Succession to Power

In 336 Philip was assassinated while preparing for a campaign against Persia. Alexander has been suspected, probably unjustly, of being party to the crime, because he had quarreled with his father when Philip divorced Olympias and remarried. Alexander was 20 when he became king of Macedonia and Greece.

The presence of a mere youngster on the throne was the signal for a general revolt of the hill tribes and insurrection in some of the Greek city-states. Alexander, however, was backed by the powerful Macedonian army. In a show of strength, he struck north to the Danube River, west to Illyria, and south to Thebes. Thebes was completely destroyed except for its temples and the home of the poet Pindar, whose odes Alexander admired. The authority of the new king was quickly acknowledged throughout Greece.

Alexander inherited a strong, well-organized army from his father. The separate units, Macedonian and Greek, had been welded into a disciplined fighting machine, consisting of a large infantry force of some 30,000 men and smaller groups of cavalry. The phalanx, a narrow, deep formation of men protected by shields and armed with long spears, was the center of the line, with mobile units on the flanks. The phalanx would smash the enemy's line, and cavalry or light infantry would penetrate behind the enemy. These tactics were to be used many times after Alexander crossed the Hellespont (Dardanelles) in the spring of 334, when he began the war against Persia originally planned by Philip.