Alexander the Great

He conquered most of the known world and thought himself a god. However, he also died a paranoid, alcoholic wreck at the age of 33...after which his entire empire collapsed. So, just how great was Alexander?

Presenting a personal history of Alexander the Great, this book discusses not only his dashing image and heroism, but also the downsides to his personality and the disintegration of his empire, to question whether he really deserves to be called 'Great'. It argues that Alexander sacrificed the empire for his own personal ends.

Alexander the Great conquered territories on a superhuman scale and established an empire that stretched from Greece to India. He spread Greek culture and education throughout his empire, and was worshipped as a living god by many of his subjects. But how great is a leader responsible for the deaths on tens of thousands of people? A ruler who prefers constant warring to administering the peace? A man who believed he was a god, who murdered his friends, and recklessly put his soldiers lives at risk?

Ian Worthington delves into Alexander's successes and failures, his paranoia, the murders he engineered, his megalomania, and his constant drinking. It presents a king corrupted by power and who, for his own personal ends, sacrificed the empire his father had fought to establish.