Alexander the Great

From ArchaeoWiki

Alexander the Great (Greek: Μέγας Αλέξανδρος, Megas Alexandros; July 356 BCE—11 June 323 BCE, Babylon), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC)

Alexander is also known in the Zoroastrian Middle Persian work Arda Wiraz Nāmag as "the accursed Alexander" due to his conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the destruction of its capital Persepolis. He is known as Eskandar in Persian and even acclaimed during the construction of the Great Wall Sadd-e Eskandar by the Parthian Dynasty. Alexnader is often identified as Dhul-Qarnayn in Middle Eastern traditions and is called al-Iskandar al-Kabeer in Arabic, Sikandar-e-azam in Urdu, Dul-Qarnayim in Hebrew, and Tre-Qarnayia in Aramaic (the two-horned one), apparently due to an image on coins minted during his rule that seemingly depicted him with the two ram's horns of the Egyptian god Ammon. He is known as Sikandar in Urdu and Hindi, a term also used as a synonym for "expert" or "extremely skilled".

Bibliography

• Arnold-Biucchi, Carmen [2006], Alexander's Coins and Alexander's Image, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Art Museums, 2006. ISBN 1891771418 A. Stewart, BMCR Review