All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Ancient.Greece.S01E06.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] On a hillside
in Western Turkey,

a team investigates
the remains of a

mysterious ancient city.

-What did you find here?

-What do you think, what
do you think about this?

[Narrator] They’re uncovering
clues dating back

more than 2,000 years.

-Oh, that’s interesting.
Okay, this is very early.

[Narrator] Could their
discoveries shed new light on

the life and legacy of one of
the greatest military leaders

of all time?

-This is really
breaking news yeah.

[Narrator] A real-life hero
whose story has become

legendary, Alexander the Great.

[♪ theme music playing]

The wonders of
Ancient Greece are among the

greatest ever known.

Greece was the birthplace of
democracy and the cradle of

Western engineering
and architecture.

From inspiring inventions
to epic heroes and legends,

the legacy of Ancient Greece
still shapes the modern world.

One of its most influential
figures was Alexander the Great.

-He was extremely successful,
very powerful, and strong.

[Narrator] A legendary
commander who never

lost a battle.

In just 10 years,

Alexander established
one of the greatest empires

the world had ever seen.

-He is known to so many
different cultures,

and his stories are told
in so many different books

that he is for sure one of
the most influential leaders

that has ever lived.

[Narrator] Alexander’s vast
empire stretched from Greece in

the west to modern-day
Pakistan in the east.

And he conquered it all
before he died at the age

of just 32.

Alexander’s reign
was short-lived,

but the new age he created,
the Hellenistic Period,

would endure for
three centuries.

Why did his influence last
so long after his death?

This season, international
teams of archaeologists dig

through centuries of earth to
shed light on the real world

behind this legendary hero.

In Northern Greece lies
the ancient city of Pella,

the birthplace of
Alexander the Great.

-There's a piece of
pottery there, isn't there?

-Yeah, there’s a piece
of pottery there,

some of the stones over there.

[Narrator] Archaeologist
Lisa Nevett investigates the

city where Alexander’s
journey began.

She wants to understand
how his influence endured

for so long.

[Lisa] Alexander was able to
create an empire very quickly,

that empire also fell apart
very quickly on his death.

But an interesting aspect
of it is that we see that

the culture continued.

[Narrator] Alexander was
born in Pella in 356 BCE,

2,000 years after the
Pyramids of Giza were

constructed and
about a century after the

Parthenon of Athens.

At the time, Pella was
the capital of Macedon,

one of several rival
Greek kingdoms.

[Lisa] Today, we think of
Greece as a single nation,

but in antiquity, it was
a land of many cities,

and they were
independent politically

and related culturally.

[Narrator] Alexander
was a royal prince,

the son of Olympias,
a Greek princess,

and King Philip II of Macedon.

Philip conquered nearly all the
kingdoms in Greece and wanted

to invade the Persian Empire,
Greece’s mortal enemy.

But the plan was cut
short when the King was

assassinated by
his own bodyguard.

So when Alexander took
the throne at the age of 20,

he vowed to complete
his father's mission and

defeat the Persians.

In Pella, Lisa wants to
find out how the city changed

thanks to Alexander's success.

The problem is that
little remains of the place

where he grew up.

[Lisa] Most of the buildings
that we see today were

constructed after
Alexander’s death,

and so the city I think,
was shaped, erm,

perhaps by Alexander’s legacy
more than by Alexander himself.

[Narrator] Today, Lisa
and her team excavate a house

in the south of the city.

[Lisa] Is the soil
texture different there?

[Narrator] They uncover a
well-preserved layer of tiles,

which they think might
be part of a floor.

-So do they continue?

This is something new,

we haven’t seen this
elsewhere in the house,

and in fact, it’s
really hard to find floors in

this house because
they’re nearly all made

of stamped earth.

One possibility is some
sort of area where people

were using water,

and that the tiles
are to prevent water

damaging the floor.

The house was originally
about 400 square meters,

which was quite big,

so maybe ten or 12 rooms
around an open courtyard.

[Narrator] The size and
design of this house tells Lisa

that it belonged to a
relatively prosperous owner.

By studying this
structure further,

Lisa hopes to learn more
about how Alexander’s empire

brought wealth and
influence to his hometown.

[Lisa] Pella is a
really interesting site,

it went from being quite
a small town at around 400 BC,

and then very quickly it seems
to have grown into a large city.

[Narrator] So, how big
was the Greek world at the

start of Alexander’s reign?

And why did the young king
dream of making it bigger?

