Alexander the Great is a historical character featured in the Alexander expansion for Rome: Total War. He is the main character and focus point of the expansion.
Historical info[]
Alexander the Great, also known as King Alexander III of Macedon, was the son of Philip II, born in 356 BC in Pella. He was tutored by the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle until he was 16 years old. From here, he assisted his father in subduing the Greek city states, defeating the cities and establishing rule over all of Greece. When he was 20 years old, Philip was murdered at Alexander's sister's wedding, leaving Alexander to take the throne as King Alexander III.
After establishing himself undisputed as the leader of the Greeks, given the title Generalship of Greece, he organised them in an invasion of the Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire), who had been meddling in Greek affairs for centuries. Philip had been planning on invading the Persians before his death, so Alexander took up his plans and carried them out.
In 334 BC, Alexander took his first steps to conquering the Persian Empire. First, he crossed the straights between Byzantium and Asia Minor, destroying a Persian army at Granicus as he took back Greek cities that had been conquered by the Persians many years ago. Moving forwards, he recognized that Persian naval power was far superior to the Macedonian navy, which he disbanded after landing in Asia Minor. To remedy this, and crush Persian naval power in the Mediterranean, Alexander set out to Halicarnassus and took over the city after a short siege. With the Persian navy now crippled, Alexander marched onwards towards the Persian heartland and Near East, destroyed a far larger army commanded by King Darius III of Persia himself at the Battle of Issus.
While Darius fled to rebuild his forces, Alexander marched down through the Near East towards Egypt, taking cities and freeing all the Satrapies (puppets) of the Persians including Egypt. His next showdown with Darius was the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. Heavily outnumbered by multiple Persian armies, Alexander won a heroic battle against the Persian king and his generals. With this latest defeat, Darius fled Persia and was killed by his brother. The battle is considered the final blow to the Persian Empire, which effectively ceded to Alexander who gained the Empire under his rule.
Still, it was not enough. Alexander strove to reach the ends of the earth, heading into India and defeating the Indian king Porus in 326 BC which resulted in Alexander annexing Punjab and adding it to his empire. Alexander still wanted more, and was only stopped by his homesick troops who threated to rebel after being away from their homeland for 10 years. So, Alexander reluctantly marched back to Persia and to Babylon, the new capital of his Empire.
Alexander didn't get to rule his Empire for long, however, nor realise any of his plans, as he died in 323 BC in Babylon. Supposedly, Alexander had further plans for his empire should he have lived, including the conquest of Arabia, as well as the first circumnavigation of Africa and a road running all the way across the north of Africa, which Alexander planned to use for an invasion of Carthage. He also wanted to expand his empire further into the Mediterranean as well as build a monument to his father, the size of which 'to match the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt'.
Alexander's empire didn't last much longer than himself, either. When asked on his deathbed who would succeed him, he simply relied 'the strongest'. This led to his generals tearing up his empire between them in a bid to prove themselves as the strongest to lead the whole empire. The five resulting states, Egypt, Macedon, The Seleucid Empire, the Antigonid Kingdom and Thrace, all fought each other to prove themselves as the strongest, resulting in the Wars of the Diadochi.
Trivia[]
- Alexander is the only historical character in Rome: Total War to have a dedicated unit for them, the Alexander unit. While historical leaders have been present in other Rome: Total War historical battles, they are just generic general units, while Alexander has an exclusive named unit.