All language subtitles for Ancient.Empires.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

I won't lie to you.

They are strong and they are many,

and we fight
on the ground of their choosing.

The danger we face is great.

But they are Persian...

and we are Greek!

Alexander the Great is one
of the greatest conquerors

in all of the world.

-King Alexander!
-Alexander!

-Alexander!
-Alexander!

Successful general,

going from victory to victory,

accomplishing seemingly impossible feats.

Alexander never lost.

The sheer scale
of Alexander's accomplishments

are impossible to ignore.

He built one of the largest
empires in human history,

and he did so in just 13 years.

His craving inside to succeed drives him,

but there is a dark side to Alexander.

You are no king!

He was ruthless, he was a colonizer,

he was an imperial,

but he was a young man
who wanted to prove himself.

What's left to fight for?

Everything.

His desire to be remembered

is one of the things
that connects him to us.

Alexander wanted to rule the world,

and the glamor of his success

shines on even in the 21st century.

There was the world before Alexander,

and the world after Alexander.

Alexander completely changed
human history.

It's 331 BC...

and two empires are clashing.

Persia and Greece.

I would not lead us to battle.

The Greek army is launching

a full scale invasion
of their enemy's lands.

A war between Persia
and Greece is a huge mismatch.

Persia assembles an army
of more than 200,000 men.

The Greeks were hugely outnumbered.

We're talking about five to one.

These are unthinkable odds.

Even so,

they charge,
because leading the Greek army

is their remarkable young king...

Alexander.

To glory!

Alexander wants to invade Persia

because Persia is the last frontier.

The ancient world

was dominated by the Persian Empire,

that stretches from the borders of India,

Pakistan today,

all the way to Egypt in the South

and Greece in the north.

It was a huge, successful,

and seemingly invincible world power.

Defeating Persia

has long been
Alexander's consuming ambition.

When Alexander looked at Persia,

what he saw was a cause.

But the deeper he went into it,

the more confirmed he became
that this was his mission.

But if Alexander loses here,

the war is lost.

Facing Alexander is his nemesis,

Darius, King of Persia.

If Alexander can capture Darius

or if he can kill Darius,

then it will be
a tremendous psychological blow

against the entire Persian Empire.

Hold the line!

Everything was shaped on this battle.

Whoever won the Battle of Gaugamela

would win the Persian Empire.

Alexander's training begins

as a young prince of Macedon,

a minor province on the northern
fringes of Ancient Greece.

Macedon is just one
of a number of territories,

city-states, regions,
that all comprise together

what we think of as ancient Greece.

The main powers in Greece include Athens,

Sparta and Thebes.

These are the centers of political life,

philosophy, and culture.

For the Greek city-states,

Macedon is very much uncultured,

uncivilized, and still is ruled by this,

for them, archaic form of government,

which is the monarchy.

Alexander's father, Philip II,

is the King of Macedon,

and he ascended to the throne

when his brother was killed in battle

against a rival kingdom.

One of the things
that makes King Philip stand out

is his familiarity with violence

and his willingness
to use it for his own ends.

Move your feet. Put your shoulder into it.

Faster, harder!

Physical prowess

was incredibly important to the Greeks.

It was important that they were educated,

but it was nothing
unless they were able to run

and jump and fight.

I don't think you're really trying, boy!

Come on, harder, harder!

From an early age,
Alexander's trained physically,

he's given great opportunity,

but it's also clear
that his father is the man

and Alexander is not.

Okay, stop.

Alexander has mentors
other than his father.

That bag, one hand, go.

Parmenion, his
father's most trusted general.

There must be fire in your belly, boy!

Good. Stop, stop, enough.

And Cleitus the Black,

the brother of Alexander's nurse.

We may have to keep an eye out
for this one, eh, Parmenion?

Well done, well done.

Well?

How's the boy progressing?

He may survive a skirmish or two.

From the sidelines, Alexander watches

as his father transforms
Macedon's fortunes.

The other city-states,
particularly Athens,

looked down on Macedon.

The Athenians see Macedon

as an upstart, even as barbarian.

The Macedonians don't see
themselves that way.

They see themselves as the future.

Philip's top priority
when he takes the throne

is to bring Macedon

out of the barbarian status that it has

and turn it into a world power.

He wants to build up the economy,

build up the infrastructure and the roads,

but most especially,

he wants to build up the army.

Transforming them from simply
a gaggle on the battlefield,

who might throw sticks
or stones or whatever,

into a fully trained armed force.

Philip's
most significant change:

transforming the use of a battle
formation called the phalanx.

The phalanx consists of a tight formation

of infantry men.

Heavily armed, standing toe to toe,

shoulder to shoulder,
with shields interlocking.

Philip changes the nature of the phalanx

from a defensive formation
to an offensive one.

Philip adds the sarisa,

a spear of about 20 feet in length.

And by being about twice as long
as the spear of the opposition,

you can hold the enemy
at a greater distance.

If every one of your soldiers
in the phalanx is strong,

your phalanx is unbeatable.

♪

By 345 BC,

Philip has used his highly trained army

to aggressively capture
territory from his neighbors.

Macedonia, at the start of Philip's reign,

is a very small kingdom.

But what Philip does
is he expands Macedonian power

north, south, east,
and west during his rule.

His expansion continues year after year.

Philip does spend
nearly all of his reign at war.

I leave tomorrow. A new campaign.

Can I come with you?

Not this time.

When?

When the time is right.

I promise.

While Alexander is trained physically,

he also prepares intellectually.

He is tutored by the great
philosopher, Aristotle.

Aristotle is the Leonardo da Vinci

of the ancient world.

He did it all.

Aristotle provided Alexander

with his foundations
for almost everything.

His notions of justice,
of virtue, of manliness,

his thirst for knowledge and information.

Aristotle also fueled
Alexander's lifelong obsession

with the epic poem, The Iliad,

and its central hero, Achilles.

Achilles, for Alexander
and for many Greeks,

was a paradigm of Greek masculinity.

Good at war, noble, courageous.

For Alexander,
Achilles is not just a myth.

It is somebody that he can be.

Achilles, for Alexander, is his goal.

♪

By the time Alexander is 18 years old

in 338 BC,

the Southern Greek states decide

they can no longer
ignore Philip's expansion.

The Athenians and the Thebans

create this confederation of Greek states

that will fight against Philip in 338 BC

at the Battle of Chaeronea,

probably the biggest battle
that Philip ever fights.

♪

Now, Alexander will get a chance

to show his skill.

Philip's Macedonian army prepares to meet

the combined Greek forces
70 miles north of Athens.

Alexander, I want you to lead the cavalry

here on our left flank.

This is where the soldiers
of the Sacred Band will be.

Under the circumstances,

Philip gave Alexander some
pretty heavy responsibility.

Alexander is lined up against the Thebans

and their elite Sacred Band of warriors,

an extraordinarily well trained

and fierce and effective fighting force.

