Alexander the Great Conquers the Persian Empire

Alexander crosses into Asia in 334 BCE with about 35,000 soldiers and never looks back. He defeats the Persians at Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela, takes Egypt (founding Alexandria), burns Persepolis, and marches all the way to India before his exhausted army refuses to go further. He dies in Babylon at age 32, leaving an empire that fragments into rival kingdoms. But the Greek language and culture he spreads — Hellenism — become the dominant force in the Near East, the world into which the New Testament will be born.