Ancient Empires

I won't lie to you.

They are strong and they are many,

and we fight on the ground of their choosing.

The danger we face is great.

But they are Persian...

and we are Greek!

Alexander the Great is one of the greatest conquerors

in all of the world.

- King Alexander! - Alexander!

- Alexander! - Alexander!

Successful general,

going from victory to victory,

accomplishing seemingly impossible feats.

Alexander never lost.

The sheer scale of Alexander's accomplishments

are impossible to ignore.

He built one of the largest empires in human history,

and he did so in just 13 years.

His craving inside to succeed drives him,

but there is a dark side to Alexander.

You are no king! -

He was ruthless, he was a colonizer,

he was an imperial,

but he was a young man who wanted to prove himself.

What's left to fight for?

Everything.

His desire to be remembered

is one of the things that connects him to us.

Alexander wanted to rule the world,

and the glamor of his success

shines on even in the 21st century.

There was the world before Alexander,

and the world after Alexander.

Alexander completely changed human history.

It's 331 BC...

and two empires are clashing.

Persia and Greece.

I would not lead us to battle.

The Greek army is launching

a full scale invasion of their enemy's lands.

A war between Persia and Greece is a huge mismatch.

Persia assembles an army of more than 200,000 men.

The Greeks were hugely outnumbered.

We're talking about five to one.

These are unthinkable odds.

Even so,

they charge, because leading the Greek army

is their remarkable young king...

Alexander.

To glory!

Alexander wants to invade Persia

because Persia is the last frontier.

The ancient world

was dominated by the Persian Empire,

that stretches from the borders of India,

Pakistan today,

all the way to Egypt in the South

and Greece in the north.

It was a huge, successful,

and seemingly invincible world power.

Defeating Persia

has long been Alexander's consuming ambition.

When Alexander looked at Persia,

what he saw was a cause.

But the deeper he went into it,

the more confirmed he became that this was his mission.

But if Alexander loses here,

the war is lost.

- -

Facing Alexander is his nemesis,

Darius, King of Persia.

- -

If Alexander can capture Darius

or if he can kill Darius,

then it will be a tremendous psychological blow

against the entire Persian Empire.

- -

Hold the line!

Everything was shaped on this battle.

Whoever won the Battle of Gaugamela

would win the Persian Empire.

Alexander's training begins

as a young prince of Macedon,

a minor province on the northern fringes of Ancient Greece.

Macedon is just one of a number of territories,

city-states, regions, that all comprise together

what we think of as ancient Greece.

The main powers in Greece include Athens,

Sparta and Thebes.

These are the centers of political life,

philosophy, and culture.

For the Greek city-states,

Macedon is very much uncultured,

uncivilized, and still is ruled by this,

for them, archaic form of government,

which is the monarchy.

Alexander's father, Philip II,

is the King of Macedon,

and he ascended to the throne

when his brother was killed in battle

against a rival kingdom.

One of the things that makes King Philip stand out

is his familiarity with violence

and his willingness to use it for his own ends.

Move your feet. Put your shoulder into it.

Faster, harder!

Physical prowess

was incredibly important to the Greeks.

It was important that they were educated,

but it was nothing unless they were able to run

and jump and fight.

I don't think you're really trying, boy!

Come on, harder, harder!

From an early age, Alexander's trained physically,

he's given great opportunity,

but it's also clear that his father is the man

and Alexander is not.

Okay, stop.

Alexander has mentors other than his father.

That bag, one hand, go.

Parmenion, his father's most trusted general.

There must be fire in your belly, boy!

Good. Stop, stop, enough.

And Cleitus the Black,

the brother of Alexander's nurse.

We may have to keep an eye out for this one, eh, Parmenion?

Well done, well done.

Well?

How's the boy progressing?

He may survive a skirmish or two.

From the sidelines, Alexander watches

as his father transforms Macedon's fortunes.

The other city-states, particularly Athens,

looked down on Macedon.

The Athenians see Macedon

as an upstart, even as barbarian.

The Macedonians don't see themselves that way.

They see themselves as the future.

Philip's top priority when he takes the throne

is to bring Macedon

out of the barbarian status that it has

and turn it into a world power.

He wants to build up the economy,

build up the infrastructure and the roads,

but most especially,

he wants to build up the army.

Transforming them from simply a gaggle on the battlefield,

who might throw sticks or stones or whatever,

into a fully trained armed force.

Philip's most significant change:

transforming the use of a battle formation called the phalanx.

The phalanx consists of a tight formation

of infantry men.

Heavily armed, standing toe to toe,

shoulder to shoulder, with shields interlocking.

Philip changes the nature of the phalanx

from a defensive formation to an offensive one.

Philip adds the sarisa,

a spear of about 20 feet in length.

And by being about twice as long as the spear of the opposition,

you can hold the enemy at a greater distance.

If every one of your soldiers in the phalanx is strong,

your phalanx is unbeatable.

By 345 BC,

Philip has used his highly trained army

to aggressively capture territory from his neighbors.

Macedonia, at the start of Philip's reign,

is a very small kingdom.

But what Philip does is he expands Macedonian power

north, south, east, and west during his rule.

His expansion continues year after year.

- -

Philip does spend nearly all of his reign at war.

I leave tomorrow. A new campaign.

Can I come with you?

Not this time.

When?

When the time is right.

I promise.

While Alexander is trained physically,

he also prepares intellectually.

He is tutored by the great philosopher, Aristotle.

Aristotle is the Leonardo da Vinci

of the ancient world.

He did it all.

Aristotle provided Alexander

with his foundations for almost everything.

His notions of justice, of virtue, of manliness,

his thirst for knowledge and information.

Aristotle also fueled Alexander's lifelong obsession

with the epic poem, The Iliad,

and its central hero, Achilles.