There are 300 of them

and they are composed
of 150 pairs of male lovers.

This was thought to make them
fight harder in battle,

knowing that their beloved
was by their side.

In the more than 30 years

that the Sacred Band was in existence,

they never once lost a battle,

and they were seen to be invincible.

Alexander is often represented

as a man who knows no fear.

That's rubbish.

Every man feels fear.

For Alexander, it is the fear of failure,

it is the fear
of disappointing his father.

We know they will fight to the death...

and you must be prepared to do so as well.

I won't let you down.

Any of you.

When your moment comes, you must be ready.

That's the fire.

Alexander is assigned
to lead Macedon's cavalry.

For Philip to give Alexander
command of the cavalry

meant that he was giving
Alexander responsibility

for the decisive blow

that would decide
the outcome of the battle.

It's an elite fighting force

drawn from Macedonian nobles
who have the best weapons

and the best equipment
and the best horses.

And it's made up of, at this point,

also many of Alexander's friends.

The most important is Hephaestion.

Hephaestion was his closest friend,

his emotional rock.

They were raised together,

educated together, under Aristotle.

They may have been lovers,
at least when they were younger.

But for Alexander and Hephaestion,

there's an even deeper level to it.

They are inextricably linked together.

The Battle of Chaeronea

is a very important moment for Alexander.

You could raise someone

and educate them
to be a prince and a warrior...

but until they actually face
the enemy in the battle lines,

they fight, and they win...

they haven't shown that
they can really do the job.

At the Battle of Chaeronea,

Alexander proves his worth.

He defeats the Sacred Band...

the most elite fighting force
in all of Greece.

And he leaves practically no survivors.

The Battle of Chaeronea
establishes Alexander

as a great war leader,

as a leader of men.

As a man who does not shrink from danger.

This is going to be

one of the greatest
characteristics of Alexander

for the rest of his life.

♪

It's also a way for a very young Alexander

to demonstrate that he is a warrior

and that he could
in fact be a future king.

Leaders grow and develop over time,

and at some point, we start
to refer to that as wisdom,

but Alexander seems almost
wise from the beginning.

He was very pleased with his
performance on the battlefield

because he had lived up to
the expectations of his father

and he had played a key role
in this important victory.

You're as fearless as the gods.

The victory at Chaeronea
makes one thing clear.

Greece has been united

and they've been united
under Macedonian rule.

Finally, Alexander's father, Philip,

is supreme leader of virtually
all the Greek states.

He orders the defeated
to join him for a summit,

at the coastal town of Corinth.

What Philip decides to do

is to create the League of Corinth,

and this is essentially
a Pan-Hellenic confederation,

and the idea behind it is that each member

will contribute a number
of people to a regional army

and that they will not go
to war with one another.

They have no choice,
with their militaries defeated,

but to make peace with Philip
and to follow his lead.

The League of Corinth,
we might think of it

as the Greek equivalent
of, say, NATO today.

The Greeks coming together
as part of a common alliance,

setting aside centuries of warfare

and competition against each other

to instead stand together,

defend each other,
and fight for a common cause.

But what Philip very much has in mind

is using the League of Corinth
as a uniting force

against the Persian Empire.

150 years earlier,

Persia twice attempted to conquer Greece.

In 490 BC, King Xerxes I

had launched an invasion
of the Greek mainland

and the Greeks win a tremendous victory

at the Battle of Marathon.

Ten years later,

the Persians had returned,
now with a massive army.

This time, they were
eventually repulsed from Greece

at the Battle of Plataea in 479.

To our new alliance.

To our alliance!

They want vengeance.
Philip understands this.

He is a master of marketing,
as Alexander will be.

And so, he uses this
as a campaign of vengeance

on Persia for their invasion of Greece.

♪

Before Philip is able
to launch his Persian offensive,

he brings his family together
for a celebration.

You go in first. I'll be right behind you.

Philip II is at the height of his power

as the year 336 BC comes to its end.

He's summoned envoys
from all the Greek states

to witness the marriage of his daughter.

The bride is Alexander's sister.

Their mother, Olympias,
is Philip's fourth wife.

She is from basically modern day Albania

and she claims descent from Achilles,

who is the great hero of the Trojan War.

Olympias does well
that she produces a son,

and Alexander is the most capable

of Philip's legitimate Children,

therefore the most likely heir,

but certainly not the inevitable heir.

Olympias is a fascinating character.

She's masterful, she's majestic,

she's suspicious, she's dangerous,

and she's ruthless.

She's only interested
in protecting the future

of herself and her son, Alexander.

The king! Help, help!

Just as Philip is walking
into this wedding feast,

one of his own bodyguards
stabs him fatally.

And Philip is dead within seconds.

Secure the walls, now!

In the immediate
aftermath of Philip's murder,

it would have been quite chaotic.

Alexander is king!

We're not told a lot of details.

Alexander is king!

King Alexander!

But it does seem that
Alexander was acclaimed king

more or less on the spot.

King Alexander! King Alexander!

King Alexander! King Alexander!

You did more for Macedonia
than any king before.

You were a lion.

No, he was a king.

A good king.

But you, Alexander, you are the lion.

Olympias tells Alexander that
on the night before her wedding,

she is struck in her womb
by a thunderbolt.

The thunderbolt is the symbol...

...of the god, Zeus,
who was the king of the gods

and really imbues Alexander with this idea

that he is somehow of divine birth.

This is a prophecy come true for Olympias.

She has always believed that
her son will do great things

and reach great heights
of glory, and now he can.

Alexander inherits his father's kingdom

at just 20 years old.

In many ways, he was ready to become king,

but he's following this giant.

And to be able to walk in Philip's shoes

would have been very difficult,

and Alexander has
to figure out how to do this.

He's just Philip's young son

and nobody really knows
what he's capable of yet.

Alexander makes the decision

to follow through
with his father's plan...

to invade Persia.

Alexander thinks,

"Imagine if I am the one
who can bring 'civilization'

"to the barbaric Persians."

But Alexander wants
more than simply to invade.

He wants to defeat Persia,

and then rule it.

To do so, he gathers
an army of 40,000 men.

In the spring of 334 BC,

Alexander invokes the League of Corinth,

marches them from the Macedonian capital

to the Hellespont to cross over

and begin his campaign
against the Persians.

Alexander has a main force

of about 32,000 infantry
and 5,000 cavalry.

So, this is a hardened, battle-ready,

core group of soldiers.

And he's blessed by having

experienced commanders of men in battle

who understood how to run a war.

Alexander makes Parmenion
his second in command.

Parmenion, who was the friend

and close ally of his father, Philip.

Cleitus the Black is one of
the leading cavalry commanders.

He's a member
of the bodyguard of Alexander.

Ptolemy is one
of Alexander's oldest friends.

They would have studied
together with Aristotle.

Hephaestion is tasked with logistics.

He is responsible for making sure

that the army has food, has supplies.

