"political" wedding, involving Alexander's sister, Cleopatra, was going to ruin Olympias' opportunity for revenge against her estranged husband. Alexander was twenty, and he snatched the crown of his father, even though there was another claim from Amyntas, the twenty-five year old son of Perdiccas, whose throne had been taken by Philip when he was still a baby. Alexander wasted no time. He assembled his friends, mustered the army that his father was proposing to lead with the help of the Hellenic league. Nobody could now challenge either his legitimacy or his power.
Even before he marched east with at least 30,000 troops and about 5,000 cavalry, there were attempts to get Alexander to marry, and do so soon, so there would be an heir to his throne. "Alexander impatiently replied that this was no time to sit at home 'holding marriage feasts and awaiting the birth of children'" (Renault 88). So, off he went to do battle with a far superior Persian force, who were not yet led by Darius. Alexander himself led the way in battle, with hand to hand fighting against some of the Persian generals, whom he killed, and then had
...