Alexander the Great: A Very Short Introduction

“Alexander was the son of Philip of Macedon and, while in earlier periods, Macedonia had been on the edges of the Greek world, during Alexander’s childhood Philip had made it into the most significant power in Greece…Macedonia was, effectively, set up as a kingdom in the late sixth century BC, when the Persians under King Darius I invaded northern Greece…The Macedonian monarchy was modelled, to some extent, on Persian practices or the practices of other monarchies that emulated Persia. That suggests that the huge contrast between Greece on one hand and Persia on the other, which is what Greek historians tended to focus on, and which modern scholars also often assume to be the case, wasn’t there quite so much in reality.” Read more...

The best books on Alexander the Great

Hugh Bowden, Historian