A silver coin of Alexander the Great
Tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, ca. 325–319 BCE
Marked Pella

SubjectIn outline · lessons being written

Alexander the Great

In thirteen years, Alexander of Macedon conquered the Persian empire and marched as far as the Indus, then died in Babylon aged 32. His generals split his empire into kingdoms that spread Greek language and cities across the Middle East.

Date
336 to 323 BCVI · The classical world
Place
Pella · Issus · Alexandria · Gaugamela · Hydaspes · BabylonEurope, The Middle East, Africa, Asia
Laid out as
A campaignA run of marches and battles, step by step across a map.
Lessons
6 planned, none written yet

The lessons we plan

Titles may change as they are written

  1. IPhilip’s son
  2. IIGranicus and Issus
  3. IIIEgypt and Alexandria
  4. IVGaugamela
  5. VTo the Indus
  6. VIAfter Alexander

Still to come

The people and objects these lessons will cover

People

  • Alexander III
  • Philip II
  • Olympias
  • Darius III
  • Roxana

Objects

  • The Alexander Mosaic
  • Coins with Alexander’s head

Where it sits

All of human history, era by era

Early human ancestryOur species and the Old Stone AgeFarming and the New Stone AgeFirst cities and the Bronze AgeThe Iron Age and growing statesThe classical worldAfter the empiresMedieval networks and empiresOceans crossedRevolutions and the first factoriesIndustry, empire and world warThe world since 1945

336 BC to 323 BC. Each era is drawn the same width, so the earliest are squeezed: era II alone is over 300,000 years.

Nearby in time and place

This page is an outline. The summary above is a starting point; each lesson, when it is written, will give its sources, its pictures and where historians disagree. Spotted a mistake?