ABSTRACT

Alexander the Great conquered territories on a superhuman scale and established an empire that stretched from Greece to India. He spread Greek culture and education throughout his empire, and was worshipped as a living god by many of his subjects. But how great is a leader responsible for the deaths on tens of thousands of people? A ruler who prefers constant warring to administering the peace? A man who believed he was a god, who murdered his friends, and recklessly put his soldiers lives at risk?

Ian Worthington delves into Alexander's successes and failures, his paranoia, the murders he engineered, his megalomania, and his constant drinking. It presents a king corrupted by power and who, for his own personal ends, sacrificed the empire his father had fought to establish.

 

chapter 1|8 pages

Introduction: Uncovering the Legend

chapter 2|21 pages

Alexander's Inheritance

chapter 3|14 pages

Alexander's Boyhood

chapter 4|22 pages

King at Last

chapter 5|25 pages

The Very Gates of Asia

chapter 6|22 pages

A Bridge of Corpses

chapter 7|13 pages

Son of Ra, Son of Zeus

chapter 8|32 pages

Lord of Asia

chapter 9|21 pages

Conquest and Conspiracy

chapter 10|18 pages

Bactria and Sogdiana

chapter 11|36 pages

India

chapter 12|24 pages

‘We'll Say Goodbye in Babylon'

chapter 13|16 pages

Death and Disorder

chapter 14|11 pages

Man and God

chapter 15|15 pages

Alexander: The Great

chapter 16|5 pages

Philip's Ghost