On the other side of the
Aegean Sea, in Turkey,

sits the city of Ephesus.

Archaeologists have
been working here for more

than 130 years.

Today, the dig is led
by Martin Steskal.

-Okay, today’s program,

we are going to
expand our trench,

so make two groups,
one group is working here,

one is working there,
let’s go, okay.

[Narrator] Although Ephesus
now lies in modern Turkey,

it was originally founded
by Greek settlers almost

3,000 years ago.

In ancient times, Ephesus was
one of many Greek cities on the

coast of what is now Turkey,

a sprawl of homes
and workshops stretching

up to 450 acres.

At its heart stood the
city’s most sacred monument,

the Temple of Artemis.

Covering an area larger
than the Parthenon,

it rose on 127 marble columns,
each nearly 60 feet tall.

It was decorated
with mythological figures,

and much of it was
painted in vivid colors,

a temple so stunning it
was considered a wonder

of the ancient world.

This season, Martin and
his team hunt for the extent

of the ancient city from
the age of Alexander,

no easy task in a metropolis
that was continuously occupied

until Roman times.

[Martin] If we want to find the
Greek city here in Ephesus,

you have to either dig very
deep because the city's really

densely built over,

or you have to dig in areas that
have never been explored before,

like we are doing here.

[Narrator] From
written records,

researchers know that
Ephesus had three city gates,

excavations had only found two.

But Martin's team has made
an exciting breakthrough.

[Martin] So we’ve been starting
to excavate here last year,

and we really found this third,
so far unknown city gate of

Ephesus, er, which we know
from the literary sources was

called The Coressian Gate.

[Narrator] Martin
explores the new gate.

-What you can clearly
see here is a wide entrance

between two pillars,

and just to the right of us,

there would be
another entrance,

not as wide as this one.

[Narrator] As they continue
to excavate the gate,

they unearth other structures.

[Martin] Here you
have the remains of

a massive watchtower,
it's a square watchtower,

only the foundations have
been remained unfortunately.

But it was probably a watchtower
with two or three stories,

and from here a potential
enemy could be easily attacked.

If you look up here you can
see the connecting city walls,

they run up this hill.

[Narrator] Ephesus was one
of the greatest Greek cities

of its day.

But for much of the
fourth century BCE,

its citizens lived
under the overlordship

of Greece’s archenemy,
the mighty Persian Empire.

A realm that stretched
from the shores of the

Mediterranean Sea to
the mountains of Iran,

it was a world that
the young Alexander was

determined to change.

[Martin] Alexander pursued
the idea of his father,

who wanted to liberate
the Greek cities here in

Western Asia Minor,
however Alexander had ideas

that got far beyond that.

[Narrator] In 334 BCE,
at the age of just 22,

Alexander the Great landed
in what is now Turkey,

on his mission to defeat
the Persian Empire.

Ephesus was one of the
first cities that he reached.

What might discoveries here
reveal about the scale of the

task ahead of him?

[Narrator] At Ephesus in Turkey,

Martin Steskal
investigates more of the

newly discovered city gate.

-What did you find here?

-What do you think about that?

-Oh, that’s interesting.
Okay, this is very early.

Can you please
register this find?

Yeah fantastic.

[Narrator] In 334 BCE, Ephesus
was one of the first cities in

the Persian Empire to
face the invading army of

Alexander the Great.

The piece of pottery tells
Martin that he is close

to the Greek period.

And as the
excavation continues,

the team makes
another discovery.

[Narrator] Martin thinks they
have discovered the threshold

of an important
part of the gate.

[Martin] Once you have reached
the gate and you’ve passed the

first gateway, you ended up in
an antechamber where there was

still possibility for the guards
to attack a potential enemy,

because obviously a city
gate is the weakest point

in the fortification.

[Narrator] The discovery
reveals how the city gate was

strongly fortified
against invaders.

But to find out
what Ephesus looked like

when Alexander arrived,

Martin first needs
to dig down further,

he wants to know
when the gate was built.

[Martin] So far, we have only
a glimpse of this city gate,

actually excavated.

We are pretty sure that this
gate has been built very early

in the Hellenistic Period,

but of course we need more
detailed information about that.

[Narrator] The team continues
to record and analyze the ruins.

If Martin’s right and
the gate was built in the

early Hellenistic Period,

that means
this gate was built in the

time after Alexander.

There was no wall
here when he arrived.

[Martin] The city looked
completely different,

it was not as strongly
fortified as it is today.

