Moving northeast into Mesopotamia, Alexander again defeats Darius III (at Gaugamela), leaving Persia open to his advances

As a conclusive end to the long rivalry between Greece and Persia, Alexander destroys the great palace of Xerxes at Persepolis

Alexander adopts the ceremonial dress and court rituals of of his new Persian empire

Alexander begins two years moving with his army through his vast new territories, establishing Greek settlements

Alexander marries Roxana after subduing the territories of her father, a Bactrian chief in the modern region of Aghanistan

Alexander takes a major new step, leaving Persian territory and moving through the mountain passes into India

Alexander's famous horse Bucephalus dies in India and is commemorated in the name of a new town, Bucephala

In the Indian monsoon Alexander's Greek troops have finally had enough and threaten to mutiny unless he turns for home

Back in Persia, to emphasize that Greece and Persia are now one, Alexander marries eighty of his senior officers to Persian wives

Alexander and his companion Hephaestion marry daughters of Darius III

When the army reaches Ecbatana, Hephaestion dies of a fever and the grief-stricken Alexander erects shrines in his memory

Alexander, still only 33, dies in Babylon following a banquet

The spread of Greek rule by Alexander introduces the Hellenistic age, which will last for three centuries

Alexander's generals decide that the joint heirs to his throne shall be his half-brother (Philip III) and his posthumous son by Roxana (Alexander IV)

Real power will remain with the Macedonian generals, who after much dispute divide up Alexander's empire among themselves

In the carve up of Alexander the Great's empire, Ptolemy wins Egypt and founds the Ptolemaic dynasty – with himself as the pharaoh Ptolemy I

Ptolemy manages to acquire Alexander the Great's corpse, to lend authority to his rule in Egypt

Seleucus wins control of a vast area, comprising the eastern part of Alexander's empire from the Mediterranean to India

Alexander's corpse, hijacked by Ptolemy, becomes a sacred relic in Alexandria

Philip III is killed on the orders of Olympias, the mother of Alexander

Alexander IV and his mother Roxana are murdered by order of Cassander (by now the self-proclaimed king of Macedonia)

Some 20 years after the death of Alexander the Great one of his generals, Ptolemy, extends his rule from Egypt to include Jerusalem

Phoenicia is brought into the new Hellenistic empire, changing hands frequently between contending successors of Alexander

The Seleucid dynasty ends when Syria, the last remnant ruled by his family, falls to the Romans

Cleopatra commits suicide, applying a poisonous asp to her breast,