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Virtue & Power

Timeline

Alexander Timeline

A chronology of Alexander the Great — from his accession through the conquest of the Persian Empire to his death at Babylon and the wars of his Successors.

In a single decade Alexander conquered the largest empire the world had seen, and his early death opened the forty-year struggle of the Successors that created the Hellenistic kingdoms.

  1. 356 BCE

    Birth of Alexander at Pella; tutored by Aristotle from 343.

  2. 338 BCE

    Philip and Alexander defeat the Greeks at Chaeronea.

  3. 336 BCE

    Assassination of Philip II; Alexander becomes king.

  4. 334 BCE

    Alexander crosses into Asia; victory at the Granicus.

  5. 333 BCE

    Victory over Darius III at Issus.

  6. 332 BCE

    Siege of Tyre; conquest of Egypt; foundation of Alexandria.

  7. 331 BCE

    Decisive victory at Gaugamela; fall of Babylon and Persepolis.

  8. 330 BCE

    Death of Darius III; Alexander master of the Persian Empire.

  9. 329–327 BCE

    Campaigns in Bactria and Sogdiana; growing autocracy and Persianization.

  10. 326 BCE

    Victory at the Hydaspes in India; the army refuses to go further.

  11. 323 BCE

    Death of Alexander at Babylon, aged 32.

  12. 323–281 BCE

    The Wars of the Successors (Diadochi); the empire divided.

  13. 301 BCE

    Battle of Ipsus; reunification of the empire becomes impossible.

Alexander proved that almost anything can be conquered and almost nothing thereby held: he built no lasting institutions and left no settled succession, and his empire shattered the moment he died.