Regents Review - Ancient Greece

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Alexander the Great Foundations-600 C.E.
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Alexander the Great and the Hellenization of the
Near East
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MACEDONIA-COPY

• Macedonia-North of Greece
• Farmers
• Sheepherders

• Philip II (359-336 B.C.E.)
• Built a powerful army
• Infantry
• Calvary
• Well Trained, Nearly Invincible

• Professional Military
• The army of ancient Macedon is aaconsidered to
  be among the greatest aamilitary forces of the
  ancient world.

Philip II of Macedon victory medal struck in
Tarsus, 2nd century B.C.E.

• By introducing the military as a full-aatime
  occupation, Philip was able to aadrill his men
  regularly, ensuring aaunity and cohesion in his
  ranks.

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Macedonia Under Philip II
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Persians and Greeks

• Strained relationship for past hundred years.
• Greeks and Macedonians hated Persians for fear of
  conquest.

• This resulted in the Persian War.
• Memories of the Persian war adrove hatred.

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Philip II of Macedonia

• Three goals of Philip II

1. Build a strong army
2. Unify Greek City-States
3. Defeat Persia
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Philip of Macedon-COPY

• 338 B.C.E. Completed the conquest of Greece

• Planned to Invade aaPersian Empire

• Assassinated at his aadaughters wedding aa336
  B.C.E.

• Succeeded by his aaSon, Alexander of aaMacedon

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Alexander the Great356-323 B.C.E.
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Alexander the Great

• 336 B.C.E. 20 years old Alexander
• Invincible power of endurance
• Keen intellect
• Brave . . . Adventurous
• Strict in the observance of religious duties
• Hungry for fame
• Temperate in the passions of the body
• His passion was for glory
• Alexander believed he was a descendent of
  Achilles from the Iliad

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Equestrian statue of Alexander the Great, on the
waterfront at Thessaloniki, capital of Greek
Macedonia.
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Alexander the Great

• 336 B.C.E. Army of 35,000 - 37,000
• Small but well-equipped, well-trained,
  high-spirited.

In 334 B.C.E., Alexander and his army cross the
Hellespont and begin their conquest of the
Persian Empire.
The Battle of the Granicus River in May 334
B.C.E. aawas the first of three major battles
fought between aaAlexander the Great and the
Persian Empire.
This battle was his first victory against the
Persia and was a rout giving him and his men
great confidence. Macedonia causalities 300-400,
aaPersians more than 4000
causalities.
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The Gordian Knot
Alexander attempted to untie the knot. When he
could find no end to the knot, to unbind it, he
sliced it in half with a stroke of his sword,
producing the desired effect.
Others say that Alexander pulled the pole pin and
then removed the knot rather than cutting it.
Either way, Alexander did go on to conquer Asia
as far as the Indus, fulfilling the prophecy.
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Battle of Issus
Persians field an army of 100,000 men.
Greeks field an army of 40,000 men.
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Victory at Issus
Alexander breaks the lines and goes straight for
Darius who flees the battlefield.
Seeing their Great King flee the Persian army
breaks apart and flees the battlefield.
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Alexander the Great and Darius at the Battle of
Issus(Mosaic from Pompeii)
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Alexander the Great at Issus
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Darius at the Battle of Issus
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Siege of Tyre
Fortress was nearly a mile off the mainland and
refused to surrender to Alexander.
The Greeks will siege the city for 8 months
The Greeks will build a causeway out to the
island twice and eventually take the city.
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Liberation of Egypt-COPY
Between 332-331 B.C.E., Alexander was welcomed as
a liberator in Persian-occupied Egypt and named
pharaoh
He founded the city of Alexandria in Egypt, which
would become the prosperous capital of the
Hellenistic World after Alexanders death.
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The Oracle at the Siwa Oasis-COPY
After the liberation of Egypt, Alexander leads a
small group of men to the famous Oracle at the
Temple of Zeus-Ammon.
It is believed that the Egyptian priests of the
deity Ammon at the Oracle of the Siwa Oasis
proclaimed Alexander the son of Zeus.
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Conquest of Mesopotamia
331 B.C.E. Battle of Gaugamela
Persians field an army of 100,000 men.
Greeks field an army of 47,000 men.
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Persian Secret Weapon
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Alexander s Victory
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Persepolis and Capturing Darius III
After defeating Darius army, Alexander declares
himself king of the Persian Empire and declares
Babylon the Capital of his new empire.
Alexander and his army go on to conquer the rest
of Mesopotamia and advance into the Persian
homeland.
Alexander and his army capture the Persian
capital of Persepolis. Before the Greek army
leaves Persepolis the city mysteriously catches
fire and is burned to the ground.
Many believe this accident was vengeance for
the Persian destruction of Athens during the
Persian War.
Alexander finally catches up to Darius who has
been killed by one of his own generals.
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A Long Way Down-COPY
After the conquest of most of the Persia Empire,
Alexander and his army moved on to the eastern
most portion of the Persian Empire.
During this period Alexander starts to lose
some of the loyalty of his armies
1. Now believing that he was a god, aaAlexander
begins to ask his men to kneel aabefore him-
Greeks dont do that
2. He recruits Persians into his armies
3. He begins to drink often and in great amounts
4. He finally kills one of his top generals and
aaoldest friends during a drunken argument
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Alexander in India
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Alexander and Porus in India
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Alexander the Great-COPY

