Who is Alexander?
Early Life and Education.Alexander, born in July 356 B.C., was one of several sons of the monarch of Macedon, Philip II, by his first wifeOlympias, a princess of neighboring Epuria. Tutored in philosophy,science and culture by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, among others,and trained in the martial arts in his father’s army, Alexander was ableto glean for himself the best that the Greek world had to offer. Duringhis youth, his father carried out a campaign of Greek unification andmilitary expansion, playing the largest role in the establishment of theCorinthian League, of which he became the head. Alexander washeavily involved in his father’s military campaigning and served as hisregent in 340 B.C. During his days at court in Pella, Alexander wasable to interact with the finest Greeks and Macedonians alive at thetime, from poets and philosophers to actors and engineers, all of whose skills he would eventually put to use for his own formidablecauses.Succession to the Throne of Macedon. Philip II’s assassination in 336B.C. took place a year after he had put Olympias aside for the youngerMacedonian princess, Cleopatra. As a result, both Alexander’scontemporaries and later scholars have been very interested in therole that Alexander and his mother may have played in Philip’s death.Whatever his involvement or lack thereof, Alexander managed to gainthe support of some of Philip’s more important generals and securedthe succession as king of Macedon for himself. The right of successionof Philip’s status as leader (heoegemooen) of the Corinthian Leaguehad also been granted to his offspring, but Alexander was not able tostep so neatly into his father’s shoes, for Philip’s assassination had leftAlexander in a precarious political position.The fragile alliance of Greek city-states that Philip had held togetherwith an iron grip threatened to disintegrate, with the orators andpoliticians of Athens being by far the most critical of Alexander and thenon-Athenian leadership of the coalition. Alexander, however, managedto overcome this opposition, and with the vicious exemplarysubjugation and destruction of rebellious Thebes (for which Alexanderwould later be vilified by Athenian poets and statesmen) he was ableto hold together his father’s alliance.After the end of the New Kingdom indigenous Egyptian dynasties wereweakened by rival factions in Upper and Lower Egypt, and Egypt wassubjugated at times by foreign invaders: Libyans, Assyrians, Nubians,
and Persians. In 332 B.C. Egypt was conquered by Alexander theGreat, who was followed as ruler by hisPtolemaic Period(332-30 B.C.) The Transformation of Ancient Egypt.Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. Yet theculture of Ancient Egypt— its language, religion, art, and customs—continued to flourish for many centuries. Only very gradually did ittransform itself into a new culture, that of Greco-Roman and CopticEgypt.Alexander’s general, Ptolemy, founded a new dynasty, whose rulersalways spoke Greek, not Egyptian, as their first language. Their capitalwas at Alexandria, the new international trading center at the westerntip of the Delta.The Ptolemaic dynasty was responsible for a long period of prosperityand expansion abroad. Many remarkable agricultural and economicinnovations occurred, including increasing the number of yearly cropharvests from an average of two to three bumper crops per year.Many purely Greek settlements and trading cities were built, whichwere connected by theSilk Route to Syria, Persia, India, China, and Japan. Egypt alsoincreasingly experiencedrebellion from the native Egyptians, due to the hardships imposed onthem from outside.This situation ended with the self-inflicted death of the famousCleopatra VII (30 B.C.) when Egypt officially became part of theRoman Empire. However, it was Cleopatra’s martyrdom that inspiredmost Egyptians to adhere to their traditional ways for almost another500 years.The history of Egypt does not end with Cleopatra, of course. For thenext 600 years, Egypt was the leading scientitic, cultural, and religiousprovince of the Roman Empire, ruled first from Rome (30 B.C.-ca. A.D.320) and then from Constantinople (ca. A.D. 320-642). During thisRoman and Byzantine Period, Egyptian culture and language interactedwith the Greco-Roman world and evolved into the form we call “Coptic,” from the same root as the word “Egypt.” By the middle of theseventh century, the majority of Egyptians were Coptic Christians. The
Coptic language is native Egyptian written in Greek letters (with someadaptations).In A.D. 642, forces from the Arabian Peninsula took control of Egypt,and a new faith came to this ancient land, that of Islam. For theensuing centuries, the Coptic Christian and Arabic Muslim languages,cultures, and faiths lived together in Egypt. It was not until the 12th or13th centuries that the majority of Egyptians began to speak Arabic astheir first language, with Coptic still used today in some places. Thegreat Muslim Empires—from the UmayyadCaliphate to the Ottoman Empire—ruled over Egypt for almost 1200years, until Europeans— first the French, and then the British—invadedin the late 18th and early 19th centuries.After a little more than a century of European rule, Egypt graduallyregained its sovereignty,first as a Kingdom within the British Commonwealth in 1922, andfinally as the independentArab Republic of Egypt in 1953. Today modern Egyptians of all faithsand traditionshighly value their ancient legacy of history, while embracing a future of peace, prosperity,and democratic independence as part of the family of nations.After defeating Darius, Alexander pursued the royal pretender Bessusacross the Hindu Kush. Arriving at the banks of the Oxus, he was facedwith a new challenge – Bessus had burned the wooden boats. Crossingthe river seemed an impossible task, due to its width and fast current.Always an original thinker, Alexander was undaunted. He gaveinstructions that his men should sew up the hides they used for tentsand use these as floats to cross the river. Within five days, they had allreached the other side.Today's travellers don't need to go to such extreme lengths to get toTajikistan. It is an seven-hour flight from Europe to the capital,Dushanbe, and even the mighty Oxus can be crossed each day byferry.
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