Actually, the city consisted of
a couple of more village-like

settlements that were
very badly fortified,

so for Alexander, from
a military perspective,

it would not have been
a problem to overcome a

city like Ephesus.

[Narrator] The lack of strong
defenses sheds light on how

Alexander’s empire was one.

Alexander did not need to
lay siege to cities one by one.

Warfare at this
time was determined on

the open battlefield,

and it was here
that the Macedonians excelled.

The backbone of
Alexander's army was a

formation called the phalanx,

a tight wall of infantry armed
with long spears and shields,

unbreakable from the front.

It pinned the enemy in place,
so that Alexander’s elite

cavalry could attack from
the side or the rear,

shattering their line.

The Persian army was
a looser force made up

of Greek mercenaries,

archers, infantry, and cavalry.

Alexander’s innovative military
tactics and strong leadership

enabled him to crush
the Persian army.

Once he’d defeated them
on the battlefield,

Alexander simply walked into
Ephesus as the new ruler.

[Martin] I think the Ephesians
were used to ever-changing

rulers, so throughout
the centuries they always

tried to side with the
potential winner of a conflict.

[Narrator] Ephesus, with
its strong Greek ties

and pragmatic attitude,

was just one of many cities
across the empire that fell.

In November 332 BCE,
Alexander marched into Egypt,

where he was welcomed as a
liberator and crowned pharaoh.

In the following year, he led
his army into Mesopotamia,

the heart of the Persian Empire.

In October, he crushed the
Persian army in a single,

mighty battle at Gaugamela.

He entered Babylon
unopposed in triumph,

the new ruler of the east.

He continued to
conquer relentlessly for

the next eight years,

pushing his empire
to the edge of India.

Along the way, Alexander
brought Greek culture to the

east and adopted
eastern traditions himself.

-Alexander the Great
was the first person who was

able to connect this
Greek and eastern world

to such an extent.

[Narrator] By then, the
territory Alexander controlled

covered more than two
million square miles and

included parts of around
20 modern-day countries.

But before he could go
even further, in 323 BCE,

Alexander died,
probably of a fever.

He was just 32 years old.

What happened to his
empire after his death?

[Narrator] At Pella in Greece,

Lisa Nevett and her
team are investigating how

the city of Alexander's
birth changed after his death.

They want to find out how the
house that they're uncovering

compares to those around it.

[Lisa] Previous excavations
show that there was a regular

grid of streets, and our aim
really was to see if we could,

erm, get a sense of the
plan of the city in an area

that wasn’t excavated.

[Narrator] Lisa’s excavations
reveal how Pella experienced a

dramatic change in
fortunes in 4th century BCE.

[Lisa] What we do see
is that the grid plan

continues into this area,

and we don’t know too
much about what classical

Pella looked like,

but we do know
that it became this, er,

big grid planned city
with an enormous marketplace

at the center of it.

[Narrator] In the
4th century BCE,

Pella expanded rapidly,

new districts rose to
the east and north,

stretching the city's
grid layout to new limits.

Luxury houses and busy
workshops lined the southern

slope of the city.

And at the city's heart stood
the largest public square in

Greece known as the Agora.

Crowned by an enormous palace,
Pella reached its greatest

extent in the years
after Alexander's death.

Alexander's brief reign may
have laid the foundations for

Pella's success, but it
flourished under the rule of

one of his former generals,
called Cassander.

Ambitious and ruthless,

he had Alexander's young
son and his mother poisoned,

and took over Greece
and Macedonia.

The rest of the empire
was seized by Alexander's

brothers-in-arms.

While Cassander took lands
in Greece and Macedonia,

Generals Seleucus and
Lysimachus seized territories

to the east.

And Egypt was
claimed by Ptolemy.

Together, they became known
as the Diadochi, the successors.

In Egypt, at the
city of Alexandria,

archaeologist Jay Silverstein
investigates how Ptolemy

ensured Alexander's
legacy lived on.

-Ptolemy was known
as Ptolemy Soter,

because Soter means savior.

He had saved
Alexander the Great's

life in battle,

and when Alexander
the Great died,

he claimed Egypt as his
part of Alexander's empire.

[Narrator] Ptolemy needed
to convince the fiercely

independent Egyptians
that he had a legitimate right

to rule them.

So just like Alexander,

he declared himself Pharaoh,

and decided to continue
what Alexander had started.

[Jay] So when
Alexander the Great

came to Egypt,

he established the foundation
of the city of Alexandria.

