Alexander the Great

Granicus to Siwa
334—331 BC
Alexander’s March
Alexander’s Route in Asia Minor
 Arrival in Asia Minor
• Alexander crosses the Hellespont, 334
– Parmenion crosses with main army
– He visits Troy
• Takes Achilles’ shield
• Restores Achilles’ tomb/Hephaestion, Patroclus’
– Memnon of Rhodes’ scorched earth policy
ignored, Persian satraps and generals wish an
engagement: Battle of the River Granicus
•Alexander (wearing white feathers) and the Companions charge
•Spithridates nearly kills Alexander
• saved by Cleitus the Black (cuts off his arm at last second)
•Nearly all the Greek mercenaries are killed (18,000/2,000 slaves)
 Aftermath
of the battle
• Memnon and remaining Persians retreat to Ionian
city of Miletus
• Alexander buries the Macedonians, Greek
mercenaries, and Persian commanders with full
honors.
• 300 suits of armor sent to Athens, inscribed with:
– “Alexander, son of Philip, and the Greeks, except the
Spartans, dedicate these spoils, taken from the
barbarians who dwell in Asia”
March down the coast
• Aim to cut off Persian ports
(“liberate”)
– Ephesus rebelled against the
Persians and welcomed the
Macedonians (Alexander restored a
democracy)
 Siege of Miletus and
Harlicarnassus, 334 BC
– Siege of Miletus
– Siege of Halicarnassus
• Famous for it’s
Mausoleum of
Maussollos
– Tomb erected by his
sister/wife (mixed
ashes for 2 yrs)
 The Gordium Knot
• Having secured the Ionian coast, Alexander heads inland
to Gordium
– Whoever unties the Knot becomes the lord of Asia.
• Alexander pulls out the yoke
• He cuts the Knot
 The Battle of Issus, November 333 BC
• Alexander proceeds down
the E. Mediterranean coast.
• Darius had already set out
personally from Babylon
with a large army
– 10,000 cavalry/~200,000
infantry
• Alexander receives word
that Darius passed through
the Amanic Gates behind
him
– Wounded left behind at Issus
had their hands chopped off.
 The Battle Rages
• Parmenion holds the Macedonian left against cavalry charge
• Alexander charges the Persian left wing (archers) and drives straight for Darius;
phalanx crosses the river
• Alexander wounded in the thigh, Darius fled
– Leaving behind his golden chariot and bow, his mother, wife, daughter, harem, and 3,000
talents (1 talent = 67 lbs. of gold/silver)
 The Phoenician Coastline
• Darius flees back to Babylon to raise another army
• Alexander continues down to Egypt
– Siege of Tyre (9 months)
– Phoenician island off the coast, naval power, mother
city to Carthage
– Walls surround the entire island to the waterline
– A Mole (causeway) is built out to the island
• Siege towers are brought up, the Mole is burned and rebuilt
• 8,000 Tyrians killed, 30,000 sold as slaves
– Those who fled to the Temple of Hercules were spared
 On to Egypt
• 332, Gaza resists, falls after two months of siege
• Alexander arrives in Egypt
– Proclaimed as liberator from Persians
• Given the title Pharaoh
– Alexandria founded in 331 BC
– City plan personally laid out by Alexander
• Pharos Lighthouse (one of the 7 wonders)
• Greatest Library of the world
– Makes a side trip to Siwa to visit the Oracle
• Gets lost along the way (birds); thirst (rain)
• Priests greet him as “Son of Zeus Ammon”
• Alexander sets out with his army to confront Darius in the
spring of 331
Oracle of Siwa