Darius sent ambassadors to Alexander and offered him half the Persian empire, ten thousand talents, his daughter as a wife and a promise of friendship and alliance.
At the meeting, General Parmenion insisted:Your father Philip had never dreamed of it. If I were Alexander I would accept.
- I too, if I were Parmenion, I would accept, answered Alexander sharply.
He rejected the proposal of Darius and conquered the world.
The biography of the great soldier
Alexander was born on July 20 or 21, 356 BC in Pella, Macedonia. His father was the Macedonian king Philip II and his mother Olympias, daughter of the Epirus king Neoptolemus. From his father, Alexander inherited acute perception, organizational skills and speed of action. And from his mother ambition, pride and strong will.
In his childhood he was educated by the pedagogues Leonidas of Molossus and Lysimachus of Akarnan. At the age of 13 he studied under Aristotle. The great philosopher educated him with Greek ideals and inspired him with admiration and love for the Greek spirit and culture. To Aristotle he always showed respect and gratitude. He said that he owed his father "his life" and his teacher "his life".
From his father he received great lessons in politics and strategy. She was always near him when he was conversing with foreign ambassadors and envoys. He followed him on campaigns, where he received lessons in military art. Thus, from a very early age he acquired political and military maturity. At the age of 16, as a substitute for his father, who was away on a campaign, he suppressed the revolution of the Thracian tribe of the Maiden, while at the age of 18, in the Battle of Chaeronea (August 2, 338 BC) he was the commander of a military corps and distinguished himself for his martial virtues.
At the age of 20 he became king of Macedonia, after the assassination of his father in 336 BC. From a very early age he faced organized conspiracies against him, which he dispelled with lightning speed. With the same lightning speed and determination he campaigned against the cities of Southern Greece, which as soon as they learned of Philip's death rebelled. However, as soon as they were informed of Alexander's campaign against them, they hastened to declare submission and in a conference held in Corinth, they proclaimed him Ruler of Greece, just like his father before and commander-in-chief in the upcoming campaign against the Persians.
Alexander returned to Macedonia satisfied. In order to free his kingdom from all danger, before campaigning against the Persians, he campaigned against the barbarian tribes, who inhabited the north of Macedonia (335 BC). He defeated these tribes, reached the Danube and returned to Pella. Undeterred, he began preparations for the great campaign against the Persians. He was, however, obliged to come a second time to Southern Greece, where the Thebans and the Athenians had again revolted. After suppressing the rebellion of the two cities, he returned to Macedonia and completed his preparations for the campaign against Persia.
In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander set out with 50,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry, having left General Antipater as his commissioner in Macedonia. He proceeded from Thrace and reached the Hellespont. There his fleet was waiting for him, consisting of 120 warships and many other auxiliary ships. He passed on to Troy, where he visited the tomb of Achilles, prayed and made sacrifices.
The Persian army had gathered on the banks of the Granikos river, ready to face Alexander. The first battle between the Macedonians and the Persians took place in Granikos (May 22, 334 BC). Alexander himself led his army and fought shoulder to shoulder with the bravest warriors of the Persians. In fact, he was in serious danger. The Persians, in the end, did not manage to stop the momentum of the Macedonians, gave up the fight and retreated disorderly.
Wasting no time, Alexander marched south and liberated the Greek cities of Asia Minor. In the winter of 334 BC he arrived at the city of Gordio on the banks of the Sangarios river, where he decided to spend the winter. There, in the royal palace, was the famous Gordian Knot. Tradition said that whoever freed him would rule Asia. Alexander simply cut him with his sword.
In the spring of 333 BC, he marched south, crossed Mount Taurus and entered Cilicia. He dominated the city of Tarsus and stopped there to rest his army. After a bath in the cold waters of the river Kydnos, Alexander fell ill, but quickly recovered and continued his march towards Syria. He met then for the second time the Persian army of 500,000 fighters and gave battle near the city of Isso in Cilicia (November 12, 333 BC). The Persians were utterly defeated and dispersed. King Darius was in danger and escaped only by his flight. At Issus, Alexander captured rich booty and captured the family of Darius, but he treated them magnanimously.
Alexander, instead of continuing the pursuit of Darius, marched south, to make himself master of all the shores of the Mediterranean, and to neutralize every threat of the Persian fleet. He occupied, in order, Phoenicia, Palestine and Egypt. He visited the oracle of Ammon Zeus in the desert, where the priests hailed him as the new Zeus. On the coast of Egypt, near the mouth of the Nile and in a position suitable for the development of trade, he determined that Alexandria should be built. He himself carved its walls and streets.
Returning from Egypt to Asia, he met at Gaugamela, across the Tigris River, a new numerous Persian army and defeated it (October 1, 331 BC). Darius was saved again, but was murdered by the Bactrian satrap Byssus. The Persian army was destroyed, the most important cities of Persia - Babylon, Susa and Persepolis, where the palace of Darius - surrendered to Alexander and all of Persia was conquered.
Alexander, however, did not stop in Persia. He marched eastward to subdue the tribes that dwelt there, and thus free his great kingdom from future danger. He crossed Sogdiana and Bactria and in 327 BC. entered the Indies, where he defeated king Porus. His soldiers, however, grew tired and refused to advance. He was then forced to stop his epic march to Anatolia. A part of the army he sent in ships to Persia, led by the admiral Nearchus. He and the rest of the army crossed the desert of Gedrosia, where many of his soldiers perished from hunger and thirst, and returned to Susa.
He then began to think about the organization of his territory. Studying the way of life of the Persians and their way of administration, he came to the conclusion that in order to preserve the vast state he created, he had to reconcile the Persian nobles with the Greeks. He imagined himself as a Greco-Persian king and imitated their clothing and general way of life. He married Darius Stateira's daughter and her niece Parisatida (324 BC), while he induced his officers and soldiers to also marry Perseids. Earlier (327 BC) he had married Roxani, daughter of a local ruler of Bactria, despite the reaction of his generals. Roxani also gave him his only child, Alexander IV, who was born two months after the soldier's death and was killed at the age of 12 by order of Cassander, Alexander the Great's general and usurper of the Macedonian throne.
The Macedonians did not like this change of Alexander. Some of his generals, in fact, organized conspiracies against him, which Alexander discovered and severely punished the leaders. The many administrative cares, the labors and finally the death of his closest friend, Hephaestion, spoiled his health. Alexander fell seriously ill and on June 10 or 11, 323 BC. he breathed his last in Babylon, aged only 32.
After the death of Alexander, his vast state was divided among his generals, who for many years disagreed about the distribution. However, his cultural work was not lost. His conquests opened the borders between the Greek area and the East. Communication with the "barbarians" contributed to the spread of Greek culture in the countries of Asia and Egypt. The Greek language became international. Greek customs spread throughout the then known world. The civilization of the so-called "Hellenistic Age" arose, which is a new brilliance of the Greek spirit. Justifiably, history proclaimed Alexander "the Great" for his gigantic work.