- "I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion."
Alexander III (20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), better known as Alexander the Great, was king of Macedon from 336 BC until his death, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished conquerors and generals in history, believed to have never been defeated in battle. He leads the Macedonians in Civilization VI.
Alexander's Macedon is the one civilization that is prepared to go to war and stay at war for the entire game. With no war weariness, the ability to learn from captured culture, and the ability to heal when capturing wonders, Alexander can keep moving forward on his quest to reach the world's end.
Intro[]
Great warlord, Alexander, beneath your sword shall Macedon spread throughout the world. Every kingdom shall be a unique challenge to overcome, but the rewards will be great if you remain true and brave. Turn away from peace, for there is no way to establish your legacy but from conquering vast lands. Charge, Alexander, and lead your people to glory!
In-Game[]
Alexander's unique agenda is Short Life of Glory. He likes civilizations that are at war with nations other than Macedon and dislikes civilizations that are at peace. In Gathering Storm, 
Grievances against him will decay at twice the usual rate.
His leader ability is To the World's End. It eliminates war weariness in his cities and allows his units to heal when he captures a city with a wonder. It also allows him to produce the Hetairoi, a unique unit that replaces the Horseman.
Detailed Approach[]
Alexander's classical era military is one of the scariest opponents you can ever meet. With both the Hetairoi and Hypaspist unique units, Macedon is the rare civilization that has two unique units active at the same time. If their units are trained at the Basilikoi Paides, Macedon advances in technology without having to expend the time on developing a campus. Further advancement comes in the field as they capture enemy cities with a Campus, Encampment, Holy Site or Theater Square. And with no war weariness penalties and the ability to recover from combat damage when they capture a city with a wonder, Alexander's plan is to go to war and stay in conquest mode until the world is Macedonian.
Lines[]
Alexander is voiced by Dimitris Papadopoulos. He speaks the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek, the official language of the Macedonian court, but Macedonians at that point would more correctly speak a northern dialect similar to Thessalian or Lesbian Greek.
Voiced[]
| Codename | Quote (English translation) | Quote (Attic Greek) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda-based Approval | I hope we never meet in battle, it would be a shame to lose such a worthy foe. | Μή ποτε μαχώμεθα. Αἰσχρὸν εἴην ἀπολλύναι ἀνταγωνιστὴν οὕτως ἐπαινετόν. / Mé pote machṓmetha. Aischrṓn eíēn apollýnai antagōnistèn hoútōs epainetón. | "ἄν" should have been used together with "εἴην" since it was intended to be a potential optative. |
| Agenda-based Disapproval | How do you intend on growing your empire if you refuse to fight for your people?! | Τινί τρόπῳ αὐξήσεις τὴν σὴν ἀρχήν, εἰ οὐ τοῦ λαοῦ ἕνεκα μάχησει; / Tiní trópōi auxḗseis tèn sèn archḗn ei ou toû laoû héneka máchesei? | |
| Attacked | Peace was never of all that much interest to me anyway. | Ἡ εἰρήνη οὔποτε μ’ ἔτερπε μάλα. / Hē eirḗnē oúpote m' éterpe mála. | |
| Declares War | The armies of Greece await you with open arms! | Αἱ τῆς Ἑλλάδος στρατιαὶ σὲ περιμένουσι μετὰ τῶν ἀσπασμάτων! / Hai tês Helládos stratiaì sè periménousi metà tôn aspasmátōn! | It would be more correct to say "ασπασμών" (aspasmṓn) here. |
| Defeated | Just as quickly as it began, my long march finally comes to end. | Ὡς μὲν ταχέως ἄρχετο, νῦν δὲ τέλος ἥχει ἡ ἐμή ἀνάβασις. / Hōs mèn tachéōs árcheto, nyn dè télos héchei hē emé anábasis. | |
| Greeting | Greetings! I am Alexander of Macedon, the King and the Pharaoh, the undefeated General of Greece! Surely you've heard of me? | Χαῖρε! Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μακεδών εἰμι, βασιλεὺς καὶ φαραώ, ὁ ἀησσῆτος στρατηγὸς τῆς Ἑλλάδος. Ἆρ' οὐ ἀκήκοας περί μου; / Chaîre! Aléxandros ho Makedṓn eimi, basileùs kaì pharaṓ, ho aēssḗtos stratēgòs tês Helládos. Ãr' oú akḗkoas perí mou? | |
| Quote from Civilopedia | I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. | Ου μέν φοβούμαι των λεόντων στρατιάν αγομένην οιί, αλλά των οιών στρατιάν αγομένην λέοντι. / Ou mén fovoúmai ton leónton stratián agoménin oií, allá ton oión stratián agoménin léonti. | This is a disputed quotation by Alexander the Great.[1] |
Unvoiced[]
Delegation: I've dispatched a trade delegation bearing gifts of the finest wine and olive oil Macedon has to offer. I trust you'll greet my envoys warmly?
