Phillip II, Alexander the Great, and Darius III: Brief Biographies

Phillip II - Philip the second was born in either 383 or 382 B.C. After his two brothers died, Philip became king of Macedonia in 359 B.C. King Philip II transformed the Macedonian army into one of the most feared armies at his time. Philip raised elite fighting forces, started military training at a younger age, and implemented a weapon called the sarissa, an 18 to 20 foot spear that could puncture armor and horses with its iron tip. His ability to create alliances and strengthen the Macedonian military led him to gaining lots of territory and increase Macedonia's wealth, security and unity. In 337 B.C., Philip created the League of Corinth, which was an alliance of almost all Greek city-states ruled by himself. With the League of Corinth, he wanted to look outside of Greece and try to invade the Persians. After crossing the Hellespont into Persian territory, King Philip II was assassinated by Macedonian noble Pausanias at 46 years old. His son Alexander had to take his place as king of Macedonia.


Alexander the Great - Alexander the Great was born on July 20, 356 B.C. When Alexander was a boy, he looked up to Achilles and was inspired by the Iliad. Aristotle, a famous philosopher, started teaching Alexander in 343 B.C. and taught him for 3 years. After finishing school at Meiza, Alexander became a soldier. In 338 B.C., Alexander took charge of the Companion Cavalry and help his father in defeating the Athenian and Theban armies. When his father created the League of Corinth, Alexander and his mother, Olympia, had to flee to Epirus until Alexander and Philip stopped arguing. 19 year old Alexander heard about his father's death and was prepared to seize the throne with the help of Macedonian troops he fought with when he was a soldier. During the beginning of his rule, Greek city-states did not want to be in the League of Corinth, so Alexander destroyed Thebes as a warning to join. 334 - 333 B.C. Alexander the Great embarked on his journey to conquer Persia and fought King Darius III many times. Alexander used many great battle strategies to beat Darius, even when he was out-numbered, and finally captured Darius and declared himself king of Persia in the November of 333 B.C. Alexander conquered Egypt, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Greece. On his way back to Macedon, Alexander died at 32 years old from a mysterious illness in Persia in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon. Alexander's empire collapsed after his death.




Darius III - Darius III was the last king of the Achaemenid dynasty. A servant named Bagoas poisoned the two kings before Darius started to rule and tried to poison Darius, but Darius knew what was happening and made Bogoas drink the poison himself. It was estimated that Darius had bout 2.5 million soldiers spread across his kingdom who were skilled and strong. Darius was not worried about Alexander the Great until Alexander defeated an Achaemenid army at the Granicus, won most of Asia Minor, and had reached the city of Cilicia. At Issus, Darius finally fully attacked the Macedonians, but the Macedonian calvery cut right into his army and he fled. The armies would not meet until two years later because Alexander has just come from conquering Egypt and Darius tried to delay the rematch. Darius decided to at a valley near the town of Gaugamela because he wanted to give his 250,000 Persian troops the advantage against Alexander's 50,000 Macedonian troops. Graham Wrightson, a history professor at South Dakota State University and author of Combined Arms Warfare in Ancient Greece, says “Just as Darius begins the charge, the Macedonians launch a devastating cavalry attack that goes right into the gap cunningly created by Alexander’s tactics". According to legend, Alexander killed Darius’ chariot driver and almost captured him before he fled on a horse. While Darius was fleeing from Alexander for days, his cousin killed him at 50 years old and brought his head to Alexander. Alexander thought what Darius' cousin did was treasonous, so he tortured and executed the cousin before declaring himself king of Persia.