Alexander was born on 356B.C. He
was born in Pella the ancient capital of Macedonia, was the son
of Philip II, king of Macedonia, and of Olimpias, a princess of
Epirus. His tutor was Aristotle, who trained him in rhetoric
and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine
and philosophy.
Unfortunately in the summer of 336
B.C. his father was assassinated and he ascended to the Macedainian
throne. Also unfortunate was that by that time he found his empire
in disorder. He had enemies all over, in home and people threatening
rebellion abroad. He did quickly deal with this by killing all
of the threats and restoring order to his small empire. Then
he restored order to Thessaly which had attempted independence.
Before the end of summer he had reestablished his position in
Greece and was elected by a congress of states at Corinth.
In 335B.C. as general of the Greeks
in a campaign against the Persians, originally planned by his
father, he carried out a successful campaign against the defeating
Thracains, penetrating to the Danube River. On his return he
crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians and then hastened
to Thebes, which had revolted. He took the city by storm and
razed it, sparing only the temples of the gods and the houses
of the Greek lyric poet Pindar, and selling the surviving inhabitants,
about 8000 in number, into slavery. Alexander's promptness in
crushing the revolt of Thebes brought the other Greek states into
instant and abject submission.
As you can see Alexander had started his way to being a great and powerful ruler. It is said that while visiting Athens to seal a pact, Alexander visited the Oracle at Delphi, despite it being a day when prophecy was forbidden . In his attempts to drag the priestess to the place where she gave her Oracles, she screamed:
"My son, you are invincible!"
That was apparently all he needed
to hear and in the spring of 334 he departed to Asia.
Near the point of his death he begin to believe he was a god so he begin to tell his people that he was descend from Hercules by printing coins that had them both on them. His mother also told him that a serpent had impregnated her rather then his father adding to his thoughts that he was a god. also before his death he had some of his cities worship him as a god.
His death is still shrouded in mystery
to this day. It does seem hard to believe that a 33 year old
man could one day out of the blue just die. Modern historians
have tried to piece together what happened.
Something of defiant interest is
the theory that Alexander the Great may possibly have been gay.
Although he did have a wife and a son and it is likely that he
slept with women. The 1956 epic film showed his life more as
an asexual though, him being so busy he never had the time for
women. This is a misconception, for it is generally accepted
that he had a preference for men. Unfortunately, he did not have
many lovers and the ones he did have never spoke about it.
Hephaestion was, by far, Alexander's
closest friend. They were notorious for spending lots of time
together, philosophizing on life, sharing ideas and discussing
the future. When his mother Olympias once sent Hephaestion an
angry note, he replied, " Stop quarreling with me; not that
in any case I should care. You know Alexander means more to me
then anyone." Whether this was a physical relationship was
never documented. However, according to Mary Renult, "In
spite of Homer's reticence, classical Greece assumed the heroes'
love to be sexual."
It is important to consider Alexander's
relationship with his mother, Olympias, as affecting his sexuality.
It is widely thought that Alexander had an Oedipal attraction
to his mother. As a child, he saw his parents' relationship deteriorate
as they became virtual enemies to each other. Philip had many
concubines and eventually married one of them. Naturally, this
left a great impression on the young boy, stuck in the middle
of the feud, and it was only natural that he identified with his
mother. Mary Renault remarks that, " for Alexander, his
father's constant absences on campaign, combined with his mother's
possessive love, made this a certainty." So great a bond
was formed with his mother, that it may have prevented other women
from entering his life.
Most of Alexander's life was either
his boyhood when he was being tutored or his manhood when he was
campaigning far from home in other lands. He took control of
almost the entire known world and most of his people and troops
believed him to be godlike and invincible.