Alexander the Great was born on 20 July 356 BCE in Pella. A king of Macedonia, Alexander was the son of Philip II and was tutored in his youth by Aristotle. He became king at twenty and launched an invasion of the Persian Empire, defeating Darius III at Issus and Gaugamela, conquering Egypt, where he founded Alexandria, and reaching as far as the Indus valley. His army, however, refused to go farther east, and he turned back. He died in Babylon, probably of illness, at the age of thirty-two. His empire broke up among his generals, but his conquests spread Greek culture across the Near East in what is called the Hellenistic age.
Before and after
- c. 375 BCEWriting of The Republic
- c. 375 BCEWriting of the Allegory of the Cave
- 375 BCEBirth of Chanakya
- 370 BCEDeath of Hippocrates
- 20 July 356 BCEBirth of Alexander the Great
- 4th century BCEOrigins of Servian Wall
- from 351 BCE to 1494Construction of Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
- from 343 BCE to 290 BCESamnite Wars
- 342 BCEBirth of Epicurus
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 149 BCE to 146 BCEThird Punic War
- from 73 BCE to 71 BCEThird Servile War
- from 58 BCE to 51 BCEGallic War
- 49 BCECaesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus
- 451 CEAetius and Theodoric stop Attila at the Catalaunian Plains
- 476 CEFall of the western Roman Empire
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 4th century BCE.