Accepts Delegation from Player: I appreciate the offerings. Rest assured, your delegation will enjoy all that Macedon has to offer while in my kingdom.
Accepts Player's Declaration of Friendship: The people of Macedon welcome this lasting friendship.
Rejects Player's Declaration of Friendship: It's too early to tell if our friendship is meant to be. Only the Gods themselves know for sure.
Requests Declaration of Friendship: I consider you a true friend. I hope I have earned that same trust in you.
Trade Deal Accepted: Agreed!
Denounced by Player: Your slanderous tongue will make it all the more satisfying when I stand before the ruins of your capital!
Denounces Player: I've dealt with traitors and deserters alike that were still more honorable than you!
Too Many Troops Near His Border: My scouts tell me you mass forces near our borders. Beware, my armies are easily tempted to war.
Invitation to Capital: Have you heard of the exceptionally defensible Pella? Perhaps we could share tales of our great capitals!
Invitation to City: Come and visit the nearest of my cities, walk amongst the bustling Agorai of Macedon and see how trade flourishes among my people.
Civilopedia entry[]
Alexander the Great is unquestionably one of the greatest warlords of all time. In 12 short years he marched his army to victory after victory across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, conquering every civilization he could reach, before dying at the age of 32. After his generals divided Alexander's empire amongst themselves, they were soon busy waging war against one another for more pieces of an ever-dwindling pie.
Alexander III of Macedon was born in 356 BCE to King Philip II, an extremely successful leader who had restored his kingdom from the verge of extinction. Philip led his people to triumph by conquering Athens, Illyria, and Thrace—the three powers who, a few short years before, had been on the verge of conquering Macedon. As the son of the most powerful monarch in the “civilized” world, Alexander got the best of everything, including education. The scholar Aristotle, one of the Hellenistic period's greatest philosophers, was hired as a tutor for the young prince.
Taught by his mother Olympias that he was descended from Hercules and Achilles, Alexander did not lack self-confidence, which is the polite way of saying his ego was bigger than the empire he would one day conquer. When Philip left him in charge of Macedon while he was away attacking Byzantion, a 14-year-old Alexander kept busy by crushing a Thracian rebellion, founding Alexandropolis, and settling it with Greeks—not the last time Alexander would name new cities after himself. Two years later he commanded the left wing of his father’s army during the battle at Chaeronea, in which Philip’s forces defeated the allied Greek states and subdued all of Greece.
The next year Alexander’s good fortune seemed to desert him. King Philip divorced Alexander’s mother and married Cleopatra Eurydice, leaving his ex-wife and son to flee Macedon. While Olympias sought refuge with her brother the king of Epirus, Alexander went into hiding in Illyria. Though father and son later reconciled, Alexander’s position as Philip’s heir was in grave jeopardy if Philip could produce another son.
Following the conquest of Greece and the Balkans, King Philip raised an army to invade and conquer Persia. But in 336 BCE Philip was assassinated by the captain of his own bodyguard, Pausanias, while attending his daughter’s wedding. (Alexander’s mother, Olympias—or indeed Alexander himself—may have been behind the assassination, but as Pausanias conveniently died during the murder, there was no actual proof.) In 336 BCE, at the age of 20, Alexander was proclaimed king by the Macedonian army and nobility.