Alexander and his companions,
at least in the early era,

would not have acted
as a king and subjects,

but rather, Alexander would have acted

as the first amongst equals.

Alexander ferries his vast army

across the Hellespont...

and onto Persian soil.

♪

Alexander begins his invasion
of the Persian Empire

in a wonderfully symbolic way.

He takes his spear...

and he says, "I claim Asia...

"as won by the spear
for myself and for my empire."

He has not won anything yet,

but this is a declaration
of what he intends.

Alexander had an almost electric charisma.

He understood the power of words

and the ability to inspire people.

For him, it's the start of a journey.

For Greece, it's the start of a campaign.

For world history, it's the start

of an epic change, and Alexander knows it.

He's going to be greater than Achilles.

♪

At the time of Alexander's invasion

in the spring of 334 BC,

Darius III is the King of Persia.

Darius III was a successful
and experienced commander,

a skillful and shrewd politician.

He's restored stability
in the Persian Empire.

He is deeply respected.

When Alexander arrives in Asia,

Darius is well over 1,000 miles away

on the other side of the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers.

Philip had been alarming for the Persians.

Alexander, not so much.

He's a 22-year-old kid.

Alexander has invaded with a few
tens of thousands of troops.

Darius says, "I'm going to let

"my governors in Asia Minor
take care of this."

The local governors
collect together their forces

and face Alexander at a place
called the Granicus River.

And they have every confidence

that they are going to wipe
the Macedonian army off the map.

Alexander brings 32,000 men

to the banks of the River Granicus.

The Persian governors
have around 10,000 more.

So?

They will be upon us
as soon as we cross the river.

Alexander was a man who had a mission,

and he knew that mission entailed risk.

Ready the troops. Be quick.

Parmenion, the leading
general of Alexander,

advises him not to do it.

It's late in the day, the army is weary,

the Persians may have an unusual advantage

with defensive position.

But Alexander knows
that he has to join the battle

for a number of reasons.

The first one is psychological.

"What would it look like

"if the first time
we engaged with the enemy,

"we withdrew, we ran away?"

The second pressing reason is logistical.

If Alexander does not fight
and win a victory early on,

he is going to be shut out of the cities

that he needs to provide supplies.

He's commanding the most powerful force

ever assembled from the Greek city-states.

He's got them unified under his command.

And he knows
that he has to produce results.

Fording a river
and then engaging the enemy

with some of your force still left

is a very difficult military problem

and, tactically,
most people don't want to do it.

Alexander understands
the Persian mentality.

He understands why the Persians

have set up the battlefield
the way that they have.

The Persians think they are dealing

with an older version of the Greek army

who would be heavily armored,
who would be weighed down.

Alexander's forces are lighter,

meaning the river isn't the obstacle

that the Persians think it is.

Emerging into the shallows,

Alexander's men face
their enemy at close range.

Trying to ford a river,

people are shooting things at them.

They are exposed,

so this is a very terrifying moment.

From the eastern bank of the Granicus,

Alexander releases his most potent force.

Alexander has the phalanxes
that his father had created.

This incredibly hardened

and experienced battle force
that is at his disposal.

I don't believe the Persians

had any idea of what they faced.

They have now run into a force

that has innovated
in ways they have not seen.

Plutarch talks about this as frenzy.

The clash, the close order nature of it,

the idea that every
killing blow is a personal one.

To look someone
in the eyes as that happens.

Alexander finds himself involved
in cavalry melee,

spears and swords
going in every direction.

The Persians know, if they kill Alexander,

the Greek army will collapse.

This is what warfare is.

It is kill or be killed.

♪

Alexander is knocked
to the ground from his horse.

He receives a blow to the head

that takes off
one of the plumes on his helmet.

If Alexander is killed here,
the war is over.

The League of Corinth breaks up.

The future of Macedon is at stake.

♪

He's saved by the speed

of the sword arm of Cleitus the Black.

Had he been a few seconds later,
fractions of a second,

then Alexander might
have been killed or crippled.

That encounter wins
the first stage of the battle.

The Persian cavalry is routed.

The Persian infantry
are abandoned by their leaders.

Once the Persian commanders
have scattered,

the rest of the Persian lines flee.

Alexander has won an incredible
battle against the odds

and Alexander's decision
to fight this battle

has paid off.

The Battle of the Granicus shows us

Alexander's qualities
as a leader in many ways.

He builds his confidence.

He becomes more and more assured,

his troops become more loyal,
they strengthen him.

Everything follows him,

cementing his purpose and mission.

Alexander's victory
sends a very strong message

to the rest of the Persians.

They may think this is a young general,

an upstart, a child, a boy.

He's a force to be reckoned with.

Alexander!

Alexander!

Alexander!

♪

Victory at the Granicus

fuels Alexander's ambition.

He starts to think about
the world as a whole

being an empire of the entire earth

for which he is the ruler.

Alexander's ability to visualize
an empire without end

I think far exceeded

what anyone thought
was possible in his time.

During his travels, Alexander keeps

in constant communication
with those back home.

Alexander leaves one
of his generals, Antipater,

in charge in Macedonia,

but Olympias is also there.

Olympias is installed as co-regent,

so very, very important in terms

of the day-to-day runnings of Macedon

when Alexander was away.

Through letters from his mother,

Alexander learns of a threat

that could bring
his campaign to an early end.

Darius has sent 400 warships

to attack Alexander's allies
in the Aegean Sea.

It leaves Alexander with a dilemma.

If Alexander goes back to aid
the islands of Southern Greece,

then he risks losing
any initiative that he had.

Exactly what Darius wants.

Attention!

But if he doesn't go back and help,

then he risks losing the support

of all of those Greek city-states.

It's an impossible decision.

In the fall of 334 BC...

...Alexander begins his response

to the Persian fleet.

Alexander's primary means

of countering Darius's naval threat

is to remove the coastal cities from play,

to conquer them, to deny
Darius's fleet safe harbor.

By laying siege to Darius' ports,

Alexander ensures the Persian
Navy will be stranded at sea.

Because they can't restock and resupply,

they can't threaten Greece any further.

Alexander can now push onward.

He is reaching away

from the fringes of the Persian Empire

into the heart of a world
that's unfamiliar to him.

There's very little resistance

and indeed, many people
hail him as a liberator.

♪

In April, 333 BC,

Alexander reaches the city of Gordion,

where the temple of Zeus is
the site of an ancient prophecy.

♪

In Gordion, there is an ox cart.

According to legend,
Zeus had given King Gordias,

the father of King Midas himself,

this ox cart as a gift.

The cart is tethered with a complex knot

that only a future king can untie.

♪

Whoever unties this knot
becomes king of all Asia.

"I have to do this."

This is catnip to Alexander.

If Alexander fails
to untie the Gordian knot,

he risks his reputation,

he risks the story
that he has told his men,

that the gods are on their side.

