Alexander the Great Facts – 31 Unknown Facts about Alexander
Interesting Facts About Alexander
He met his future wife Roxanne, the teenage daughter of a Bactrian nobleman, when he was surveying the impregnable mountain fortress Sogdian Rock which he won in 327 B.C.
He was a great believer in personal hygiene and wore spotless clothes and shaved regularly to look tidier and avoid dangerous beard grabbing during combat.
He never attacked the city and the state of Sparta while he subdued all great kingdoms of the world in existence at that time.
Phillip II of Macedon sent an envoy to Sparta with an intimidating message: “If I win this war, you will be slaves forever.”
The Spartan’s replied: “If.” Both Phillip and his son Alexander the Great avoided Sparta entirely.
He was never averse to change and after his victory in Persia he started dressing like them and even had two Persian wives.
In his Indian campaign he came across war elephants for the first time and his army had to suffer great reverses against them in the battle with King Porus. Alexander did not dare to venture deeper into India against the kings of the Nanda Empire and Gangaridai could deploy between 3,000 and 6,000 war elephants if need be.
His decedents in both Afghanistan and Pakistan laid the foundation of the Greek speaking Buddhists from the 4th Century BC onwards. The amalgamation of Greek culture and Budhist art was very striking including the stylization of the curly hair known as the “Toga”
Alexander was an epileptic but his seizures and convulsions were considered a sacred disease as if god or spirits came into his body.
He came face to face with a 14 year old Chandragupta Maurya who by the age of 20 was able to forge his empire across Northern India and unify the entire continent. He also later defeated Selecues who was appointed administrator by Alexander of the Conquered territories in the east. He later married his daughter Helena.
