathyros, one of Ptolemy's final successors, replaced Alexander's sarcophagus with a glass one so he could convert the original to coinage. [298], Many of the legends about Alexander derive from his own lifetime, probably encouraged by Alexander himself. [145], On the evening of May 29, Alexander organized a banquet for his army to celebrate the end of the campaign of India and the onset of the invasion of the Arabian Peninsula. In the temple of Luxor, near Karnak, he built a chapel for the sacred barge. Horns of Ammon - Wikipedia He was probably intrigued by other species as magnificent creatures of the gods, as possible teachers, and whatever else he could read from their behaviors and appearances. These Greco-Buddhist kingdoms sent some of the first Buddhist missionaries to China, Sri Lanka and Hellenistic Asia and Europe (Greco-Buddhist monasticism). [279][281][282] The Yavanajataka (lit. This star symbol with sixteen rays is the national Macedonian royal symbol of Phillip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, and the ancient Macedonian Empire. The satrapies handed out by Perdiccas at the Partition of Babylon became power bases each general used to bid for power. Alexander the Great Pendant, Ancient Greece Necklace, Gold K14 and Silver Coin Jewelry, Greek Key Coin, History pendant, Perfect Greek Gift. Alexander, the son of his fourth wife, Olympias, was a bold, headstrong boy of unusual intelligence. [294][295] It was said that the bridge was to rival the Persian king Xerxes' pontoon bridge crossing of the Hellespont. Curtius Rufus, a Roman historian from the first century AD, who wrote the Histories of Alexander the Great, gives this account of Alexander sitting on the throne of Darius III: Then Alexander seating himself on the royal throne, which was far too high for his bodily stature. [31], Philip and his army joined his son in 338 BC, and they marched south through Thermopylae, taking it after stubborn resistance from its Theban garrison. [307] Alexander was depicted as performing a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) many times in subsequent Islamic art and literature. According to the ancient sources, the two sides fought bitterly for some time. Alexander has figured in both high and popular culture beginning in his own era to the present day. For having had all they could do to repulse an enemy who mustered only twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse, they violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on crossing the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they learned, was thirty-two furlongs [6.4km], its depth one hundred fathoms [180m], while its banks on the further side were covered with multitudes of men-at-arms and horsemen and elephants. When Philip heard of this, he stopped the negotiations and scolded Alexander for wishing to marry the daughter of a Carian, explaining that he wanted a better bride for him. [81] The Greeks interpreted this message - one that the gods addressed to all pharaohs - as a prophecy.[78]. [61] Alexander then set out on his Asian campaign, leaving Antipater as regent. This is cited as a reason for sparing Jerusalem. Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC. ", Peter Turchin, Thomas D. Hall and Jonathan M. Adams, ", Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, pp 158. The earliest of these is Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), followed by Quintus Curtius Rufus (mid-to-late 1st century AD), Arrian (1st to 2nd century AD), the biographer Plutarch (1st to 2nd century AD), and finally Justin, whose work dated as late as the 4th century. He was the king of his native Macedonia, ruler of the Greeks, the king of Persia and even an Egyptian pharaoh. [167][168] According to Aelian, a seer called Aristander foretold that the land where Alexander was laid to rest "would be happy and unvanquishable forever". [181] However, the power vacuum he left in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent directly gave rise to one of the most powerful Indian dynasties in history, the Maurya Empire. Both Athens and Philip sent embassies to win Thebes's favour, but Athens won the contest. [167][169] His successor, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, transferred the sarcophagus to Alexandria, where it remained until at least late Antiquity. [20], Mieza was like a boarding school for Alexander and the children of Macedonian nobles, such as Ptolemy, Hephaistion, and Cassander. [212][213] Reconstruction of the original polychromy of the relief with Alexander on the sarcophagus shows him with brown eyes and chestnut brown hair. None of Alexander's contemporaries, however, are known to have explicitly described Alexander's relationship with Hephaestion as sexual, though the pair was often compared to Achilles and Patroclus, whom classical Greek culture painted as a couple. [305] In this tradition, he was a heroic figure who built a wall to defend against the nations of Gog and Magog. [162] Another recent analysis suggested pyogenic (infectious) spondylitis or meningitis. [47][49][52], News of Philip's death roused many states into revolt, including Thebes, Athens, Thessaly, and the Thracian tribes north of Macedon. Around AD 200, Emperor Septimius Severus closed Alexander's tomb to the public. [305] Firdausi's Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings") includes Alexander in a line of legitimate Persian shahs, a mythical figure who explored the far reaches of the world in search of the Fountain of Youth. [79] To legitimize taking power and be recognized as the descendant of the long line of pharaohs, Alexander made sacrifices to the gods at Memphis and went to consult the famous oracle of Amun-Ra at the Siwa Oasis. [127] Alexander founded two cities on opposite sides of the Hydaspes river, naming one Bucephala, in honour of his horse, who died around this time. The Alexander Romance, in particular, has had a significant impact on portrayals of Alexander in later cultures, from Persian to medieval European to modern Greek. By the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. Apelles, however, in painting him as wielder of the thunder-bolt, did not reproduce his complexion, but made it too dark and swarthy.
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