ALEXANDER THE GREAT OF MACEDON (356-323 B.C.) WAS EDUCATED BY THE PHILOSOPHER ARISTOTLE.AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT'S VICTORY OVER KING DARIUS III (ACHAEMENID EMPIRE),ANOTHER EXPLANATION THAT ALEXANDER MARRIED ROXANNE,A BACTRIAN PRINCESS.

Alexander The Great,his mother Olympias and  Aristotle.Alexander was educated by the great philosopher Aristotle of Stagira. The school at Mieza can still be visited (a little to the east and below modern Naousa).As a place for the pursuit of their studies and exercise, he assigned the temple of the Nymphs, near Mieza, where, to this very day, they show you Aristotle's stone seats, and the shady walks which he was wont to frequent.It would appear that Alexander received from him not only his doctrines of Morals and of Politics, but also something of those more abstruse and profound theories which these philosophers, by the very names they gave them, professed to reserve for oral communication to the initiated.

Who was Alexander the Great? The son of Philip of Macedon and Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus of Epiras, Alexander the Great was born at Pella, and was tutored by Aristotle. He was only sixteen when his father marched against Byzantium and left him regent in his absence. Philip was preparing to attack the Persian Empire when he was assassinated by Pausanias in 336. The twenty year old Alexander assumed the throne. Having crushed the Illyrians and destroyed Thebes, Alexander crossed the Hellespont in 334 and obtained victory over the Persians at the Granicus  most of the cities in Asia Minor welcomed Alexander as their liberator. At a pass near Issus, in Cilicia, he met Darius (d. 330 B.C.) and destroyed him. Alexander occupied Damascus and then took Tyre (332). He then marched victoriously through Palestine. Egypt, weary of their subservience to the Persians, welcomed Alexander and there he founded Alexandria in 331. Alexander then set out to meet Darius again and near Arbela in 331, won another decisive victory, although Darius escaped. Babylon and Susa opened their gates to Alexander, as did Persepolis, the capital of Persia. In 329 he overthrew the Scythians and the following year he subdued the whole of Sogdiana, and married Roxane, whom he had taken prisoner. His foster brother, Clitus, was murdered in a drunken brawl. In 326, Alexander crossed the Indus River into India and at the Hydaspes overthrew Porus. It was during this bloody contest that Alexander lost his charger, Bucephalas. He then marched through the Punjab establishing Greek colonies. Having fought his way to the ocean, he ordered Nearchus to sail back to the Persian Gulf while he himself marched back through Gedrosia. Of all the troops which had set out with Alexander, little more than a quarter arrived with him in Persia in 325. At Susa he married Stateira, the daughter of Darius. At Babylon he was busy with grandiose plans of conquest and civilization, when he was taken ill after a banquet, and died eleven days later. His body was placed in a golden coffin at Ptolemaeus. This thesis will approach it by focusing on the question of how Alexander governed the empire he conquered. Specifically, did he intend for the people of the conquered landmass to become a new type of integrated culture led by him and his progeny? If it is possible to answer this question, it may give some indication of whether or not Alexander was anything more than a ìmereî conqueror.A comparison of the conquerorís initial foray into Asia Minor and the Troad to the later years of Alexanderís campaign shows that Alexander maintained a pragmatic restraint in the conquest of the eastern Mediterranean, and pragmatic choices for governance within Persia. Rather than pursue the Persian king into the heart of his empire, Alexander chose to complete the strategically important seizure of all the coastal zones. In this eastern Mediterranean phase of the campaign Alexander followed along a course that most likely had been plotted by his father Philip II of Macedon. Later in the campaign, Alexander chose to incorporate Persian leaders.The son of Philip of Macedon and Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus of Epiras, Alexander the Great was born at Pella, and was tutored by Aristotle. He was only