Alexander I
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Alexander I (Alexander Molossus): (b. c370 BC; d. 331/0 BC). King of Epirus. Son of Neoptolemus, he was the brother of Olympias, with of Philip II of Macedonia. He came to the throne of Epirus in 342 BC with the help of Philip of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) whose daughter Cleopatra he married (336 BC). Responding to a plea for help from Taras/Tarentum, Alexander came to Italy with his army to confront an alliance of the Lucanians and Bruttians. In 332 BC, after defeating an army of Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum, he concluded a treaty with the Romans. Thus freed from any possible intervention, Alexander was able to concentrate on continuing his war. He now saw an opportunity to turn his campaign to fulfill his own ambitions. His original sponsors, the Tarentines, disassociated themselves from his further actions. Hoping to carve his own empire in southern Italy, he continued to win victories, capturing Heraclea from the Lucanians and Terina and Sipontum from the Bruttians. In 331 or 330 BC, he faced the Bruttians near Pandosia on the river Acheron, in modern Calabria. On the verge of yet another victory, Alexander was struck down as he was crossing the river by a Lucanian exile who joined his army. Tradition states that the assassin stabbed him in the back.