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The structure of culture and politics in part of Asia was forever changed by the impact of Alexander, king of Macedon in the fourth century BCE. Ruling for over a decade, he succeeded in many conquests that resulted in the end of the Persian Empire and the establishment of a multistate system. Though he is called “the Great,” historians often debate whether Alexander’s impact was positive or negative.
The thirteen-year reign (336–323 BCE) of Alexander III of Macedon fundamentally changed the political and cultural structure of ancient southwestern Asia. The Persian Empire, which had ruled the vast region from the Mediterranean to the borders of India, disappeared in 330 BCE as the result of Alexander’s conquests, replaced by a new multistate system dominated by Macedonians and Greeks. The region’s center of gravity shifted westward from its ancient focus in Mesopotamia and southwestern Iran to the shores of the Mediterranean and Greece, and Greek culture replaced the ancient cuneiform tradition as the culture of its elite. At the same time diplomatic and commercial ties were established that eventually linked together the civilizations from Europe to China.
Alexander was born in 356 BCE, the first child of Philip II (360–336 BCE) of Macedon and his principal wife, Olympias. He was raised in keeping with his status as Philip’s heir, being educated by the philosopher Aristotle and trained by his father for his role as king and the commander of the Macedonian army. When he succeeded his father as king in 336 BCE, Alexander was ready to continue the invasion of the Persian Empire, which had been begun by Philip. Alexander devoted the first two years of his reign to consolidating his hold on power. Rapid campaigns in the northern Balkans and Greece headed off rebellions by Macedon’s Greek and non-Greek subjects and secured his appointment as hegemon (“leader”) of the Corinthian League and commander in the war against Persia. With his power base secure, Alexander crossed into Asia in spring 334 BCE at the head of an army of approximately 35,000 men.
During the next decade Alexander campaigned as far as western India before being compelled by a mutiny of his army to return to the west, where he died in Babylon in June 323 BCE. This remarkable campaign divides into three distinct phases. The first phase, which lasted from 334 BCE to 330 BCE, is known as the “Greek Crusade” and was marked by the great set battles of Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela and climaxed with the destruction of the Persian capital of Perepolis and the assassination of the Persian king Darius III by his own officers. The second phase, which lasted from 330 BCE to 327 BCE, saw Alexander adopt various aspects of Persian royal ceremonial and practice despite Macedonian and Greek opposition in order to attract Iranian support in the face of fierce guerrilla resistance in Central Asia. The third and final phase of the campaign began with the two years that Alexander spent in India and ended with his disastrous return to the west through Baluchistan and his death in Babylon, while planning further campaigns, beginning with an invasion of Arabia.
Historians’ interpretations of Alexander’s spectacular reign vary widely for understandable reasons. There are few primary sources for the period. Of the many accounts written by his contemporaries and the numerous documents issued by his government such as existed, only fragments and a few inscriptions survive. Therefore, historians depend on five Greek and Latin biographies of Alexander written between the mid-first century BCE and the second century CE for their information. Also lacking are sources that reflect the perspectives of the Persians and the other peoples Alexander encountered. As a result, while the outline of his career is clear, widely divergent theories have been proposed concerning Alexander’s ultimate goals, ranging from the popular pre–World War II belief that he wished to realize the philosophical dream of the unity of all mankind to the contemporary view that Alexander was a vicious conqueror with no goals beyond glory and personal aggrandizement.
The sources are only part of the problem, however. Equally important is the fact that Alexander died before he could develop a final plan for the governing of his empire. Instead, he improvised various solutions to the administrative problems that arose during the course of his campaigns. Thus, while he became more and more autocratic, which was encouraged by his belief in his semidivine status as the “Son of Ammon,” and he continued his efforts to supplement the limited Macedonian and Greek manpower available to him by encouraging collaboration by native elites, neither development had been institutionalized at the time of his death. Paradoxically, therefore, Alexander’s principal contribution to history was essentially negative: he destroyed the Persian Empire and with it the state system that had dominated ancient southwestern Asia for two centuries. It would be left to his successors to devise a new state system to replace it.
Bibliography:
- Bosworth, A. B. (1988). Conquest and empire: The reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
- Bosworth, A. B. (2002). The legacy of Alexander: Politics, warfare, and propaganda under the successors. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
- Cook, J. M. (1983). The Persian Empire. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.
- Heckel, W. & Tritle, L.A. (Eds.). (2009). Alexander the Great: A new history. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.
- Worthington, I. (Ed.). (2003). Alexander the Great: A reader. London: Routledge.
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