Tsar Alexander III of the ancient Argead dynasty, better known as "Alexander the Great" and "Alexander the Great," is famous because of his successful conquest, which allowed the commander, who had not lived for 33 years, to subjugate the lands stretching from the Black Sea straits to the Syr Darya and the Arabian Sea. Over the past millennia, filled with wars, fires and radical changes in culture, all the early works of ancient historians telling about Alexander have been lost. Nevertheless, a significant part of their material was conveyed to us through works created several centuries after the death of the conqueror. This publication includes now available antique written monuments, in which information from early sources is transmitted relatively accurately. These are the works of Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch, Strabo and Athenaeus. Turning to the materials of the presented works, the reader has the opportunity to make his own idea of ​ ​ both the activities of Alexander himself and the peculiarities of the perception of his image in later times.