portrayed on their coinage with the horns curling through his hair. The legend of the all-conquering âTwo-horned Oneâ was born.
When finalising his plans for Egyptâs government in his absence Alexander decided against placing power in the hands of one man. Instead, he followed Aristotleâs advice that a king must hold an even balance between all parties by appointing a committee of Egyptians, Macedonians and Persians to rule along traditional lines, headed by Kleomenes of Naukratis as governor. And now, having secured Egypt and the entire eastern Mediterranean, Alexander could finally set out in pursuit of Darius.
Leaving Egypt in the spring of 331 BC a changed man and living god, he pursued and defeated Darius for the third and final time later that year. At the age of only twenty-five, Alexander, King of Macedonia, Hegemon of Greece, Overlord of Asia Minor and Pharaoh of Egypt had now become Great King of the Persian Empire by right of conquest, and married Dariusâ beautiful daughter. He had also become the richest man in the world by inheriting 180,000 talents, around 375 tonnes of gold, much of which he transformed into coinage and changed the entire world economy forever.
As trade flourished across a vast network of new markets, Greek culture arrived in the wake of a campaign route stretching a further 11,000 miles. Over the next eight years Alexander travelled east from Babylon and through Persia to Afghanistan (ancient Sogdia), where he acquired another wife. He and his men then crossed the snows of the Hindu Kush to reach Indiaâs monsoon lands where he fought against rajahs and their fearsome war elephants, celebrating his victories by adopting the elephant-skin headdress. Declaring himself an invincible god, he returned west via the blazing deserts of Gedrosia (southern parts of Pakistan and Iran), navigating routes through the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to arrive back in Babylon where he began to plan his next campaign into Arabia, then on across North Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar and into the unknown.
Since setting out from Macedonia in 336 BC , thirteen years of endless campaigning without a single defeat had gained him an empire covering 2 million square miles across three continents. His superhuman achievements had changed the face of the known world, and his reign had been a turning point in world history. Greek culture had been irrevocably transformed by the many others encountered during his ceaseless campaigning. It is all the more extraordinary that Alexander was only in the early part of his career when he died suddenly at the age of thirty-two before ever returning to Egypt and the city he created but never saw.
Chapter 2
In the Blood: the Ptolemies and Their Cleopatras
On 10 June 323 BC , Alexander the Great was declared dead in the ancient palace of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. Set on the banks of the river Euphrates close to the Hanging Gardens built for Nebuchadnezzarâs queen, the city was also home to the temple ziggurat known as the Tower of Babel. Yet these fabled landmarks had been eclipsed by the 70-metre (230 feet) high-step pyramid that Alexander had commissioned as a lavish funerary pyre for his closest friend, Hephaistion, who had died from fever late in 324 BC , whose body had presumably been embalmed since he was not cremated until the pyreâs completion in May 323 BC .
Following the funeral, Alexander had toured the Euphratesâ canals and marshlands, brushing aside a number of bad omens as he returned to Babylon to continue with plans for his forthcoming Arabian campaign. Yet, starting to feel feverish, he had slept in his palace bathroom to keep cool, drinking heavily as was his custom as his fever increased. When the army heard of his condition they demanded to see him, filing past his bed to greet him one last time. Then, bequeathing his personal possessions to Ptolemy and his official signet ring to the highest-ranking general,
When finalising his plans for Egyptâs government in his absence Alexander decided against placing power in the hands of one man. Instead, he followed Aristotleâs advice that a king must hold an even balance between all parties by appointing a committee of Egyptians, Macedonians and Persians to rule along traditional lines, headed by Kleomenes of Naukratis as governor. And now, having secured Egypt and the entire eastern Mediterranean, Alexander could finally set out in pursuit of Darius.
Leaving Egypt in the spring of 331 BC a changed man and living god, he pursued and defeated Darius for the third and final time later that year. At the age of only twenty-five, Alexander, King of Macedonia, Hegemon of Greece, Overlord of Asia Minor and Pharaoh of Egypt had now become Great King of the Persian Empire by right of conquest, and married Dariusâ beautiful daughter. He had also become the richest man in the world by inheriting 180,000 talents, around 375 tonnes of gold, much of which he transformed into coinage and changed the entire world economy forever.
As trade flourished across a vast network of new markets, Greek culture arrived in the wake of a campaign route stretching a further 11,000 miles. Over the next eight years Alexander travelled east from Babylon and through Persia to Afghanistan (ancient Sogdia), where he acquired another wife. He and his men then crossed the snows of the Hindu Kush to reach Indiaâs monsoon lands where he fought against rajahs and their fearsome war elephants, celebrating his victories by adopting the elephant-skin headdress. Declaring himself an invincible god, he returned west via the blazing deserts of Gedrosia (southern parts of Pakistan and Iran), navigating routes through the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to arrive back in Babylon where he began to plan his next campaign into Arabia, then on across North Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar and into the unknown.
Since setting out from Macedonia in 336 BC , thirteen years of endless campaigning without a single defeat had gained him an empire covering 2 million square miles across three continents. His superhuman achievements had changed the face of the known world, and his reign had been a turning point in world history. Greek culture had been irrevocably transformed by the many others encountered during his ceaseless campaigning. It is all the more extraordinary that Alexander was only in the early part of his career when he died suddenly at the age of thirty-two before ever returning to Egypt and the city he created but never saw.
Chapter 2
In the Blood: the Ptolemies and Their Cleopatras
On 10 June 323 BC , Alexander the Great was declared dead in the ancient palace of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. Set on the banks of the river Euphrates close to the Hanging Gardens built for Nebuchadnezzarâs queen, the city was also home to the temple ziggurat known as the Tower of Babel. Yet these fabled landmarks had been eclipsed by the 70-metre (230 feet) high-step pyramid that Alexander had commissioned as a lavish funerary pyre for his closest friend, Hephaistion, who had died from fever late in 324 BC , whose body had presumably been embalmed since he was not cremated until the pyreâs completion in May 323 BC .
Following the funeral, Alexander had toured the Euphratesâ canals and marshlands, brushing aside a number of bad omens as he returned to Babylon to continue with plans for his forthcoming Arabian campaign. Yet, starting to feel feverish, he had slept in his palace bathroom to keep cool, drinking heavily as was his custom as his fever increased. When the army heard of his condition they demanded to see him, filing past his bed to greet him one last time. Then, bequeathing his personal possessions to Ptolemy and his official signet ring to the highest-ranking general,
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