Alexander was born at Pella B.C. 356 (eomp. 1 Mace, i, 7; Euseb. Chron. Ann. ii, 33). At an early age he was placed under the care of Aristotle ; and while still a youth he turned the fortune of the day at Cha?ronea (B.C. 338). Philip was killed at a marriage feast when Alexander was about twenty. After he had performed the last duties to his father, and put down with resolute energy the disaffection and hostility by which his throne was menaced, he was chosen by the Greeks general of their troops against the Persians, and entered Asia with an army of 34,000 men, B.C. 334. In one cam- paign he subdued almost all Asia Minor. In the bat- tle of Granicus he defeated Orobates, one of Darius's generals ; and Darius himself, whose army consisted of 400,000 foot and 100,000 horse, in the narrow pass of Issus, which leads from Syria to Cilicia. Darius fled, abandoning his camp and baggage, his children, wife, and mother, B.C. 333. After he had subdued Syria, Alexander came to Tyre, and the Tyrians op- posing his entrance into their city, he besieged it. At the same time he is said to have written to Jaddus, high-priest of the Jews, that he expected to be ac- knowledged by him, and to receive those submissions which had hitherto been paid to the king of Persia. Jaddus refusing to comply, as having sworn fidelity to Darius, Alexander resolved to march against Jerusalem when he had reduced Tyre (q. v.). After a protracted siege, the latter city was taken and sacked, B.C. 332. This done, Alexander entered Palestine and reduced it. Egypt next submitted to him ; and in B.C. 331 he found- ed Alexandria (q. v.), which remains to the present day the most characteristic monument of his life and work. In the same year he finally defeated Darius at Gau- gamela; and in B.C. 330 his unhappy rival was niur-
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dered by Bessus, satrap of Bactria. The next two years were occupied by Alexander in the consolida- tion of his Persian conquests, and the reduction of Bactria. In B.C. 327 he crossed the Indus, penetrated to the Hydaspes, and was there forced by the discon- tent of his army to turn westward. He reached Susa, B.C. 325, and proceeded to Babylon, B.C. 324, which he chose as the capital of his empire. In the next year he died there (B.C. 323) in the midst of his gigan- tic plans ; and those who inherited his conquests left his designs unachieved and unattempted (comp. Dan. vii, 6 ; viii, 5 , xi, 3). His death is attributed to intem- perance ; and upon his death-bed he sent for his court, and declared that " he gave the empire to the most de- serving." Some affirm, however, that he regulated the succession by a will. The author of the first book of Maccabees (i, G) says he divided his kingdom among his generals while he was living ; and it is certain that a partition was eventually made of his dominions among the four principal officers, of his army. He died at the age of thirty-three, after reigning twelve years — six as king of Macedon and six as monarch of Asia. He was buried at Alexandria. See Mace- donia.
Coin of Alexander the Great.
The famous tradition of the visit of Alexander to Jerusalem during his Phoenician campaign (Josephus, Ant. xi, 8, 1 sq.) has been a fruitful source of contro- versy. The Jews, it is said, had provoked his anger by refusing to transfer their allegiance to him when summoned to do so during the siege of Tyre, and after the reduction of Tyre and Gaza (Josephus, 1. c.) he turned toward Jerusalem. Jaddua (Jaddus) the high- priest (Neh. xii, 11, 22), who had been warned in a dream how to avert the king's anger, calmby awaited his approach ; and when he drew near went out to Sapha ('"!S^, he watched), within sight of the city and temple, clad in his robes of hyacinth and gold, and ac- companied by a train of priests and citizens arrayed in white. Alexander was so moved by the solemn spec- tacle that he did reverence to the holy name inscribed upon the tiara of the high-priest ; and when Parmenio expressed surprise, he replied that " he had seen the god whom Jaddua represented in a dream at Dium, en- couraging him to cross over into Asia, and promising him success." After this it is said that he visited Je- rusalem, offered sacrifice there, heard the prophecies of Daniel which foretold his victor}', and conferred im- portant privileges upon the Jews, not only in Judaaa, but in Babylonia and Media, which they enjoyed during the supremacy of his successors. The narrative is re- peated in the Talmud (Yoma, G9, ap. Otho, Lex. Rabb. b. v. Alexander; the high- priest is there said to have been Simon the Just), in later Jewish writers (Vajikra K. 13 ; Joseph ben Gorion, ap. Ste. Croix, p. 553), and in the chronicles of Abulfeda (Ste. Croix, p. 555). The event was adapted by the Samaritans to suit their own history, with a corresponding change of places and persons, and various embellishments (Aboul'lfatah, quoted by Ste. Croix, p. 209-212) ; and in due time Alexander was enrolled anions,' the proselytes of Juda- ism. On the other hand, no mention of the event oc- curs in Arrian, Plutarch, Diodorus, or Curtius ; and the connection in which it is placed by Josephus is alike inconsistent with Jewish history (Ewald, Gesch. d. Volkes Isr. iv, 124 sq.) and with the* narrative of Ar- rian (iii, 1). See Jaddua.