Alexander the Great — ReferenceEverything you need to know about Alexander, with the sources shown.
Paolo Veronese's The Family of Darius before Alexander (c. 1565–1570)
Paolo Veronese, The Family of Darius before Alexander (c. 1565–1570) — the anecdote of Sisygambis mistaking Hephaestion for Alexander, as a Renaissance painter imagined it.

People

Twenty lives entangled with Alexander's — the family that made him, the friends he loved and killed, the enemies he honored, and the men who carved up his empire.

Family

Philip II of Macedon

Father. The king who built the army Alexander inherited: the sarissa phalanx, the Companion cavalry, the siege train, the League of Corinth. Assassinated at Aegae in 336 BC by his bodyguard Pausanias — with rumors (then and now) implicating Olympias or Alexander himself, which the sources report without proof. See the sources problem on the rumors.

Olympias

Mother. An Epirote princess, formidable, devoted to Dionysiac cult, and — in the tradition — fiercely protective of her son’s succession. After Alexander’s death she fought for her grandson Alexander IV and was eventually executed on Cassander’s orders (316 BC). The sources paint her as both devoted and terrifying; both may be partly the tradition’s misogyny.

Roxana

Wife. A Bactrian noblewoman married in 327 BC — a political marriage his Macedonians resented. After Alexander’s death she bore his posthumous son Alexander IV and had Alexander’s other wife Stateira murdered. She and her son were murdered on Cassander’s orders c. 310 BC, ending the Argead line.

Alexander IV

Son. Born posthumously in 323 BC, proclaimed king jointly with Philip Arrhidaeus, a pawn of the Diadochi, and murdered as a teenager (c. 310 BC) — probably on Cassander’s orders. He never ruled.

Friends and companions

Hephaestion

The closest friend — the tradition’s “second Alexander.” Son of Amyntor, Companion cavalryman, chiliarch (second-in-command). At Troy, Alexander laid a wreath on Achilles’ tomb and Hephaestion on Patroclus’ — the sources invite the comparison, and readers ever since have made it. He died of fever at Ecbatana in 324 BC; Alexander’s grief was extravagant and frightening. See biography.

Aristotle

Tutor. Hired by Philip to teach the teenage Alexander at Mieza (c. 343–340). What the philosopher taught the conqueror — and whether the pupil’s later fusion of Greek and Persian horrified the teacher — is debated on its own page.

Bucephalas

The horse. Thessalian, supposedly unrideable until the young Alexander tamed him, ridden through every campaign until his death after the Hydaspes in 326 BC. Alexander founded the city of Bucephala for him. He gets his own page.

Callisthenes

Court historian and Aristotle’s nephew. He wrote the official, heroic account of the early campaigns (lost), then broke with Alexander over proskynesis and was executed — or died in chains — after the Pages’ Conspiracy (327 BC). Aristotle reportedly never forgave Alexander.

Nearchus

Admiral. A Cretan Companion who commanded the fleet’s voyage from the Indus to the Persian Gulf (325–324 BC) — one of the great voyages of exploration of antiquity, preserved in Arrian’s Indica from Nearchus’ own account.

Generals

Parmenion

Philip’s senior general, Alexander’s second-in-command through the Persian war — and the tradition’s voice of caution (“I would accept Darius’ offer, if I were Alexander” / “So would I, if I were Parmenion”). In 330 BC Alexander had him assassinated at Ecbatana while simultaneously executing Parmenion’s son Philotas for alleged treason. The sources debate whether the conspiracy was real; the purge secured Alexander’s absolute control.

Cleitus the Black

The officer who saved Alexander’s life at the Granicus — and whom Alexander killed with a spear in a drunken quarrel at Maracanda in 328 BC. The tradition dwells on Alexander’s remorse; modern historians dwell on what the killing revealed.

Ptolemy I Soter

Companion, bodyguard, and — after Alexander’s death — the most successful of the Diadochi: he seized Egypt, founded the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled until Cleopatra, and wrote a history of Alexander’s campaigns (lost) that Arrian preferred above all other sources.

Seleucus I Nicator

Officer who became king of the largest successor state — the Seleucid Empire, stretching from Asia Minor to India. His coins put Alexander’s deified portrait into circulation across the East.

Antipater

The veteran Philip had left as regent of Macedon. He held Europe for Alexander for twelve years, crushed a Greek revolt (the Lamian War began after Alexander’s death), and was the center of the poisoning rumors — the tradition claims he sent the poison that killed Alexander. He died in 319 BC; his son Cassander proved worse.

Cassander

Antipater’s son. Cupbearer at Babylon during Alexander’s last days (hence his place in the poisoning stories), then the most ruthless of the Diadochi in Europe: he executed Olympias, and ordered the murders of Roxana and Alexander IV, extinguishing the Argead dynasty.

Craterus

One of the most respected generals, sent home with the discharged veterans in 324. Possibly the intended heir (“to Craterus” vs. “to the strongest” — see sayings). He died fighting Eumenes in 321 BC.

Perdiccas

Chiliarch after Hephaestion’s death, regent for the joint kings after Babylon. Murdered by his own officers during the failed invasion of Egypt in 321 BC.

Enemies

Darius III

The last Achaemenid king. He faced Alexander at Issus and Gaugamela, fled both, and was murdered by his satrap Bessus in 330 BC. The tradition — even the Macedonian tradition — treats him with a certain respect: brave enough to take the field, unlucky enough to face Alexander.

Bessus

Satrap of Bactria, murderer of Darius, self-proclaimed King Artaxerxes V. Alexander pursued him across Central Asia, captured him, and had him executed — as a regicide, not a rival.

Porus

The Indian king who faced Alexander at the Hydaspes (326 BC) with war elephants and fought with such courage that Alexander restored his kingdom and enlarged it. The tradition’s model of the honorable enemy.

Diogenes of Sinope

The Cynic philosopher — the one man in the tradition who was unimpressed by Alexander. See sayings and the Gordian knot’s companion anecdotes; his page in the story is short and perfect.

Source notes

Limitations