a larger fraction of the world’s landmass and human population than any one man had ever ruled, and he
changed forever the character of Greek civilization. But change in Greek civilization has always taken the
form of reinventing the past, and Alexander was well aware of his position between the past and the
future. On his father’s side he traced his descent from Heracles; on his mother’s side from Achilles, the
hero of the Trojan War. He was now embarking on a Herculean labor that involved the conquest of a
wealthy Asiatic kingdom. And, indeed, the first town he visited after crossing over into Asia was Troy.
This invasion, then, was the ultimate expression of the appropriation by the Macedonian royal family of
Hellenic culture and identity. Alexander intended to become the new Achilles; all that was missing, as he
is supposed to have lamented, was a Homer to sing of his accomplishments. Instead, he made sure that his
accomplishments spoke for themselves.
The first military engagement was at the Granicus River, in northwestern Asia Minor (map 15).
Alexander’s victory there gave him control over most of Asia Minor, but he had defeated only the
combined armies of a few of the Persian satraps. The Persian king, Darius III, still had enormous financial
and military resources at his disposal, and he was in the process of mobilizing his forces in the Persian
homeland, in what is today Iran. Alexander’s army met Darius’ at Issus in 333 BC, near what is now the
Turkish city of Iskenderun, formerly Alexandretta, both forms of the name reflecting Alexander’s abiding
presence. The Macedonian forces were heavily outnumbered, but the battle took place on a narrow stretch
of land between the sea and the mountains and the Persians were unable to outflank Alexander. The
Macedonians were victorious and Darius fled, leaving his wife, his mother, and his children behind in his
camp. When Alexander’s pursuit failed to capture Darius, Alexander marched his army south, along the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean, capturing all the ports on the way and obviating the need for
developing a navy. On his arrival in Egypt, a country that had often revolted from Persian control,
Alexander was welcomed as the country’s liberator and new ruler. In 331 the city of Alexandria was
founded, the first of a number of cities founded by and named after Alexander. While the new city was
being built, Alexander took a small party of men into the desert to consult the oracle of the Egyptian god
Ammon, a ram-headed deity whom the Greeks identified with Zeus. Alexander consulted the oracle in
private and did not reveal what he was told, but from this point on he seems to have thought of himself as
the son of Zeus and in his official portraiture he began to sprout ram’s horns (figure 66). Alexander was
already considered to be descended from Zeus through his remote ancestors Heracles and Achilles. But
this was different, and the difference had to do in part with Alexander’s status as ruler of Egypt.
According to the Greek way of thinking, divine ancestry does not confer divinity, but Alexander as ruler
of Egypt assumed the titles and attributes of the pharaoh. The pharaoh was considered to be not only the
son of Ammon, but to be identified with that god and hence himself divine.