The actions of Phillip II have gained for the Macedonians recognition in Greek society. The ‘barbarian’ king has united most of the Grecian states under the banner of one League of Corinth. Its supposed purpose is to punish Persia, an idea that is welcome to Greek pride. But some are not of that mind and Phillip is assassinated upon returning home, leaving his new kingdom to his son, Alexander.
Alexander is young and untried, so the cities of the League attempt to break away. Bu the new king will not allow it, so he marches south again and whips them back into line, striking especially hard at Thebes. This done he takes up his father’s banner and crosses over into Asia Minor to punish the Persians for their arrogance of the previous generations – despite the Macedonian removal from the conflict. No matter, Alexander represents Greece, now, and as he marches through Ionia he is declared a savior. But he is still young and untried against the mighty empire of the world, that is, until Grannicus River. There a daredevil attack shatters the Persian defense and carves out a landing sufficient to land the Macedonian phalanx in their ordered ranks, and with the rout of the Persian army, Alexander is master of Asia Minor. He moves through the countryside, setting up his own governors in the place of the Persian satraps, but the Ionians do not mind so much, because these are Greek satraps under a Greek king, so that makes all the difference. But at a point, Alexander discovers that the Greek influence only extends so far. In the hills of old Lydia, there is a people that is set apart from the rest of the country. They are an entity independent of the Ionians and have no such link to that culture. So Alexander creates a new strategy for conquering: he reestablishes a traditional family as royalty and has the new queen adopt him into the royal line. Now Alexander is king of the Greeks and the new-Lydians.
Darius III is the emperor of Persia at this time, and he has become alarmed by the progress made in the north. So he determines to personally crush the uppity Greeks at Issus. Unfortunately, he chooses open ground, the very thing for a successful phalanx deployment. The Persians are smartly put to flight and their entire supply train taken. But what is this? It was not mere supplies but a collection of the most noble of Babylon’s aristocracy, brought out to watch the brilliant spectacle, along with the queen mother. Oh dear.
Following this most humiliating defeat, Darius sues for peace in exchange for the hostages – in return, Alexander shall rule Asia Minor. But the young king has bigger plans now that he has won and Palestine and the Egyptian Delta are in view. He rebuffs Darius’ messengers and proceeds south, conquering all the way into Libya. While in Egypt he makes sure to get adopted into the Pharaonic line.
After another battle at Gaugamela – ironically on the same plains as Nineveh – Darius is killed by one of his generals, which gives Alexander an excuse to go gallivanting off into Bactria and across the mountains into India. But on the way he takes Babylon, establishing a permanent government there, indicating his desire to stay on as emperor of the east. His weary and wary soldiers press on loyally, but at last get fed up in the Indus valley, turning back for home while their king is deathly ill. Back in Babylon, Alexander suddenly makes everyone equal in his kingdom, punishing corruption wherever he can find it, even amongst the Greek immigrant nobles, who had assumed that they would be privileged. Worse still, the new emperor plans to train Persian boys to fight in a phalanx, previously a Macedonian secret weapon.
But Alexander suddenly dies, on the very eve of a planned invasion of Arabia. His kingdom is divided three ways amongst his generals: Antigonid Greece, Ptolmaic Egypt, and Seleucid Persia. But though the kingdom of one the world’s great conquerors fails to outlast its founder, the Hellenistic legacy carries over into the Roman future.
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