Alexander the Great: Table of Contents

Alexander the Great (*356; r. 336-323): the Macedonian king who defeated his Persian colleague Darius III Codomannus and conquered the Achaemenid Empire. During his campaigns, Alexander visited a.o. Egypt, Babylonia, Persis, Media, Bactria, the Punjab, and the valley of the Indus. In the second half of his reign, he had to find a way to rule his newly conquered countries. Therefore, he made Babylon his capital and introduced the oriental court ceremonial, which caused great tensions with his Macedonian and Greek officers.

All Articles

Short biography
Chronology of Alexander' reign
Life of Alexander 1: Youth (356-336)
- Plutarch on the birth of Alexander
- Plutarch on Bucephalus
- Plutarch on Alexander and the Persian envoys
- Plutarch on Aristotle and Alexander
- Aristotle on Persian court life
- Diodorus on the battle of Chaeronea
- The Corinthian League
- Diodorus on the accession of Darius III
- Diodorus on the death of Philip
Life of Alexander 2: Restoring order in Greece (335)
- Plutarch on Alexander's first regnal year
- Diodorus on the sack of Thebes
- Plutarch on Alexander and Diogenes
Life of Alexander 3: Beginning of the Persian campaign (334)
- Diodorus on Alexander's army
- Plutarch on Alexander's visit to Troy
- Plutarch on the battle on the Granicus
- Alexander's letter to the Chians
Life of Alexander 4: From Caria to Pamphilia (334-333)
Life of Alexander 5: The Anatolian highland (Summer 333)
- Plutarch on the Gordian knot
Life of Alexander 6: Issus (November 333)
- Plutarch on Alexander's illness
- Diodorus on the battle of Issus
- Plutarch on Alexander's behavior after the battle of Issus
- Arrian on Alexander's letter to Darius
Life of Alexander 7: The conquest of the Levant (332)
- Q. Curtius Rufus on the fall of Tyre
- Q. Curtius Rufus on the death of Batis
- Flavius Josephus on Alexander's visit to Jerusalem
Life of Alexander 8: Son of Ammon (Spring 331)
- Plutarch on the foundation of Alexandria
- Arrian on Alexander's visit to the oracle of Ammon
Life of Alexander 9: Assyria and Babylonia (331)
- A contemporary Babylonian source on the battle of Gaugamala
- Q. Curtius Rufus on the surrender of Babylon
- Q. Curtius Rufus on the rape of the Babylonian women
Life of Alexander 10: The end of Persia (first half 330)
- Alexander at the Persian gate
- Diodorus on the destruction of Persepolis
- A contemporary opinion of Alexander
- Arrian on the death of Darius
- A Babylonian chronicle on the death of Darius
Life of Alexander 11: King of Asia (second half 330)
- Three Zoroastrian texts on Alexander
- Eratosthenes on the cave of Prometheus
Life of Alexander 12: The way to dusty death (329-327)
- Q. Curtius Rufus on the Hindu Kush
- Q. Curtius Rufus on the Bactrian desert
- Arrian on the capture of the Sogdian rock
- Lucian on Alexander's marriage to Roxane
- Arrian on proskynesis
Life of Alexander 13: The Punjab (first half 326)
- Arrian on Alexander's visit to Nysa
- Philostratus' description of the Nysa sanctuary
- Arrian on the meeting with the Indian sages
- Strabo on the meeting with the Indian sages
- Arrian on the mutiny on the Hyphasis
Life of Alexander 14: The return (326-324)
- Arrian on the trierarchs
- Diodorus on Dioxippus and Coragus
- Arrian on Alexander's march through the Gedrosian desert
- Curtius Rufus on the bacchanal in Carmania
- Arrian on Nearchus' voyage home (1)
- Arrian on Nearchus' voyage home (2)
- Arrian on Alexander's administrative measures
- Arrian on Alexander's visit to the tomb of Cyrus
Life of Alexander 15: Lord of all (324)
- Arrian on the death of Calanus
- Arrian on the weddings in Susa
- Polyaenus on Alexander's court
- Arrian on the mutiny at Opis
- Diodorus on Alexander's decree on the exiles
Life of Alexander 16: Death in Babylon (323)
- Arrian on the foreign embassies
- Arrian on Alexander and the Chaldaeans
- Diodorus on Alexander and the Chaldaeans
- A contemporary source on the rebuilding of the Esagila
- Aristobulus on the substitute king
- Diodorus on Alexander's last plans
- A contemporary Babylonian source on the death of Alexander
- Arrian on the death of Alexander
Life of Alexander 17: The purple testament of bleeding war (323-320)
- Curtius Rufus on the election of Philip Arridaeus
- Arrian on the settlement at Babylon
- Diodorus on the revolt of the Macedonian veterans
- Arrian on the settlement at Triparadisus
Life of Alexander 18: The fourth beast
- Demetrius of Phalerum on Alexander's significance
- Eratosthenes of Cyrene on Alexander's significance
- Plutarch of Chaeronea on Alexander's significance
- Alexander, the fourth beast
- Appian on Alexander and Caesar
- Alexander in the Talmud
Other
- The Azara herm
- Topography
- Alexander the god
- What really happened at Gaugamela?
- Alexander's final days: a Babylonian perspective
- Sources on Alexander 1: the oriental texts
  - A dubious source: the Dynastic prophecy
  - A dubious source: the third Sibylline oracle
- Sources on Alexander 2: the 'vulgate' tradition
- Sources on Alexander 3: the 'good' tradition
- Alexander's towns
- Alexander's ancestors