Characters

"Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters."

Alexander III of Macedon — Alexander the Great — was the son of Philip II and Olympias of Epirus. Tutored by Aristotle from ages thirteen to sixteen, he was educated in philosophy, medicine, science, and Homer, with the Iliad as his lifelong companion. He first commanded in battle at eighteen at Chaeronea, where he destroyed the Sacred Band of Thebes. At twenty, following Philip's assassination, he moved with extraordinary speed to crush revolts in Thessaly, Thrace, and Greece, then razed Thebes as a warning. He crossed into Asia at twenty-one and never returned to Macedonia. In thirteen years of continuous campaigning he conquered the Persian Empire, founded over twenty cities — most named Alexandria — married Roxana of Bactria (and later Stateira, daughter of Darius III), and pushed east until his own army refused to go further. He died in Babylon in June 323 BC, probably from typhoid fever complicated by heavy drinking, at thirty-two. He left no viable heir. The empire he had built dissolved within a generation.

"He too is Alexander."

Hephaestion was Alexander's closest companion since childhood — likely his lover, certainly his most trusted friend and subordinate. He shared Alexander's education under Aristotle and followed him to Asia as commander of the Companion Cavalry and eventually Chiliarch, the second most powerful position in the empire. At the Gordian knot ceremony, they walked in together. At Troy, Alexander laid a wreath on Achilles' tomb while Hephaestion laid one on Patroclus's — the parallel was unmistakable to everyone watching. Hephaestion was disliked by many Macedonian nobles who resented his influence, but Alexander's devotion was unwavering. When Hephaestion died suddenly of fever at Ecbatana in 324 BC, Alexander's grief was extreme: he refused food for days, had the doctor executed, ordered a massive state funeral, and was still in mourning when he himself died ten months later. Some historians believe Alexander's death was accelerated by the grief.

"A king ought to distinguish himself from other men not by soft living but by courage and magnanimity."

Ptolemy was one of Alexander's oldest companions, possibly a half-brother through Philip II, and one of the most tactically gifted of the Macedonian generals. He served throughout the entire campaign, distinguished himself at the Sogdian Rock and in India, and wrote a history of Alexander's campaigns — now lost but used as the primary source by the later historian Arrian. When Alexander died, Ptolemy seized Egypt in the Wars of the Diadochi (successor wars) and established the dynasty that would rule Egypt for nearly 300 years, ending with Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. He founded the Library of Alexandria and the Mouseion (the original 'museum'), making Alexandria the intellectual capital of the ancient world. He also arranged for Alexander's body to be seized en route to Macedonia and interred in Egypt, giving his new kingdom a powerful religious legitimacy.

"I would accept these terms — if I were Alexander."

Parmenion was Philip II's greatest general and the man who built the Macedonian army that Alexander inherited. At sixty years old when the campaign began, he was the most experienced commander in the army and Alexander's essential operational partner for the first four years of the campaign. He commanded the left wing at Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela while Alexander held the right. His approach was consistently cautious — the professional soldier's instinct — against Alexander's aggressive gambles. After Darius offered peace terms following Issus (all territory west of the Euphrates and his daughter in marriage), Parmenion reportedly said he would accept if he were Alexander. Alexander replied that so would he, if he were Parmenion. In 330 BC, Parmenion's son Philotas was arrested on charges of treason and executed. Alexander immediately sent riders to Ecbatana to have Parmenion killed before he could hear the news and react. The murder of the empire's most experienced general to protect against a potential political threat was one of Alexander's darkest acts.

"Is there a single man among you who escaped from the battle with me? Of those who were around me in the fight, how many are still with me?"

Darius III became emperor in 336 BC through court intrigue — the same year Alexander became king — and immediately faced a crisis he had no part in creating. Born Artashata and renamed Darius on ascending to the throne, he was personally courageous (he had distinguished himself in individual combat earlier in his career) but strategically outmatched. At Issus, he positioned his vast army in a narrow coastal plain that negated his numerical advantage; when Alexander drove toward him personally, he turned and fled — a decision he may have made rationally (the battle was already lost) but which destroyed his political legitimacy. At Gaugamela he chose open terrain to maximize his numbers but was still outmaneuvered. After fleeing the second time, he was seized by his own satraps, led by Bessus. When Alexander's cavalry pursuit caught up, they found him in a cart, dying of multiple stab wounds — his own nobles had killed him rather than surrender him as a prize. Alexander draped his own cloak over the body and sent it to Persepolis for royal burial.

"She was the only woman he ever loved, or so they said."

Roxana was the daughter of the Bactrian nobleman Oxyartes, captured at the Siege of the Sogdian Rock in 327 BC. Alexander fell in love with her and married her — the only marriage he undertook out of inclination rather than political calculation, according to ancient sources, though it also served to bind the Bactrian nobility to his cause. She traveled with the army through the Indian campaign and was pregnant when Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC. She gave birth to a son, Alexander IV, who was nominally co-emperor with the mentally disabled Philip III Arrhidaeus under the regency of Perdiccas. Roxana had Darius III's daughter Stateira (Alexander's second wife) murdered immediately after Alexander's death, correctly judging that a rival claimant's mother was too dangerous to live. She survived the chaos of the early Diadochi period by attaching herself to Polyperchon, then to Olympias, but was captured with her son by Cassander in 316 BC. In 310 BC, Cassander had both Roxana and the twelve-year-old Alexander IV murdered to eliminate the last legitimate claimant.

"It was this hand, Alexander, that saved your life at the Granicus."

Cleitus the Black (distinguished from 'Cleitus the White') was one of Alexander's most trusted officers, the brother of his childhood nurse Lanice, and the man who saved his life at the Battle of the Granicus by cutting off the arm of the Persian nobleman who had split Alexander's helmet with an axe. He fought at Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela, earning a reputation for personal bravery. In 328 BC, at a drunken banquet in Maracanda (Samarkand), a dispute broke out over the relative merits of Alexander's and Philip II's achievements. Cleitus, drunk, took Philip's side and accused Alexander of claiming too much personal credit while forgetting the men who had made his victories possible. Enraged, Alexander seized a spear from a guard and ran Cleitus through. Immediately horrified, Alexander tried to fall on the spear himself; his friends restrained him. He spent three days locked in his tent refusing food, weeping.

"Treat me, Alexander, as a king ought to treat a king."

Porus (Sanskrit: Puru) was king of the Pauravas, a kingdom between the Hydaspes (Jhelum) and Acesines (Chenab) rivers in the Punjab. He was reportedly physically enormous — ancient sources describe him as nearly seven feet tall, though this may be exaggeration — and he made the tactical decision to resist Alexander's crossing with a full military response: 30,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, 300 chariots, and 200 war elephants. His tactical dispositions were intelligent, using the elephants to anchor his flanks against cavalry, but Alexander's superior infantry and the encircling attack by Craterus's force decided the battle. Porus fought until he was wounded and too weakened to continue. When brought before Alexander and asked how he wished to be treated, he gave the famous reply that became one of antiquity's great lines. Alexander was impressed enough to restore his kingdom entirely and eventually expand it. Porus remained a loyal Macedonian ally until he was killed by Eudemus, the Macedonian satrap, around 317 BC.