Alexander III, or Alexander the Great, was born in 356 BC at Pella, a new administrative capital founded to supplement the inconvenient ritual centre at Aigai. He benefited hugely form his father’s achievement and his early education, overseen by the renowned philosopher Aristotle, which imbued him with a profound appreciation for Greek culture, science, and literature. Aristotle encouraged Alexander to value enquiry, and pursue excellence, qualities that would shape his leadership and vision. From his father, Philip, he gained a model of kingship and military strategy, while his mother, Olympias, a princess from Molossia, one of the lesser kingdoms, claimed descent from Achilles and instilled in him a sense of destiny and divine purpose. These transformations in civilisation can be traced through the places and sites of Northern Greece: Thessalonica - The modern capital of northern Greece this great metropolis was founded in 315 BC by King Cassander, one of the Hellenistic monarchs who arose out of the empire building of Alexander. His new city was a model of new Hellenistic ideas and Macedonian success, so successful that it lasted through the Roman Empire, into the byzantine world of the Middle Ages and the Ottoman era as a hugely important political and cultural node. We will take the opportunity to visit its great monuments covering an imperial history and examine the cultural traditions of epic history. Amphipolis - A thorn in the side of early Macedonia restricting its expansion eastwards, Amphipolis was an Athenian colony. Its strategic position dominated rich silver mines and forests, important for maintaining Athenian hegemony. It was also a vital way point along the delicate jugular vein which linked Athans and its sources of grain in the Black Sea. Amphipolis was detached from Athens’ orbit following the Peloponnesian War and quickly dominated by Macedon, a primary cause of the final struggle between democracy and the dynastic autocracy championed by Macedonia. Pella - King Amyntas III founded Pella as a better centre for royal power. Originally it had a direct connection to the Thermic Gulf and the sea and lay upon a major east west road system. The city grew significantly as Macedonia’s power waxed being replanned on the latest Hellenistic principles. Its productive and commercial quarters were supplemented by substantial and elaborate aristocratic housing and one of the largest agorae in the Greek world. This in turn was dominated by a massive and ever expanding palace where Alexander was born in 356 BC. Aigai/Vergina - The first Macedonian capital was Aigai (literally ‘goats’). Here a very much open plan city was established, with different centres reflecting the clan-based foundations of Macedonian society, so different of that in Greece to the south. Aigai dominated the fertile Macedonian Plain but was vulnerable. The move of the business capital to Pella solved this issue, but Aigai remained vitally important as a dynamic centre, most especially the location of coronations, marriages and burials.