Macedonian Altar

Karnak

Alexander the Great, king of Macedon and world-conquerer from the Danube to the Indus, was welcomed into Egypt in 332 BC as a liberator from oppressive Persian rule.

After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, the Ptolemies - degenerate but tenacious descendents of Alexander's general - ruled Egypt until the defeat, in 30 BC, of Queen Cleopatra VII and Anthony by Octavius Caesar Augustus at the battle of Actium. Anthony and Cleopatra then committed suicide, and Egypt passed into the control of Rome.