Summary Michael Wood begins the series as 21-year-old Alexander and his Greek army set out to invade Asia and overthrow the Persian Empire. En route, he recounts Alexander's early years. His mother, Olympias, was intensely devoted to strange religious cults, but Aristotle, one of the great philosophers, tutored Alexander. He was 21 when he succeeded to the throne in 336 BC, following the assassination of his father. The kingdom he inherited already dominated a Greece exhausted by the war between Athens and Sparta. Shortly after becoming king, Alexander journeyed from northern Greece into Turkey where, in 334 and 333 BC, he visited Troy, disbanded his boats, marched along the sea coast and then, in a famous story, cut the Gordian Knot. At Issus, on the Syrian border, Alexander routed Persian leader Darius and then marched south through Lebanon.

• Documentary
• Biography