This life size 11 7/16 x 10 3/16 x 10 13/16 in. marble head of Alexander the Great is from the Getty Museum. It was made in about 320 B.C. and was found at Megara. The Getty Museum says that Alexander exploited the propaganda possibilities of portraiture and only allowed one sculptor, Lysippos, to carve his likeness.
Statue of Alexander the Great at the Antalya Archeological Museum
This statue of Alexander the Great is located at the Turkish Antalya Archeological Museum.
Alexander the Great Battle Scene
This famous mosaic of a battle scene comes from the House of the faun in Pompeii. It is at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli. The battle is thought to be the Battle of Issus. Alexander the Great defeated the Great King of Persia, Darius III, at the Battle at Issus in November 333 B.C. Alexander's army was smaller than the Persian army -- no more than half the size, and possibly even smaller.
Cartouche of Alexander the Great
This is a photo of a cartouche representing Alexander the Great in hieroglyphs, from Luxor temple, in Egypt.
Alexander the Great's empire extended to the Indus River in the East and to Egypt. His successors included his general Ptolemy who started the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt. They built the famous library and museum at Alexandria. The final pharaoh of the dynasty of the Ptolemies was Cleopatra.
Head of Alexander the Great at the British Museum
This marble head of Alexander the Great is at the British Museum, but was found at Alexandria. The head was created after Alexander's death. It was made in the first or second century B.C.
Alexander the Great on Coins
This photograph shows coins from the empire of Alexander the Great. The view of Alexander is the bottom row, where he is depicted in profile.
Although Alexander the Great brought his empire into the Indian subcontinent, he didn't actually get very far. Taking almost 2 years to accomplish it, Alexander's army marched from Kabul to the Beas (Hyphasis, on the rivers of the Punjab) and from the Beas to the lower Indus River. By the Battle of Ipsus, in 303 B.C., the Diadochi had lost most of the Indian territory, and by 200, their control did not extend into the Indian side of the Indus River.
Alexander had gone into India as far as Beas -- the Hyphasis River, which you can see under the Aetolian League inset map to the left of the "d". West of the Jhelum (Hydaspes) River, notice the city (Bucephala) named for Alexander's famous horse and Taxila, the ancient capital of the area of the Punjab located between the Hydaspes and Indus. The name of the city means "City of Cut Stone" or "Rock of Taksha".
Taxila was an important point along the Silk Road that was destroyed in the 5th century by Huns. The Persian King Darius I had added Taxila to the Achaemenid empire but it was lost again by the time Alexander invaded India.
The king of Taxila, Amphi (Omphis), welcomed Alexander with feasting and gift-exchanges. Then, leaving the people of Taxila in peace, although Amphi may have been under the military suzerainty of one of Alexander's men (Philip; later, Eudamos) and an occupation army, Alexander went to Hydaspes to help Amphi, by fighting a pitched battle against a numerically superior force, supplemented with elephants, led by King Porus, who ruled the area between the Hydaspes (Jhelum) and Acesines (Chenab) rivers.
Although Alexander won the battle, he reinstated Porus' kingdom, added to it, and made him and Amphi reconcile their differences.
References
- "Alexander and India"
A. K. Narain
Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 12, No. 2, Alexander the Great (Oct., 1965), pp. 155-165 - "Mauryya Chronology and Connected Problems"
N. K. Bhattasali
The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (Apr., 1932), pp. 273-288 - Jona Lendering Taxila
- "Taxila" Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. John Everett-Heath. Oxford University Press 2005.
- Taxila. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
- World 66 Travel Guide Taxila
More on Alexander and India
- Ancient Sources on the History of India
- Review of Peter Green's Biography of Alexander
- Mauryan Empire Maps