Macedonia
- Geography
- macedonia had a rough terrain and a cold climate
- the people lived mostly in mountain villages instead of the city states like athens had
- Not seeing eye to eye
- most of the macedonian nobles referred to themselves as greeks
- once again the greeks thought that the macedonians were barbaric and not as civilized as the greeks
- spartans were treated this way by the greeks as well
- Changes
- after the peloponnesian war several greek city states were very weak
- economically
- militaristically
- when there is a weakness or a struggle there is usually a predator or someone else to take advantage of the oppotunity. in this case, it was macedonia
- after the peloponnesian war several greek city states were very weak
- macedonian leadership
- Phillip II was the king of macedonia around 360 bc
- only 23 when he became king
- brillian general
- was able to train peasants into warriors
- his dream was to take over greece and evenge the persian invasion of greece in 480 bc
- invade persia
- Phillip II was the king of macedonia around 360 bc
- Phillip's tactics
- phillip organized his army into phalanxes of 16 men across by 16 men deep
- all 256 men had to work together for this formation to work correctly
- after the phalanx had broke through the enemy's line, he would then send in cavalry to crush the disorganized or retreating opponents
- conquest for greece
- an athenian orator named demosthenes tried to warn the greeks of the threat of phillip and told them to prepare an army
- however the city states of greece couldnt come up with united response
- finally athens and thebes decide to stand up to phillip but it was too late
- greek independence was lost to king phillip of macedonia
- new leader
- next on phillip's agenda was to invade persia
- at his daughter's wedding, he was stabbed to death by one of his former guardsmen
- his son immediately proclaimed himself king. his name was alexander, later known as alexander the great
- alexander the great
- was taught by aristotle
- spread hellenistic culture
- very intellectual, kept a copy of the Iliad under his pillow to remind him of the heroic Achilles in the trojan war
- alexander wanted to show his power early, and when the people of thebes rebelled he destroyed the city and took 6000 lives
- the survivors were sold into slavery, only the priests were spared from becoming slaves
- invasion of persia
- alexander was now ready to invade persia now that greece was secure
- alexander marched with 35000 men to attack persia
- persian rushed 40000 men to meet alexander at anatolia
- alexander decided to attack first and with his cavalry, very effective and defeated the persians
- that victory alarmed the persian king, darius III
- his response was to raise a huge army ranging between 50000 to 75000 men
- aleander knw he was outnumbered so he called for a surprise attack with his best troops and ordered them to go straight to the persian king
- the persian king fled and so did his army
do you think that alexander should have punished the people so harshly? why or why not?
state your answer then write at least a paragraph explaining your reasoning
- No, because there is no excuse for taking human life. Not to mention his reasoning was ridiculously self centered and he could have handled it in a more mature way, considering he is the king. I wouldn't want to live in a society ruled by a king that was so determined to show his power that he was willing to destroy the people that he wanted to prove it to. And how does that look to his opponents? "Alexander destroyed his city and people, he must be really powerful." In my opinion, any king has the power to destroy his own people. It's also kind of hard to prove something to someone if they're all dead.
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