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Alexander the Great is the historical account of the world’s first conqueror, Alexander of Macedon. Summary of the Book Legends say that he was born after a thunder bolt, purportedly from Zeus, struck his mother’s womb, setting aflame a fire that spread far and wide before dying away. Others say his father, Philip, saw himself in a dream, securing the mother’s womb with a seal engraved with a lion’s image. No matter what myths one looks at, there is no separating the child who would become the greatest ruler in the world from them. Alexander was supposedly born around 20 July 356 BC. He was the son of Philip, the king of Macedon and his fourth wife, Olympias, the daughter of Neoptolemus I, king of Epirus. He was put under the watchful eye of several noble teachers who taught him all that any child of Macedon would need to know: reading, playing the lyre, riding, fighting and hunting. At ten, he tamed a horse which would let no man near it, naming it Bucephalus. At thirteen, his father’s hunt for a wise scholar to teach his son led to one of the students of Socrates himself, the wise Aristotle. After an abrupt end to his education, young Alexander returned to his father’s side to help him in his wars. Soon, however, Philip fell into the arms of another woman, who begot him a son of full Macedonian blood. Threatened by the rise of a challenger, Alexander fled Macedon and sought refuge with the Illyrian King. After reconciling with Philip, he returned home, and he was reinstated as heir. After his father’s assassination, Alexander was crowned the king of Macedon at 20. He immediately began eliminating all those who opposed him, and set his eyes on something no man had dared aim towards: the mighty Persian Empire. Alexander’s legacy is so immense that the task of writing about it is in itself a mighty one, one befitting the suffix historians have awarded the man himself: not merely mighty by great. This book tries to separate the myths from history and look at the man behind the legend, the man known as Alexander the Great, the man who conquered most of Asia and the known world. About Philip Freeman Philip Freeman is an American college professor specializing in the Classics. A graduate of the University of Texas,he studied the Classics at Harvard. He later taught at Boston University, Washington University, and he currently teaches at Luther College, northeast Iowa. He has also written: Julius Caesar, St. Patrick of Ireland, The Philosopher and the Druids and Oh My Gods: A Modern Retelling of Greek and Roman Myths.