He looks at it carefully,

but it's so intricate that he sees

there is no way
that he can simply untie it.

So, Alexander changes his approach.

"It doesn't matter how I undo it
as long as I undo it."

There.

The knot is undone.

Today, we talk about
cutting the Gordian knot,

the seemingly impossible task

that is solved in a way
that nobody had thought of.

It took somebody with Alexander's ability

to see alternative solutions,
to think outside the box,

in order to solve it
in the way that he did.

Tell the troops we march south.

But not only that, this is the idea

that the universe itself
is on Alexander's side.

He cannot help but be victorious.

Gordion is a huge
turning point for Alexander.

After this, he's all in.

He's going to stay and challenge Darius.

♪

Darius realizes he has no other option

than confronting Alexander on land.

He knows now that the only way

he's going to beat Alexander

in the western part of his kingdom

is to face him in a great battle.

Over the next six months,

Darius assembles fighting men

from across the Persian Empire

to form an army double
the size of Alexander's.

♪

Darius' solution to Alexander

is to simply overwhelm him with numbers.

So, Darius leads his grand army into Syria

as Alexander comes south along the coast.

And almost by chance,

Darius ends up behind Alexander's army.

In November, 333 BC,

Alexander considers his options.

How many?

Many more than us.

We don't fight him yet.
We take more cities,

send for more men, boost our numbers,

then we fight them on our terms.

No.

He has made a mistake
chasing us into this valley.

We fight him here. Now.

The problem that Darius faces

is that he is forced
into a narrow coastal plain

and he is facing Alexander in a place

where he is not able to use
all of his soldiers at once

to surround and overwhelm Alexander.

We have yet to be defeated.

They will run whilst we stand united.

For Greece! For Greece!

If he wins, he will have proven

the prophecy of the Gordian knot correct.

He will become the master of Asia.

Eat and sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow, we march at dawn.

By dawn, the Persians
should have been advancing.

Instead, for the most part,
they are standing still.

Darius' favorite position

is to wait for an enemy to come to him.

I think that is a mistake.

You give up a lot of flexibility.

You basically have a plan A and no plan B.

In warfare, timing is everything.

Alexander has the initiative.

"I can take all the time in
the world I need to set this up

"and I will do it on my good time."

♪

It must have been incredibly unnerving

for the Persians
sitting and watching this.

To have this foreign enemy coming along

so eerily quiet in the way they do it

and so organized...

moving as groups, not individuals.

It's not only tactical genius,

it's also psychological warfare.

When he was about 200 yards
away from the Persians,

just out of range of their arrows,

he does something really quite unexpected.

He has all of his army stop and wait.

The Persians on the other side

simply left to await
the inevitable attack.

That pressure built up
over that long, slow march...

Alexander lets it sink in.

♪

Because Darius simply waits there

with his superior army,

Alexander concludes
that Darius is afraid of him,

that he is a beaten man.

Discovered in the ashes of Pompeii,

the nine-foot wide Alexander mosaic

is the closest thing we have
to an eyewitness account

of the battle's climax.

The Alexander mosaic shows

a very particular moment
in the Battle of Issus,

which is when Alexander,
leading from the front,

charges straight at Darius.

So, there's that moment,

there must have been that moment...

where their eyes connect.

This is no longer an ethereal idea of,

"Alexander wants me dead,"

this is reality, "He's coming for me."

Darius has gone from,
"I need to defend my empire"

to, "I need to save my own life."

The great king turns and runs,
and once he turns,

the rest of the army quickly follows him.

Alexander pursues Darius roughly
25 miles after the battle

with Darius throwing off insignia,

throwing off signs of
his royal status as he goes,

looking to disappear into the countryside,

become simply another soldier
running from the battlefield.

He's defeated.

-The empire is yours.
-No.

Not while he's still alive.

And now that he's seen what we can do,

he'll be better prepared next time.

More dangerous.

♪

By the end of 333 BC...

Alexander's army has traveled
1,000 miles from home.

Victory at Issus means he now controls

the entire western part
of the Persian Empire.

Hiding in the servant's quarters.

When Alexander captures
the camp of Darius,

he finds there the wife
and the daughter of Darius.

Having been told that Alexander,
as a foreign barbarian king,

will have them executed,

and now they find themselves
completely at his mercy.

You need not mourn for your husband.

He's alive and free.

You're coming with us.

You have my word as guests, not slaves.

Make sure they understand.

You want us to treat them as equals?

Yes, Ptolemy.

Alexander's officers,
particularly the old guard,

would feel betrayed by this.

They're there for vengeance.

But he makes a very deliberate decision

to treat them well,

and he does this in order
to show the Persian world

that he will treat them well
if they will only yield to him.

It's part of his innate compassion.

It's also a part of his leadership,

because Alexander
is now a political leader

as well as a military figure.

And he's got to rule politically.

News of Alexander's victory

at Issus spreads rapidly.

Soon after the Battle of Issus,

Alexander works his way
down the Mediterranean coast

in order to capture the cities
under Persian control.

Nearly all of the coastal cities in Persia

surrender without a fight.

However,

when Alexander reaches Tyre,

his progress is halted.

♪

Founded over 2,000 years earlier,

Tyre is one of the oldest
fortified island cities

in the world.

It was immensely powerful, immensely rich.

It was also the most important naval base

for the Persians in the Mediterranean.

And if he didn't take it,
it could become a source

of counter offensives
against his invasion.

Very often, Alexander would send envoys

to fortresses and cities

that would carry his message that,

"You will be allowed to live

"if you pay allegiance to Alexander."

So, when Alexander comes to Tyre,

he does the usual thing
and sends envoys in

to some of the Tyrians to surrender.

Help, help! Help!

The Tryians murder them,

violating all the rules

of civilized behavior by any state.

This is an absolute outrage.

Alexander has learned from his father

the value of diplomacy.

At least start there,

but if that doesn't work,
use shock and awe.

So, for Alexander, this now becomes,

you might say, almost a religious duty

to avenge the killing
of these ambassadors.

♪

The city of Tyre is very well protected.

It is at least half a mile off shore.

There is no way to reach it

and Alexander has no real navy
and no way to attack it.

And so, the citizens there
believed they were safe.

Scouting the area,

Alexander discovers a natural sand bridge

that connects Tyre to the mainland.

It's around six feet under water.

It's not enough for him
to get his army across,

but he could build
a causeway on top of it.

We can use the stones
from the old city ruins.

This forest has plenty of timber.

Here the sea is shallowest.

-So--
-A bridge?

It will take months to build.

Water will not hand us our first defeat.

Alexander, it won't be easy.

The gods have assured us of victory.

Leave me.

What he does at Tyre shows

a strategic ability
to see the big picture.

So, no matter how much effort

that this was going
to take to capture Tyre,

in the long run, this was
going to make it possible

to deliver the death stroke
to the Persian Empire.

