97 Fun Facts About Alexander the Great

In which city, capital of Macedon, was Alexander born in 356 BC?

Pella: legend has it the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus burned down that same day because the goddess was away attending his birth.

Which epic, annotated by Aristotle, did Alexander reportedly keep under his pillow with a dagger?

The Iliad: he called it a portable treasure of military virtue, and took Aristotle's edition with him all the way to Asia.

Who was Alexander's mother, a princess of Epirus?

Olympias: after Philip's murder she is said to have had his last wife and her baby killed, which angered Alexander.

As a boy hosting Persian envoys in his father's absence, what did Alexander question them about?

Roads and armies: he reportedly asked about the road into inner Asia and the Persian king's forces, years before he conquered that empire.

Alexander's father rebuilt which razed town as payment for Aristotle's tutoring?

Stageira: it was Aristotle's hometown, and Philip also bought back and freed its citizens who had been sold into slavery.

Philip II gave Aristotle the Temple of the Nymphs near which town as a schoolroom for Alexander?

Mieza: the noble boys who studied beside him there grew up to be his lifelong friends and generals.

What was the name of the horse Alexander tamed as a boy and rode into battle for years?

Bucephalas: when tribesmen once carried him off, Alexander threatened to kill them all unless they returned him, and they did.

What does the name of Alexander's famous horse mean?

Ox-head: Arrian says the name came either from an ox-head brand or from a white mark on his black head shaped like an ox's head.

When Alexander tamed an unridable horse, what did his father say Macedonia was?

Too small for him: the onlookers' laughter at the boy's boast turned to cheers once he rode the horse.

When young Alexander tamed a horse no one else could ride, what did he notice it was afraid of?

Its own shadow: speaking soothingly, he turned the horse toward the sun so it could no longer see the shadow.

At the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, the 18-year-old Alexander commanded which part of the line?

The left wing: eager to show his father his prowess, he was the first to break through the enemy line while Philip held the right.

Newly crowned at 20, which river did Alexander cross by night to surprise the Getae?

Danube: the startled Getae did not even stand up to his first cavalry charge.

Alexander's father was assassinated at a wedding by which captain of his bodyguard?

Pausanias: fleeing toward the gate, he tripped on a vine root and was killed by his pursuers, one of them Leonnatus.

Which Greek city did Alexander raze to the ground in 335 BC after it rebelled?

Thebes: the city was razed and its people sold into slavery, but Alexander is said to have spared the house of the poet Pindar.

When Alexander offered Diogenes anything, what did the Cynic ask for?

That he step out of his sunlight: Alexander is said to have told his laughing followers that if he were not Alexander, he would be Diogenes.

Soon after crossing the Hellespont into Asia, Alexander laid a wreath on which hero's tomb at Troy?

Achilles: Alexander is said to have called him lucky to have had Homer, so great a poet, to proclaim his deeds.

On landing in Asia, what did Alexander throw into the soil to claim the continent from the gods?

A spear, fixed in the ground, marked Asia as spear-won land, and Alexander then leapt ashore in armour, the first of all his men to set foot there.

What was Alexander's first battle against the Persians in Asia, fought in 334 BC?

Granicus spoils included 300 sets of Persian arms, dedicated from 'all the Greeks except the Lacedaemonians', a jab at Sparta for refusing to join him.

In the famous version, how did Alexander 'undo' the Gordian Knot?

He hacked it apart with his sword in the famous version, though Aristobulus says he simply pulled the pin from the cart's pole and slid the yoke free.

The Gordian Knot was kept at Gordium, the ancient capital of which kingdom?

Phrygia's people had been told by an oracle that a wagon would bring them a king, so when Midas's family rode in on one a king was crowned, and the wagon stayed at Gordium.

At which battle in 333 BC did Alexander defeat Darius III in person for the first time?

Issus left Darius's mother, wife and daughters in Alexander's hands; he let them keep their royal rank and titles, and later married one of the captive daughters.

