Though you may not realize it, you have certainly heard of Alexander III of Macedon (356 BCE-323 BCE), but probably under his sobriquet: Alexander the Great.

    Much is known of this regional king who came to conquer much of the known world, from the Greece to India and modern Pakistan, one of the largest empires in the ancient world that included parts of three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa). And what is not known is easily filled in by colorful legends, many of them developed in the Middle Ages.

    What is known is that he was the son of Philip II (whose grave was discovered in recent years). After being tutored until age 16 by the philosopher Aristotle, Alexander became king at 20 upon his father's death. By age 30 he had completed his conquests undefeated; legend says that he wept that "there were no more worlds to conquer." Julius Caesar, in turn, is said to have wept when he saw a statue of Alexander, because Caesar had not matched up to Alexander's achievements.

    He turned back only when his troops refused to go any further, and died at 32 in Babylon, where he would have established his capital. After his death, the empire rather quickly broke up, but the influence of Greek culture was to last for centuries. For example, although Palestine in the time of Jesus was a Roman colony, the Christian Bible is written in a dialect of Greek. The style of Greek sculpture can be seen in Buddhist images from central Asia. And Alexandria in Egypt (where Euclid was born) is but one of around 20 cities named after the young conqueror.

    Shortly after Alexander's death, a collection of legends began to coalesce, culminating in the "Alexander Romance." More stories were added for nearly 2,000 years, in numerous languages, from Greek and Latin through the vernaculars of Western Europe, as well as Slavonic, Hungarian, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, Hebrew, Turkish, and even Mongolian.

    It is unfortunate that this vast body of stories is not popular today, like those of King Arthur, or the Germanic sagas popularized by Wagner and Tolkien.

    Vocabulary: Which word above means:

    1. victories, also, things which have been conquered

    2. soldiers

    3. the art of making statues

    4. cried

    5. reaching the highest point of development

    6. nickname

    7. groups of nations ruled over by one person

    8. come together, develop into a single thing

    9. not beaten, having never lost

    10. of a relatively small area

    ANSWERS: 1. conquests 2. troops 3. sculpture 4. wept 5. culminating 6. sobriquet 7. empires 8. coalesce 9. undefeated 10. regional