He had the vision to see
how important a port in this

location would be, and he
literally outlined the city of

where it should be constructed.

[Narrator] In Egypt, Alexander
planned a major strategic port,

ideally located on the
Mediterranean coast.

When he died,

his successor,
Ptolemy seized control of it,

Ptolemy expanded the city
into a global hub of trade,

and a beacon of culture and
knowledge in the ancient world.

He commissioned its
famous lighthouse,

an icon of Greek engineering
and architecture.

In 321 BCE, Ptolemy brought
Alexander’s body to Alexandria,

the final resting place of a
king who would become a legend.

This was a strategic move.

[Jay] Ptolemy was a
shrewd politician,

he knew that by grabbing
Alexander the Great’s body

and holding it within
his capital city,

that he had legitimacy
to claim the entirety of

the Hellenistic world.

[Narrator] So great was
Alexander’s celebrity,

that having his tomb
here made Alexandria the new

center of Greek
culture in the East.

[Jay] This is a power that
resonated throughout history

for hundreds of years, even
Julius Caesar came to stand

before the tomb to be humbled
before the presence of

Alexander the Great.

[Narrator] Today, the location
of Alexander’s tomb is one of

the greatest mysteries
of archaeology.

[Jay] We don’t know how
much of it survived.

Archaeologists have been
searching for it for,

for decades and decades,
but it’s never been found.

[Narrator]
Controlling Alexandria

gave Ptolemy and his
descendants great power.

But tensions
were brewing across

Alexander’s former empire.

What did the growing rivalry
between his successors mean

for the people living
under their rule?

[Narrator] The new
kingdoms ruled by Alexander's

former generals were rivals,

but they shared
a common culture,

a blend of Greek and eastern
customs known as Hellenistic,

from Hellene, the name the
Greeks gave themselves.

How did the generals keep
control over their new lands?

A clue lies at the
city of Metropolis,

not far from Ephesus
in Western Turkey.

It was a medium-sized
city built around a

necropolis or citadel.

After Alexander's death,

it was claimed by another
of his generals, Seleucus.

Today, archaeologists are
digging in the main meeting or

marketplace called the Agora.

Serdar Aybek has been
working here since 1993.

He wants to find out what
life in the city was like

in ancient times.

[Narrator] The team uses a
conveyor belt to help move

the excavated soil.

This helps to ensure they
don't miss crucial traces of

evidence buried
in the dirt.

[Narrator] Excavations show
that Metropolis grew rapidly

under the rule of Seleucus
and his successors.

The city reached its height
in the 3rd century BCE.

Serdar explores one of
the buildings constructed

in this period,
the theatre.

In the Hellenistic Age,

this was the hub
of metropolitan life,

seating up to 3,600 people.

But excavations
underneath the building reveal

its humble beginnings.

[Narrator] Theaters like the
one in Metropolis offered local

people a taste
of Greek culture,

and provided
homegrown entertainment

for Greek immigrants.

Alexander's successors
competed to build new and

impressive cities and
stamp Greek culture on

their new lands.

So how successful were they?

500 miles south at
Alexandria in Egypt,

Jay Silverstein investigates
whether Greek customs were

welcomed in
countries with their own

long-established traditions.

He hunts for clues
deep beneath the city.

[Jay] Here we are down in the
catacombs of Alexandria,

the underworld, the,

the place where the
dead would be buried.

[Narrator] He explores
some intriguing carvings,

unlike anything in Egypt from
before the Greeks arrived.

-Over here, we can
see at the very top,

you have a shield with a
representation of a gorgon or

medusa, a, a symbol of
Macedonian power that you would

often find on a
warrior’s shield.

Er, you see the Agatha demon,
a, a symbol of good fortune,

of power, but wearing the
crowns of upper and lower

Egypt, sitting on top of
a very Egyptian temple.

[Narrator] The tomb displays a
curious fusion of Egyptian and

Greek religious images.

It dates to the
second century CE,

more than 300 years
after Alexander died.

At this time, a new people,
the Romans, ruled Egypt.

[Jay] Here you have the god
Anubis, but he’s dressed in,

very much like a Roman warrior,
so with this leather skirt

hanging down and
that pose and spear,

he’s a Romanized Anubis.

[Narrator] Jay thinks
the decorations reveal

the background of
the tomb’s owners.

[Jay] We know it was a family,

from the representations
that we see here,

we know that it was probably
from the Greek aristocracy,

it’s a wealthy family,

there’s a lot of
Greek representations,

but there’s also Roman
representations, and of course,

the strong Egyptian influence.

