The first period of the government of Alexander was a time of uncertainty, dominated by the murder on Phillip and contrasts at the court. However, soon the young Alexander managed to increase his power with a successful expedition against Thracian tribes at the Donau. Subsequently he was recognized as the leader of the Corinthian League after he ended a revolt in Hellas by destroying Thebes. Now the time had come to fulfil Philips dream of a combined attack of Hellas and Macedon on the Persian empire.

The dream of all Greeks.

Was Alexander the agressor when he attacked the Persian empire? And why was the attack an attack of all Greeks? Both questions can be answered when you look at the geographic situation of Macedon. Illyrians attacked it from the west, Thracian tribes attacked it from the northeast (especially during the campaigns of Philip and Alexander) and Persia always formed a threat in the east. If he did not attack Persia then his country was threatened by Thracians and Persians in the east, and Persians, Greeks and Illyrians in the west. That is also why he declared the campaign a war of all Greeks. Once the Greeks had kicked the Persians out of Europe, but after the war in 431-404 they were so weak that during the fourth century each city invited the Persians in Hellas as they needed their help in their internal struggles. By using the Greeks he diminished the Persian and Greek threat in the west, and the Persian threat in the east. After the battle at Chaeronea in 338 and the campaign against Thebe in 336 and 335 they had to do what they refused to do voluntary at first: follow Alexander.

In 334 Alexander crossed the Hellespont with 40.000 men and defeated a Persian army at Granicus. The rest of the year he used to consolidate his position, and to liberate the Greek colonies. After that he sent his fleet home and moved on towards northern Syria where he first met the Persian king Darius III. Darius lost the battle as he panicked and fled to early during this battle of Issus (333). Alexander had already achieved his first goal, liberation of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, but now he wanted to completely conquer the Persian empire as his hopes had increased after the relatively easy victory at Issus. For this he first had to conquer the cities at the coasts of Syria and Palestine which where the bases for the Persian fleet in the Aegean. This was needed as otherwise the Persian fleet might attempt to attack Hellas and Macedon when Alexander would be deep in the Persian empire with his army. Darius was prepared to start peace negotiations after the siege of Tyrus, which lasted for seven months, but Alexander was determined to destroy the arch enemy of Hellas once and for all. Unlike Tyrus did Egypt become part of the Macedonian empire without any problems. The Persian government had never been popular among the local class of priests, so they were quit happy to get rid off the Persians.

Two important events took place during Alexander's stay in Egypt in 332 and 331. The first one was his journey towards the oracle of Zeus Ammon in the oase Siwa in the Libyan desert. We do not know what Alexander was planning to ask the priest, or what the priest answered but what we know is that the priest of this sanctuary greeted Alexander as "Son of Ammon", or "Son of Zeus". For the Egyptians this implied that he was seen as son of the highest God, he was seen as the pharaoh of Egypt. For Alexander this greeting was one of the many intimations of his divine status. He understood that if he wanted to rule the people in the east that he had to live as a God. This was not even that weird as somebody who is so young, but who had done so many great things just had to be a son of a God. The second event was the founding of Alexandria, at the west mouth of the Nile. It would become one of the biggest and prosperous cities of the ancient world.

After the stop in Egypt the decisive battle between Alexander and Darius took place at Gaugamela in the plains of Mesopotamia (331). Again Darius panicked, and Alexander defeated the Persian army once more. Now the satrap of Babylon did not resist any longer, and Susa and Persepolis fell in the hands of Alexander after Babylon. The result was that Alexander controlled both the administrative and ceremonial centers of the Persian empire. Darius had lost his treasury and throne, Alexander had become his successor. The goals of the expedition were achieved: the once mighty Persian empire was no more, and Persepolis was destroyed. The units which were added to Alexander's army by the Corinthian League were dismissed.

As the successor of Darius III Alexander now had to make sure that he gained control over the empire. His attempts to take Darius prisoner failed as the Persian Bessus murdered him. Alexander changed his tactics immediately: Darius was given a honourable funeral while the pursuit was now focused at Bessus and his companions who were seen as rebels. Alexander spent spent his time from 330 till 327 in the north and east of his new empire. He had to subject the Persian lord castellans and the nomadic tribes in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to his will. In the plains of Amu Dar'ya and Syr Dar'ya, and in the mountains of Afghanistan he founded several new Alexandria's. His problems were finally over when he married the Sogdian Roxane, the daughter of a local lord castellan.

Further conquests.

From 327 till 325 Alexander marched through the Punjab and the current-area of the Indus. Here he hoped to realise the aspirations of his Achaemenidic predecessors, and he was a welcome ally for the local king Taxiles who was in war with his neighbour Porus. Porus was defeated with his battle-elephant at the Hydaspes, but at the border of the Punjab Alexander's army refused to go any further. Alexander had to turn around and marched besides the Indus towards the Indian ocean. From there on his journey was more of a voyage of discovery. Part of his army sailed along the shore of India, while the rest of his army marched through the inlands. In 324 he arrived at Susa.

Alexander spent his last years in Babylon where he organised his immense empire, and where he made plans to conquer the Arabic peninsula. Alexander had always admired the Persians, even though they were his enemy, and he started to act and dress more and more like a Persian. During his expeditions in the east a rather large part of his army even consisted of Persians. Some of his Greek followers were not happy with Alexander anymore, but nevertheless he attempted to create an unity. Eighty of his highest officers married Persian women in the hope to achieve this unity, and Alexander himself even married a daughter of Darius as his second wife. Unfortunately he died much too young in 323 because of a fever.