sixteen when his father marched against Byzantium and left him regent in his absence. Philip was preparing to attack the Persian Empire when he was assassinated by Pausanias in 336. The twenty year old Alexander assumed the throne. Having crushed the Illyrians and destroyed Thebes, Alexander crossed the Hellespont in 334 and obtained victory over the Persians at the Granicus most of the cities in Asia Minor welcomed Alexander as their liberator. At a pass near Issus, in Cilicia, he met Darius (d. 330 B.C.) and destroyed him. Alexander occupied Damascus and then took Tyre (332). He then marched victoriously through Palestine. Egypt, weary of their subservience to the Persians, welcomed Alexander and there he founded Alexandria in 331. Alexander then set out to meet Darius again and near Arbela in 331, won another decisive victory, although Darius escaped. Babylon and Susa opened their gates to Alexander, as did Persepolis, the capital of Persia. In 329 he overthrew the Scythians and the following year he subdued the whole of Sogdiana, and married Roxane, whom he had taken prisoner. His foster brother, Clitus, was murdered in a drunken brawl. In 326, Alexander crossed the Indus River into India and at the Hydaspes overthrew Porus. It was during this bloody contest that Alexander lost his charger, Bucephalas. He then marched through the Punjab establishing Greek colonies. Having fought his way to the ocean, he ordered Nearchus to sail back to the Persian Gulf while he himself marched back through Gedrosia. Of all the troops which had set out with Alexander, little more than a quarter arrived with him in Persia in 325. At Susa he married Stateira, the daughter of Darius. At Babylon he was busy with grandiose plans of conquest and civilization, when he was taken ill after a banquet, and died eleven days later. His body was placed in a golden coffin at Ptolemaeus.

Philip II : king of Macedonia (360-336 BC), responsible for the modernization of his kingdom and its expansion into Greece, father of Alexander the Great.Not even his better known son Alexander has done so much to change the course of Greek history. Philip reorganized his kingdom, gave it access to the sea, expanded its power so that it could defeat the Achaemenid Empire, and subdued the Greek city-states, which never regained their independence again

In the spring of 336 BC, with Philip’s Persian invasion already set in motion, the king was assassinated by a young Macedonian noble Pausanias, during the wedding ceremony in Aegae, the old capital of Macedonia.  Why Pausanias killed the Macedonian king is a question that puzzled both ancient and modern historians. There is a claim that Pausanias was driven into committing the murder because he was denied justice by the king when he sought his support in punishing the Cleopatra's uncle Attalus for earlier mistreatment. But there are also reports that that both Olympias and Alexander were responsible for the assassination, by driving the young man into committing the act. That might explain why Pausanias was instantly put to death by Alexander's close friends as he attempted to flee the scene, instead of being captured alive and tried before the Macedonian assembly.  Philip, the great Macedonian conqueror was dead, the man who liberated his own country and brought if from the edge of the abyss into a world power. His dream of conquering the Persian Empire now lays on his successor, his son king Alexander III.Once he ascended on the Macedonian throne, Alexander quickly disposed of all of his domestic enemies by ordering their execution. But soon he had to act outside Macedonia. Philip’s death caused series of rebellions among the conquered nations and the Illyrians, Thracians, and Greeks saw a chance for independence. Alexander acted swiftly. He forced his way into Greece despite the roads leading to the country being blocked by the Thessalians. As soon as he restored Macedonian rule in northern Greece, he marched into southern Greece. His speed surprised the Greeks and by the end of the summer 336 BC they had no other choice but to acknowledge his authority.Believing that Greece would remain calm, Alexander returned to Macedonia, marched east into Thrace, and campaigned as far as the Danube river. He defeated the Thracians and