[Narrator] The persistence of
Greek culture in Egypt into

Roman times reveals the
success of the aristocracy that

arrived with Alexander.

The tomb appears to
depict a harmonious fusion of

east and west.

But how peaceful was
this brave new world?

[Narrator] At Ephesus
in Western Turkey,

Martin Steskal continues
his excavation of the

city gate to learn more
about what happened after the

death of Alexander.

[Narrator] As the
dig progresses,

Martin finds more evidence
of expansion and fortification.

-These huge blocks,
they were joined together by

iron and lead so actually
they were pouring in lead,

you can see the, the
shape of the liquid lead,

and in the interior of
this would be a, er,

an iron joint that really
fixed those blocks together.

[Narrator] These iron and lead
clamps are incredibly strong,

even today, the blocks are
still held firmly together.

Martin thinks that the strength
of the gate’s construction

reveals what happened
here when Alexander’s

empire broke apart,

and Ephesus was inherited
by another of his generals,

Lysimachus.

-One is wondering why
a city like Ephesus,

all of a sudden, needs a
fortification like that.

Clearly, after the
death of Alexander,

whoever wanted to establish an
empire for himself afterwards

needed to fortify his er,
potential residency,

and so did Lysimachus.

Er, he decided Ephesus to
be his residential city,

and this city really needed to
be strongly fortified because

the situation in the
region was very unstable.

[Narrator] Ephesus's city gate
is not the only hint at the

volatile situation
after Alexander died.

While Lysimachus was busy
fortifying his new city,

just 12 miles away at
Metropolis,

Historian Boris Dreyer
works with Serdar to

investigate how
its ruler Seleucus,

also prepared for
possible threats to his rule.

In the storeroom,
they examine more than

50 excavated stone projectiles.

[Narrator] Boris heads up to
the Acropolis to find out what

this huge cache of
weapons was for.

[Narrator] This vantage point
allowed the ruler of Metropolis

to control the traffic
going to Ephesus,

it's also where the team
found the projectiles.

[Narrator] This arsenal reveals
how the break-up of Alexander's

empire led to conflict
between his former generals.

They fortified their cities,
stockpiled weapons,

and often fought
among themselves.

But the threats these new
Greek kingdoms faced were

not only from each other.

What happened when the
attacks came from within?

In Egypt, now ruled by Ptolemy,

lie the sister cities
of Thmuis and Mendes,

less than a mile apart.

Jay Silverstein has been
excavating here for 16 years.

He investigates how Ptolemy and
his son, also called Ptolemy,

tried to win over their
Egyptian subjects.

-We know that Ptolemy II
came here to pay tribute

to the ram god of Mendes.

It was a really important event
that the pharaoh would come and

work with the priests to build
that political relationship

between the old
religions of Egypt,

and the Greek or Macedonian
government in Egypt.

[Narrator] Just like his
father in Alexandria,

Ptolemy II tried to maintain
his power by blending Greek and

Egyptian traditions.

But here at this
temple in Thmuis,

Jay’s dig has uncovered
a dark secret.

[Jay] We found piles of
ceramics that dated to the

Ptolemaic Period where
they’d been left, but burned,

suggesting that there
had been a sudden fire.

And then we noticed that we
were also finding stones from a

stone-throwing catapult, and we
found some arrowheads as well.

To me it’s, it’s starting to
look very much there had been

a war here.

[Narrator] Other discoveries
here are more gruesome.

-I saw a piece of bone sticking
out of one of the excavations.

I excavated there and
uncovered the body of

a man in his 50s who was
built like a warrior,

had wounds healed on his
bones like a warrior,

and most importantly, he had
one very clear unhealed wound

on his left arm,
telling us that he,

he probably died fighting.

[Narrator] Jay thinks this man
died during a rebellion known

as the Great Revolt.

To protect their new kingdom,
the Ptolemies trained native

Egyptian soldiers in
the elite tactics of

the Macedonian phalanx.

They equipped them with
Greek weapons and armor and

sent them to fight in wars
against rival Hellenistic kings.

But after decades of war
funded by heavy taxation,

many Egyptians felt
exploited and revolted against

their foreign masters.

The dynasty responded
with brutal force,

slaughtering many
rebels or enslaving them

and their families.

[Jay] Throughout
this time period,

we see evidence of tension
between the indigenous people

and their beliefs, and
the Greek system that was

superimposed on top of them.

