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King of Macedonia and conqueror of the large
Persian empire. As commander of the vast
Macedonian army he conquered Greece 336. He
defeated the Persian king Darius in Asia
Minor 333, then moved on to Egypt, where he
founded Alexandria. He defeated the Persians
again in Assyria 331, then advanced further
east to reach the Indus. He conquered the
Punjab before diminished troops forced his
retreat.The son of King Philip of Macedonia
and Queen Olympias, Alexander was educated by
the philosopher Aristotle. He first saw
fighting in 340, and at the battle of
Chaeronea 338 contributed to the victory by a
cavalry charge. At the age of 20, when his
father was murdered, he assumed command of
the throne and the army. He secured his
northern frontier, suppressed an attempted
rising in Greece by his capture of Thebes,
and in 334 crossed the Dardanelles for the
campaign against the vast Persian empire; at
the river Granicus near the Dardanelles he
won his first victory. In 333 he routed the
Darius at Issus, and then set out for Egypt,
where he was greeted as Pharaoh. Meanwhile,
Darius assembled half a million men for a
final battle but at Arbela on the Tigris in
331 Alexander, with 47,000 men, drove the
Persians into retreat.