Tribalians in series of battles and drove the rebels beyond the river. Then he marched back across Macedonia and on his return crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians, before they could receive additional reinforcements.But now in Greece, upon rumors of his death, a major revolt broke out that engulfed the whole nation. Enraged, Alexander marched south covering 240 miles in two weeks and appeared before the walls of Thebes with a large Macedonian army. He let the Greeks know that it was not too late for them to change their minds, but the Thebans confident in their position called for all the Greeks who wished to set Greece free to join them against the Macedonians. They were not aware that the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, stunned by the speed of the Macedonian king, quickly reconsidered their options and were now awaiting the outcome of the battle before they make their next move.Alexander's general Perdiccas attacked the gates, broke into the city, and Alexander moved with the rest of the army behind him to prevent the Thebans from cutting him off. The Macedonians stormed the city, killing everyone in sight, women and children included. 6,000 Thebans citizens died and 30,000 more were sold as slaves. The city where Alexander's father was kept as hostage for three years, was plundered, sacked, burned, and razed to the ground, just like Philip acted with Methone, Olynthus, and the rest of the Greek cities in Chalcidice. Only the temples and the house of the poet Pindar were spared from destruction. This was to be an example to the rest of Greece and Athens and the other Greek city-states quickly rethought their quest for freedom. Greece remained under Macedonian rule.In the autumn of 333 BC, the Macedonian army's encountered the Persian forces under the command of King Darius III himself at a mountain pass at Issus in northwestern Syria. 30,000 Greeks again formed a sizable addition to the Darius' army as elite fighters and were positioned directly against the Macedonian phalanx. Describing the atmosphere before a battle, the Roman historian Curtius explained how Alexander raised the morale of the Macedonians, Greeks, Illyrians, and Thracians in his army, one at the time:Riding to the front line he (Alexander the Great) named the soldiers and they responded from spot to spot where they were lined up. The Macedonians, who had won so many battles in Europe and set off to invade Asia got encouragement from him - he reminded them of their permanent values. They were the world's liberators and one day they would pass the frontiers set by Hercules and Father Liber. They would subdue all races on Earth. Bactria and India would become Macedonian provinces. Getting closer to the Greeks, he reminded them that those were the people (the Persians on the other side) who provoked war with Greece, those were the people that burned their temples and cities .As the Illyrians and Thracians lived mainly from plunder, he told them to look at the enemy line glittering in gold.Darius's army greatly outnumbered the Macedonians, but the Battle of Issus ended in a big victory for Alexander. Ten's of thousands of Persians, Greeks, and other Asiatic soldiers were killed and king Darius fled in panic before the Macedonian phalanx, abandoning his mother, wife, and children behind. Alexander treated them with the respect out of consideration for their royalty.

On September 30, 331 bc, the fate of two empires was decided on a plain 70 miles north of present-day Irbil, Iraq. Lying near the hamlet of Gaugamela, the plain was part of a vast territory north of the Persian provincial capital of Babylon where King Darius III, also known as Darius Codomanus, had mustered an army formidable enough, he hoped, to halt the invasion of the Persian-dominated lands of the eastern Mediterranean by Macedonian forces. But King Alexander III, only 25 years old, his reputation preceding him like thunder before a storm, led his men into Asia. To the king’s soldiers, their invasion would avenge half a century of devastation wrought on Greece during the Persian wars between 499 and 448 bc. Alexander’s personal ambition, however, was nothing less than to eclipse the great Persian empire by conquering its lands and bringing it under his aegis.