When Darius offered Alexander a ransom, land and a daughter's hand, which general said 'If I were Alexander, I would accept'?

Parmenion got a famous retort: 'So would I, were I Parmenion,' Alexander answered, and he turned the offer down.

Which Phoenician city did Alexander capture in 332 BC after a long and difficult siege?

Tyre stood on an island, so Alexander built a causeway out to it; sand then piled up along the mole, turning it into an isthmus that still ties Tyre to the mainland.

Alexander later sent his boyhood tutor a huge load of what, which the tutor once scolded him for wasting on altars?

Frankincense: the tutor had told the boy to go easy with incense until he conquered the lands where it grew, and Alexander's gift came with word to stop stinting the gods.

At the Siwa Oasis, the oracle pronounced Alexander the son of which god?

Amun was the Greeks' Zeus, so after Siwa Alexander often called Zeus-Ammon his true father and began to worship the god as his own.

After his death, coins depicted Alexander adorned with what as a symbol of divinity?

Horns crowned the deified Alexander on coins of Lysimachus, who used his former king's image to cast himself as successor and legitimize his rule.

In which Egyptian city did Alexander sacrifice to the sacred Apis bull?

Memphis greeted the Macedonians as liberators from Persian rule, and by honouring Egypt's gods there Alexander presented himself as a rightful pharaoh.

Which actor played the title role in Oliver Stone's 2004 film Alexander?

Colin Farrell led a film that bombed in North America yet earned almost 80% of its $167 million worldwide gross abroad.

At which 331 BC battle did Alexander decisively defeat Darius for the last time?

Gaugamela's ground had been cleared and levelled for Darius's scythed chariots, but the Macedonian ranks opened gaps and channelled the charging chariots through them.

Darius III was finally taken prisoner and killed by which of his own satraps?

Bessus was later arrested by his own officers and handed over, and Alexander had him put to death.

Plutarch and Diodorus blame which courtesan for instigating the burning of Persepolis?

Thaïs spoke up at a drunken party, and Alexander led a torch-lit revel to the palace.

Alexander's burning of Persepolis was possibly revenge for Xerxes' burning of what?

The Acropolis of Athens was torched by Xerxes, whose army also looted the city's bronze tyrant-slayer statues; Arrian says Alexander found them and sent them home.

Which officer, who had once saved his life, did Alexander kill in a drunken quarrel at Samarkand?

Cleitus had accused him of abandoning Macedonian ways for a corrupt oriental lifestyle.

Which officer was executed for failing to report a plot, prompting Alexander to have the officer's father assassinated?

Philotas commanded the Companion cavalry; after the army put him to death, a rider carried Alexander's letters to the generals in Media, who killed his father.

Which Persian court custom, which Greeks thought fit only for gods, did Alexander try to introduce?

Proskynesis (prostration) was tried at a banquet where each guest who bowed got a royal kiss; one who refused quipped that he would leave the poorer by a kiss.

Which official campaign historian was arrested over the pages' plot and died in custody?

Callisthenes had glorified Alexander's claim to be Zeus's son, yet his end is disputed: tortured and executed in one account, dead of illness in chains in another.

Which veteran general did Alexander leave in charge of Macedon when he set out for Asia?

Antipater held Macedon for Alexander throughout the campaign, yet ancient writers later reported that his sons had poisoned the king, a tale likely spread by his family's enemies.

Which of his wives did Alexander reportedly fall in love with at first sight?

Roxana, daughter of the Bactrian noble Oxyartes, is believed to have had his other widow Stateira murdered soon after Alexander died.

What did Alexander pay on behalf of all his soldiers?

Debts were paid from tables set up in camp, after soldiers had feared that signing up was a test of who lived beyond his pay.

Which Indian king did Alexander defeat at the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC?

Porus, asked how he wished to be treated, answered 'like a king', and Alexander let him keep his kingdom and later enlarged it.

