Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the renowned king of Macedonia, educated by Aristotle, who led the Greeks to victory over Darius of Persia and then extended his conquests to Egypt and India. He died of fever at the age of thirtytwo and thereafter became the subject of many legends. One of the most popular vehicles for these in the medieval period was the Latin Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem – ‘the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle’ – supposedly an account, sent to his tutor, of Alexander's military campaigns in India and some of his adventures by the way. The letter circulated in England in both Latin and OE versions and Alexander is mentioned in two other Anglo-Saxon ‘travel’ texts, the OE Orosius (a much modified version of a world history by Paulus Orosius, made in the time of King Alfred) and Marvels of the East (see below). Alexander is also among the legendary characters listed by the narrator of the OE poem Widsith, who alludes to him positively as a fine prince, ‘the most powerful among all of humankind’. This reflects an admiration for Alexander that was widespread in the Middle Ages, but there was another view, too, a less favourable one promoted especially by Christian writers. They tended to play down Alexander's positive characteristics and to emphasise instead his over-weening pride, and it is this line which the OE version of the Letter follows.