A man whose legend has been narrated across the world for more than two thousand years and still continues to fascinate us — Alexander the Great. Born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia in 356 BC, Alexander was a prince, the son of King Philip II of Macedonia. As a child he grew up witnessing several wars that his father waged, transforming Macedonia into a great military power. Alexander rose to become one of the greatest military geniuses that the world had ever witnessed. It is believed that he never ever lost a battle in his entire life. Building a veritably glorious empire stretching from the azure islands of Greece to the dusty plains of India, Alexander changed the map of the ancient world by integrating the Eastern and the Western worlds.
Plutarch the Greek historian narrates the story of a deep friendship that evolved between Alexander’s wondrous horse named Bucephalus and the emperor.
When Alexander was 12 years old, a horse dealer named Philonicus from Thessaly brought a wild horse to King Philip II, and challenged him to a wager for a sum of 13 talents (talent was a unit for measuring currency during the period). Since the animal was untamable, the king was both displeased and annoyed with the merchant. However, Alexander the 12-year-old boy decided to take on the challenge and promised to pay for the horse himself, should he fail to tame it. The young Alexander had noticed that the horse was shying away from his own shadow, which had been the cause of his distress. Removing his fluttering coat, Alexander gently persuaded the horse into the sun, with the shadow strategically falling behind the horse this time. A magnificent animal with a shiny black coat and a white star on his brow, he was christened Bucephalus, meaning ox-head either for his obstinacy or for the size of his head that was as broad as that of a bull. When Alexander rode Bucephalus for the very first time, his father, the King, is said to have remarked, “My son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee.” Bucephalus soon gained an iconic status in all of Alexander’s military expeditions. Alexander’s invasion of India and the battle with King Porus in 326 BC, called the Battle of Hydaspes, was perhaps the largest major battle fought by Alexander. The battle proved particularly tough, because neither the Macedonians nor their horses had ever seen belligerent war elephants before, and the elephants scared the horses in particular.
It was in this last battle that the mighty stallion died of battle wounds. As a fitting tribute to one of the most renowned horses of antiquity, Alexander founded a city by the name Bucephala which is now located on the Jhelum in present day Pakistan.
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