Alexander The Great

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This remarkable artwork was crafted by N. Baratta, whose first name remains a mystery. Meanwhile, Alexander received tutelage from the renowned philosopher Aristotle until he turned 16. Following Philip's brutal assassination in 336 BC, Alexander seized power and inherited a robust kingdom and an elite army. Alexander was granted generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's ambitious Panhellenic project, aiming to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia. In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire, initiating a series of campaigns that lasted ten long years. After conquering Asia Minor, Alexander shattered the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably at Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently toppled the Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety. By this point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. Seeking to reach the farthest reaches of the world and the Great Outer Sea, Alexander invaded India in 326 BC but eventually retreated at the insistence of his homesick troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city he had planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of brutal civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexander's surviving generals and heirs. Alexander's legacy includes the cultural diffusion his conquests spawned, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt. Alexander's settlement of Greek colonists and the subsequent spread of Greek culture in the east gave rise to a new Hellenistic civilization, aspects of which were still evident in the traditions of the Byzantine Empire by the mid-15th century and the presence of Greek speakers in central and far eastern Anatolia until the 1920s. Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He remains the measure against which military leaders compare themselves, and military academies throughout the world still teach his tactics. He is often ranked among the most influential people in human history, alongside his teacher Aristotle.