Women's History Commons^™

Alexander's Empire, Sema Hasan

Young Historians Conference

Alexander the Great is known for creating one of the world’s largest empires but, many are not familiar with the people "behind the scenes" who contributed to his success. This paper examines the role of women in Alexander’s rise to power and their influence in his political campaign. In the cutthroat world of Macedonian politics, it was Alexander’s mother who played a crucial part in establishing her son as king, and used all available tools including murder and deception to do so. Despite the fact that women had little opportunity to become rulers themselves, their involvement in Alexander’s reign was …