Alexander the Great: How to Conquer an Empire Before Lunch

Name: Alexander the Great: How to Conquer an Empire Before Lunch
Uploaded: 2025-08-24T12:08:15+00:00
Duration: 12 min 49 s
Channel: History on the Run

History on the Run

Strap in—today we’re sprinting through the life of the world’s most ambitious 20-something. Alexander of Macedon: horse whisperer, empire speedrunner, and occasional fire safety violator (sorry, Persepolis). In one fast, vivid ride we hit the big moments—Granicus, Issus, Tyre’s ridiculous causeway, a chill stop in Egypt to found Alexandria, the mind-game at Gaugamela, a monsoon-soaked duel with Porus at Hydaspes, and that “maybe don’t” stroll across the Gedrosian Desert.

What you’ll get (besides dust in your teeth):

- How Alexander fused Greek + Persian power like it was a collab drop
- Why his Companion cavalry hit like a sledgehammer
- The politics behind “son of Ammon” and proskynesis (awkward bowing included)
- The wins, the losses, and the inconvenient fact that armies have veto power

If this hit your history sweet spot, like, subscribe, and tell us where you’re watching from. Got a hot take on whether Alexander was visionary or just very good at road trips with swords? Drop it in the comments.

🎧 Perfect for: commuters, treadmill philosophers, and anyone who thinks “map borders are just suggestions.”

#HistoryOnTheRun #AlexanderTheGreat #Macedon #Hellenistic #Gaugamela #TyreSiege #Bucephalus #AncientHistory #WorldConquerors

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00:00Welcome to History on the Run, where we turn world-shaping lives into fast, vivid stories

00:08you can carry with you. If this kind of quick, high-impact history is your jam, tap like,

00:14hit subscribe, and tell us in the comments where you're watching from. Ready? Lace up.

00:20Today, we're running with a 20-year-old who looked at the map, saw a lot of blank space,

00:26and decided to write his name across it, Alexander of Macedon, the Great, to almost everyone since.

00:33He was born in 356 BCE in Pella, the Macedonian capital, to King Philip II, iron-willed, one-eyed,

00:42relentless, and to Olympias, fiercely ambitious and fiercely devoted to her son. The palace was a

00:48boot camp. Alexander grew up hearing veterans swap stories about phalanxes grinding through enemies

00:55and cavalry charges breaking aristocratic lines. He got his first big PR moment early, calming and

01:02riding a wild horse no one else could manage. The horse, Bucephalus, became his shadow for the next

01:09two decades. Then came the tutor, Aristotle, who taught him Homer, ethics, observation of the natural

01:17world, and, importantly, the idea that Greek culture had something universal to offer.

01:22Alexander learned to love epic verse and to think like a statesman while still practicing as a

01:29fighter. When Philip was assassinated in 336, the throne was a hot seat. Greece knew Macedon as the

01:37new boss, but the new boss was a 20-year-old. Several Greek cities tested him. The test ended fast.

01:45In 335, Thebes revolted. Alexander arrived like a thunderclap, took the city, and, after sparing

01:53house and line of the poet Pindar, raised Thebes to the ground. The message was not subtle. Resistance

02:00would be brief, and it would be remembered. With Greece-cowed, he turned to the project both he and

02:06his father had long-eyed, the war across the water, against the Persian Empire. In 334 BCE,

02:13he rode to the Hellespont, allegedly honoring Achilles at Troy and throwing a spear into Asia's

02:18soil as a declaration that he claimed it by right of conquest. Grand gestures aside, the first real

02:25proof came at the Battle of the Granicus. Macedonian infantry with long cirruses pinned the Persian line,

02:31while Alexander's companion cavalry punched through the flank. It wasn't just victory, it was a

02:36blueprint. Persistently aggressive, tactically flexible, and personally visible, Alexander fought

02:43close enough to be recognized and to get wounded. On the road deeper into Anatolia, he stopped at

02:50Gordion, saw the legendary knot that supposedly could only be undone by the one destined to rule Asia,

02:57and, depending on which source you like, either found the clever key or sliced through it with his

03:03sword. Either way, he moved on, through mountain passes and coastal sand tropes, taking city after

03:09city as local rulers calculated their odds and usually decided to switch sides rather than be the

03:14next example. The big moment came in 333 BCE at Issus, where the Persian king Darius III finally appeared

03:23with a massive army. The battlefield was cramped between sea and mountains. The Persian numbers

03:29couldn't unfold into a full advantage. Alexander led a wedge straight for Darius' position.

