Who was the father of Alexander the Great?

Philip II of Macedon was the father of Alexander the Great. He ruled Macedon from 359 to 336 BC and transformed it from a vulnerable kingdom into the dominant power in Greece.

Philip reorganized the Macedonian army, developing the famous phalanx with its long sarissas, while combining infantry, cavalry, siege weapons, diplomacy, and royal marriages. His victory over Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea in 338 BC brought most of Greece under Macedonian leadership.

Philip married Olympias of Epirus in 357 BC, and Alexander was born the following year at Pella. Philip’s other son, Philip III Arrhidaeus, was Alexander’s half-brother, not his father—a common source of confusion because both carried the name Philip.

Philip was assassinated in 336 BC while preparing an invasion of the Persian Empire. Alexander succeeded him and used the military and political foundations his father had built to launch the conquest of Persia.