Alexander, showing great sagacity, did not pursue Darius immediately. He wanted first to secure his conquests on the eastern side of the Aegean, which meant having to deal with the powerful Persian navy. To neutralize that fleet, Alexander spent the 12 months that followed Issus seizing ports on the western Asiatic seaboard. Along the way he recruited all the battle-ready men he could find who were willing to join his expeditionary force. At the same time, in preparation for his attack on the Persian throne, he dispatched a force of bridge builders led by his lifelong confidant, Hephaestion, east to the Euphrates River to await his advance.Darius did not consider Alexander’s hold on Persian territory secure, and he made it clear that he would accept the Macedonian’s surrender in a letter, stating: “Alexander has sent no representative to his [Darius’] court to confirm the former friendship and alliance between the two kingdoms; on the contrary, he has crossed into Asia with his armed forces and done much damage to the Persian.Now Darius the King asks Alexander the King to restore from captivity his wife, his mother, and his children, and is willing to make friends with him and be his ally.”Alexander’s reply showed he rejected any form of accommodation with Darius:Your ancestors invaded Macedon and Greece and caused havoc in our country, though we had done nothing to provoke them. As supreme commander of all Greece, I invaded Asia because I wished to punish Persia for this actan act which must be laid wholly to your charge .My father was killed by assassins whom, as you openly boasted in your letters, you yourselves hired to commit the crime; you unjustly and illegally seized the throne of Persia, thereby committing a crime against your country; you sent the Greeks false information about me in the hope of making them my enemies; you attempted to supply the Greeks with money, your agents corrupted my friends and tried to wreck the peace which I had established in Greece then it was that I took the field against you.By God’s help I am master of your country. Come to me, therefore, as you would come to the lord of the continent of Asi.Ask me for your mother, your wife, and your children…and in the future let any communication you wish to make with me be addressed to the King of all Asia. Do not write to me as to an equal. Everything you possess is now mine. If, on the other hand, you wish to dispute your throne, stand and fight for it and do not run away. Wherever you may hide yourself, be sure I shall seek you out.Alexander then turned his forces to the port of Tyre, in present-day Lebanon. Its inhabitants held out for seven months, but in August 332 they too collapsed beneath the weight of Macedonian resolve. In contrast to his treatment of cities that had submitted more readily to him, Alexander destroyed most of Tyre and made slaves of most of its inhabitants to set an example for other cities that might consider resisting him. Gaza was besieged from September to November 332, during which time Alexander built an earthen mound 250 feet high with a base circumference of a quarter of a mile, on which to mount catapults and ballistae. After finally storming the city, he killed the garrison commander, Belios, and dragged his body around the city walls, as Achilles had done after slaying Hector during the Trojan War. Alexander also allowed his troops to sack the city.Darius sent another peace proposal, this time offering concessions that were considerable, including the sum of 10,000 talents to ransom the royal family, and the territory west of the Euphrates up to the Aegean Sea. He proposed they seal an alliance between the two kingdoms by offering his daughter in marriage to Alexander. Considering the noble mores of the day, this was a generous offer that another king might have readily accepted. But Alexander, with an intellect honed by his old teacher, the philosopher Aristotle, apparently viewed Darius’ second attempt at peace as evidence of his enemy’s crumbling resolve. In responding to the offer, Alexander denied interest in money, and said he would not accept any amount of territory less than the entire continent of Asia—it was, he claimed, already his, and if he wished to marry Darius’ daughter, he could do so without the king’s permission.On his throne in Babylon, a vexed Darius prepared for war once again. Meanwhile, Alexander invaded Egypt in December 332 bc, encountering no significant opposition. The occupation was complete by March 331, and cut the Persian navy off from all its ports. Alexander established garrisons in Egypt, and laid plans to build what would be the city of Alexandria. He then turned his forces, by now restored to the number nearly 50,000—that he had commanded at Issus, north to the ancient city of Thapsacus. There, Hephaestion and his men had been working on bridges to prepare for Alexander’s crossing of the Euphrates. But Darius had noted Alexander’s departure from Egypt, and he dispatched Mazaeus, the satrap of Babylon, and some 6,000 cavalry to prevent the crossing. Not wanting to engage Mazaeus without reinforcements, Hephaestion awaited Alexander’s arrival before completing construction of the final bridge. The remainder of the Macedonian forces arrived between July and August 331 bc. Confronted with Alexander’s intimidating