They bring in rocks,

they bring in rubble
to form a solid surface

stretching from the mainland
to the island of Tyre.

There are attempts to kill the workers,

to kill the engineers,

but Alexander remains determined.

And even when sections of
the land bridge are destroyed,

Alexander's forces simply keep building.

♪

After seven grueling months,

Alexander and his troops finally reached

the city walls of Tyre,

and this time, he sends no messengers.

He is going to destroy this city.

Alexander slaughters

the civilian population for defying him

and he does so in a humiliating fashion.

Alexander wants to send a message

to the entire world at the city of Tyre.

30,000 women sold into slavery.

8,000 men killed.

2,000 executed.

Modern historians
sometimes call this a genocide.

Alexander wants his new subjects
to understand...

defiance will not be tolerated.

When Darius hears about the fall of Tyre,

he decides to cut a deal with Alexander.

-A message from Darius.
-What?

He will give up all claims
to land west of the Euphrates.

This is about half of the Persian Empire.

In addition, Darius will offer gold

roughly equivalent to about
$10 billion in modern currency.

What's it say?

It is good news, my friends.

Tell the messenger I do not accept.

What?

Alexander...

...he's offering us
more than we ever wanted.

-Yeah.
-What's left to fight for?

Everything, Parmenion.

Parmenion gets to speak

sort of as the conventional wisdom.

And we are starting to see

as Alexander is more and more successful,

he wants to do it his way.

And so, you do start to see

a little bit of tension growing here

with this old guard that
he had inherited from Philip,

headed, more or less, by Parmenion.

Alexander is compelling because

of the scope and scale
at which he operates

at a time when nobody operates
at that scope and scale.

♪

And so, nothing is left for him

except for the jewel in
the crown of the Persian Empire.

That is the vassal state of Egypt

and that's where he sets his sights next.

♪♪

By the time Alexander had reached Egypt

in November of 332,

he had been on the road,
campaigning in Asia

for about two and a half years.

He had covered 1,800 miles.

Egypt is one of
the most developed territories

in the Mediterranean.

And so, Egypt is absolutely a vital prize

for Alexander to capture
as part of his conflict.

♪

It's been over 3,000 years

since the great pharaohs
built the pyramids.

And since then, Egypt's seen

30 dynasties of pharaohs coming through.

But in the more recent history,
Egypt's power has waned

and it's been controlled by the Persians

since the sixth century.

The Egyptians had never
accepted Persian rule.

Just about every single
generation had tried to rebel,

tried to throw the Persians out.

So, with Alexander having defeated

the Persian king himself at Issus,

he is already a celebrity
upon arriving in Egypt.

Our envoy returns.

Still alive? Good sign.

What do they say?

They will welcome you.

And?

They want to crown you pharaoh.

A god on earth.

♪

In January, 331 BC,

Alexander becomes pharaoh of Egypt.

It's the fulfillment of a supposed destiny

as a divine being.

♪

Now, a pharaoh is a king, of course,

but the pharaoh is actually
equated with the god, Osiris.

Alexander is in effect
being acclaimed as a god.

So, all of this seems
to be playing together,

the stories that his mother has told him,

that he has this divine background,

this divine ancestry.

And, of course, he believed, increasingly,

his own propaganda, his own myth
that presented him as divine

and as unstoppable, as invincible.

And once you believe that about yourself,

there are no boundaries.

Before resuming
his campaign against Darius,

Alexander demonstrates his power

by building a new capital city for Egypt.

Alexander decides that he wants to build

a permanent Greek colony
on the Egyptian coast.

He's going to name
this city after himself:

Alexandria.

Alexandria will someday become
a center for science

and learning, the trade capital

of the entirety of the Mediterranean Sea.

A place where all sorts of

different people can come together.

Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, everybody.

It will be home to two

of the seven wonders of the world...

the Lighthouse at Pharos...

and the Library of Alexandria.

Alexander only stays
in Egypt for a few months,

but his effect will be felt
over the next few centuries

as Egypt becomes
a true cosmopolitan nation

because of its introduction

to the greater empire
that Alexander will found.

It's now the summer of the year 331 BC

and Alexander is heading east,
deeper and deeper into Persia.

In just over three years,

he has conquered an area

over 10 times the size of Greece,

and his army will soon have
15,000 new soldiers.

He's heading for the city of Babylon,

this ancient wealthy city

which has existed for thousands of years.

Babylon is the perfect place
for Alexander,

who has already
declared himself king of Persia,

to establish his rule.

Alexander's route takes him

by the town of Gaugamela,

in modern-day Iraq.

Here, his scouts spot the Persian army

is blocking the path forward.

The enemy has returned,
this time better prepared.

I have never seen so many men in my life.

Darius has assembled a large army.

The ancient sources give us

wildly large numbers of a million.

It probably is somewhere in the order

of 200 to 250,000.

It's at least five times larger
than Alexander's army.

Darius chooses the place of Gaugamela

very carefully.

It is utterly flat and stretches
for miles in every direction

so he can line up all of his men,

he can line them up deep,

and he can strike against Alexander

without worrying about
being constricted on the sides.

Darius is determined to use
his numbers to an advantage.

Alexander's cavalry
is his strongest asset,

but his 7,000 horsemen are outnumbered,

possibly two, maybe even five to one.

These are unthinkable odds,

so Alexander is going to have to come up

with a really good strategy.

He has fought the Persians
on multiple occasions.

He has observed
their cavalry and infantry.

He has seen their strengths
and their weaknesses.

These are all patterns that are now

part of his decision-making matrix.

He has vast patterns that he can draw upon

to decide how to best employ his army.

Alexander believed
that the center of gravity

at Gaugamela was Darius himself,

and he felt that if he could kill,

or capture Darius,
that the army would fragment.

There's simply no other way to do it.

And so, he has to find a way
through the lines

to the great king.

Just in time.

Come, take a look.

You will hold the left flank--

Alexander, a request.

For the sake of the men,

think what you are asking of them.

The same as I always ask.

Everything.

The same as I ask of myself.

Yes, but we have never faced
numbers like this before.

At least at night, we might surprise them.

I will not steal victory like that.

Come take a look at the plan.

You will hold the left flank and the line

The phalanx is strong...

And so, everything
was staked on this battle.

If Alexander wins,
the Persian capitals are his,

and with it, the legitimacy
to claim the Persian throne.

If Persia wins, it is likely

Alexander and his army
will be annihilated.

♪

In the final moments before the battle,

Alexander gives one of the most inspiring

speeches of all time.

I won't lie to you.

They are strong and they are many,

and we fight on the ground
of their choosing.

But I would not lead us to battle

if the gods were not with us!

Today, we not only defeat an enemy,

but we conquer an empire!

For Greece!

For glory!

The Macedonian king,
young Alexander, is launching

a battle that's gonna decide
not only their lives,

their reigns, their destinies,
their dynasties,

but also the greatest empire in the world.

That's the promise.