The Hydaspes, where Alexander won his great battle in India, is which modern river?

The Jhelum crossing came on a stormy night, as thunder and heavy rain hid Alexander's march upstream after many nights of feints along the bank.

At which river did Alexander's exhausted army mutiny and refuse to march farther east?

The Beas marked the end: after sulking in his tent for days, Alexander gave in and raised twelve huge altars on its bank to mark his furthest advance.

Which general pleaded with Alexander to turn back, saying the men longed for their families?

Coenus won the argument but never saw home: he fell ill and died soon after the army turned back, and Alexander gave him a lavish funeral.

Besieging the Mallians, Alexander nearly died when an arrow pierced his armour and entered what?

His lung was pierced, air hissing out with the blood, yet Alexander kept fighting with his back to the wall until he fainted.

Which admiral did Alexander commission to explore the Persian Gulf shore with a fleet?

Nearchus brought the fleet from the Indus along a barren coast into the Gulf, and when he rejoined Alexander the king crowned him for the voyage.

On the return march from India, Alexander lost many men crossing which arid region?

Gedrosia's march brought heat and thirst, and one night a flash flood from unseen mountain rain swept away camp followers and the royal baggage.

In 324 BC Alexander held a mass wedding of his senior officers to Persian noblewomen in which city?

Susa's weddings followed the Persian rite, and Alexander married first, taking two royal brides himself to set the example for his officers.

At which town did Alexander's troops mutiny in 324 BC over Persians joining Macedonian units?

Opis ended in reconciliation: Alexander declared the Macedonians his kinsmen, let them kiss him, and held a banquet praying for harmony with the Persians.

Whose looted tomb at Pasargadae did Alexander order restored?

Cyrus the Great's tomb had been robbed despite a guard of Magi, though its inscription begged visitors not to begrudge him his monument.

In which city did Alexander die in June 323 BC?

Babylon's palace saw his soldiers, convinced he was dead, force their way in and file past his bed one by one while he could barely greet them.

Which Roman lamented doing nothing great by Alexander's age?

Julius Caesar was spurred on: Suetonius and Dio place the moment before an image of Alexander at Gades, after which he hurried to seek greater power.

A 2014 Clinical Toxicology paper proposed Alexander's wine had been spiked with which poison?

White hellebore fitted, the toxicologists argued, because its poison can act slowly, with pain, severe weakness and a slowed heartbeat matching his 12-day decline.

Diodorus says Alexander's gold coffin was packed around the body with what?

Spices filled the coffin to keep the body sweet-smelling and incorruptible, Diodorus says.

Which of his generals hijacked Alexander's funeral cortege on its way to Macedon?

He took the body to Egypt; his successor moved it to Alexandria, where it stayed into late antiquity.

A later king of Egypt seized Alexander's gold coffin; what was its replacement made of?

Glass replaced the gold coffin; Strabo says the looter was soon expelled, so his plunder profited him nothing.

Which Roman ruler allegedly knocked the nose off Alexander's mummified body while visiting the tomb?

Augustus, asked if he would also view the tombs of Egypt's later kings, replied that he had come to see a king, not corpses.

Caligula reportedly took what from Alexander's tomb for his own use?

His breastplate, taken from the tomb, was what Caligula wore with purple silk and jewels to ride his bridge of boats at Baiae, though Dio doubted it was genuine.

Asked on his deathbed to whom he left his kingdom, Alexander supposedly answered what?

He is said to have answered "To the strongest" and added that he foresaw a great funeral contest in his honour, as his generals' wars soon proved.

To which bodyguard and cavalry commander did the dying Alexander reportedly hand his signet ring?

Perdiccas became regent, but after he invaded Egypt his own soldiers turned on him and killed him.

After Alexander's death, his half-brother Arrhidaeus was proclaimed joint king alongside whom?

Alexander IV, his posthumous son, shared the throne in name only, and neither king survived the successors' feuds: both were eventually murdered.

