Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great (l.

21 July 356 BCE –

10 or 11 June 323 BCE, r. 336-323 BCE),
was the son of King Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BCE) who became king upon his
father's death in 336 BCE and then conquered most
of the known world of his day.

He is known as 'the great' both for his military genius and his diplomatic skills
in handling the various populaces of the regions he
conquered. He is further recognized for spreading Greek culture, language, and
thought from Greece throughout Asia Minor, Egypt,
and Mesopotamia to India and thus initiating the era of the Hellenistic Period
(323-31 BCE) during which four of his generals
(his successors, known as the Diadochi), in between their wars for supremacy,
continued his policies of integrating Greek (Hellenistic)
culture with that of the Near East. He died of unknown causes in 323 BCE without
clearly naming a successor (or, according to some accounts,
his choice of the commander Perdiccas was ignored) and the empire he built was
divided among the Diadochi