This Is The End

Macedonia, Alexander, and the Last Great Hurah of the Greeks

Macedon

• Located north of Thessaly– Constant battles with the northern barbarian tribes

• Actually kept them from entering Greece

• Not well respected– A dominant King– No poleis– Council of nobles– Not much attention paid to them

• Greek Culture

Phillip II: 359-336 bce

• Came to power at 27– Overthrew his nephew

• Which really wasn’t that hard

– Great admirer of Greek culture• 3 year prisoner in Thebes

– Military and Diplomacy• Used both to pacify northern tribes• Undermined Athenian control of northern Aegean

Sea• Took Amphiplois- silver and gold mines

Macedonian Army

• National and professional– Not the amateur’s of the Greek polis– Farmers and hill people

• Turned into a national, but more importantly, loyal force

• Make-up– 13 ft. pikes, not the common 9 ft.– Open phalanx

• Use of pike important

– Companions• Nobles and clan leaders• Made up the calvary

Phillip’s Greek Invasion

• Phocians at war with Thebes and Thessaly– Phillip accepts generalship of Thessalians

• Defeat Phocis• Takes control of Thessaly

– Turns north• Takes Thrace• Direct threat to Athens

4th Century Greece

• Weak– Losses in Peloponnesian Wars

• Man power and Navy weak• No strong leader since Pericles• No allies

– Society was divided• Rich and poor• Economy shot

– Empire• What was left was breaking apart

– Overly cautious• Demosthese breaks this• Urged Athens to see the threat that Phillip was

Athens and Greece Fall

• 349 bce– Phillip takes northern and central Greek cities– Elected president of Pythian Games at Delphi

• Isocrates (436-338 bce)– Saw Phillip as a leader that could take on Persia

• This war would bring a economic solution to social problems– 340 bce

• Phillip attacks Perinthus and Byzantium– Athens Navy saves them

– 338 bce • Battles of Chaeronea and Boeotia• Alexander cavalry charge cements Athens fate• Greece falls to Phillip• Athens spared invasion, but gives up empire and must follow

Macedon

Greek Gov’t Under Phillip

• Not that harsh– Though some atrocities committed

• Demosthenes– Remain involved in politics– Athens spared invasion

• Federal League of Corinth- 338 bce– Delegates to make foreign policy without having to

consult Phillip• But Phillip was the president of the League

• Polis and Greek autonomy lost for good

Eyes towards Persia

• Seat of power at Corinth– Same spot where Greeks had held their

ground against Persia 150 years before

• Phillip sets sights on Persia– But is assassinated in 336 bce– Power falls to his son Alexander at age 20

Persia

• The largest and richest Empire in the World– Size made it hard to control

• Darius III– Ruled Persia at the time of Phillips death– Inexperienced and also a bit lax with affairs

• Military– Vast resources– Navy dominated the seas– Army was large and experienced– Truly what held Persia together– Didn’t scare Alexander though

Alexander Invades Persia

• Going in Weak– Large army, but compared to Persia?

• No Navy• No money

• Tactics• Memmon- commander of Persian Navy• Granicus River

– Alexander meets Persians• Won easily• Leads cavalry charge-inspiration• Subsequent victories close off ports

Alexander’s Empire

• 336 bce– Marches into Syria and meets Darius army

• Darius defeated and flees

– Takes Tyre- ends Persian naval threat• Darius send peace offer and daughter• Alexander refuses

– Takes Egypt

• 331 bce takes Mesopotamia, enters Babylon• 330 bce takes the Persian capitol of Persepolis

– Stay a while then burns it

Con’t

• Hunt for Darius– Finds body, killed by Bessus– Now hunts down Bessus who is eventually

captured

• 327 bce– Army goes through Khyber Pass (Pakistan)

• 324 bce– Army is tired– Returns to Persian Gulf

Death and Empire

• 323 bce- Alexander dies at age33 yrs old– Fever or poison?

• Empire is split into provinces controlled by governors– Infighting and civil war

• Ptolemy– Dynasty 31 in Egypt, Cleopatra the last

• Seleucus– Seleucid Dynasty in Mesoptamia

• Antigonus I– Antigonid Dynasty in Asia Minor and Macedon

• The End– All fall to Rome except Egypt

Hellenistic Culture

• Philosophy– Lyceum

• Break from Aristotle– Literary and historical studies

– Academy• Turned away from Plato• Pyrrho of Elis

– Skepticism

• Nothing could be known and nothing mattered

– Cynics• Stuck with the natural thing

– Epicureans• Epicurus of Athens (342-271 bce)• Search not for knowledge but human happiness• Atomist ideas• Liberation from fear of death, gods, or the

supernatural• Goal was to achieve ataraxia

– Condition of being undisturbed without pain, trouble, or responsibility

– Stoics• Zeno of Citium in Cyprus (335-263 bce)• Humans must live in harmony with themselves and

nature• God and nature the same thing• Guiding principle in nature was divine reason:

LOGOS• Live a virtuous life in accordance with nature• Misery came from passion, the disease of the soul• The world was a single polis

• Literature– 3rd and 2nd literature coming out of Alexandria– The Museum and the library

• Research institute• royal funds support scientist and scholars

– Copying, editing of best works– History and chronology

• Architecture and Sculpture– Vast health gave rise to building– Sculpture-sentimental, emotional, realistic of 4th

Century

• Math and Science– Euclid’s Elements

• Plane and solid geometry

– Archimedes• Further progress in geometry, lever mechanics, and invented

hydrostatics

– Heraclides• Mercury and Venus circulate around sun and Earth

– Aristarchus• Heliocentric theory• Sun stationary and Earth revolves around it in a circular

motion and rotates on its own axis