Alexander the Great

Alexander III of Macedon was the son of King Philip II and was taught as a teenager by the philosopher Aristotle. He became king at twenty after his father was murdered in 336 BC. Two years later he crossed into Asia with an army of Macedonians and Greeks to attack the Persian Empire. He won great battles at the Granicus River, at Issus, and at Gaugamela, took Egypt, where he founded the city of Alexandria, and captured the Persian capitals. He then marched east through what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan, reaching India, where his tired soldiers finally refused to go farther. In about eleven years he never lost a major battle. Alexander could be generous and brave, but also violent; in anger he killed his friend Cleitus and destroyed cities that resisted him. He died in Babylon in 323 BC, aged thirty-two, probably of a fever. His generals divided his empire, and the Greek-speaking kingdoms they founded spread Greek language and learning across the Near East.

Faith: Practiced the traditional Greek religion of Macedon and honored the gods of lands he conquered, such as Egypt's Amun. Source: Wikipedia

See also: Plutarch's Life of Alexander