Step One: How to see the "Greatness" of Alexander (1:00)
Pictured above is the famous mosaic (artwork made entirely out of small colored stones, or tesserae) known as the “Alexander Mosaic”. It depicts the defeat of Darius III by Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE. Measuring 8 ft 11in x 16 ft 9in, it was made around 100 BCE by an unknown artist and found in the House of the Faun in Pompeii. It is thought to be a copy of a Hellenistic painting of the 3rd century BCE, when Alexander had lived. Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) – we will just call him Alex the Great from now on – was a Macedonian king and general who conquered all of Greece a couple of generations after the Peloponnesian War (see "Golden Years" and "The Song Remains the Same"). The he conquered all of Persia, Egypt, and much of Central Asia – all before the age of 32. Then he died, under mysterious circumstances. For generations upon generations he has captured the imagination of historians, writers, and philosophers, often as an example of an ideal leader (see the Second Kingship Oration of Dio of Prusa in "Getting to Know You").
Darius III was King of Persia in the 4th c. BCE and heir to the vast empire established two centuries earlier by Cyrus II, the first of the "great" ancient leaders (see "He Will Rock You"). A map of his empire is pictured here.
