Alexander (III) the Great (356–323 BC)

Alexander (III) the Great, king of Macedon, portrayed on a throne, receiving tribute from his new Persian subjects, as featured in a 14th-century Armenian copy of an Ancient Greek Alexander Romance dating from the 5th century AD. The Alexander Romances – extended legends based loosely on the life and exploits of the great warrior-king – stemmed largely from Egyptian sources approximately a century after his death, and were thereafter retold and embellished by many different Near-Eastern cultures.

A Roman marble bust of Alexander the Great, future king of Macedon, aged approximately 18 years, which was thought to be copied from a bronze statue by the celebrated Ancient Greek sculptor Euphranor of Corinth. Even at that young age, Alexander had acted as regent in his father's absence and had successfully commanded Macedonian troops in battle.

A mural in Pompeii, Italy, depicting the marriage of Alexander the Great to Barsine (also called Stateira), daughter of the Persian ruler Darius III, in 324 BC. The couple are apparently dressed as Ares and Aphrodite (divinities of war and love, respectively), which is no doubt appropriate to the way they thought of themselves, but mythologically inept – as Pompeiians would have known.

King of Macedon 336–323 BC and conqueror of the Persian Empire. As commander of the powerful Macedonian army he conquered Greece in 336 BC, defeated the Persian king Darius III in Asia Minor in 333 BC, then moved on to Egypt where he founded Alexandria. He defeated the Persians again in Assyria in 331 BC, then advanced further east, invading India in 327 BC. He conquered the Punjab before mutinous troops forced his retreat.

The son of King Philip II of Macedon and Queen Olympias, Alexander was educated by the philosopher Aristotle. He won his spurs in 338 BC, commanding the cavalry at the Battle of Chaeronea. At the age of 20 he succeeded to the throne after the assassination of his father in 336 BC. Though Thebes seized the opportunity to revolt while he was absent campaigning in the northwest, he rapidly reimposed his authority by destroying the city in 335 BC. Alexander inherited not only a magnificent army from his father but also plans to invade the Persian Empire, and in 334 BC he crossed the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles), never to return. Victory at the river Granicus that year gave him control of western Asia Minor, and then, ignoring Persian superiority at sea, he turned east, winning his second victory at Issus in the autumn of 333 BC , this time over the Persian king Darius himself. After taking Tyre and Gaza in epic sieges, he next invaded Egypt, where he spent the winter of 332/1 BC. Meanwhile, Darius assembled an army of half a million men for a final battle at Gaugamela on 1 October 331 BC, but Alexander, with 47,000 men, drove the Persians into retreat. This victory laid open the heartland of the Persian Empire and Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis were occupied in turn. The murder of Darius by his own entourage in the summer of 330 BC enabled Alexander to pose as his rightful successor. Widespread revolts in the northeast, however, took some three years of marching, sieges, and savage fighting to subdue. This was followed by the invasion of India in 327 BC, victory at the river Hydaspes (now Jhelum), and a further march eastwards until, at the river Hyphasis (now Beas), the army refused to go any further. Turning back, Alexander descended the river Indus, subduing any tribe which refused to submit, and reached the delta in July 325 BC. He then sent his fleet westwards, while he marched through the deserts of southern Baluchistan to rendezvous with it in southeast Iran in December, and to return to Susa early in 324 BC. In Susa, he made Darius's daughter his second wife. Further plans of conquest were cut short by his death in June 323 BC.

Alexander was a charismatic leader of immense resource and skill, but whether he was the genius he is often made out to have been is questionable. Disagreements in the sources make it difficult to assess his tactics in set-piece battles, but one wonders whether the way in which the enemy was drawn out of position for the decisive cavalry charges was accidental or deliberate, and he could always rely on his magnificent army to get him out of trouble. His strategy is similarly hard to assess, but it is arguable that he was outmanoeuvred before Issus, and wasted time in invading Egypt when a swift march into Mesopotamia might have made Gaugamela unnecessary. Even the much vaunted plan of defeating the Persian fleet by capturing its bases may have been born of necessity. In any case, what was the point of it all? Old views that he thought in terms of the 'brotherhood of man' are now rightly discounted, and all that is left is conquest for conquest's sake. Admirers are also still too willing to overlook their hero's monstrous inhumanity.