♪♪

In October, 331 BC...

though vastly outnumbered,

Alexander enacts his battle plan.

Now!

♪

At the start of the battle,

Alexander does something
that Darius and the Persians

did not expect at all.

He himself leads his cavalry

and he begins to lead them
to the right of his own lines.

He is trying to create
a window of opportunity.

By riding to the right,
I force them to maneuver.

They have to make decisions,
they have to start to move.

Alexander predicts the Persian cavalry

will take up the chase and follow him,

stretching their own
defensive line too thin.

And if the line breaks,
it will leave Darius exposed.

Alexander keeps going much
farther than anyone would expect

in order that the Persians
would follow him.

The success of Alexander's daring strategy

depends upon the actions
of his most trusted general.

Parmenion is the commander
on Alexander's left.

His job is to hold.

We need Parmenion
to hold his own on the left.

Alexander's movement to the right

means that Parmenion on the left flank

is left entirely on his own.

Hold the line!

He has no support.

He has no reserves.
He is entirely isolated.

If he doesn't hold, the plan doesn't work.

Darius sees an opportunity

to further weaken Parmenion.

Darius unleashes his terror.

Side chariots.

Chariots with long spiked blades
coming out of the wheels

designed to chop up

the Macedonian soldiers
that might get in his way.

They're a powerful shock weapon

and Darius has not just a couple--

he's got 200 of them.

The phalanx has seen this trick before.

As the chariots thunder in,

the phalanx parts

and the chariots roar through the gap.

At the same time, Alexander weighs up

his enemy's positions.

As he draws them out, he's watching,

he's waiting for the moment.

♪

It's a 30-second opening
and, like a snake,

he pivots that cavalry and he's gone.

Alexander's plan is
to now outrun the Persian ranks

to cut them off entirely...

and beat them back to the Persian king.

For glory!

Once that cavalry is on the charge,

Darius realizes, "I am in trouble."

Darius' options are to fight or flee.

He makes a last ditch attempt

to wipe out the outnumbered Greek army.

Darius launches
some of his best cavalry forces

against Parmenion, and that left wing

is in the fight of its life.

These Greeks are far from home.

They know there's no surrender,

this is victory or death,
and that's the way they fight.

Hold the line! Hold the line!

As Alexander gets closer,
he can see the king.

He can end this war in just a moment.

Alexander, Parmenion's line.
It's been broken. He needs help!

In the midst of his decisive attack,

Alexander gets bad news.

Alexander..

If we don't stop now,
we'll lose the entire army.

Parmenion says, "Don't leave me, boss.

"These cavalry have surrounded me.

"You gotta come save us."

If Alexander chases after Darius,

which is what he wants to do,
he might lose half of his men.

But if he goes back to Parmenion,

then Darius will get away.

And Alexander makes a critical decision

to save his army rather
than kill and capture the king.

The Persian king, having fled the battle,

many in his army flee as well.

After defeating the Persians,

Alexander achieves his mission,
but it's not enough.

I had him. By the Gods, I--

I had him in my sight and I let him go.

We routed his army.

The empire is yours--

So long as Darius draws breath,

he will rally men against me.

We have won nothing.

His army has nothing left.

What will ever be enough?

Alexander has all of Persia
within his grasp,

but not the one thing
that he wants most of all:

Darius.

♪

Alexander's victory at Gaugamela

puts Darius on the run.

Gaugamela wins the war for Alexander.

This completes the conquest of Persia.

But Alexander will not
give up the pursuit of Darius.

He pushes on into the heartland
of the empire.

He overruns the famous cities,

Babylon, Susa, Persepolis,
and he keeps on going.

But there's a changed mood in the army

because everyone can sense
that they've won.

So, they're starting to think,

"Well, why are we still fighting?

"Why are we still chasing?

"Can't we enjoy the glory,

"but also the rest, but also the spoils?"

By June, 330 BC...

after five years away,

there's dissent in Alexander's camp.

Cleitus, his foster brother,

and another childhood friend, Ptolemy,

do not like the change
that they see in Alexander.

Once he conquers Persia,

they feel Persia has conquered him.

Alexander learns of a possible conspiracy

brewing in the ranks.

Talk of assassination.

My king. I must warn you.
There is talk among the troops.

Go on.

They complain that--

They complain? Of what?

The details are quite murky,

but what we do know
is that there was a connection

between talk of conspiracy

and Philotas, Parmenion's son.

Get me more wine.

Alexander takes the rumors

as a chance
to move against Parmenion's son,

to have him tried before the entire army,

and to have him executed for treason.

It's not clear whether Parmenion ever had

any part of this plot,
or knew about it at all,

but what is clear is that after Alexander

has his son put to death,

any chance of the two of them

being friends and allies after that

is pretty much gone forever.

Alexander acts to prevent retaliation

from a grieving Parmenion.

He sends him on a scouting mission.

Send a message when you arrive.

Let me know what you've learned.

♪

Travel safe.

You as well, Alexander.

You as well.

After fighting in battle
after battle with Philip first

and then with Alexander...

Parmenion's fate is to be stabbed to death

by one of Alexander's soldiers
on Alexander's orders.

Onward.

This is a very sad ending for Parmenion.

Parmenion had been a very loyal retainer.

He had been a very effective general.

We understand, on the other hand,

Alexander's point of view.

Once he had killed his son,

he really didn't have much of a choice

except to kill the father.

♪

In the aftermath
of the Battle of Gaugamela,

Alexander becomes
more lonely, more isolated,

more paranoid, ever more obsessed

with challenges to his power,
to his crown.

Alexander is trying to build himself up

into what he thinks he needs to be

to rule over this vast empire,

but he is increasingly finding
that he is losing his friends,

that he is losing what it is

that made him great in the first place.

It is getting more and more tense,

more and more difficult.

And Alexander's solution
is to keep campaigning.

Alexander doubles
down on his singular obsession:

capturing Darius.

Alexander learns
that Darius has been sighted

in Northern Iran.

Heading into the regions

of Bactria and Sogdiana
in modern-day Afghanistan.

So, to catch up with him,

Alexander drives his men 450 miles

over a three-week march,

including a brutal 200-mile stretch

in just 11 days.

Alexander doesn't rest.

He keeps pushing his men
farther and farther

beyond their physical limits.

Again and again, he demands more from them

than could reasonably be expected.

And again and again, they deliver.

♪

-We found something.
-What?

Come and see for yourself.

Come on.

Alexander and his men
have traveled 5,000 miles

and haven't set foot in Greece
for four years

when they finally find Darius.

-Where are they?
-Fled.

And Darius?

Pursued by Alexander's troops
with no respite,

Darius' nobles make the terrible decision

to essentially betray him.

They stab Darius and leave him bleeding

by the side of the road.

For Alexander, the death
of Darius means he's won.

He has avenged
the Persian invasions of Greece.

His whole reason
for having begun this invasion

in the first place has been achieved.