03:35The Persian center buckled, the king fled, the baggage train, including his family, was captured.

03:41The empire hadn't fallen, but its legitimacy took a mortal wound. Alexander treated Darius' family with

03:48dignity, smart politics, and moved south to remove Persian sea power by taking the ports.

03:54This brought him to Tyre, an island city with walls rising out of the surf and the confidence of

04:00centuries. Alexander built a causeway, dragged siege engines to the shoreline, and after months of blood,

04:08stone, and fire, took Tyre in 332 BCE. Gaza fell after a stubborn defense. Then he walked into Egypt,

04:17where the Persians were unloved rulers. The country welcomed him as a liberator. He founded Alexandria

04:23on the Mediterranean shore, a city that would become a cosmopolis of trade, scholarship, and culture,

04:29and made a dramatic pilgrimage west to Siwa Oasis, where the oracle allegedly greeted him as son of

04:35Ammon, whom Greeks linked with Zeus. Was that divinity claim a formal policy or a rumor that Alexander

04:41found convenient? The sources differ, as they often do with charismatic conquerors. What matters is that

04:49Egypt recognized him as king. By 331 BCE, he was ready to face Darius again, this time on the broad

04:58plain near Gagamila. The Persians had side chariots, elite cavalry, and open ground to use them. Alexander

05:06countered with tactical sleight of hand. Oblique advances, feints, and the perfect moment to split

05:13the Persian line. He smashed through to Darius again, and Darius fled again. This time, the collapse

05:22of Persian political order followed. Alexander entered Babylon as a victor, then Susa, then Persepolis,

05:29the jewel of Achaemenid ceremonial power. There, after allowing his men a brutal sack, Alexander presided

05:36over the burning of the palace. Perhaps a drunken gesture, perhaps deliberate theater to signal the

05:41end of Persian rule. Historians argue motive. The flames were real. But empire isn't a trophy,

05:48it's a maintenance plan. As Alexander moved east, he had to become more than a conqueror. He kept the

05:55satrapy system, recruited Persian administrators, minted coins, and courted local elites. He adopted

06:01elements of Persian dress and court ritual, including the controversial proskinesis, prostration,

06:07at least for Persians, moves that alarmed Macedonian veterans who had followed a king,

06:12not a god-king. The tension inside his coalition grew. In 330 BCE, Darius was murdered by his own

06:19satrap, Bessis. Alexander pursued and punished the usurper, staged a royal funeral for Darius,

06:26and publicly claimed the Achaemenid legacy. Simultaneously, he smashed rebellions in Bactria

06:32and Sagdiana, fighting a hard guerrilla war, where cavalry charges meant less, and outposts,

06:38bridges, and winter campaigning meant more. Along the way, the costs mounted.

06:43Phaelodas, son of his top general Parmenion, was executed for an alleged conspiracy. Parmenion himself,

06:50stationed far behind with power and supplies, was quietly eliminated to prevent retaliation.

06:55In a drunken quarrel, Alexander killed his old friend and savior in battle,

07:00Clytus the Black. He grieved deeply afterward, but the message was chilling. No one was safe if

07:05unity was threatened. He also married the Sagdian noblewoman Roxana, a gesture of alliance and a

07:11sign his empire would be stitched by more than garrisons. By 327 to 326 BCE, he crossed the Hindu

07:19Kush into the Punjab. At the Haidaspis River, he faced King Porus, whose army deployed war elephants,

07:26a new shock for Macedonian horses and nerves. Alexander fainted at one ford, secretly crossed

07:32at another, and attacked in storm and mud. The fighting was vicious. Bucephalus was mortally

07:38wounded, but Alexander won, and respecting Porus' courage, kept him as a client king.