cavalry, Mazaeus took his men back to Babylon and left the invaders to complete their crossing unhindered.Having watched the path of Alexander’s successful advance, Darius weighed the possibilities of what his enemy’s next move might be before deciding on his counterstrategy. If Alexander blundered, as Darius fervently hoped, he would take the shortest route to Babylon. That route, the Euphrates River valley, was a narrow, long green strip through arid desert at best, a parcel of land hardly adequate to sustain an army the size of Alexander’s. The Macedonian king’s men, lacking adequate support, would become weary during the long march and then be forced to meet the Persian army on ground of Darius’ choosing.His empire, stretching from Greece to India, disappeared after his death. But the cities that he founded (some chronicles say there were 70 of them) lived on; their citizens spoke Greek and kept Greek ideas alive. Through Alexander's conquests Greek culture was diffused, south into Egypt, east into Asia. It was a two-way traffic, for Alexander discovered that Persia and India possessed ancient civilisations from which the Greeks could learn much. Since Alexander, Greek civilisation has been called Hellenic, a wider term which includes Oriental ideas.The young King was now free to attack the Persian Empire, ruled by Darius 111. In the spring of 334 BC he crossed the Hellespont into Asia.The Persians could raise a million men and more, but their armies lacked the training and, above all, the leadership of the Macedonians. Alexander was a master in the art of war and utterly fearless in battle. Commanded by him, the Macedonian phalanx, or massed infantry carrying spears, proved invincible.The first battle, at the River Granicus, was a complete victory for Alexander, who led the attack, plunging into the river on his great horse Bucephalus.A second battle at Issus in 333 BC ended in total defeat for the Persians. King Darius fled, abandoning his family, who were treated kindly by Alexander. After the battle Alexander sent presents to his mother, Queen Olympias, of whom he was very fond.Alexander had to destroy the Persian sea power before it was safe for him to march further into Asia. He besieged the great seaport of Tyre, which fell after seven months; next Gaza, Samson's city, was captured.He entered Egypt, which had been ruled by Persia for 200 years, and many Egyptians welcomed him as a deliverer. At the mouth of the Nile he founded Alexandria, which was to become famous as a center of learning with its magnificent library, and as a seaport. He also sent an expedition into Ethiopia to discover the source of the Nile and visited the desert temple of Zeus-Ammon, where the priests hailed him as the son of Zeus.The following year, in 331 BC, Alexander continued the conquest of Persia. The armies met at Gaugamela, near Arbela (modern Erbil, in Iraq). Darius had assembled a huge army of over 1,000,000, including chariots with scythes attached to their wheels. Alexander's total strength is thought to have been 7,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry. The Persians could not stand up to the Macedonian charge. Again Darius fled, leaving his troops to struggle on bravely but in vain. He was later found, murdered by his own officers.When Alexander had first come to Asia Minor he visited Phrygia. There he had been shown the chariot of the ancient king Gordius and been told of the legend, according to which rule the world. Alexander seized a sword and sliced the knot in half; now he was making the legend come true.Alexander was now King of Macedonia, Greece, Egypt, Persia, and Asia  half the known world. For six more years his army marched on, exploring and conquering, before turning homewards. The distances Alexander covered are astonishing, especially in an age without maps; from Persepolis, the Persian capital, to the Caspian Sea; to remote Afghanistan and the inaccessible Hindu Kush; north again to Samarkand and Tashkent in Central Asia; then south-east to Khyber Pass and into India.Alexander's way of life changed during these years in Asia. He began to behave more like an Oriental despot than a Greek, wearing Persian dress and living in luxury. He encouraged his Macedonians to marry Asiatic girls, and chose 30,000 boys from all parts of Asia to be trained as Greek soldiers. He married a rich and beautiful princess, Roxana, from Bactria, in Central Asia. His marriage was happy, and his vision of greater unity between East and West was noble and far-sighted. However, the radiance of Alexander's youth was clouding over. Dark suspicions of treachery made him turn against his old and faithful Greek friends. In a fit of rage he killed Clitus, who had saved his life in battle, and imprisoned Callisthenes because he refused to prostrate himself in the King's presence.Alexander's ambition and his passion for discovery were as strong as ever. After crossing the northwest frontier into India, he marched through the Punjab to the river Hydaspes. Here his great battle was fought and won against the brave Indian King Porus. Alexander hoped to reach the river Ganges, but when his soldiers reached the river Beas they refused to go on. They had marched 11,000 miles and had not seen their homes for eight years. Plutarch said of the Macedonians; 'India killed their hearts'.