You are now truly the Lord of Persia.

-The king of kings.
-He'll have a king's burial.

Take him back to rest
alongside his ancestors.

Leave him where he fell, surely--

We shall do as he said.

Alexander was very sad at Darius' fate.

He was outraged, in fact.

Alexander, by all accounts, treats Darius

as his legitimate predecessor

and indeed tries to defend his memory

by chasing and killing
the assassins of Darius.

The Macedonian soldiers
begin to discuss going home,

returning to their families,
and what it is

they're going to do once they get back.

To the Lord of Asia.

To the fallen.

Look here.

We need to go north and east.

That is where Darius' men are hiding.

The men are celebrating,
Alexander, let's join them.

Ask Cleitus when
the men will be ready to travel.

Ask Cleitus when the men
will be ready to travel!

Alexander's goal all along

was to conquer Persia,

to bring Greek culture into Persia.

He does that.

Stop?

He can't stop.

This has now become almost a primal urge,

to go as far as he can go.

Alexander is both a conqueror
and an explorer.

For him, there never is an end.

There's always another land to conquer,

another feat of glory to achieve.

♪

In March, 327 BC,

three years after the death
of his old enemy, Darius,

Alexander and his men
are still on the move.

His army cuts through
Afghanistan, Pakistan,

Uzbekistan, the Western Himalayas,

and even a part of the Hindu Kush.

I mean, this is undiscovered
territory for a Greek.

These areas rebel very quickly.

They've been difficult
for the Persians to control

because the people
there are fiercely independent.

So, Alexander fights some
of the most vicious campaigns

without the dramatic battles,
without the Gaugamelas,

without the Issus
or Granicus in these years.

He realizes he's got to manage,

not just lead in war.

He's not an instrument of chaos.

He's a foreign element

injected into an existing civilization,

and he takes from that civilization

and learns from it and gives to it.

Through his travel, Alexander retains

his relationship with his former tutor

and great philosopher, Aristotle.

Alexander writes regularly to Aristotle,

sends him samples of plants

and animals, clothing and artifacts.

And it is likely
that many of these subjects

and insights made it into what we now know

as the founding moment of biology,

the idea of classifying
nature systematically

and thinking about it scientifically.

There's this word that
got attached to him, pothos.

It's like a longing to see something new.

He was fascinated

by other cultures, other peoples.

That range there.

How long do you think
it would take to cross?

Alexander, what are we still doing here?

There's nothing left except rocks.

You are a Macedonian king,

and a Macedonian king
must return to Greece.

We have come further
than any Macedonians before us.

Look at these people.

These people need us.

Now deep within the mountainous
region of modern-day Uzbekistan,

Alexander has taken a mighty fortress

known as Sogdian Rock.

Alexander welcomes those

who surrendered to him without a fight.

What's your name?

Well, that's very impressive.

What's your name?

Because out of all of you here,

you're the only one
who's not afraid of me.

I'm Alexander.

Roxanne is a woman of unparalleled beauty,

but she's also potentially the source

of what Alexander needs
more than anything, an heir.

And he thinks that having
an heir with Persian blood

will really solidify the connections

between the two kingdoms.

Alexander's decision to marry Roxanne

was not out of some romantic urging.

It's pure policy.

His advisors, particularly some

of the older guard, are like,

"No, what do you think you're doing?"

But Alexander understands he's doing

what Philip, his father,
had done before him seven times.

Marry your way to peace.

But that decision reveals

that he didn't necessarily understand

the strength of feeling

that men in his inner circle had

in terms of their own
ethnic values and beliefs.

In particular, Cleitus,
who gets very upset.

♪♪

His relationship with his general

goes from one of the first amongst equals,

essentially a group of men
deciding the future together,

to a more tyrannical model of rule,

where Alexander
is ever more the great king.

♪

By this point in time,

Alexander is drinking a huge amount.

The Macedonians already have
an established drinking culture,

but Alexander's so-called
insatiable fondness for wine

really seems to go to a different level.

And his patience begins to thin.

His allowance of people
questioning his authority

begins to get a little bit tight.

♪

We don't exactly know
what happened at this feast

and it's not really surprising,

given the general level of intoxication.

What we do know is that Cleitus,

always hot tempered, was stirred up,

probably because of all of the Persians

that were at this feast.

I must ask you, Alexander...

are you a Greek or a Persian?

Are you a man...

or a god?

Why don't you find out, Cleitus?

You're not a god.

You're not even
half the man your father was.

♪

You dare to strike me?
Your dare to fight me?

-Come on.
-Leave it!

You are nothing.

-Cleitus, leave!
-You are no king!

You are--

♪

Killing Cleitus is all the more tragic

because Cleitus hasn't just been loyal,

Cleitus has been fighting
literally side by side

with Alexander and has
saved his life several times,

including at the Battle of the Granicus.

He's broken the sacred bonds of trust

that built the army together.

Still-- still, he's Alexander.

He's unvanquished. He's the leader.

You can't abandon him,
but he's not the same person.

He's wearing these Persian robes,

he's not our man anymore.

Who is he?

♪

By the fall of 327 BC,

Alexander has traveled
more than 6,000 miles.

You are no king!

His campaign is taking its toll.

You're not even
half the man your father was.

After Alexander kills Cleitus,

there is a change in his behavior.

There's a depression,
I guess you could say,

that just doesn't leave
Alexander at this point.

How are the men?

In mourning.

They want to go home.

And you?

Wherever Alexander is, that's my home.

Alexander seems to start
changing, psychologically.

He hides from everyone for days on end.

And at this point, seems to suffer

ever more the tragedy
of his distance from Greece,

the original world
that is slipping from his hands.

Still, Alexander's desire for conquest

drives him on.

Alexander heads South,

following the Hindu Kush mountain range,

going through the Khyber Pass,

and ultimately into the Indus River valley

in modern-day Pakistan.

Upon entering India,

Alexander has officially
gone off the Greek map,

but Alexander believes
that there is an end point,

there is a point where the world stops.

Alexander finds that what lies next

is not the end of the world
at all, but is, in fact,

the Nanda Empire, an empire that has

a massive standing army of 200,000 strong,

4,000 war elephants, 6,000 chariots,

40,000 cavalry, all of which
are highly trained

and mobilized and ready
for Alexander's forces.

He learns that the world is so much bigger

than he ever thought it was
and it makes him determined

to keep pressing on
in order to conquer the world.

In 326 BC,

Alexander has marched
his army 11,000 miles,

nearly half the circumference of Earth.

By the time they arrive
at the Hyphasis River in India,

the morale of Alexander's men
is borderline mutinous.

They don't know when they're going to stop

and they're essentially
waiting for geography

to stop Alexander.

If the world does not end,

then they might be fighting forever.

My king...

we cannot continue.

This is the line in the sand for his men.

He cannot push them any further.

Alexander's troops demand
to turn around and go home.

