In 334 BC, a young Macedonian king marches out to challenge the Persian Empire, and over the next twelve years leads roughly 40,000 troops across more than 20,000 miles, defeating Darius III and taking control of Asia. Host Peter Woodward walks the actual ground: Philip II's palace in Macedonia, the cave school where Aristotle tutored the young Alexander, and the amphitheater where he watches his father assassinated. The series then follows the campaign trail to battlefields in Turkey and Lebanon, where Alexander's outnumbered forces repeatedly win against larger Persian armies. Ancient historians appear as reenacted testimony, cut alongside interviews with modern scholars who debate what the sources actually support. Battle tactics and weaponry get demonstrated through reenactors and computer graphics, showing how Macedonian phalanx formations and cavalry maneuvers worked in practice. The series also raises the question of Macedonian identity within the Greek world, a dispute that still has political weight today. It closes with an empire that outlasts its founder by only a few years before fracturing among his generals.