Who Was Alexander the Great? (Told for Kids)

Alexander the Great was a king of Macedon, in northern Greece, who lived from 356 to 323 BC and built one of the largest empires the world had ever seen before he was thirty-three years old. He was taught by the philosopher Aristotle, became king at twenty after his father was killed, and led his army from Greece all the way to India without ever losing a battle. People have told stories about him for more than two thousand years.

The boy who tamed a wild horse

When Alexander was a boy, a trader brought his father a magnificent black horse named Bucephalus that no one could ride. Alexander noticed something the grown men had missed: the horse was frightened of its own shadow. He turned its face toward the sun so it could not see the shadow, spoke to it gently, and rode it. His father is said to have told him that Macedon was too small for him. Bucephalus carried Alexander into battle for the rest of the horse's life.

What did Alexander do?

He set out to conquer the Persian Empire, the largest power of his day, and he did it. He won famous battles against far bigger armies, freed and founded cities as he went, and named one of them Alexandria, in Egypt, which became one of the great cities of the ancient world. By the end he ruled from Greece to the edge of India.

Why do we still remember him?

Because he chased greatness further than almost anyone ever has, and because his story asks a question worth arguing about: he was handed a kingdom and the best army in the world, so how much of his glory was his own doing? That is exactly the kind of question Plutarch, the ancient writer who recorded Alexander's life, wanted readers to weigh.

Read Alexander's story

nüNERD tells Alexander's life alongside Julius Caesar's in Plutarch's Lives for Kids, at four reading levels for ages 0 to 14, from a toddler picture book to a prep book for older readers.

Frequently asked questions

Who was Alexander the Great? A king of Macedon (356–323 BC) who conquered the Persian Empire and built one of history's largest empires before he was thirty-three.

Why is Alexander called "the Great"? Because of the size of his conquests and his reputation as a military commander who never lost a battle.

Who taught Alexander? The Greek philosopher Aristotle was his boyhood tutor.

How did Alexander the Great die? He died of a fever in Babylon in 323 BC at age thirty-two; the exact cause is still debated.

What was Alexander's horse named? Bucephalus, the wild horse he tamed as a boy by turning it away from its own shadow.