After Philip II was assassinated at his daughter's wedding, twenty-year-old Alexander acted decisively, executing potential rival claimants and winning the army's loyalty before consolidating control over Macedon and its Greek allies. This ruthless securing of power set the stage for the campaigns that would carry him to Persia, Egypt, and India within little more than a decade.
Philip II's murder at Aegae, allegedly by a disgruntled bodyguard named Pausanias, left the Macedonian succession dangerously uncertain. Rival claimants circled, including cousins and half-brothers whose blood ties to the throne rivaled Alexander's own, and the Greek city-states Philip had subdued watched eagerly for signs of Macedonian weakness.
Alexander moved with a speed that would define his entire career. He had potential rivals executed swiftly and without much apparent hesitation, including his cousin Amyntas, and secured the backing of the army's senior commanders, particularly Antipater and Parmenion, whose support proved decisive. Within weeks he held a throne that many observers had assumed would be contested for years.
The swiftness of the consolidation meant Alexander could turn his attention outward almost immediately, first putting down revolts among Greek states testing his authority, then launching the Persian campaign in 334 BC that would carry Macedonian arms as far as the Indus River. The ruthless efficiency of December 336 BC, when the throne itself was won, foreshadowed exactly the kind of decisive, unsentimental leadership that would define his conquests.
Key people: Alexander the Great, Philip II of Macedon