Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great. So long as the Greeks remained disunited, to a considerable extent the achievements of their civilization also remained relatively limited in their impact on other peoples and civilizations. In 359 B.C. this changed when Phillip II became king of Macedonia and began to unite Greece under his own rule by conquering the Greek city-states. The process of Greek unification and expansion was taken even further by Phillip’s son, Alexander the Great. Alexandw the Great was one of the greatest military leaders in world history. Picking up where his father had left off, Alexander not only completed the conquest and unification of the Greek world, but also set out to conquer the rest of the known world.

By 331 B.C., he had conquered Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the rest of the Persian Empire and was attempting to conquer the plains of northern India. After a long campaign in India, however, he was forced by his men to turn back home. In 323 B.C., he died in Babylon. He was not yet 33 years old. In his short life, he had laid the foundations of an empire that would spread Greek ideas to other parts of the world and in turn expose Greek civilization to new influences and ideas from outside its borders. A new civilization, often called Hellenistic, meaning Greek-like, emerged in those areas ruled by Alexander and his successors.

Posted in: Alexander the Great,Greece's Golden,Hellenistic Ages