Alexander’s Campaigns

336 BCE O.S. – 323 BCE O.S.62 items

ancient worldempires
Alexander on Bucephalus, detail of the Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii, c. 100 BCE, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Alexander on Bucephalus, detail of the Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii, c. 100 BCE, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Pella to the Indus and back, 336–323 BCE

In twelve years a king of Macedon marched from the Aegean to the Punjab and back to Babylon, beat the Persian Empire in three pitched battles, took it whole, and died at thirty-two with no plan for who came next. This timeline draws that march as a line on the map, more than 30,000 kilometres of it by the usual estimates.

How it is built

  • Thirteen legs, each a period drawn as a route: the Balkans, the Hellespont, Asia Minor, the Levant, Egypt, Persia, the hunt for Darius, Central Asia, India, the Indus, Gedrosia, Nearchus’s voyage and the road back to Babylon.

  • Battles, sieges and new cities as points, nested inside the leg they belong to. Where a battlefield is argued over, the circle is drawn wide enough to cover the candidates.

  • Darius III’s reign as a band of its own, so the Persian side ends where it ended.

Filter by campaigns for the routes alone, war for the battles and sieges, cities for the Alexandrias, persia for the empire he took, religion for oracles and omens, and court for the murders and mutinies inside his own camp.

Dates

Every date is in the Julian calendar, BCE. The Greek historians count by Athenian archon years, which ran from midsummer to midsummer, so most events here are a month or a season wide. Two are pinned to the day by Babylonian astronomers, who logged the news beside the sky each night: the battle of Gaugamela and the king’s death. From the diary for 331 BCE:

“On the 24th, in the morning, the king of the world erected his standard and attacked.”

Translation from Livius.org. Ancient army sizes are given as the sources state them, beside the modern ranges; the ancient figures are inflated, sometimes tenfold.

Items

  1. Darius III, King of Kings

    ≈ 6 years

  2. Philip II murdered at Aegae

    Theatre of Aegae (Vergina)

  3. Leader of the Greeks at Corinth

    Corinth

  4. The Balkans and Thebes

    7 months, 4 days · The Balkan campaign and the march on Thebes

  5. Across the Danube in one night

    Lower Danube, Getic bank (crossing site unknown)

  6. Thebes razed

    The Cadmea, Thebes

  7. Pella to the Hellespont

    1 month, 12 hours · Pella to the Hellespont

  8. Across Asia Minor

    ≈ 1 year, 6 months · Across Asia Minor to Issus

  9. Into Asia, by way of Troy

    Troy (Ilion), Hisarlık

  10. Battle of the Granicus

    The Granicus (Biga Çayı), near Biga

  11. Miletus, and the fleet sent home

    Miletus

  12. Siege of Halicarnassus

    Halicarnassus (Bodrum)

  13. The Gordian knot

    Gordion (Yassıhöyük)

  14. Fever at Tarsus

    Tarsus, on the Cydnus

  15. Down the Levant coast

    ≈ 1 year · Down the Levant coast

  16. Battle of Issus

    The Pinarus, between Payas and Dörtyol

  17. Darius offers terms

    Marathus (Amrit)

  18. Siege of Tyre

    ≈ 6 months · Tyre, then an island

  19. Siege of Gaza

    Gaza

  20. Egypt and the road to Siwa

    ≈ 5 months · Egypt and the road to Siwa

  21. Welcomed at Memphis

    Memphis (Mit Rahina)

  22. The oracle of Ammon at Siwa

    Temple of the Oracle, Aghurmi, Siwa

  23. Alexandria founded

    Alexandria

  24. The conquest of Persia

    ≈ 1 year, 2 months · The conquest of Persia

  25. The Moon goes dark

  26. Battle of Gaugamela

    Gaugamela, near Tell Gomel

  27. Babylon opens its gates

    Babylon

  28. The treasure of Susa

    Susa

  29. The Persian Gates

    The Persian Gates, Zagros

  30. Persepolis burns

    The terrace of Persepolis

  31. The hunt for Darius and Bessus

    ≈ 9 months, 4 days · The hunt for Darius and Bessus

  32. Darius dies in a wagon

    Near Hecatompylos (Shahr-e Qumis)

  33. Philotas and Parmenion

    Phrada (Farah)

  34. Alexandria in Arachosia

    Old Kandahar (Shahr-i Kohna)

  35. Alexandria in the Caucasus

    Near Bagram, on the Kapisa plain

  36. Bactria and Sogdiana

    2 years, 1 month · Bactria and Sogdiana

  37. Bessus handed over

  38. Alexandria Eschate

    Khujand, on the Syr Darya (Jaxartes)

  39. Cleitus killed at Maracanda

    Afrasiyab (Maracanda), Samarkand

  40. The Sogdian Rock, and Roxane

  41. Proskynesis, and the fall of Callisthenes

    Bactra (Balkh)

  42. Into India

    ≈ 1 year, 3 months · Into India

  43. The rock of Aornos

    Pir-Sar, above the Indus

  44. Taxila and the naked philosophers

    Taxila (Bhir Mound)

  45. Battle of the Hydaspes

    The Hydaspes (Jhelum), between Jhelum and Jalalpur

  46. Bucephala and Nicaea

    The Hydaspes (Jhelum), between Jhelum and Jalalpur

  47. Mutiny at the Hyphasis

    The Hyphasis (Beas)

  48. Down the Indus

    ≈ 9 months, 4 days · Down the Indus

  49. Wounded among the Malli

    A Malli town, perhaps Multan

  50. Libations to the Ocean

    Mouth of the Indus

  51. Through the Gedrosian desert

    ≈ 3 months, 1 day · Through the Gedrosian desert

  52. Nearchus’s voyage

    ≈ 4 months · Nearchus’s voyage

  53. Reunion in Carmania

    Harmozeia, near Minab

  54. Back to Babylon

    ≈ 1 year, 5 months · Back to Babylon

  55. Cyrus’s tomb robbed

    Tomb of Cyrus, Pasargadae

  56. The mass wedding at Susa

    Susa

  57. Mutiny at Opis

    Opis on the Tigris (site unknown)

  58. The Exiles Decree at Olympia

    Olympia

  59. Hephaestion dies

    Ecbatana (Hamadan)

  60. Omens at Babylon

    Babylon

  61. Death in Babylon

    Southern Palace, Babylon

  62. The empire divided at Babylon

    Babylon