Alexander The Great - Biography for Kids

Alexander was born in 365 B.C in Pella, his father King Philip II, was the king of Macedonia. His mother Olympia was the Queen of Macedonia.

At the age of 13 Alexander was tutored by the famous philosopher and scientist Aristotle. He was taught medicine, philosophy, logic, morals, religion and everything about the Greek Culture.

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Alexander became a soldier at the early age of 16 and helped his father to win over the armies of Athens and Thebes. and in that war Alexander led the army of 150 pairs of lovers. Because he believed that lovers are passionate and that passion could be used to win a war.

Alexander became king when his father died. The Greek cities that were united during his father’s rule, were divided again, so Alexander set out to unite the Greek cities once again. He won over the city of Thebes and Athens before he started his conquest of Persia.

At the age of 22, he left for his Asiatic campaign. In 334 BCE he brought together a large army and invaded the empire controlled by Persia. He freed the Greek settlements in Asia Minor the present day Turkey, from Persian rule and made them his supporters.

Gordian knot was a complicated knot made from barks of a tree. In Turkey people believed that whoever untied the Gordian Knot would rule Asia. When Alexander heard that, he went and chopped the knot with his sword.

In 333 BCE Alexander defeated King Darius IIIrd of Persia. Later he took the country of Egypt from the Persians. By then Aleaxander controlled the whole Eastern Mediterranean region. Near the River Nile he founded the famous city of Alexandria. Soon afterward he captured Babylon, the present-day Iraq, and Susa, the Persian capital.

But his men were tired of fighting and many of them wanted to go home, but Alexander wanted to build his empire in India too, so he fought his last great battle with King Porus of India and defeated him. At this point Alexander’s men refused to go farther. In 324 BCE Alexander returned to Susa.

When Alexander reached Babylon, he died of fever at the age of 32. His body was eventually placed in a golden coffin in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexander spread Greek philosophy and Greek Language, in all the countries that he won, but he never forced people to follow Greek Culture.

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Alexander The Great For Kids