They stepped up to free
Egypt from Ptolemaic rule.

[Narrator] The Hellenistic
kings might have wanted their

subjects to embrace
Greek culture,

but they backed up their
rule with military power.

How did their dominance
finally come to an end?

[Narrator] The world
founded by Alexander the Great

was politically fragmented,

but united by a
common Greek culture.

It lasted for 300 years.

Why did it end?

At Metropolis, while the team
continues the excavations,

Boris Dreyer has found an
intriguing inscription.

[Narrator] The inscription
is dedicated to a man

named Apolllonius.

[Narrator] In 133 BCE, the
Greek kingdoms in Asia Minor

faced a new threat,
the Romans.

They promised to liberate
the people from Greek rule.

Although Metropolis
was his home city,

Apollonius sided
with the invaders,

Rome soon became the
dominant power in the region.

Down the road at Ephesus,
Martin finds evidence of the

Romans in this city's
magnificent buildings.

[Martin] At this time,
it was clear that, er,

it is the Roman power who is
going to unify this world again

in the 2nd century BCE,

and Ephesus had to
accept the fact that there’s a

new ruler again.

[Narrator] Thanks to
its strategic location,

the Romans made Ephesus
the capital of the entire

province of Asia.

Martin's excavations
provide clues to what happened

under Roman occupation.

[Martin] In Roman times,

we were in the middle
of the Roman Empire,

there was no enemy
whatsoever close to the

city of Ephesus.

So they started to actually
dismantle the city walls

because they were
thinking there will never be

enemy around anymore.

[Narrator] It was a new era
of peace under the Romans,

so what happened to
the legend of Alexander?

[Martin] The Romans adored
Alexander the Great,

particularly
Caesar for example,

he was like a role model
of military strength

and military glory,

he was a superstar
in the Roman period.

[Narrator] Today, few
structures remain from

Alexander’s time at Ephesus.

But one important link to
the city’s origins endures.

-The one Greek
tradition that persisted for

the longest time
is the language.

Even though this is a very
Roman city and there were very

many people from Italy
actually present here,

the people spoke
Greek here, yeah, for,

for over 2000 years actually.

And so, from the many, many
inscriptions you will see here

in the city, over 90%
are in Greek letters.

They were very proud of
their Greek ancestors,

and they were very proud
that they’ve been founded by

actually Greek people.

[Narrator] It was thanks to
Alexander’s conquest that Greek

culture spread so widely.

-It brought Greek
traditions and education,

science, and Greek architecture
into areas that didn't

know anything about Greek
culture back then.

[Narrator] At Pella,
the Macedonian capital,

Lisa's team has uncovered
more of the tiled area

in the house.

[Lisa] So it looks as
though there are almost

three levels here.

-Yeah.

[Narrator] But for now, its
purpose remains a mystery.

-One possibility is that
this is some kind of drainage

feature that’s
running along here,

so I think whatever it is,

it’s something to do
with liquids, probably,

but we need to
continue the excavation.

[Narrator] Here, too,
Lisa has found clues to what

happened at the end of
the Hellenistic Period.

[Lisa] What we see is quite
widespread destruction.

We don’t exactly
know the reason,

there’s one hypothesis
that there was an earthquake

that destroyed many
of the buildings,

another idea is that the
destruction could be associated

with the Romans.

[Narrator] In 168 BCE, the
Romans conquered Macedon

and looted the city.

But as the birthplace
of Alexander the Great,

Pella remains immortal.

[Lisa] I think we’re still
talking about Alexander today

simply because he
was regarded as this

charismatic figure,
and also because the changes

that happened under
his leadership really were

quite transformational.

[Martin] We are still talking
about Alexander the Great

because he’s been one of the
most influential military

leaders in the world.

There is hardly anybody who
has ever conquered such a huge

empire in such a short time.

[Narrator] Alexander conquered
one of the greatest empires

the world has ever seen.

Thanks to his ambition,
cities rose and grew,

and Greek culture spread.

[Jay] From Persia
to Egypt to Asia,

there was a cultural unity
that facilitated and encouraged

trade and exchange of ideas,
of knowledge,

of goods from around the world.

This was one of the
hallmarks of Hellenism,

one of the strengths that
allowed the Hellenistic world

to become so successful.

[Narrator] Alexander’s
legacy was the rise of a new

multicultural world.

Greek influence lasted for
centuries across his former

empire, and even after it
ended, his legend survived.

The fame of Alexander III
of Macedon,

the Great, lives on.