Part 1: Greece Part 2: Alexander the Great

1
Part 1 GreecePart 2 Alexander the Great

• Lesson 20

2
Part 1 GreeceTheme The Decline of the
City-states

• Lesson 20

3
ID SIG

• Delian League, Marathon, Peloponnesian War,
  Persian Wars, Thermopylae

4
Persian Wars

• Greek colonization brought the city states in
  conflict with the Persian Empire
• Remember from Lesson 6
• Result was the Persian Wars (500-479 B.C.)

5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
Ionian Rebellion

• As Persian emperors Cyrus and Darius tightened
  their grip on Anatolia, the Greek cities on the
  Ionian coast became increasingly restless
• In 500 B.C., they revolted and expelled the
  Achaemenid administrators
• Athens sent a fleet in support of their fellow
  Greeks and commercial partners
• In 493, Darius repressed the rebellion

Cyclades Islands
8
Persian Wars

• To punish the Athenians and discourage future
  interference, Darius attacked Athens in 490
• The Athenians repelled the invasion
• Marathon

9
Battle of Marathon

• The Persians landed at the Plains of Marathon on
  September 9, 490
• For eight days, the two armies faced each other
• On the ninth day, the Persians started to
  advance, forcing Miltiades, the commander in
  chief of the Athenian army, to deploy his army of
  10,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans for battle

10
Battle of Marathon

• The Athenians surrounded the Persians in a double
  envelopment
• Although the Athenians were outnumbered, their
  spears were superior to the Persians bows and
  short lances
• The Persians fled to their ships
• Persians lost 6,400 men and seven ships
• Athenians lost 192

11
Battle of Marathon

• However, Miltiades realized that the Persian
  fleet could sail and attack the undefended city
  of Athens
• According to legend, he called upon Phidippides
  to run to Athens to tell them of the victory and
  warn them of the approaching Persian ships
• Phidippides ran the 26 miles from Marathon to
  Athens in about three hours, successfully warning
  the Athenians who repelled the Persian invasion
• Phidippides was exhausted from the fight at
  Marathon and the 26 mile run and died upon
  announcing the warning

Miltiades
12
Olympic Marathons

• The marathon was part of the 1896 Olympics
• The course was from Marathon to Athens (24.85
  miles or 40 km)
• At the London Olympics in 1908, the Olympic
  marathon course was set at 26 miles, 385 yards
  (42.195 km) to accommodate the Royal Familys
  viewing
• In 1921 the International Amateur Athletic
  Foundation made 42.195 km the official distance
  of a marathon

13
Xerxes

• Dariuss successor Xerxes tried to avenge the
  Persian losses by launching another attack in 480
• Thermopylae

14
Thermopylae

• The Greeks sent an allied army under the Spartan
  king Leonidas to Thermopylae, a narrow mountain
  pass in northeastern Greece 
• The point was to stall the Persians long enough
  that the city states could prepare for later
  major battles after the Persians broke through

Persians attempting to force the pass at
Thermopylae
15
Thermopylae

• Twice the Greeks repelled the Persians
• Then Ephialtes, a local farmer, traitorously led
  a force of Persian infantry through a mountain
  passage and the next morning they appeared behind
  the Greek lines
• Leonidas ordered the rest of the army to withdraw
  and held the passage with just 300 Spartans
• As true Spartans, they chose death over retreat
• Remember Lesson 17
• All died but they did hold off the Persians long
  enough to ensure the safe withdrawal of the rest
  of the Greek army.

Leonidas
16
Thermopylae

• Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here
  in obedience to their laws.
• (Inscription carved on the tomb of Leonidass
  Three Hundred)

Leonidas at Thermopylae by David
17
After Thermopylae

• The Persians captured and burned Athens but were
  defeated by the Athenian navy at Salamis
• In 479 the Persians were defeated at Plataea and
  forced back to Anatolia

18
Delian League

• After the Persian threat subsided, the Greek
  poleis had conflicts among themselves
• The poleis formed an alliance called the Delian
  League
• Athens supplied most of the military force and
  the other poleis provided financial support
• Sparta did not join the league
• In the absence of the Persian threat, eventually
  the other poleis came to resent financing
  Athenss bureaucracy and construction projects
• The resulting tensions led to the Peloponnesian
  War (431-404) in which the poleis divided up into
  two sides led by Athens and Sparta

19
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.)