07:44City sprang up, Nicaea, victory, and Bucephala for his fallen horse. Yet, at the Haithasis,

07:51Beos River, his army finally balked. They'd marched thousands of kilometers, fought countless battles,

07:59and looked east to rumors of armies still larger. In rain, under omens that could be read either way,

08:06the veterans said no. Alexander held sacrifices, speeches, promises, and then he turned back.

08:13Even conquerors have limits when the men carrying the spears choose to stop. The return was anything

08:20but restful. Part of the armies sailed down the Indus under Nerechus to chart a sea route.

08:25The rest slogged west, and Alexander insisted on crossing the Godrosian Desert,

08:30a decision often judged as the worst of his career. Thirst, heat, and exhaustion killed thousands.

08:36He shared the hardship, famously pouring out a helmet of precious water rather than drink what

08:42his men could not. But dead men don't come back to cheer speeches. In Susa, he staged mass

08:48weddings between Macedonian officers and Persian noblewomen, a policy that did not last. Sent older

08:55veterans home with honors and pay, triggering the Opus Mutiny, which he smothered with a mix of fury

09:00and forgiveness and planned, always planned. Arabia next. Then perhaps the western Mediterranean.

09:07Maybe beyond. He never got the chance. In 323 BCE, in Babylon, after weeks of fever following banquets,

09:15marsh inspections, and relentless work, Alexander died. He was 32. Ancient sources offer causes for

09:23malaria to typhoid to complications of wounds. Modern scholars debate with no final verdict.

09:28What we know is that an empire welded together by one will now had to survive without it. His wife,

09:36Roxanna, bore Alexander IV. His half-brother, Philip III, Eredeus, had acclaim. The generals,

09:43the Didachei, had ambitions. The body, which was supposed to go to Macedon, was seized by Ptolemy and

09:49entombed in Alexandria, the city Alexander founded, and that would, in time, carry his name louder than any

09:56battlefield. The wars of succession tore the map into new kingdoms, the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids

10:03in Asia, the Antigonids in Macedon. Yet, even as the empire fractured, its Hellenistic world took shape.

10:10Greek became the common language of trade and ideas, koine. Philosophy conversed across continents.

10:18Syrian kings minted coins with Greek legends while worshipping local gods. Jewish scholars translated

10:24scripture into Greek in Alexandria's libraries, and Greek art learned to paint not just heroes but

10:30everyday faces with sympathy and realism. Alexander didn't invent cultural exchange, but he turbocharged

10:38it. He founded or renamed dozens of cities. So many Alexandrias that ancient itineraries read

10:45like a game of, which Alexandria is this? And staffed them with veterans, merchants, scribes,

10:51and dreamers. Some were outposts that faded. Some became engines of the ancient economy.

10:57The map after Alexander looked different, and so did the mental map people carried in their heads.

11:04Was he a liberator who broke a tired empire and opened roads for ideas? Or a ruthless conqueror

11:11who burned cities and scattered lives for glory? Both portraits are real. He could be magnanimous,

11:17generous to defeated kings, and open to new customs. He could also be merciless, especially to those who

11:24challenged his authority. His policy of blending Macedonian and Persian elites was visionary and

11:30resented. His insistence on personal risk inspired his men and cost him their trust when it shaded into

11:36hubris. He was a human paradox with a very fast clock. A boy who loved Homer and slept with a dagger and

11:43a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. A king who made and unmade worlds before most people finish

11:50figuring out who they want to be. And that's why he still grips us. Not just for the miles marched or

11:56the palaces burned, but for the way his life sits at the hinge of Eris. Before him, the Near East was a

12:03quilt of kingdoms under Persian hegemony. After him, Greek-speaking courts debated Indian philosophers.

12:10Egyptian priests wrote to Greek kings, and merchants haggled in a lingua franca from the Nile to the

12:17Axis. History's pace quickened, for good and ill, because one young monarch refused to accept the

12:23edge of the known world as the edge of his story. If this sprint through Alexander's life hit the spot,

12:30drop a like, subscribe to History on the Run, and tell us where you're tuning in from. Next episode,

12:36we'll chase the aftershocks, the diaticai, the libraries, the wars, and the way a short life

12:43can echo for centuries. Until then, keep moving, and keep history close.

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Alexander the Great: How to Conquer an Empire Before Lunch

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