Alexander the Great

Alexander III of Macedon, known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He came to the throne in 336 BC at the age of twenty, tutored as a boy by Aristotle and inheriting a professional army from his father, Philip II.

Alexander led Macedonian and Greek forces east against the Persian Empire, winning at Issus and Gaugamela and taking Egypt, Babylon, and the Persian heartland before campaigning as far as the Indus valley. He was crowned pharaoh of Egypt in 332 BC and founded the city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, one of a string of cities he established along the route of his campaigns.