Episode 42 Alexander the Great
The History of Ancient Egypt
Professor Robert Brier
Film Review
When his father Phillip II of Macedonia was assassinated in 336 BC, his 20-year-old son Alexander assumed control of the Macedonian military. Following his defeat of the Persian empire, he entered Egypt a a liberator. Because the Greeks had long revered Egypt, Alexander set out to install himself as pharaoh (ie a god). When he asked the oracle at the temple of Amun at Siwa Oasis* who his father was, the oracle replied “ra.”
He was crowned with the double crown (representing northern and southern Egypt – see Egypt: The First Nation in History) in Memphis and built a temple in Thebes, where he inscribed his name in a cartouche. This would be the start of 300 years of Greek rule in Egypt.
One of his first acts as pharaoh was to hire a Greek architect named Denocrates to build a port city in the delta region to be called Alexandria.
Alexander then left Egypt to lead his 50,000 strong army east to conquer the rest of the Persian empire. His campaign of conquests spanned across Greece, Anatolia, Syria, Phoenician, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan and India as far east as the city of Taxla in modern-day Pakistan. At that point, his generals resisted extending his conquests, and the Macedonian army slowly retreated as far west as Babylon, where Alexander took ill (apparently poisoned – see Was the Death of Alexander the Great Due to Poisoning?). His body laid in state in Babylon for a year, awaiting the gold needed to build a catafalque to carry him back to Macedonia.
His generals divided up his conquered countries among them with Egypt falling to General Ptolemy. Ptolemy rode out to Syria to intercept the body and take it to Alexandria (instead of Macedonia) for burial. Later members of the Ptolemy dynasty dug it up to met down the gold coffin and replace it with a crystal coffin.
*Located in western Egypt near the Libyan border.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492883
The Most Revolutionary Act 