Alexander the Great Trivia
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97 free Alexander the Great trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Alexander the Great trivia quiz follows the Macedonian king from a palace at Pella to a deathbed in Babylon at 32: the tutor, the horse, the murdered father, the pan-Hellenic invasion of Persia, the sieges of Tyre and Gaza, the oracle at Siwa, the burning of Persepolis, the mutiny in India and the forty years of war his death unleashed. The easy questions cover the famous outline: his father, his tutor, his horse, the knot and the city he founded in Egypt. The harder half is for readers of Arrian and Plutarch: the price of Bucephalas, the boarding school at Mieza, the spear thrown into Asian soil, the ransom Darius offered, the courtesan blamed for Persepolis, the officer killed in a drunken quarrel, the general who talked the army into turning back, the desert march home, the honey-filled sarcophagus, the emperor who broke the mummy's nose, and the sailors' fable that still asks whether King Alexander is alive. Every answer was checked against Alexander the Great's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our Ancient Greece, Cleopatra and Roman Empire quizzes next.
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city, capital of Macedon, was Alexander born in 356 BC?
Pella
Pella: legend has it the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus burned down that same day because the goddess was away attending his birth.
Q 02Which epic, annotated by Aristotle, did Alexander reportedly keep under his pillow with a dagger?
The Iliad
The Iliad: he called it a portable treasure of military virtue, and took Aristotle's edition with him all the way to Asia.
Q 03Who was Alexander's mother, a princess of Epirus?
Olympias
Olympias: after Philip's murder she is said to have had his last wife and her baby killed, which angered Alexander.
Q 04As a boy hosting Persian envoys in his father's absence, what did Alexander question them about?
Roads and armies
Roads and armies: he reportedly asked about the road into inner Asia and the Persian king's forces, years before he conquered that empire.
Q 05Alexander's father rebuilt which razed town as payment for Aristotle's tutoring?
Stageira
Stageira: it was Aristotle's hometown, and Philip also bought back and freed its citizens who had been sold into slavery.
Q 06Philip II gave Aristotle the Temple of the Nymphs near which town as a schoolroom for Alexander?
Mieza
Mieza: the noble boys who studied beside him there grew up to be his lifelong friends and generals.
Q 07What was the name of the horse Alexander tamed as a boy and rode into battle for years?
Bucephalas
Bucephalas: when tribesmen once carried him off, Alexander threatened to kill them all unless they returned him, and they did.
Q 08What does the name of Alexander's famous horse mean?
Ox-head
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.
Q 09When Alexander tamed an unridable horse, what did his father say Macedonia was?
Too small for him
Too small for him: the onlookers' laughter at the boy's boast turned to cheers once he rode the horse.
Q 10When young Alexander tamed a horse no one else could ride, what did he notice it was afraid of?
Its own shadow
Its own shadow: speaking soothingly, he turned the horse toward the sun so it could no longer see the shadow.
Q 11At the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, the 18-year-old Alexander commanded which part of the line?
The left wing
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.
Q 12Newly crowned at 20, which river did Alexander cross by night to surprise the Getae?
Danube
Danube: the startled Getae did not even stand up to his first cavalry charge.
Q 13Alexander's father was assassinated at a wedding by which captain of his bodyguard?
Pausanias
Pausanias: fleeing toward the gate, he tripped on a vine root and was killed by his pursuers, one of them Leonnatus.
Q 21At which battle in 333 BC did Alexander defeat Darius III in person for the first time?
Issus
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.
Q 22When Darius offered Alexander a ransom, land and a daughter's hand, which general said 'If I were Alexander, I would accept'?
Parmenion
Parmenion got a famous retort: 'So would I, were I Parmenion,' Alexander answered, and he turned the offer down.
Q 23Which Phoenician city did Alexander capture in 332 BC after a long and difficult siege?
Tyre
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.
Q 14Which Greek city did Alexander raze to the ground in 335 BC after it rebelled?
Thebes
Thebes: the city was razed and its people sold into slavery, but Alexander is said to have spared the house of the poet Pindar.
Q 15When Alexander offered Diogenes anything, what did the Cynic ask for?
That he step out of his sunlight
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.
Q 16Soon after crossing the Hellespont into Asia, Alexander laid a wreath on which hero's tomb at Troy?
Achilles
Achilles: Alexander is said to have called him lucky to have had Homer, so great a poet, to proclaim his deeds.
Q 17On landing in Asia, what did Alexander throw into the soil to claim the continent from the gods?
A spear
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.
Q 18What was Alexander's first battle against the Persians in Asia, fought in 334 BC?
Granicus
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.
Q 19In the famous version, how did Alexander 'undo' the Gordian Knot?
He hacked it apart with his sword
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.
Q 20The Gordian Knot was kept at Gordium, the ancient capital of which kingdom?
Phrygia
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.
Q 24Alexander later sent his boyhood tutor a huge load of what, which the tutor once scolded him for wasting on altars?
Frankincense
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.
Q 25At the Siwa Oasis, the oracle pronounced Alexander the son of which god?
Amun
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.
Q 26After his death, coins depicted Alexander adorned with what as a symbol of divinity?
Horns
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.
Q 27In which Egyptian city did Alexander sacrifice to the sacred Apis bull?
Memphis
Memphis greeted the Macedonians as liberators from Persian rule, and by honouring Egypt's gods there Alexander presented himself as a rightful pharaoh.
Q 28Which actor played the title role in Oliver Stone's 2004 film Alexander?
Colin Farrell
Colin Farrell led a film that bombed in North America yet earned almost 80% of its $167 million worldwide gross abroad.
Q 29At which 331 BC battle did Alexander decisively defeat Darius for the last time?
Gaugamela
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.
Q 30Darius III was finally taken prisoner and killed by which of his own satraps?
Bessus
Bessus was later arrested by his own officers and handed over, and Alexander had him put to death.