The young king celebrated his victory by murdering all potential rivals to the throne, then resumed planning his father’s invasion of Persia. Although he was briefly distracted until 334 BCE with several revolts in the Balkans, Alexander and his army crossed the Hellespont into Asia. His force consisted of about 48,000 foot soldiers and 6,000 cavalry, a huge army for the day, accompanied by engineers, surveyors, scientists, and even historians to record his successes for posterity. In battle Alexander had amazing success against the Persians, repeatedly beating their best generals, and routinely fighting against daunting odds.
Alexander's accomplishments can be attributed to his military genius, to his soldiers' superb training and equipment, and to a magnificent esprit de corps, largely engendered by his army's faith in Alexander’s invincibility. This myth was so broadly believed because Alexander appeared to be charmed by the gods from whom he claimed a common lineage. He regularly led his elite “Companion Cavalry” into the thick of battle, and he received a number of dangerous wounds during his military career, none of which dampened his military ardor.
Once he secured most of Persia's surrender, Alexander then moved south to conquer Syria, the coast of the Levant, and eventually Egypt. He returned to Persia, by way of conquering Babylon, and destroyed the last of the Persian forces at the battle of Gaugamela. Rather than pursue the Persian king Darius III who fled the field, Alexander seized the treasury at Susa. He then captured the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis, which he allowed his men to loot for several days. Alexander remained in the city for five months until it burned down … supposedly by accident.
With this, Alexander returned to the campaign, chasing Darius and his disintegrating army into Media, and then Parthia. There Darius was taken prisoner by his kinsman Bessus, who had Darius killed before he himself retreated into the mountains to conduct a guerrilla war against the Greeks. But Bessus was himself betrayed to the Greeks in 329 BCE, and the Greek general Ptolemy had him executed. Alexander, it seems, was too busy defeating a Scythian host at the battle of Jaxartes to bother with a regicide-friendly Persian noble. As for the Scythians, the leader Spitamenes was killed by his own tribe, which promptly sued for peace.
All this had taken Alexander’s slowly eroding army through Media, Parthia, Aria and Bactria (modern Afghanistan), Drangiana, and Scythia. Along the way, the young king married the Bactrian princess Roxana to help placate the eastern fringe of the old Persian Empire. But soon enough, Alexander determined to try his hand at conquering the Indian subcontinent, which rumors claimed was even richer than Persia. Eventually Alexander came into contact with the great Indian King Porus, who fought him to a standstill. Alexander won the conflict, but at such a heavy cost that his men begged him to end the campaign and let them return to their families.
Alexander himself went to rule his empire from the captured city of Babylon. Apparently he found this quite boring, for “when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer."
Once back in Babylon, Alexander began an inexorable decline. Drinking heavily and engaging in all kinds of available debauchery (and there was much debauchery to be found in Babylon), he became subject to fits of anger and bouts of paranoia. In June of 323 BCE, his body weakened by his excesses, Alexander died.
Trivia[]
- Alexander is, along with Elizabeth I, Gandhi, Genghis Khan, Montezuma, and Shaka, one of six leaders to have appeared in every Civilization game to date. Of these, Civilization VI marks Alexander's first appearance as a Macedonian leader - in previous games, he was a Greek leader.
- Alexander has a helmet with a lion motif that he takes off when greeting a player and puts on after a denunciation or a declaration of war. He sometimes brandishes his kopis, as well.
- Historically, Alexander had heterochromia iridum, meaning he had two differently colored eyes: one blue, one brown. In the game, he's depicted with two gray eyes.
- Alexander's leader ability references a quote attributed to Plutarch about Alexander's reaction to conquering the known world, while his leader agenda references his death at 32 years.
- Alexander's successor as Pharaoh of Egypt, Ptolemy I Soter, is the ancestor of Cleopatra.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Alexander splash (Civ6).jpg (318 KB)")
.png "Alexander loadscreen (Civ6).png (2.54 MB)")
Videos[]
Related achievements[]
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Greatest Is As Greatest Does
Playing as Macedon, conquer a city containing both the Great Library and Great Lighthouse wonders.
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Never Lost a Battle
Win a regular game as Alexander
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References[]
See also[]
- Alexander (the Great) in other games
