viii, 278 pp. Color/gilt title page, engravings in text. In his short but eventful life, the young Macedonian king went on to rule over one of the most powerful and largest empires in the ancient world, breaking the hegemony of the powerful Persian dynasty of Darius. Alexander's sudden death in Babylon is one of the enduring mysteries of history. With him ended the glorious empire he had created, which stretched from the Adriatic in Europe to the Indus River on the Indian subcontinent.