• The war went back and forth until 404 when the
  Spartans and their allies forced Athens to
  surrender
• Conflicts continued however and the world of the
  poleis steadily lost power
• Alexander the Great is going to step into this
  power vacuum (next lesson)

20
Failure of the Nerve

• Xenophon lamented that up to this point, the
  City-state, the Polis, had concentrated upon
  itself all the loyalty and the aspiration of the
  Greek mind. It gave security to life. It gave
  meaning to religion.
• Then, however, it was not now ruled by the best
  citizens. The best had turned away from
  politics.
• Intellectual and imaginative life of 4th Century
  Greece gave way to an atmosphere of defeat
• Gilbert Murray explains it as a failure of nerve

21
Part 2 Alexander the GreatTheme Advances in
Warfare

• Lesson 20

22
ID SIG

• Alexander the Great, Darius, Gaugamela (Arbela),
  phalanx, Philip, siege, Tyre

23
Philip II

• Ruled Macedonia from 359-336 B.C. and transformed
  it into a powerful military machine
• Moved into northern Greece and met little
  resistance due to residual effects of
  Peloponnesian War
• By 338 he had Greece under his control

24
Macedonia
25
Alexander the Great

• Philip intended to use Greece as a launching pad
  to invade Persia, but he was assassinated before
  he could begin his plan
• Instead the invasion of Persia would be left for
  Philips son Alexander who was just 20 when
  Philip was assassinated
• Alexander inherited from his father the most
  perfectly organized, trained, and equipped army
  of ancient times.
• J.F.C. Fuller, The Generalship of Alexander the
  Great

26
Conquests of Alexander

• Ionia and Anatolia 333
• Syria, Palestine, Egypt 332
• Mesopotamia 331
• Persepolis 331
• King of Persia 330
• India 327
• Returns to Susa 324
• Dies (age 33) 323

27
Warfare in the Age of Alexander

• Phalanx A formation of infantry carrying
  overlapping shields and long spears, developed by
  Philip II and used by Alexander the Great

28
Warfare in the Age of Alexander

• Hoplite
• The main melee warrior of the Macedonian army.
• Worked mainly in the tight phalanx formation,
  creating impregnable lines that often left the
  enemy demoralized.

29
Hoplites in Action
30
Warfare in the Age of Alexander

• Sieges involved the surrounding and blockading of
  a town or fortress by an army trying to capture
  it.
• A variety of weapons were built to hurl
  projectiles over city walls, scale or batter the
  walls, and transport soldiers over them.

31
(No Transcript)
32
Tyre

• if Alexander deserves permanent commemoration
  as a general, then it is above all in his
  capacity as a besieger, and of all his sieges
  Tyre was his masterpiece.
• Paul Cartledge, Alexander the Great, 147

33
Tyrian Fire Ship Burns the Towers
34
Alexander and the Principles of War

• Maneuver
• Mass
• Surprise
• Security
• Objective
• Economy of Force
• Offensive
• Unity of Command
• Simplicity

35
Alexander and the Principles of War

• Maneuver
• Created a gap by causing Darius to shift forces
  to meet the initial attack on the right
• Mass
• Used the wedge formation at the gap in Darius
  line (decisive place and time)
• Surprise
• Kept Darius up all night expecting an attack and
  then attacked the next day when Darius was tired
• Objective
• Capture Darius in order to replace him as king

36
Alexander and the Principles of War

• Economy of force
• Accepted risk on his left in order to launch a
  strong attack on his right
• Offensive
• Attacked even though grossly outnumbered
• Unity of command
• Alexander personally led the Companion cavalry in
  the attack on the right
• Simplicity
• Much of what Alexander was able to do was based
  on the discipline his soldiers had gained from
  drill

37
After Gaugamela

• Dariuss escape frustrated Alexander because it
  prevented him from full claim to being king of
  Persia
• Eventually Dariuss followers assassinated him
• As Alexander became king of Persia and continued
  to advance east, he took on an increasingly
  Eastern attitude

38
The End of the Empire

• Alexander
• Married Roxanna and had his men also intermarry
• Adopted Eastern dress and habits
• Publicly insisted upon his descent from the gods
• Began giving key positions to Persians
• The Macedonians were tired of campaigning and
  resented the changes in Alexanders behavior and
  become mutinous
• Alexander died in June 323, perhaps as a result
  of poisoning

"The Marriage of Alexander the Great and Roxanna"
by Ishmail Parbury
39
(No Transcript)
40
After Alexander

• After Alexander died, his generals jockeyed for
  power and by 275 they had divided up his kingdom
  into three large states
• Antigonus took Greece and Macedon
• Ptolemy took Egypt
• Seleuces took the former Achaemenid empire
• The period of Alexander and his successors is
  called the Hellenistic period to reflect the
  broad influence of Greek culture beyond Greeces
  borders

41
Next

• Aztecs and Mongols