Alexander the Great
Eleven years of campaigning tie Greece to India
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The Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE decided the fate of the Persian Empire. Alexander's lasting significance is not the conquest, which fell apart immediately after his death in 323, but Hellenism: Greek became the lingua franca from the Mediterranean to the Indus for centuries, Alexandria became antiquity's foremost centre of learning, and Greek art shaped Buddhist sculpture in Gandhara. The network of cities and roads he inherited from the Persians and extended became infrastructure that both Rome and later the Silk Road built upon.
For children
A young king from Macedon marched east with his army and defeated the largest empire in the world. In eleven years he reached India. He died at just 32, and his empire was carved up among his generals — but Greek ideas stayed behind from Egypt to Afghanistan.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org