Alexander the Great copyright PM Perspektive, by Peter Boccarius

No other conqueror was so young and at the same time so powerful. How did Alexander the Great manage to found a world empire in only ten years? Here an attempt to find out in six questions and answers.

Who was Alexander? He was considered to be cruel, egocentric, hungry for power and overbearing. Anyone who got in the way of the richest and most powerful king in the world had to pay with his life. Dissidents he had tortured and executed on the slightest suspicion.

That is one side of Alexander as given by many historians. Others, however, see him as a romantic, stressing his sentimental and sensitive side. Thus he is said to have passionately loved his wife Roxana and to have mourned his companion-in-arms Hephaestion by his deathbed for days and nights.

Yet much is speculation. One things is certain: Aristotle, his teacher, fired enthusiasm in Princess Olympia's son for Homer's heroes and for art. Homer's epic of the Trojan War was his favourite reading; Achilles became his favourite hero and model. Alexander was restless, had deep yearnings, wanderlust and was driven by his energy.

How did Alexander become a conqueror? His father, Philip II of Macedonia, had already prepared Alexander's career: he had subjugated the Greeks, who until then had ridiculed the Macedonians as uncivilized "barbarians". Philip's dominion extended from the coast of Dalmatia in the west and from the lower reaches of the Danube in the north and across the south of Greece as far as the Aegean islands. All that was inherited by Alexander, who was born in Pella in 356 BC.

After Philip's assassination, the 20-year-old youth had himself proclaimed king. Any rivals were arrested or killed in good time. A powerful army inherited from his father also stood him in good stead. Alexander was revered as a divine offspring and was thought to be invincible.

Long before Alexander, Greece was threatened and occupied by the Persians. The hatred for this people had deep roots. His father had promised to liberate the Greeks – and Alexander was to keep his father's promise.

In spring 334 BC he set off with 35,000 soldiers. The plan to conquer this empire seemed mad. Persia was about fifty times larger than Alexander's domain. While the Persian king, Darius, had the best mariners in the ancient world – the Phoenicians - at his disposal, Alexander's fleet was insignificant. So his plans were based completely on the striking force of a land power.

Darius did not take the 21-year-old youth seriously, when he crossed the Hellespont to Persia. He left it to his satraps in Asia Minor to cope with the intruder. In May 334 BC fighting broke out on the River Granicus (modern Kocabas) in north-west Anatolia. To everyone's surprise the man from Macedonia was victorious.

This raised the morale of Alexander's troops. But in Gordium, the capital of the Phrygians, the way was barred at first. Gordius, founder of the empire and builder of the town, had so intricately tied the yoke and shaft with a raffia to his chariot that it was impossible to see either the end or beginning of the knot. The oracle promised anyone who managed to loosen it that he would one

!1 von !3 www.sunflower.ch day rule over Asia. Alexander is said to have wasted no time and to have cut through the Gordian knot with a stroke of his sword. The way to Asia was open to him.

What tactics did Alexander use to win? In autumn 334 BC there was the famous Battle of Issus against Darius III. It was sheer madness to oppose the Persian king, who had a far greater army at his disposal. But the young Macedonian king galloped like a madman towards the chariot of the Persian ruler, who turned and fled. When the Persian's soldiers saw that, they followed the example of their supreme commander and dispersed. Alexander conquered a war treasure that ensured his soldiers' pay for long to come.

Although relatively small, his army was extremely manoeuvrable. The main bulk was made up of the phalanx (some 18,000 men), heavily armed with helmets, shields and spears and protected by suits of armour. In addition, there was the cavalry, about 5,000 strong, also heavily armed and thus superior to the light Persian horsemen.

Alexander developed completely new tactics of attack. Hitherto the phalanx had rushed at the enemy's rows head on. The 23-year-old Macedonian surprised his opponents: he ordered his left army flank, covered by the cavalry, to storm into the weak spot of the enemy's troops in a wedge- shaped formation.

Alexander himself fought in the front line with his soldiers. He was often the first to charge the enemy, thus carrying his men with him. He was so successful at motivating them that they often held out in spite of punishing marches and harsh deprivations.

What was Alexander's goal? Alexander occupied Phoenicia and carried on to Egypt. There he founded Alexandria, which finally became the trading centre and cultural metropolis of the ancient world. And he triumphed a second time over Darius. This time in the battle of Guagamela in 331 BC. While still on the battlefield he had himself proclaimed King of Asia – as successor to the Persian ruler.

Actually he had thus completed the tasks he had set himself. He had avenged the Greeks and forced the Persian Empire to its knees. But Alexander was a restless man, and he found idling intolerable. Even in the army's winter quarters something always had to be going on: sporting competitions, parades and march-pasts, sacrificing to the gods.

His mission as avenger was over. Now followed Alexander's personal campaign of conquest. The now most powerful and wealthy king in the world wanted to rule over a domain that extended to the end of the world. And at those times this was thought to lie beyond the Hindu Kush mountains (in present-day Afghanistan). There, it was said, the world went over into the boundless sea.

So Alexander set off with his army. When the troops had crossed the Hindu Kush, they realized that the world was larger than had been assumed. Alexander pressed on further, but at the River Hyphasis (today Beas in Pakistan) the emaciated warriors, who by now were 5000 kilometres from their Macedonian homeland, refused to carry on. Alexander had to turn back.

Why did the conqueror of the world give up? He could have forced his army to move on. He did not do so, but returned. There is no clear explanation for this change of heart. !

!2 von !3 www.sunflower.ch In the meantime Alexander was the ruler over a territory extending from the Danube to the Nile and to the east as far as India. To govern this gigantic empire he needed more soldiers and administrative officials than the Macedonians and Greeks could provide him with. It was only through fusing with the Persian peoples that this problem could be solved.

Alexander legalized, as it is called, 10,000 partnerships of his soldiers with their oriental lovers. As a clear sign of conciliation with the former enemy nation Alexander arranged a mass marriage ceremony in Susa in spring 324 BC. He himself was already married to Roxana, a Bactrian princess. Now he also took the eldest daughter of Darius, who had died in the meantime, as his wife as well as King Artaxerxes III's youngest daughter. The splendid wedding festivities were celebrated in the king's tent for five days. This event was at the same time a symbol of the end of Alexander's campaign of conquest in the Orient.

Where and how did Alexander die? Even after making peace with the Persians, Alexander still hungered for power. He had big plans. In Babylon, which he made the capital of his empire in 324 BC, he had a harbour built. A system of canals was to irrigate the land with water from the Euphrates and Tigris. But above all Alexander wanted to conquer the most powerful port towns in the western Mediterranean region, as his empire had not yet reached the furthest border to the west, as had been planned.

But this undertaking came to nothing. On the evening of 10th July 323 BC Alexander the Great died at the age of 33. The cause of death was probably malaria or pneumonia.

It is still not clear where Alexander's mortal remains lie. They were reportedly taken to Alexandria in Egypt. But no one knows for certain. For many of his followers there was only one explanation: Alexander, who during his lifetime was revered like a god, ascended to the gods in heaven.

The ruler had died without leaving an heir. His successors (Diadochen) began to dismantle his huge empire. Although Alexander's idea of a multicultural society did not gain acceptance, it was the beginning of the "Hellenistic" age that would endure for three centuries. In the time after Alexander's death architecture, philosophy, art and politics remained largely Greek, even in the Persian Empire. Alexander himself had founded many cities as military bases during his life, said to be no fewer than 70. They became a stronghold of Hellenistic culture. And Greek became the worlds’ lingua franca..

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