- reformed the army (fully professional), elite units called companions, 25,000 more men
- introduced new 13 foot thrusting spear
- funded military expenditures by seizing Mount Pangaeus gold and silver mines
- unified and modernized country by redistributing population into new urban centers
- ushered Macedon into Greek culture
- principal instrument of foreign policy was warfare or the very threat
- secured good relations with neighboring states through dynastic marriages, half dozen
- murdered in 336 by a disgruntled member of the royal bodyguard
- came to power at age 19
- trained in athletics and weapons during youth
- had scientific curiosity, Aristotle was his tutor
- treated Athens leniently out of respect for cultural history and naval power
- began campaign against Persia in 334 BCE with crossing the Hellespont
- conquered Persian empire during the next decade
- married the Sogdian princess Roxanne
- promoted plan of race fusion of Macedonians and Persians but it failed
- died in 323 from a fever in Babylon, and both Roxanne and his son were murdered
- his death wish of giving the kingdom “to the strongest” led a division of the empire into three parts: Macedon and Greece, Seleucid Empire (from Asia Minor to India) and the Ptolemaic kingdom (Egypt and parts of Palestine