The Assassination of Alexander the Great's Father

In the spring of 336 B.C., King Philip was assassinated at his daughter’s wedding ceremony, which was held in the old Macedonian capital of Aegai. The man who killed Philip, a young Macedonian noble named Pausanias, halted Philip’s dream of invading and conquering Persia, a dream that Philip set in motion before his death, but never lived to see it happen. Immediately after Philip’s assassination, reports emerged that claimed Alexander, Philip’s son, was behind his father’s murder, as he wanted to take control of the throne and get revenge for his family and him due to Philip abandoning Alexander and his family to marry a Macedonian girl named Cleopatra during Alexander’s teenage years. That could possibly explain why Philip’s assassinator was killed while he was fleeing the scene of the murder without being captured and his case being presented in front of the Macedonian assembly. Despite this unfortunate event, Alexander became the new king of Macedonia with the Macedonian army looking on in support. More importantly, though, Alexander was not only able to ascend to the throne, he was also able to put his father’s dream of conquering Persia back into motion and begin to expand his empire, which was the first thing he did after becoming King Alexander III. More importantly, room was made with Philip’s death for Alexander to expand the Macedonian empire into the biggest empire of its time with Alexander being its ambitious and determined ruler.