Which modern Afghan city began as one of the cities Alexander founded and named after himself?

Kandahar still had a Greek community decades later, when the Indian emperor Ashoka carved an edict there in Greek and Aramaic.

The city Alexander named 'The Furthest' lies in which modern country?

Tajikistan's city of Khujand grew from Alexandria Eschate, and Arrian says Alexander fortified the new city in just twenty days.

What was the long pike carried by Alexander's Macedonian phalanx called?

The sarissa was so long that the points of five ranks projected past the front man, so a charging phalanx met the enemy as a hedge of blades.

Which sculptor was said to be the only artist Alexander allowed to model his likeness?

Lysippos also cast bronze statues of the Companions who fell in Alexander's first cavalry charge in Asia, set up together as a memorial.

Which Qur'anic figure, who walled out Gog and Magog, is widely identified with Alexander?

Dhu al-Qarnayn's barrier of iron and molten copper echoes the Syriac Alexander Legend, where Alexander shuts in Gog and Magog behind a gate of brass and iron.

In Greek sailors' lore, what answer calms the mermaid who asks after King Alexander?

He lives and reigns is the answer that saves the ship; the mermaid sinks any vessel whose sailors say Alexander is dead.

Which Indian empire-founder filled the power vacuum Alexander left in the Punjab?

Chandragupta Maurya, Plutarch says, saw Alexander as a youth and later claimed the invader could have taken India, because its king was hated.

When men brought a parched Alexander water in a helmet, what did he do?

He refused to drink it while his men went thirsty, and both Arrian and Plutarch say the gesture lifted the whole army's spirits.

Whose drunken prayer for a 'lawful successor' at his father's wedding made Alexander hurl a cup at him?

Attalus was the bride's uncle, and his prayer implied that her son, fully Macedonian, would make a truer heir than the half-Epirote Alexander.

After fleeing Macedon in 337 BC, Alexander took refuge with kings of which people?

The Illyrians sheltered him until Demaratus of Corinth shamed his father into a reconciliation, asking how he could fret about Greece with his own house in turmoil.

Which figure appears on the obverse of Alexander's silver tetradrachms?

Heracles, in his lion-skin headdress, was paired with a seated Zeus on the reverse, and many cities kept striking coins in Alexander's name long after his death.

According to Diodorus, Alexander's 'last plans' included building 1,000 ships for an invasion of which city?

Carthage topped a list of schemes that also included a tomb for his father to rival the greatest pyramid, but the army voted the plans down as extravagant.

When Darius III's mother Sisygambis first met Alexander, whom did she mistake for the king because he was taller?

Curtius also records that Darius's throne was so high for Alexander that a page had to put a table under his feet.

According to Plutarch, what unusual quality of Alexander's skin did the writer Aristoxenus record?

A pleasant fragrance, Plutarch guessed, came from Alexander's hot, fiery constitution, the same heat he thought made hot, dry lands so fragrant.

Which court painter, per Plutarch, made Alexander's complexion 'too dark and swarthy'?

Apelles, Pliny says, fell in love with Alexander's favourite mistress while painting her, and the king simply gave her to the artist.

Which Roman emperor, obsessed with Alexander, persecuted philosophers over a legend about Alexander's poisoning?

Caracalla also raised a 16,000-man 'Alexander's phalanx' of Macedonians, armed the way the conqueror's own soldiers had been.

Which Carian satrap offered his daughter to Alexander's half-brother Arrhidaeus in 337 BC?

Pixodarus's offer drew a rival suitor: Alexander secretly sent an actor to propose himself instead, and his furious father called the match beneath him.

Legend says which goddess's great temple at Ephesus burned down on the night Alexander was born?

Artemis was too busy attending Alexander's birth to save her own temple, ancient writers joked. The Ephesians later turned down his offer to pay for rebuilding it.

Alexander is said to have founded a city called Peritas, named after which much-loved animal he had raised himself?

