Michael Wood is an historian who has an unbelievable knowledge of the life and times of Alexander the Great, a Macedonian who conquered most of the know world in the fourth century BC. Wood planned a project where he was to follow, literally, in the footsteps of Alexander and his army in their great travels across the Middle East and in to India, where he left a plaque to say ?Alexander stopped here?. While the journey is a tough one now, with all the advances in travel technology that have been made, the idea of doing it on horse or foot, two and a half thousand years ago is stunning.

This four-part series starts with ?Son of God?, which sets the scene for the rationale behind why Alexander embarked on such an ambitious journey. His main aim was to destroy the Persian Empire which had humiliated the Greeks 150 years before (talk about holding a grudge!). In 334 BC he started out by visiting Troy, driven in part by the teachings of his tutor Aristotle, to gather strength to tackle the Persians. He rampaged down the western side of what is now Turkey as he took town after town. He solved the problem of the Gordian Knot by cutting it with a sword to show his ability to look outside the square. After defeating the Persian King Darius at Issus, Alexander turned his attention to Egypt where he created the famous town of Alexandria. As it turns out, apparently he created an Alexandria almost where ever he went but at least the Egyptian one remains world famous. Alexander received affirmation from the Oracle at Siwa that he was indeed a God and that merely confirmed what he had always thought.

In ?Lord of Asia? Wood travelled further through the Middle East, giving details of Alexander?s battles and the travels. He had some difficulty in travelling in to Iran while Saddam Hussein was still in power but a little trip on an American spy plane fixed that. As Wood couldn?t show us the battlefield of Guagamela he used the graphics on the computer system of the plane to show what happened. How things have changed in the last 2500 years or so. Alexander defeated Darius yet again in this battle and then took over the Persian King?s Palace at Persopolis. In a drunken spree Alexander and his followers set fire to the palace, an act he was to regret later in life. Story-tellers in Iran still relate their version of events to this day.

Alexander then turned his attention to those parts of the Persian Empire that weren?t under his control, crossing into modern day Afghanistan and over the Hindu Kush to parts of the old USSR. The country is so bleak it is a wonder that anyone took any time over it. The altitude sickness and cold would have finished most armies but Alexander managed to push his troops on, even after a defeat at Samarkand, a rarity for Alexander and his men. They recovered to tackle the Sogdian Rock, a supposedly impenetrable fortress, by sending 300 men up a sheer rock face at night. The troubles Wood had in handling with the remoteness of the country, the need to deal with a variety of warlords and the sheer inhospitality of the country must pale into insignificance when I think of the trials and tribulations of Alexander?s army.

In the final episode, ?To the Ends of the Earth?, Alexander led his men into India, the then known end of the Earth after years of exhausting fighting. They took a stronghold at Pir Sar that was thought to be impregnable (a common mistake apparently when laying down a challenge to Alexander) and slaughtered all the inhabitants. Finally the troops rebelled, pleading with Alexander to turn back and he finally relented. He chose a most difficult return route, requiring his engineers to build boats to travel down rivers to the sea, the tackling a desert that claimed many, many lives. He returned to Persopolis, regretting the damage he had caused earlier, fell ill and died. He declared he was happy to be judged by the Gods.

Wood is an interesting presenter in the sense that he is prepared to put himself through privations and into danger to authentically recreate this fabulous journey. He doesn?t try to ram facts down your throat, rather putting information before you and asking you to draw your own conclusions. In the interview on the extras disk he makes the valid point that Alexander was probably a megalomaniac who committed what we would now call war crimes. Yet he points out that Alexander did what no man had done before ? he followed his dreams and pushed the Greek culture into parts of the world where it remains, in pockets, to this day. The incredible logistical problems faced by an army that grew to 70 odd thousand, with a further 50 odd thousand hangers on, is daunting in itself. The poor country they travelled through, the changes in climate and geography they faced, the fierce fighting and the sheer length of the 20,000 mile journey are all factors that would have daunted most. Alexander was clearly someone special. It is no wonder that his name is still well-known, especially in military circles, but also in much of the country he journeyed through.

THE EXTRAS

There is an interview with Michael Wood in which he takes us through some of the logistical problems faced by him and his Producer in setting up the series. We find out that it is fortunate that even Warlords have satellite telephones so if you need to pass through their territory you can ring them up and make the arrangements. I must remember that next time I travel. Wood also offered advice to Oliver Stone when he was making his movie about Alexander the Great. Sadly not too many of Woods? ideas made it in to the film.

CONCLUSION

Michael Wood is a British historian whose speciality is Alexander the Great. Wood sets out on an epic 20,000 mile journey to literally follow in the footsteps of Alexander and his army across much of the Middle East and into India. His own difficulties when travelling give us some small insight into what Alexander and his army went through. The story is compelling, well-told and an eye-opener that allows us to have some insight into what happened almost 2500 years ago.