The Macedonian ruler Alexander III, known to history as Alexander the Great, was educated by Aristotle, a philosopher who believed in the cultural superiority of the Greeks and the natural inferiority of Asian peoples. This education greatly influenced the early years of his reign. After becoming King of Macedonia, he took control of the Delphic Amphictyony Council and received the title of hegémon from the League of Corinth, an alliance of Greek cities allied with him.

According to Plutarch, Alexander always carried a copy of the Iliad with him, demonstrating not only his admiration for classical heroes but also his desire to assert Greek power over the East, much like the Achaeans had done with Troy. He framed his military campaigns against the Persian Empire as a war of liberation for the Greek cities of Asia Minor, positioning himself as a defender of Greek freedom against their historic Persian enemy.

He made powerful symbolic gestures to support this narrative, such as building temples dedicated to Greek deities, Zeus, Athena, and Artemis, in Asia and in the Greek cities he conquered. In 331 BCE, after capturing the city, he famously set fire to the royal palace of Persepolis as an act of revenge for the destruction of the Parthenon by Xerxes I’s army during the second Persian war.

However, Alexander’s stance soon began to shift. After defeating Darius III in battle, he started presenting himself as the successor of the Persian king, aligning himself with the legacy of the Great Persian Kings. He integrated Asian soldiers into his armies and entrusted administrative roles to Persian satraps. He even planned to merge Greek-Macedonian and Eastern cultures by arranging thousands of marriages between Greek officers and Persian women; years earlier, he himself had married Roxana, a Bactrian princess.

His very concept of kingship evolved as well. Alexander transitioned from a traditional Macedonian monarch, accustomed to sharing power with the hetairoi, the noble companions and cavalrymen of the kingdom, to a figure resembling an absolute Eastern sovereign. He established his court in Babylon, introduced Persian court rituals, and even required his Greek subjects to honor him through the rite of proskynesis.

It can therefore be said that, much like the Roman conquest of Greece, Alexander conquered the East, but was, in turn, also conquered by it.