He tries to get a handle on the situation,

but this is too big for him.

His charisma that had driven his army

for 10 years across all of the known world

had essentially run out at this point.

Stand!

Take it.

Take it!

Coward.

He hasn't been defeated in India,

he's been defeated
only by his own soldiers

that insist that he turns around.

Alexander relents,

and in August, 326 BC,
begins to lead his army home.

But he does not intend to take
his men back the way he came.

He seeks a new route.

Alexander discovers that the Indus River

connects with the Persian Gulf.

It holds the possibility
of a quicker route to Persia.

He splits his army into separate units.

One that would return by sea,

and the other half, led by himself,

that would cross the Makran Desert.

♪

The route that Alexander takes

is one of the most
inhospitable places on Earth.

It was a horrific desert with no features,

unmapped and unknown
at the time, with no cities,

oases, or stopping points.

But because he suffers all the dangers

and deprivations from his troops,

he marches when they march,
he's hungry when they're hungry,

he's thirsty when they're thirsty,

he makes them feel like
they are part of things

bigger than themselves.

This is all there is, my king.

A brave warrior...

has handed me a helmet...

half filled with water.

All that he could find.

But the king drinks...

when his men drink.

If his men don't drink...

no one drinks.

This one simple gesture inspires the men.

Whatever thoughts
they had about Alexander,

whatever doubts, disappear
in this moment of sacrifice.

♪

It takes Alexander's armies

the best part of six months

to travel back to Persia's heartlands.

They arrive in the city of Susa

in the spring of 324 BC.

It becomes clear that Alexander
has no intention

of ever returning to Macedon,

that he will be sending his soldiers home,

he will be sending veterans home,

but Alexander himself will be staying

in the new domains that he has conquered.

He's now spent about 10 years there.

That's nearly a third of his life.

He's adopted Persian customs,
he's adopted Persian dress.

And why not stay in Persia?

It's the center of the world.

For Alexander,
it's time to consolidate power.

If you're going to administrate,
well, you have to stay put

and figure out
how to make this empire work.

He ends up picking somebody
to do that for him,

and that's Hephaestion's role.

Then Alexander arranges the marriages

of his Macedonian generals
to Persian princesses.

Alexander is trying to fuse together

the elites of Macedonia
and the Persian Empire

by creating them into married networks

that would owe loyalty to one another,

that this is not so much
a change of identity

as much as a change
in political commitment.

Alexander is moving from King of Macedon

to King of the World.

Ptolemy...

this one's for you.

The only way to truly rule Persia

is to establish Macedonian blood.

Enjoy it.

Alexander takes
two more wives for himself,

the youngest daughter
of one of the Persian generals,

and also, he marries
the oldest daughter of Darius,

so he's going to become
a polygamist like his father.

Hephaestion...

meet your new wife.

For his best friend
and loyal retainer, Hephaestion,

Alexander arranges a marriage

with the best bride available in Persia,

one of Darius' other daughters.

This makes Hephaestion essentially

Alexander's brother-in-law.

This is for us.

Our children will grow up together...

like we did.

They will share the same blood.

It is possible that Alexander hoped

and planned to grow old
with Hephaestion in Persia,

to raise their children together
as Hellenic Persians,

essentially to establish
himself, Hephaestion,

their families, for the future.

Just seven months later

in the fall of 324 BC,

Alexander's plans are derailed.

♪

He receives devastating news.

The culture of drinking
in Alexander's army

seems to get even stronger.

Lots of parties, lots of celebrations.

And Hephaestion becomes ill

after one of these drinking bouts.

Alexander, hearing that the health

of his closest friend is declining,

makes his way to Hephaestion's side,

but doesn't arrive in time.

Sleep well.

Hephaestion is really
his emotional touchstone.

His bedrock is gone.

The man who he had hoped would help

administrate his empire is gone.

What is he going to do?

♪

When Hephaestion dies,
Alexander loses his mind.

Alexander is so distraught
that he blames the doctors

that failed to save Hephaestion's life

and has them all crucified.

He withdraws in agonizing pain
and mourning and sadness.

In the spring of 323 BC,

Alexander emerges from mourning

with a new vision for his future.

Alexander decides
it's time for another conquest.

This time, he sets his sights on Arabia,

another land
that's associated with opulence,

riches, and exoticism.

Alexander knows what he's good at.

I think he fears that if he stops,

the music will stop.

And so, he sends out some troops

on a kind of exploratory mission.

But he himself will never make that trip.

♪

In 323 BC,

Alexander arrives in the Persian
ceremonial capital of Babylon.

His health declines rapidly.

He is struck with severe stomach problems.

He begins passing blood.

His fevers begin to spike

and he passes in and out of consciousness.

Was it a poisoning, which was very common

in the Macedonian circles?

Was it an illness?

It could be malaria,

it could be typhus,

it could simply be all
of the accumulated injuries

of his long campaign.

What we do know is this is a man
that lived hard.

The mood of his inner circle is desperate.

They're very concerned.

What is going to happen
to Alexander's vast empire?

There must be provisions for the future.

Name a successor.

-Go.
-An heir.

-That's all I ask of you.
-Go.

-Stop.
-I will rule.

I will rule!

Think of Greece.

Think of all we have fought for.

To the strongest, to the best.

He says, "To the strongest, to the best."

In June of 323 BC...

Alexander dies.

He is just 32,

and his refusal to acknowledge
any of his companions

as a worthy successor is a disaster,

seeding the collapse of his entire empire.

Alexander dies too soon, too young.

He leaves an empire that's conquered

and just about established,

but hasn't yet settled
into a system of government,

so everything is to play for.

His wife, Roxanne, is pregnant,

and the child in the womb
is proclaimed king

if it turns out to be a boy,
as, in fact, it does.

But this young child, of course,

is in no position to rule the kingdom.

By the time of Alexander's death,

his empire stretches from Greece

to modern-day Pakistan
and down into Egypt.

It's around two million square miles

in terms of territory, which is bigger

than the Roman Empire will ever become.

As for the rest of the empire,

various generals begin a war for supremacy

and control over the entire thing.

Alexander's vast empire

breaks up into several different kingdoms,

never to be united again.

Ptolemy takes the biggest gamble.

He claims Egypt,

the jewel in the crown
of the Persian Empire.

Ptolemy is actually able to carve out

a stable and successful kingdom in Egypt.

More than 200 years later,
his direct descendant,

Cleopatra, comes to the throne.

Histories look back
on Alexander traditionally

as a romantic figure
of immense glamor and success.

In battle, he proved capable

of original and bold tactics,

incredible personal courage,
quick decision-making,

and limitless ambition.

And, of course, success breeds success.

We are Greeks!

Alexander's story shapes
the centuries that follow

because he becomes a model

for every ruler, every potential general,

every want-to-be-king
for centuries thereafter.

There are few, if any,
human beings in history...

that have as great
an impact as Alexander does.