Glossary

The vocabulary of Alexander's world — every term you'll meet on this site, defined once, plainly.

Achaemenid

The Persian dynasty founded by Cyrus the Great (c. 550 BC) that ruled the Near East until Alexander destroyed it. Named for the eponymous ancestor Achaemenes.

Anabasis

Greek for “march up-country” or “expedition.” The title of Arrian’s history of Alexander’s campaigns (Anabasis Alexandri), and of Xenophon’s earlier account of Cyrus the Younger’s expedition.

Antigonid

The dynasty founded by Antigonus I Monophthalmus (“the One-Eyed”), which came to rule Macedon itself. See successors.

Behistun

The cliff in western Iran where Darius I carved a trilingual inscription (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian) proclaiming his legitimacy, c. 520 BC — the Persian Empire speaking for itself, and the key that later helped decipher cuneiform. Pictured above: Darius (right) receiving the submission of rebels.

Chiliarch

“Commander of a thousand” — under Alexander, effectively the second-in-command / grand vizier role, held by Hephaestion and then Perdiccas. A Persian title Alexander adopted.

Companion cavalry (hetairoi)

The elite Macedonian heavy cavalry, the striking arm of Alexander’s army, led by Alexander himself in the wedge charge that decided Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela.

Craterus

See people. The general whose name may be behind the disputed deathbed words “to the strongest.”

Diadochi

“The Successors” — Alexander’s generals who fought over his empire after 323 BC (Ptolemy, Seleucus, Antigonus, Cassander, Lysimachus, and others). See successors.

Ephemerides

See Royal Journals.

Epigoni

“The Offspring” — 30,000 Persian youths trained in Macedonian warfare, presented to Alexander at Susa in 324 BC. His Macedonians read it as their replacement.

Gaugamela

See the three great battles. The name means “the camel’s house.”

Hellenistic

The Greek term modern historians use for the age Alexander’s conquests opened (323–31 BC): Greek language, cities, and culture spread from Egypt to Central Asia, fused with local traditions.

Hetairoi

See Companion cavalry.

Hydaspes

The river (modern Jhelum, Pakistan) where Alexander defeated Porus in 326 BC — his last great battle, and Bucephalas’ last.

Hypaspists

Elite Macedonian infantry, the flexible link between the phalanx and the cavalry — shield-bearers who fought in the hardest assaults.

League of Corinth

The alliance of Greek city-states Philip II imposed after Chaeronea (338 BC), with himself — then Alexander — as hegemon, chartered for the war of revenge against Persia.

Lysimachus

Successor-king of Thrace; his posthumous coin portraits of the deified Alexander (wearing the ram’s horn of Ammon) are the most famous “portraits” of Alexander on coins. See sources.

Proskynesis

The Persian court ritual of prostration before the king. Alexander’s attempt to introduce it (327 BC) provoked a crisis: Greeks understood it as worship due only to gods. Callisthenes’ resistance helped destroy him.

Ptolemaic

The dynasty Ptolemy I founded in Egypt (305–30 BC), ending with Cleopatra VII. Ptolemy also wrote the lost history of Alexander that Arrian trusted most.

Royal Journals (Ephemerides)

The day-by-day court record of Alexander’s reign, quoted at length by Arrian (7.25–26) and Plutarch (Alex. 76–77) for his final illness. Authenticity debated; our closest approach to a contemporary record. See the death mystery.

Sarissa

The Macedonian pike, some 15–18 feet long, wielded two-handed by the phalanx — the weapon system Philip II perfected and Alexander wielded across Asia.

Satrap

A Persian provincial governor. Alexander kept the satrapy system, installing Macedonians and Greeks over Persian machinery.

Seleucid

The dynasty Seleucus I founded (312–63 BC), ruling the largest successor kingdom, from Asia Minor toward India.

Siwa

The oasis in the western Egyptian desert where the oracle of Ammon hailed Alexander — the episode that fed his claim of divine sonship. See biography.

Soma (Sema)

The mausoleum of Alexander at Alexandria, in the royal palace district — visited by emperors, then lost. See the lost tomb.

Somatophylakes

The seven elite bodyguards of the Macedonian king — a rank, and a mark of supreme trust. Ptolemy and Perdiccas were somatophylakes.

Strategos

Greek for “general.” In the successor period, the title of the great warlords before they took royal titles.

Trierarch

A warship commander. Alexander appointed his friends trierarchs of the Indus fleet (326 BC) — Nearchus among them.

Source notes

• Definitions follow standard usage in Bosworth, Conquest and Empire, and the Oxford Classical Dictionary; Macedonian military terms per the ancient tactical writers and Arrian’s battle narratives.

Limitations

• Ancient terms shift meaning across centuries (chiliarch under the Achaemenids vs. under Alexander). Definitions here are Alexander-period unless noted.