• 327 B.C.E. India (Punjab)
• Troops refused to go any further

• Alexander caught Malaria and aahad recently
  been wounded for the aafirst time in battle.

• Alexander is forced to end the aacampaign and
  return to aaMesopotamia.

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The Return of the King-COPY

• 324 B.C.E. Returned to Susa and celebrated his
  aa victories

• Alexander began to make plans to rule aathe
  empire.

• Wished to integrate Greek, Macedonian, aaand
  Persian people.

• Alexander was finalizing plans to invade aaand
  conquer the Arabian peninsula when aahe died at
  the age of 33.

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Alexander the Great

• June 11, 323 BC Dead at the age of 33.
• Had been preparing to leave by ship for Greece
• Was sending the army ahead over land
• When asked who should succeed him if he died, he
  said, The best man.

No one is sure what caused Alexanders death
though there are a couple of theories
1. Poisoning by a rival
2. Death from malaria or typhoid fever
3. Years of heavy drinking and wounds
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Alexander the Greats Empire
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The Breakup of Alexanders Empire
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Division of the Empire

• By 275 B.C.E. One Empire Became Three
• Antigonus Greece Macedon
• Cassander Macedonia
• Lysimachus Greece
• Ptolemy Egypt
• Seleucus Persia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria,
  and Palestine

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Hellenistic Culture

• The Legacy of Alexanders Empire

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Alexander the Great

• He created 100s of cities

• 12 major cities named aaAlexandria
  aa(70 Alexandrias in all)

• Decentralization

• Language
• Religion
• Coinage
• Education
• Government

Bust of Alexander the Great located in Capitoline
Museum, Rome.
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HELLENISM

• Philosophy
• Stoicism
• Depravity of man
• Need for Self-Examination
• Human kinship with the divine
• Denial of the World
• Emphasis for inner freedom from external
  circumstances
• Epicureanism Eat drink and be merry . . .
• Cynicism I dont believe you . . . Prove it!

Zeno of Citium
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HELLENISTIC RELIGION

• Orphism
• Philosophy of Pythagoreans
• Attention to Numbers
• Secret Symbols
• Transmigration of Souls
• Vegetarian Diet
• Influential Priesthood
• Sacrifice
• I give that you might give to me, Socrates

Kapitolinischer Pythagoras
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HELLENISM

• Literature
• Homer
• Hesiod wrote of the Muses
• Justice
• Work
• Culture
• Passion for the beautiful, especially the body
• Very emotional, social, motivated
• Questioning . . . Why?

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Science In Alexandria

• Math and Physics
• Euclid created geometry that we know today
• Archimedes estimated the value of pi.

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Science In Alexandria

• Astronomy
• Aristarchus estimated sun was 300 times larger
  than earth. Way low, but people originally
  thought it to be smaller than Greece.
• First proposed that earth rotates around the sun

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Philosophy and Art

• Stocism
• Zeno human desires, power, and wealth are all
  dangerous
• Epicurianism
• Epicurus The only real objects are those we can
  perceive with the 5 senses. Greatest good comes
  from virtuous conduct and absence of pain

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City of Alexandria

• Cultural Capital of the World
• The Museum/University
• Philosophy
• Literature produced the Septuagint
• Science calculated the circumference of earth
• The Library
• 700,000 scrolls
• Burned in 150 B.C.E.
• 2 copies of every book in the world
• The model for our Library of Congress

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City of Alexandria

• Enormous Harbor
• 1,200 ships
• Most important port in the Mediterranean
• The Lighthouse (destroyed in 3rd century. C.E.
  quake)
• Cosmopolitan Megapolis
• Phoenicians
• Jews
• Arabs
• Babylonians
• Greeks

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The Known World 3rd century B.C.E.