William Smith, A Smaller History of Ancient Greece

CHAPTER XX

Alexander the Great, B.C. 336-323

HOMER

PLATO

ARISTOTLE

THE GREEK OLD TESTAMENT (SEPTUAGINT)

THE NEW TESTAMENT

PLOTINUS

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

MAXIMUS CONFESSOR

SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN

CAVAFY

More...

LEXANDER, at the time of his father's death, was in his twentieth year, having been born in B.C. 356. His early education was entrusted to Leonidas, a kinsman of his mother, a man of severe and parsimonious character, who trained him with Spartan simplicity and hardihood; whilst Lysimachus, a sort of under-governor, early inspired the young prince with ambitious notions, by teaching him to love and emulate the heroes of the Iliad.

Alexander by Plutarch Who is a Macedonian? - a note, by Elpenor Alexander Timeline. Chaucer, Alexander the Great.  The Odyssey of Alexander the Great: animated map of Alexander's campaings (see also a bigger, non animated, map). Plutarch, On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great

According to the traditions of his family, the blood of Achilles actually ran in the veins of Alexander; His mother Olympias was the daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus who claimed descent from Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, and Lysimachus nourished the feeling which that circumstance was calculated to awaken by giving him the name of that hero, whilst he called Philip Peleus, and himself Phoenix. But the most striking feature in Alexander's education was, that he had Aristotle for his teacher, and that thus the greatest conqueror of the material world received the instructions of him who has exercised the most extensive empire over the human intellect. It was probably at about the age of thirteen that he first received the lessons of Aristotle, and they can hardly have continued more than three years, for Alexander soon left the schools for the employments of active life. At the age of sixteen we find him regent of Macedonia during Philip's absence; and at eighteen we have seen him filling a prominent military post at the battle of Chaeronea.

Next Page of this chapter

To Chapter XXI : From the Death of Alexander the Great to the Conquest of Greece by the Romans, B.C. 323-146

Cf. Plutarch's Alexander

Back to the History of Ancient Greece Contents

Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/history-of-ancient-greece-20-alexander.asp