His dog Peritas was mourned like his famous warhorse: each is said to have had a city founded in its name.

What did Alexander reportedly order his Macedonian soldiers to remove because enemies could grab hold of them in battle?

Their beards gave an enemy the readiest handhold in a fight, so his generals were told to have them shaved. The clean-shaven look then spread across the Greek world.

Asked if he would run in the foot-race at the Olympic Games, whom did the young Alexander insist on competing against?

Fellow monarchs were the only rivals he thought worthy, though he was a swift runner. He later staged many contests for poets and musicians but offered no prizes for boxing.

Which famous queen was the last active ruler of the dynasty that one of Alexander's generals founded in Egypt?

Cleopatra ruled nearly three centuries after Alexander died, and her family was Macedonian Greek by descent, not Egyptian.

Which actress played Alexander's mother in Oliver Stone's 2004 film despite being less than a year older than its star?

Angelina Jolie was born in June 1975, under a year before the actor cast as her son. Both earned Razzie nominations for the film, and neither won.

In a famous anecdote, which enemy of Rome told Scipio Africanus that Alexander was the greatest general of all?

Hannibal put Alexander first, then added that he would have ranked himself above him had Scipio not beaten him.

The famous floor mosaic of Alexander charging the Persian king in battle was unearthed in the ruins of which Roman city?

Pompeii's volcanic ash preserved it on the floor of the House of the Faun, one of the town's grandest homes. It was moved to Naples in 1843.

Handed a letter warning that his doctor Philip meant to poison him, what did the sick Alexander do with the medicine?

He drank it while Philip read the accusing letter, a show of trust in his physician. The drug knocked him out at first, but he soon recovered.

Which British heavy metal band ended its 1986 album Somewhere in Time with an epic song called Alexander the Great?

Iron Maiden did not play the track on stage until May 2023, nearly 37 years after the album came out.

After his army would march no farther east, which great river did Alexander's fleet follow down to the ocean?

The Indus carried his fleet south for months, with the army capturing towns along the banks as it went.

Which famous Greek city-state alone stayed out of the alliance that Philip II and Alexander led against Persia?

Sparta's absence was spelled out on the war's first trophies: after his opening victory in Asia, Alexander dedicated the spoils from himself and all the Greeks except the Spartans.

What name was given to the elite Macedonian cavalry that Alexander personally led into battle in a wedge formation?

The Companions were mostly nobles who could afford their own horses and armour, and they rank among the first shock cavalry in Europe.

For which weapon did Darius III have the ground cleared and levelled before his last battle against Alexander?

Scythed chariots needed flat ground, but the Macedonians simply opened their ranks and let them pass harmlessly through the gaps.

Which former officer of Alexander founded an empire stretching from Syria to Persia and built the city of Antioch?

Seleucus rose from commanding Alexander's elite infantry guard to ruling most of his Asian conquests as a king.

Which Athenian orator, famous for his speeches against Philip II, led his city's opposition to the young King Alexander?

Demosthenes greeted news of Philip's murder by putting on a garland and giving thanks, his rival Aeschines complained, a week after his own daughter died.

Which sky event, seen after Alexander's army crossed the Tigris, lets historians date his last battle with Darius III?

A lunar eclipse on 20–21 September 331 BC came eleven days before the fighting and fixes the battle to 1 October.

Which Greek historian of the Roman era wrote the Anabasis, the most complete surviving account of Alexander's campaigns?

Arrian modelled the work on Xenophon's Anabasis, matching its seven books, and drew on lost memoirs by men who had marched with Alexander.

Before Alexander's birth, Philip II dreamed he closed his wife's womb with a seal engraved with which animal?

A lion on the seal meant, one seer said, that she was carrying a son whose nature would be bold and lion-like.

Alexander's death conventionally marks the start of which era, in which Greek culture spread across the Near East?

The Hellenistic age ran for about 300 years and made Greek the lingua franca of the lands he had conquered.