Indian campaign of Alexander the Great

Overview

The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great began in 327 BC and lasted until 325 BC. After conquering the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Macedonian army undertook an expedition into the Indus Valley of Northwestern Indian subcontinent. Within two years, Alexander expanded the Macedonian Empire, a kingdom closely linked to the broader Greek world, to include Gandhara and the Indus Valley of Punjab and Sindh, surpassing the earlier frontiers established by the Persian Achaemenid conquest.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Indian campaign, conducted between 327 and 325 BCE, extended Macedonian imperial reach beyond any boundary previously held by a successor to Achaemenid Persian power. Following his conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, Alexander led his forces into the Indus Valley of the northwestern Indian subcontinent, incorporating Gandhara and the Punjab and Sindh regions of the Indus Valley into the Macedonian Empire. This expansion surpassed the earlier frontiers established by the Persian Achaemenid conquest, marking the easternmost limit of Macedonian territorial control within the Wars of Alexander the Great. The campaign brought a range of commanders into the operational theater — including Ptolemy, Craterus, Coenus, and Peithon on the Macedonian side, alongside allied rulers Taxiles and Porus — and engaged adversaries including Cleophis of the Aśvaka. As the furthest geographic extension of Alexander's conquests, the Indian campaign defined the eastern boundary of the empire he built before his death in 323 BCE.

Commanders (8)