King Philip of Macedonia conquered
most of the Greek 
city-states.
Philip was planning to attack Persia when he was assassinated in
336BC.
Philip's son, Alexander,
was only twenty years old when his father died, but he was prepared
to be king. The Greeks believed they could free themselves of Macedonia
rule, since the new king was a "mere boy." Alexander
proved them wrong by capturing the city of Thebes. He destroyed
the entire city as a warning to the others. Then Alexander turned
his attention to Persia, the longtime enemy of Greece, and the mightiest
empire in the world.
Alexander
left part of his army at home to control Greece. His army was much
smaller than the Persian forces, but Alexander's army won a series
of victories and conquered Persia. Alexander was a military genius,
some people say the greatest warrior of all time. His troops were
better trained and organized than the Persian army. His soldiers
also admired Alexander because of his personal courage. Alexander
led his soldiers in battle instead of remaining behind the lines.
The troops saw that Alexander was sharing their danger, and was
not asking them to take any risks he would not take himself.
Once he conquered the Persians, Alexander
quickly assembled a huge empire. In 332BC,
he moved south to Egypt, where he rested his troops. The Egyptians
welcomed Alexander
as a hero because he freed them from harsh Persian rule. They crowned
him pharaoh and declared him a god.
Alexander
eventually conquered Babylon and created an empire that reached
India. He believed that the Greeks were the most advanced people
in the world, and that all other cultures were barbarians. Once
he defeated the Persians, he came to see them very differently.
He saw that many Persians were intelligent people and were worthy
of his respect. Alexander accepted many Persians into his army and
married the daughter of a Persian king.
In 323BC,
when Alexander was only thirty-three years old, 
he
fell ill from a fever and died a week later. Alexander had created
a huge empire in only thirteen years, but it quickly crumbled. Alexander's
mother, wives, and children were all killed in the struggle for
power that followed his death. In the end, his empire was dived
in three parts among his generals.
Alexander changed the world, but
not because of his accomplishments on the battlefield. He carried
the ideas of the Greeks and their love of learning throughout his
empire. He founded the great city of Alexandria, which became a
center of learning and culture in Egypt. A library in Alexandria
housed the accumulated knowledge of the Greeks. This would become
very important in the centuries that followed because Greece and
Rome would fall to barbarian tribes would could not read.
Ancient Greece