In 327, Alexander the Great married the daughter of the Bactrian nobleman Oxyartes, Roxane. No source describes the marriage, but a contemporary painter named Aetion made a painting of it, and this painting is described by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata.note Roxane would bear her husband a son, Alexander IV.

In the years 330-327 BCE,Alexander  the Great appointing Persians in important functions, dress himself like an Iranian nobleman, introduce the oriental court ritual (proskynesis). Marrying a local princess was a logical step.After Alexander the Great’s victory over King Darius III ( Achaemenid Empire. ) at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC, he had to contend with small rebellions that broke out across his empire. In the summer of 328 BC, one such rebellion occurred in the eastern satrapy of Bactria, a rebellion that would lead to a chance meeting with the beautiful Roxanne.To win the support of the Persian aristocracy Alexander appointed many Persians as provincial governors in his new empire. He adopted the Persian dress for ceremonies, gave orders for Persians to be enlisted in the army, and encouraged the Macedonians to marry Persian women. But the Macedonians were unhappy with Alexander's Orientalization for they were proud of their Macedonian customs, culture, and language. His increasingly Oriental behavior eventually led to conflict with the Macedonian nobles and some Greeks in the train. In 330 BC series of allegations were brought up against some of Alexander's officers concerning a plot to murder him. Alexander tortured and executed the accused leader of the conspiracy, Parmenio's son Philotas, the commander of the cavalry. Several other officers were also executed according to Macedonian law, in order to eliminate the alleged attempt on Alexander's life. During the trial of Philotas Alexander raised the question of the use of the ancient Macedonian language. He spoke:'The Macedonians are about to pass judgment upon you; I wish to know whether you will use their native tongue in addressing them.' Philotas replied: 'Besides the Macedonians there are many present who, I think, will more easily understand what I shall say if I use the same language which you have employed.' Than said the king: 'Do you not see how Philotas loathes even the language of his fatherland? For he alone disdains to learn it. But let him by all means speak in whatever way he desires, provided that you remember that he holds out customs in as much abhorrence as our language.'The trial of Philotas took place in Asia before a multiethnic public, which has accepted Greek as their common language. Alexander spoke Macedonian with his conationals, but used Greek in addressing the Greeks and the Asians, as Greek was widely taken as international language in ancient times. Like Carthaginian, Illyrian, and Thracian, ancient Macedonian was not recorded in writing. However, on the bases of about hundred glosses, Macedonian words noted and explained by Greek writers, some place names from Macedonia, and names of individuals, most scholars believe that ancient Macedonian was a separate Indo-European language. Evidence from phonology indicates that the ancient Macedonian language was distinct from ancient Greek and closer to the Thracian and Illyrian languages. Some modern writers have erroneously concluded that the Macedonians spoke Greek based on few Greek inscriptions discovered in Macedonia, but that is by no means a proof that the Macedonian was not a distinct language. Greek inscriptions were also found in Thrace and Illyria, the Thracians even inscribed their coins and vessels in Greek, and we know that both the Illyrians and the Thracians were not Greeks who had distinct languages.After Philotas was executed according to the Macedonian custom, Alexander ordered next the execution of Philotas' father, general Parmenio. But the death of the old general did not sit well with every Macedonian in the army. Parmenio was a veteran, proven solder of Philip's guard, a men who played a major part in leading the Macedonian armies and rising the country to a world power. In fact Philip II had often remarked how proud he was to have Parmenio as his general.When Bactria rebelled, Alexander and his army quickly marched to suppress it. Thirty thousand Bactrians had taken refuge in a citadel situated high above a sheer cliff, called the Rock of