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Illustrated by Florence Faure (Advocate Art) Picture research Tracy Cummins Production by Victoria Fitzgerald Originated by Capstone Global Library Ltd Printed and bound in China by Leo Paper Products Ltd ISBN 978 1 406 26568 2 17 16 15 14 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Hunter, Nick Alexander the Great. – (Hero journals) 938’.07’092-dc23 A full catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Contents Who is Alexander the Great? ........................ 4 A boy with a big future .................................6 The teenage regent ......................................12 Master of Macedonia ............................... 16 First steps into Asia .................................22 Pursuing the Persians ................................26 All work and no play ...................................28 Finding new lands ..................................... 30 The end of the march ..................................34 Alexander’s place in history ..........................38 Timeline ................................................... 40 Write your own journal ............................... 42 Glossary ..................................................44 Find out more ...........................................46 Index ........................................................48 Who is Alexander the Great? When you see “the Great” after someone’s name, you know they were probably pretty special. To build an empire stretching from Europe to India, you have to be a truly great leader. If you can do it by the time you’re 32 years old, then people are going to remember you for thousands of years. My name is Alexander, and I am that man. Don’t get me wrong; I had a good start in life. It’s a lot easier building an empire when you start off as the son of a king. But that didn’t mean I had everything handed to me on a plate. When my father died, his enemies thought I’d be a pushover. They soon They put up statues of found out the truth. me across Europe, North Africa, and Asia. 4 This map shows the vast empire I built, with the help of my Macedonian armies. Macedonia Black Sea C Thrace as pi a Lydia Armenia n S e a Phrygia Cappadocia Sogdiana Mediterranean Sea Media Syria Babylonia Arachosia Drangiana Aegyptus Persi Persis Gedrosia an Carmania G India ulf KEY Alexander’s empire Re N d S e W E a S Wha s nex ? Building empires is all very well but I was really an explorer and a man of action. I was never Document it! satisfied with just ruling my Alexander the Great achieved home country of Macedonia, incredible things at a very or even Greece or Egypt. I was young age. His victories have been celebrated throughout always thinking about the next history. If you keep a journal, land or enemy to conquer. I you can record your own suppose you could say I didn’t successes and ambitions, including what you think know when to stop. and feel about them. 5 A boy with a big future From the day I was born around 20 July 356 BC, people started making up stories about me. Some said that I was the son of Zeus, the chief of the Greek gods. Others said that my mother had dreamed of being struck by a thunderbolt before I was born. It’s always nice to be talked about, but I think most of these stories were invented by my mother, Olympias. She was a Greek princess who could be very tough and cunning. I spent my childhood in Pella, Macedonia with Mum and my sister Cleopatra. What about Dad? Well Dad, or King Philip II of Macedonia as most people called him, was never around much. Even the day I was born he was off fighting a battle. Mighty Macedonia? Macedonia claimed to be one of the Greek city-states, like Athens and Sparta to the south, but many Greeks were not so sure. They thought the warlike Macedonians were barbarians. However, when Alexander was young, his father was in the process of uniting the Macedonians into a powerful military force. 6 Philip II of Macedonia Alexander’s father was a formidable soldier in his own right. He established Macedonia as the most powerful country in the region, and was chosen to lead Greek forces against their biggest enemy – the Persian Empire. 7 Ed ca on King Philip may have preferred spending time with his armies than his family, but he wanted to make sure I had a good education. Macedonians were great fighters, but if you wanted teachers, Athens was the best place to find them. Greek teachers, artists, and scientists often visited Pella, and I listened to everything they could tell me. Lessons were all very well, but I really wanted to see some action. My father was always fighting one war or another and I couldn’t wait until it was my time. I loved wrestling, riding, and hunting with my friends. Bucepha s When I was 12 years old, I finally managed to impress my father. He had been given a horse that no one could tame. This was my chance to prove myself to the old warrior. I trained Bucephalus well, and he went on to be my warhorse for most of my life. 8 The Greek world Ancient Greece was not one country. It was made up of several city-states, of which the most powerful were Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. By the time of Alexander’s birth, the states’ power was declining. They would soon be under the control of Macedonia. However, Greece’s art and ideas still had a powerful influence on the ancient world. This map shows Macedonia and the Greek states around the time of my birth. Thrace Macedonia Byzantium Epirus Thessaly Hellespont Phrygia Thebes Athens Peloponnese Sparta N Mediterranean Sea W E S 999