As legend has it, a young prince, Alexander, once subdued a wild stallion others couldn’t control. Impressed by the youngster’s bravery, his father, King Philip of Macedonia, predicted that Alexander would need to find a kingdom big enough for his ambitions. And when Alexander became king, that’s exactly what he did. Alexander and his well-trained armies first gained the support of the Greek city states. Then in the mid-300s B.C., he conquered Egypt and the Persian Empire. With his brilliant military tactics, Alexander took over lands including modern-day Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India. Although he lived only thirty-three years, Alexander and his armies spread Greek culture and customs to these conquered lands, joining Western and Eastern ideas to produce a new culture called Hellenism, which influenced the ancient world for centuries to come.

If you want to learn about one of history’s greatest military commanders and uncover some of his secrets of drive—drive that enabled him and his small army to first subdue all of Greece and then the mighty Persian Empire—then you want to read this book. Some people like to think that geniuses are so inherently extraordinary that they navigate their journeys with clairvoyant ease. This simply isn’t true. Greatness does not come lightly. It requires that you make sacrifices of time, interests, and—sometimes—possessions. The further you move toward greatness, the more greatness demands from you. But all barriers yield to one mythical quality: drive. The will to persist and overcome. To never give up. To never accept defeat. Few stories better illustrate this better than the life of one of the most extraordinary warriors the world has even known; a man of legendary ambition, will, and grit: Alexander the Great. In this book, you’ll be taken on a whirlwind journey through Alexander’s life and conquests, and not only learn about the successes and mistakes of one of history’s greatest conquerors, but also how to awaken a fire in your own life and adventures. Read this book now and learn lessons from Alexander the Great on why drive is so vital to awakening your inner genius, and learn insights into the real power of purpose, how to defeat the insidious force of “Resistance” that holds us back, and more.

This book is an exploration of the process and consequences of the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon (who reigned from 336 to 323 BC), focusing on the effect of his monarchy upon the world of his day. A detailed running narrative of the actual campaigns from the Danube to the Indus is complemented and enlarged upon by thematic studies on the reaction in Greece to Macedonian suzerainty, the administration of the empire, the evolution of the Macedonian army and its role as the instrument of conquest, and on the origins of the ruler cult.

The life and lasting influence of a young conqueror Full of vivid historical anecdotes, this book presents the life, conquests, and deeds of Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, who came to the throne at age 20, set out to conquer the world, and died at the young age of 33. Detailed are his rise, reign, and extensive conquests, from Greece and India to Asia Minor and Egypt. Distinct from many studies of Alexander, this visual history emphasizes the influence of his life on art and literature.

In this book, Waldemar Heckel traces the rise and eventual fall of one of the most successful military commanders in history. In 325 BCE, Alexander and his conquering army prepared to return home, after overcoming everything in their path: armies, terrain, climate, all invariably hostile. Little did they know that within two years their beloved king would be dead and their labours seemingly wasted. Tracing the rise and eventual fall of one of the most successful military commanders in history, Heckel engagingly and with great detail shows us how Alexander earned his appellation, The Great.

In the first authoritative biography of Alexander the Great written for a general audience in a generation, classicist and historian Philip Freeman tells the remarkable life of the great conqueror. The celebrated Macedonian king has been one of the most enduring figures in history. He was a general of such skill and renown that for two thousand years other great leaders studied his strategy and tactics, from Hannibal to Napoleon, with countless more in between. He flashed across the sky of history like a comet, glowing brightly and burning out quickly: crowned at age nineteen, dead by thirty-two. He established the greatest empire of the ancient world; Greek coins and statues are found as far east as Afghanistan. Our interest in him has never faded. Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind that would serve him well when he faced formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly after taking command of the army, he launched an invasion of the Persian empire, and continued his conquests as far south as the deserts of Egypt and as far east as the mountains of present-day Pakistan and the plains of India. Alexander spent nearly all his adult life away from his homeland, and he and his men helped spread the Greek language throughout western Asia, where it would become the lingua franca of the ancient world. Within a short time after Alexander’s death in Baghdad, his empire began to fracture. Best known among his successors are the Ptolemies of Egypt, whose empire lasted until Cleopatra. In his lively and authoritative biography of Alexander, classical scholar and historian Philip Freeman describes Alexander’s astonishing achievements and provides insight into the mercurial character of the great conqueror. Alexander could be petty and magnanimous, cruel and merciful, impulsive and farsighted. Above all, he was ferociously, intensely competitive and could not tolerate losing—which he rarely did. As Freeman explains, without Alexander, the influence of Greece on the ancient world would surely not have been as great as it was, even if his motivation was not to spread Greek culture for beneficial purposes but instead to unify his empire. Only a handful of people have influenced history as Alexander did, which is why he continues to fascinate us.

The world that Alexander remade in his lifetime was transformed once more by his death in 323 BCE. His successors reorganized Persian lands to create a new empire stretching from the eastern Mediterranean as far as present-day Afghanistan, while in Greece and Macedonia a fragile balance of power repeatedly dissolved into war. Then, from the late third century BCE to the end of the first, Rome’s military and diplomatic might successively dismantled these post-Alexandrian political structures, one by one. During the Hellenistic period (c. 323–30 BCE), small polities struggled to retain the illusion of their identity and independence, in the face of violent antagonism among large states. With time, trade growth resumed and centers of intellectual and artistic achievement sprang up across a vast network, from Italy to Afghanistan and Russia to Ethiopia. But the death of Cleopatra in 30 BCE brought this Hellenistic moment to a close—or so the story goes. In Angelos Chaniotis’s view, however, the Hellenistic world continued to Hadrian’s death in 138 CE. Not only did Hellenistic social structures survive the coming of Rome, Chaniotis shows, but social, economic, and cultural trends that were set in motion between the deaths of Alexander and Cleopatra intensified during this extended period. Age of Conquests provides a compelling narrative of the main events that shaped ancient civilization during five crucial centuries. Many of these developments—globalization, the rise of megacities, technological progress, religious diversity, and rational governance—have parallels in our world today.

Tells history through the eyes of the greatest military commander of all time, Alexander the Great, who died one month shy of his thirty-third birthday. Broken up into thirty-three chapters, this book offers a first-person narrative glimpse into the body, soul and mind of the most important secular figure in history.

A gripping account of one of the great forgotten wars of history, revealing how Alexander the Great's vast empire was torn asunder in the years after his death

This book investigates the kinds and quantities of treasure seized by Alexander the Great, from gold and silver to land and slaves, and reassesses the widespread belief that the Macedonian king used the profits of war to improve the ancient economies he conquered. It reveals what became of the king's wealth and what Alexander's redistribution of these vast resources can tell us about his much-disputed policies and personality.