Sogdiana. Alexander sent a message to Arimazes, the commander of the fortress, calling for him to surrender. The reluctant Arimazes replied asking if Alexander could fly because he would need “winged soldiers” to defeat him. The proud Alexander was not about to let the nearly impossible stop him. He asked for the best cliff-climbers among his army, promising a reward for the first man to reach the top of the cliff: Three hundred men volunteered. By morning, while only loosing thirty men, they reached the top surrender immediately followed. It was here, according to the one historian, that Alexander first saw among the captives the lovely Roxanne and immediately fell in love.He wrote:As for his marriage with Roxana, whose youthfulness and beauty had charmed him at a drinking entertainment, where he first happened to see her taking part in a dance, it was indeed a love affair, yet it seemed at the same time to be conducive to the object he had in hand. For it gratified the conquered people to see him choose a wife from among themselves.With his Macedonian forces Alexander subdued and united the Greeks and reestablished the Corinthian League after almost a century of warfare between the Greek city-states following the Peloponnesian War. Thus Alexander set the stage for his conquest of the Persian Empire, motivated both by personal ambition and by the Greeks' centuries-old hatred for their perennial Asian foes since the Persian Wars. His campaigns were not only wars of liberation of Greek colonies in Asia Minor but also revenge for Persian depredations in Greece in years past. Within 11 years Alexander's empire stretched from the Balkans to the Himalayas, and it included most of the eastern Mediterranean countries, Mesopotamia, and Persia.He did marry three times: to Roxana of Bactria, Stateira, and Parysatis, daughter of Ochus. He fathered at least one child, Alexander IV of Macedon, born by Roxana shortly after his death in 323 BC. There is speculation that Stateira could have been pregnant when he died; if so, she and her child played no part in the succession battles which ensued after his death.After his death, nearly all the noble Susa marriages dissolved, which shows that the Macedonians despised the idea. There never came to unity between Macedonians and Persians and there wasn't even a unity among the Macedonians. Alexander's death opened the anarchic age of the Successors and a bloody Macedonian civil war for power followed. As soon as the news of Alexander's death were known, the Greeks rebelled yet again and so begun the Lamian War. The Macedonians were defeated and expelled from Greece, but then Antipater received reinforcements from Craterus who brought to Macedonia the 10,000 veterans discharged at Opis. Antipater and Craterus jointly marched into Greece, defeated the Greek army at Crannon in Thessaly and brought the war to an end. Greece will remain under Macedonian rule for the next one and a half century. In Asia the Macedonian commanders who served Alexander fought each other for power. Perdiccas and Meleager were murdered, Antigonus rose to control most of Asia, but his growth of power brought the other Macedonian generals in coalition against him. He was killed in battle and the Macedonian Empire split into four main kingdoms - the one of Seleucus (Asia), Ptolemy (Egypt), Lysimachus (Thrace), and Antipater's son Cassander (Macedonia, including Greece). The rise of Rome put an end to Macedonian kingdoms. Macedonia and Greece were conquered in 167/145 BC, Seleucid Asia by 65 BC, and Cleopatra VII, the last Macedonian descendent of Ptolemy committed suicide in 30 BC, after which Egypt was added to the Roman Empire.

The Egyptians had welcomed Alexander as a liberator against the Persians who had disrespected their gods. Alexander, on the other hand, respected Egypt’s ancient gods, and was even declared the son of Zeus Ammon by the famous Oracle at Siwa in the western desert.Egypt’s new pharaoh had great plans for the city, but he died long before it could be completed. That task fell to Alexander’s friend and general, Ptolemy I, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the last dynasty of Egypt before Rome took over.Alexandria quickly became a destination that thrived under the Ptolemies, and as the resting place of Alexander the Great’s body, a major tourist destination. It was the greatest of the Hellenistic cities, dwarfing all others.